TULSA, OKLA. – For the past eight years, we have tirelessly promoted and produced Dfest Music Conference & Festival. We have experienced some amazing performances, made friendships that will last a lifetime, and created a special event that made Tulsa a very exciting place each July. Those of you who truly know us understand we do this out of sheer passion, our unending love of music and to empower and create a better place for hardworking, independent musicians.

In 2010, we have to make the difficult decision to put Dfest on hiatus. A tough economy, rising production costs and a decline in lower level corporate sponsorships and support have caused us to take pause. These factors have made us unable to produce the kind of event we are known for, so we are unable to move forward with the festival this year. At the point we knew that we had exhausted any and all options and head into July 2010 with full steam, we decided to postpone the event on our own terms. The integrity and quality of Dfest is of the utmost importance to us as the creators of the event.

We know that Dfest is a very special event and so much more than just a festival. We are not willing to compromise the quality of the event in any way that might cause it to be less of a festival than the people of Tulsa and our fans have come to know and love. In light of these events, we would like to give a very special thanks to the fans who have bought tickets to Dfest in the past, told your friends, Facebooked, tweeted, blogged and let everyone you knew know about how much you love Dfest. We would also like to thank our loyal sponsors, media partners, team members, emerging artists, and volunteers who have supported Dfest year after year. A very special thanks and appreciation goes to State Farm, who shared our vision for this event and stood by our side throughout this difficult decision.

With love and respect,

Tom and Angie Green and the Dfest Team

The two-day multi-genre music festival fused with a music industry conference was established in 2002 to help emerging artists gain exposure and connect with the music industry. The conference consisted of music panels, a tradeshow, music clinics and artist mentoring. Each night, national recording artists performed on large outdoor festival stages while top local, regional and national emerging artists performed on a multitude of outdoor stages, indoor venues and club stages. Dfest has quickly become one of the top independent music conferences in the nation as well as the Midwest’s largest music festival of its type, and a hot bed for showcasing exciting new diverse music talent.

The BOK Center declared that Rod Stewart will be performing on 9/20 as part of a “limited” tour this summer. Tickets will be on sale 10 AM on May 11th.

OK State higher education regents approved a “School of Rock” degree program Thursday for the University of Central Oklahoma. Now only if Jack Black taught there…

On September 25, 1958 Quiktrip opened its doors to Tulsa, Oklahoma at its first store on South Peoria. Now it’s time for the Tulsa based convenience store chain to celebrate their 50th year anniversary with live music from a variety of both local and regional acts. Quiktrip is also throwing a huge fireworks display to thank Tulsa citizens and the community for fifty years of support. The event will be held at the River West Festival Park (on the West Bank of the Arkansas River behind the Amphitheater) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Best of all, you can get your tickets at all Tulsa area Quiktrip locations for free! 

Bands, Bands, and More Bands!

• Uche and the Crash – These guys will take Stage 2 at 12pm
• Little Chair – Stage 1 at 12:50pm
• Crooked X - Stage 2 at 1:40pm
• Rattle and Hum -  Stage 1 and 2:30pm
• Midlife Crisis – Stage 2 at 3:20pm
• South40 – Stage 1 at 4:10
• Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – Stage 2 at 5pm
• Leon Russell – Stage 1 at 6pmHanson – Stage 1 at 7:50

What about beer, restrictions, and food?

Glad you asked! Quiktrip Mobile will be on site with concessions, the same food you have learned to enjoy from their deli sandwiches to egg rolls. Best of all, Budweiser will be on site with their beer garden, providing a nice environment to sit back and drink-up! There is a double fist limit of two beers per visit to the beer concession and the beer stops flowing at 9:30PM when the fireworks demonstration begins. Quiktrip has outlined all the details of their Tulsa festival on their website www.quiktrip.com/festival/QTfest_faq.asp.

The fireworks will pop from the 21^st Street Bridge at 9:30PM in Tulsa, Oklahoma and continue until they’re out of the magical black power and star dust. Don’t miss out, come out to the River and enjoy some FREE live music and fireworks! See you there, Tulsa!

