St. Louis American's Chris King reporting from Montreal Jazz Festival

Via email, St. Louis American editor Chris King has alerted StLJN to the fact that he was in Montreal for that city's just-concluded jazz festival, and filed a series of online dispatches for the paper, including an account of Ornette Coleman's concert and the saxophonist's acceptance of the fest's Miles Davis Award.

You can read King's other online missives here and here, with more coverage to come in this week's print edition, which will be out Thursday.

Win a free trip to the Montreal Jazz Festival

Down Beat magazine is giving away a free trip for two to one weekend of the Montreal Jazz Festival, which takes place from June 26-July 2.

The festival is billed as "the largest in North America" and offers performances at a variety of venues by a diverse roster of musical artists including Return to Forever, Al Green, Hank Jones, McCoy Tyner, Dave Brubeck, Omara Portuondo, Cassandra Wilson, Charlie Haden's Quartet West, Leonard Cohen, Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin, Woody Allen, Saxophone Summit with Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman and Ravi Coltrane, and many more.

The prize package include two round-trip flights from the U.S., for either festival weekend; three pairs of tickets for selected concerts at the festival; two nights luxury hotel accommodation at the Hyatt Regency Montreal, which is right on the festival site; two official festival T-shirts and programs; and two meals in restaurants on the festival site. As with most such contests, you've got divulge some personal info to enter, but assuming you're OK with that, you can submit your entry here.

Win free stuff from Down Beat

Down Beat magazine currently is sponsoring a couple of contests for jazz-related prizes.

The first promotional giveaway is for a free trip for two to one weekend of the Montreal Jazz Festival, which will be held June 28-July 8. The prize package include airfare, hotel, concert tickets and more. To enter, go here.

The other is for a free autographed copy of saxophonist Branford Marsalis' most recent CD Braggtown. DB is giving away 10 CDs in a random drawing; to enter, go here.

(Both contests are open to anyone, not just subscribers, but those concerned with personal privacy should note that entering the drawings does require you to disclose your address, email and, in the case of the Montreal trip, phone number.)