Terence Blanchard, SFJAZZ’s government inventive director, is considering huge.
Given the trumpeter’s observe document — with scores for dozens of movie and tv productions, groundbreaking operas, and a thriving profession as a jazz bandleader — his new imaginative and prescient for the San Francisco Jazz Pageant, and SFJAZZ itself, bears shut scrutiny.
Whereas the pageant was the first automobile that turned SFJAZZ a powerhouse presenter within the Nineteen Nineties, the arrival of the SFJAZZ Middle in 2013 relegated what was basically a three-week live performance collection into one thing of an afterthought.
Regardless of the pageant’s lack of influence amidst the torrent of standard programming on the venue, SFJAZZ left the format largely unchanged, till this yr’s reinvention. Packing some three-dozen acts right into a single weekend, June 13-15, the San Francisco Jazz Pageant will get an entire new look with a number of levels on the SFJAZZ Middle and an adjoining tent protecting the car parking zone at Franklin and Oak streets.
For Blanchard, a Crescent Metropolis native who takes the famously sprawling New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Pageant as his aspirational mannequin, the occasion ought to provoke town, whereas serving as a significant cultural vacation spot.
“Festival, just the word itself describes something more communal,” he stated. “The entire neighborhood should be involved.” Whereas giving props to SFJAZZ founder Randall Kline, “who did an amazing job building this place,” Blanchard stated it was time to assume exterior the field. “We already do a bunch of shows in the building. We need to engage the community.”
The revamped pageant is one piece of Blanchard’s imaginative and prescient for SFJAZZ’s growth through a collection of collaborations that reach its attain (and model). The group is partnering with San Jose Jazz at Summer time Fest Aug. 8-10, programming the Montgomery Theater, the pageant’s major indoor venue. SFJAZZ can be presenting a fall live performance collection on the Lesher Middle in Walnut Creek.
The San Francisco Jazz Pageant itself is a rising tide that’s elevating jazz programming throughout the area. Kuumbwa Jazz Middle’s ’s June calendar is rife with acts within the space for the pageant, beginning with 87-year-old tenor sax star Charles Lloyd’s all-star Sky Quartet with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland, which headlines Friday’s roster (earlier than taking part in Kuumbwa June 15).
Bass nice Dave Holland, like Lloyd an NEA Jazz Grasp, is touring with Cuban piano maestro Gonzalo Rubalcaba, taking part in Kuumbwa June 14 and the San Francisco Jazz Pageant June 15. And pianist Orrin Evans hits Kuumbwa along with his trio June 13 earlier than the group’s pageant set June 14. Somi, a vocalist with roots in East Africa whose newest album celebrates the legacy of South African star Miriam Makeba, performs on the pageant June 14 and Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society June 15.
SFJAZZ’s attain extends as much as the twenty seventh Healdsburg Jazz Pageant, which opens Friday, with pianist and NEA Jazz Grasp Kenny Barron’s trio that includes Oakland-reared drummer Savannah Harris and particular visitor vocalist Tyreek McDole (Healdsburg runs by means of June 22).
McDole has finished two residencies at Black Cat within the Tenderloin, a venue that has launched dozens of rising out-of-town artists to Bay Space audiences. However as solely the second male artist to win the Sarah Vaughan Worldwide Jazz Vocal competitors in 2023, he’s on a roll of high-profile appearances, bringing his personal band to the San Francisco Jazz Pageant on June 15 and Kuumbwa on June 16.
The timing is auspicious, as his just-released debut album “Open Up Your Senses” reveals an artist with supple rhythmic phrasing and sumptuously heat baritone utilized to a guide of tunes knowledgeable by his embracing spirituality.
“My debut album is my introduction to the world and I wanted to pick music that really inspired me,” stated McDole, 25, a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory. “Whether it’s Pharoah Sanders’ ‘The Creator Has a Master Plan’ or the title track by Horace Silver, the content of each song is trying to say that all music is a spiritual thing.”
McDole is one in all a number of rising artists properly outfitted to succeed in youthful audiences. There’s pianist/keyboardist Jahari Stampley, charismatic Cuban vocalist Cimafunk, and Los Angeles trumpeter Tatiana Tate.
Nobody is aware of the challenges of constructing and sustaining an city jazz pageant higher than Bruce Labadie, who’s booked San José Jazz’s Summer time Fest from the start. Watching as SFJAZZ recalibrates its pageant, he sees the brand new path as fraught with challenges.
“In the past they’ve just taken 11 days out of the season and declared it a festival,” he stated. “Now it’s a real festival. But you have to be so committed and have the right strategy. There’s so much competition.”
Blanchard isn’t fazed by the obstacles. His abiding religion in energy of jazz-steeped artists to succeed in past the music’s ordinary viewers facilities on musicians like veteran keyboardist and vocalist Patrice Rushen, who’s making her SFJAZZ debut presenting her personal music after a number of appearances with bass star Christian McBride.
“People are sleeping on how much of a pioneer she’s been,” he stated. “No other women was doing what she was doing in the ‘70s and ‘80s. She’s still a powerhouse and a great composer. She’ll have people moving.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
SAN FRANCISCO JAZZ FESTIVAL
When: 2-9 p.m. June 13; 1-10 p.m. June 14-15
The place: SFJAZZ Middle, 201 Franklin St., San Francisco
Tickets: $50-$650; www.sfjazz.org
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