Article image thankfully jacked from quiktrip.com/festival/. Great artwork huh?

Even before the BOK Center officially opens on August 30th, performances had already been booked.  The Eagles will be the first act to perform in the new building on September 6th and a second date has also been added for November 11th.  Just announced today, August 28th, Janet Jackson will be coming to Tulsa on October 26th for her Rock Witchu tour.

The BOK is 565,000 square-feet and will play host to a wide variety of events, including preseason NBA basketball featuring the new Oklahoma City team, men’s college basketball, Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey circus, and Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco.  Also already booked are musical performances with local ties.  American Idol winner and Checotah native, Carrie Underwood is scheduled to perform on October 29th and American Idol season 10 winner David Cook, who lived and worked in Tulsa, will be there September 13 along with the rest of the top 10 contestants from that season.

For information about upcoming events and tickets, go to the BOK Center website.

There’s no doubting Tulsa’s rich music history. We’ve always been a city captivated by live music, especially jazz. With the fall season starting to hit us, music is in full swing downtown, and we feel that its about time.

The Jazz Hall of Fame is celebrating their one year anniversary in their new building, The Jazz Depot; the BOK Arena is slated to open soon with tons of concerts already booked; and new businesses are either starting up or re-locating downtown. The new Downtown Tulsa is changing…and that’s a good thing.

Here’s what the Jazz Depot, who’s motto is "Creating Unity Through Music" has going on through the rest of the year:

September 14 – Songstress – Ms. Olivia Duhon

Ms. Duhon is a TU grad and hot new jazz vocalist with trio, Sonny Gray, Vernon Howard and George Toumayan.

September 21 – Two Gents of Song – Jason De Long and Devre Jackson

Two of the Jazz Hall’s favorites, Mr. De Long and Mr. Jackson are planning a knock-out performance, with Mike Leland on piano, Spike Gore on drums and Nigel Frye on bass.

September 27 –  Kansas City, Mo. American Jazz Museum All-Stars

Greg Carroll (Executive Director of the American Jazz Museum), sax man Gerald Dunn, and other Kansas City jazz all-stars make appearance at the Jazz Depot with a slam dunk performance.

October 5 – Still Jazzin’ Our Way’ With the Midnight Social Club Quartet

Pam Van Dyke Crosby, local jazz vocal favorite sings up a storm with Bill Crosby on bass; guitarist, Frank Brown; drummer, Wade Robertson drums and Jeff Newsome on piano.

October 12 – Amy Cottingham and Friends

Pianist/vocalist Amy Cottingham brilliantly plays jazz, classical, pop and practically any other style of music. She will be joined by her trio.

October 19 – Chuck Gardner “Music From My Heart”

Pianist, Chuck Gardner is a jazz standard at the Jazz Hall and plans a special concert featuring original compositions of his, never heard before in Tulsa. He’s joined by Bill Crosby on bass and Tony Yohe on drums, with special guest vocalists.

October 26 – An Evening with Janet Rutland

The always top-notch vocalist will blow the roof off the Jazz Depot with guitarist, Randy Wimer and her special blend of music and style.

November 2 – Presenting the Annie Ellicott Trio

From young to old alike, Annie Ellicott has carved a niche in everyone’s heart with her shining vocals and wonderful scatting ability. She will be joined by her dad, Rod Ellicott on bass, Wade Robertson on drums, and Frank Brown on guitar.

November 9 – TU Big Jazz Band One

The swinging sound of big band music with TU’s stunning jazz ensemble, and vocalists will be on the bandstand too. Under the musical direction of Jazz Studies professor, Vernon Howard.

November 16 – Ernestine Dillard & the Tulsa Praise Orchestra

World-renowned gospel vocalist and Oklahoma music treasure, Ms. Dillard performs all of your classic gospel selections with the amazing Oklahoma Praise Orchestra.

