Bring it on! 23rd annual Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival

Memorial Day has come and gone, and now it's time for the Jersey Shore's first major festival: the Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival.

Houston Person This annual extravaganza, produced by the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation, will take place this weekend, June 5-7, in scenic Marine Park by the gentle Navesink River. The festival offers three full days and nights of jazz, blues, food, crafts, and plenty of free family fun. More than 100,000 attendees are expected this year to enjoy some of the best jazz and blues music around. The festival is one of the largest free music festivals in the Northeast.

Sonny Kenn will headline on Friday, June 5, at 8:30 p.m. Sonny has been burning up the Shore music scene since opening for Jerry Lee Lewis in 1965. He has performed with and influenced nearly every musician who's passed through the scene since.

On Saturday, June 6, the Deanna Bogart Band will take the Main Stage at 8:30 p.m. This Maryland-based blues and boogie pianist/saxophonist combines the energy of 1930s-style boogie piano blues with contemporary blues sounds emanating from places like New Orleans, Chicago and Memphis.

Sonny Kenn Sunday, June 7, will showcase the talents of the Houston Person Quartet, who will close the festival at 4:30 p.m. In the more than 25 years that he has been a working bandleader, Person has taken his show to most points on the globe.

Other performers at the Marina Stage throughout the weekend include Jerry Topinka, Jerry Dugger and the Dugger Brothers, and the Dean Shot Blues Band.

This year will again feature two smaller and more intimate stages that will showcase a variety of talented artists throughout the weekend, including perennial favorite and blues educator T.J. Wheeler. T.J. will appear several times throughout the weekend, sometimes joined by one of the most successful educational projects that the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation mentors: the JSBJF Youth Project Band.

In addition to the best in jazz and blues music, the festival also includes a broad sampling of the top area restaurants with food offerings ranging from Italian to seafood to barbeque to ice cream. Artisans and craftspeople will be selling a wide variety of wares, and there will be lots of activities for children. This free festival is fun for the whole family.

The Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation is an all-volunteer organization, and its members and supporters spend hundreds of hours putting the festival together. The Red Bank Jazz & Blues Festival will run from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday night, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. For a complete listing of performers and festival information, visit the website www.redbankfestival.c om.