Woody Allen and band to play Katrina benefit

03/08/2006 4:53 PM, Reuters


Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band will open this year's Rochester International Jazz Festival in a benefit for musicians thrown out of work by Hurricane Katrina, festival organizers said on Wednesday.

Allen -- a clarinet player better known as a film director and a neurotic screen character -- will play the fifth annual Rochester festival on June 9. He and his band have performed in New York for almost 25 years but rarely play outside the city.

Festival artistic director John Nugent said on the organization's Web site he was determined to snare Allen and his seven-member band after watching the documentary "Wild Man Blues," which tracks their 23-day concert tour of Europe in 1996.

An estimated 65,000 people attended last year's nine-day festival in Rochester, in northwestern New York state, about 250 miles from New York City. Headliners included jazz guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield, tenor saxophone player Sonny Rollins and pianists Dave Brubeck and Chick Corea.

The lineup for this year's festival, which will run June 9-17, will be announced next month.