November 30 – Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies” – The Stage Concert

Stage version of the Broadway hit, Sophisticated Ladies will feature a number of top-flight vocalists, with staging by Jazz Hall CEO, Chuck Cissel

December 7 – Jeff Shadley & His Big Band’s “Ring-a-Ding Ding”

“Ole Blue Eyes” shows up at the Depot in the form of vocalist Jeff Shadley and his big band performing your favorite Sinatra tunes, also with plenty of brand new music.

December 14 – Holiday “Jazz Jam” Session

Leon Rollerson’s Band will perform holiday tunes and collaborate with area jazz musicians and vocalists coming together to celebrate the Christmas holiday in an evening of straight-ahead jammin’.

December 21 – Gospel Workshop Choir of America

Making their annual visit to the Jazz Depot performing gospel selections with the choral sound only the Gospel of Workshop Choir can. Musical director is Jazz Hall Inductee, Dr. Joey Crutcher.

December 28 – J3 Acoustic Jazz and Blues Band

Back by popular demand, J3 took the Hall by storm on their first visit, and now they are coming back like a hurricane – to absolutely blow you away with their fine musicianship and vocals. Added treat will be holiday music on the menu.

Site: www.okjazz.org

All concerts are at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame building – The Jazz Depot. Its located at 111 E. 1st St.  Phone: (918) 596-1001

If you missed the first evening of Summer Bash 2008 at Plan B in downtown, Tulsa, Oklahoma — you missed one hell of a show! It is okay! We captured plenty of photographs and video footage to help assist you in filling the void of local music and entertainment. No matter what we show you, you did miss an extremely energetic performance by some of Tulsa’s great local bands: We Stay Gold, Radio Radio, First Lady Assassins, P.D.A., and Violence to Vegas.

Each band performed for about forty five minutes on average and entertained with music from their extensive repertoires. The energy was noticed throughout every performance and only grew through the middle of the evening when Anthony from P.D.A. performed; prior to Violence to Vegas.

“How many of you have heard of THISTULSA.COM? If you haven’t you need to check them out online at THISTULSA.COM!” exclaimed Anthony, P.D.A., during his performance at Summer Bash. He was extremely enthusiastic and supportive of this website. Brad and I were both extremely surprised at this statement. Mad love!

The show continued throughout the midnight hour with Violence to Vegas, opened by P.D.A.’s wild performance. First Lady Assassins jammed the outdoor sand covered patio with their harmonic screaming tones, prior to Radio Radio knocking the house down with their melodies. If you’ve not witnessed performances from these bands; we recommend you check them out.

The drinks were affordable, the environment very clean, and bands well established. For eight dollars for a single night or ten dollars for both evenings; you could not ask for a better performance. The weather for this event has been absolutely beautiful and could not be any better.

We look forward to all the new visitors to the site per P.D.A.’s recommendation and personal endorsement. If you are new, let us know!

Mad props to all the bands this evening and those performing on day two (Technically that is today as well — considering it is 2:54AM now Saturday morning.)

If you have not checked out P.D.A. on myspace, do so now: myspace.com/pdaonline and follow him on twitter at twitter.com/pdaonline.

Check back in a few hours for the short video teaser, Anthony promised we would have the entire performance on the website (we told him we’d edit it down a bit.) FocusOn: Tulsa will end up posting more segments from the video in the upcoming show next week. We also have all the photographs here on flickr.com. Check them out!

On a side note, when Brad and I arrived back at his casa to have a few beers and prepare the photographs and video for release on the website; we decided to watch a flick. During this process there was a shadow figure in a straight flight path across his living room wall into his kitchen. “Dude it’s a moth.” he mentioned. “Man, it looked like a bird,” I said. “Holy ####! It is a (BLEEPING) bat!” he shouted. “Grab my camera!” I yelled while running from the sofa.

Needless to say, I think the 8″ winged monster is gone and we both don’t have rabies — that we know of.

