Woody Allen and band to play Katrina benefit Wed Mar 8, 4:53 PM ET



NEW YORK (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.

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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.