Organum Records will host a night of the best original music Oklahoma has to offer on Friday, August 29 at Exit 6C. Dorian Small, based out of Norman, will be joining Archer Collective for his first Tulsa appearance since last year’s Dfest. With two albums receiving shining reviews (“every track surprises you with depth, recording quality, composition, and a feeling of nostalgic excitement”- Nonzine) and fresh off a successful two-week East coast tour with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Dorian’s performance will be one not to be missed.

Archer Collective and is officially debuting its new line-up: Josh Raymer- Drums, Andrew Bones- Drums/Keys, Matt Hayes- Bass, Chris Combs- Guitar/Lap Steel, and Dylan Aycock- Pedal Steel/Effects. Innovative instrumental material, superior musicianship, and a full-length album in the works make Archer Collective the group to watch for 2008 (“what’s amazing is that these guys really are in the top-tier of performers, statewide…it’s safe to say that, locally, they’re the best at what they do”- Urban Tulsa Weekly).

Be sure to check out Archer Collective’s myspace at www.myspace.com/archercollective and Dorian Small at www.myspace.com/doriansmall

All the details at a glance

WHO: Archer Collective and Dorian Small
WHEN: Friday August 29th at 9:30PM
WHERE: Exit 6C, 1st and Detroit
WHAT: Ages 21+ and cover is $5.00USD

This past weekend, Shattuck and I rep’d ThisTulsa at DFest. To be honest, my expectations of this festival were not that high in the beginning. I was a little prejudice to how well big-time artists would be received by the Tulsa crowd. Man was I wrong…

The headliner for the closing night of DFest was The Roots. A hip-hop band that really needs no introduction, put on a show that I thought was nothing short of stellar. The band, who recently dropped their 10th album Rising Down, rocked the house at Tulsa’s annual DFest downtown. Since ThisTulsa was recognized as a “legitimate” news company, we had the ability to snap some great shots of their performance and hang out backstage while the performance rocked on.

Hopped up on RedBull, Justin and I took gigs of photos over the weekend. You can find them in various locations like Flickr; here and here as well as the bottom of every ThisTulsa web page.

How do you think DFest did this year Tulsa?

Last weekend is likely to be remembered as one of the most rocking weekends presented to our community. Friday afternoon, I stopped by the Dfest media tent to pick-up our staff writers’ press badges and related materials. Later, we arrived downtown to begin capturing the moments from some extremely marvelous bands.

The night immediately began with a killer performance by Paramore; however, we missed the amazing show (so-we-heard) from Danelle Phillips’s band Congress of a Crow. Although we missed Congress of a Crow’s performance, we did not miss the opportunity to socially network and have a chat with Danelle Phillips, their lead singer. We even persuaded her to throw up the 918, in support of both our website and the local community she represents. “Thank you so much!” she exclaimed as we presented her with a memory card for her digital camera so she could capture the moments herself.

Given the opportunity to sit backstage and converse with the bands and the other members of press was more than a great experience; it was an opportunity for us to show our wealth to the community. Even something small and generous like giving away AA batteries to a random fan backstage of Paramore or giving Danelle a memory card was our chance to be positive. This feeling was more than reciprocated throughout the event. All of the bands were generous with their time and words.

The All American Rejects blasted fans away with a pretty long performance with all their current and previous hits. We met a few great fans and captured some pretty sick shots of the group. Throughout the night we continued to snap photos, take names, and try to mentally note the performances and performers. We did a pretty decent job, from talking to Doug, a 12 year old fan who was leaning against the railing jamming out to “Move Along,” to four random guys we met while picking up refreshments.

Meeting up with Anthony a.k.a. PDA Friday night and being personally invited to his show Saturday at the Blank Slate stage was a great feeling. He has read our website (thistulsa.com) before and was more than supportive of our small-time publication here. Friday night ended with a small party at Brad’s house with some friends and family of PDA and ourselves.

We continued to rock out Dfest Saturday with Sworn Against, PDA, The Roots, Zappa Plays Zappa, Colourmusic, and the crowds backstage.

The parties were great, crowds polite, people awesome, performers excellent, and overall left a definite hole after it was said and done. More about each individual band and their performance soon!