Sonoma Jazz+ Festival 2005

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

from today's PD:

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Can Sonoma put up with all that jazz?
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
By CHRIS SMITH
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


Sonoma seems jazzed, if a bit tentative, about a new, world-class music festival that will debut in May if city fathers approve.
The four-day Sonoma Jazz + would be a sister to Colorado’s Jazz Aspen Snowmass, which has showcased the likes of Herbie Hancock, Norah Jones, BB King, Dianne Reeves, Al Greene, Joe Cocker, Lucinda Williams and Wynton Marsalis.
Promoters envision a Memorial Day weekend festival of music, food and wine that would benefit the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation.
But there’s an issue, and it is whether Sonoma wishes to allow yet another annual happening — even such a jazzy and elegant one — in its event-trodden downtown.
Organizers of Sonoma Jazz + propose to hold the main festival on the athletic fields behind the police station, a couple of blocks off the Plaza, and two free afternoon concerts on the Plaza.
Jazz or no? It’s a tough decision that Sonoma has to wrestle with before May draws much nearer. <<

[Pete C]

Can Sonoma put up with all that jazz?


It doesn't look like there'll be that much jazz to put up with.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

It doesn't look like there'll be that much jazz to put up with.


Sonoma can't handle a whole lot of jazz. That's why the REAL Sonoma County jazz festival is over here in Healdsburg, The HEART of the Sonoma County Wine Country ®!

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Looks like something's going to happen, should be more clarity after tomorrow's City Council meeting. Here's the skinny, from the article that follows (Sonoma Index-Tribune):

>>As currently planned, the festival will start Thursday, May 26, in a 3,000-seat tent. Adjacent to the main site will be a patron tent with a capacity of 600 people.
The event producers will appear before the Sonoma City Council on Wednesday, Dec. 16, to request permits for the activities in the Field of Dreams.<<



Top Stories
Panel nixes free jazz on Plaza

By Joshua Coman Index-Tribune Staff Writer

12.10.04 - There will be no free music in the Plaza during the first Sonoma Jazz Plus festival next year.
Citing an overuse of the town's historic square by other groups and a need to reduce the number of events that occur there, members of Sonoma's Community Services and Environment Commission told jazz festival local coordinator Ken Blackwood Wednesday that they would not issue a permit for a new event.

"We have a lot of events in the Plaza - in this one area," said commission member Kimberly Powell. "We've come to the point where we need to give some time between these events, to give the Plaza some time to heal."
Instead, the commissioners asked if Blackwood would explore finding a way to hold the free concerts elsewhere in town.


The Plaza permit covers only a small part of the event and will not affect the larger event, Blackwood said. Although the Plaza will not be used for free concerts, Blackwood said it does not change the plans to hold a jazz festival in Sonoma.
However, Blackwood said he could not say if there will be free shows elsewhere in Sonoma until the local Sonoma Jazz Plus board of directors met after presstime.

The Community Services and Environment Commission has been grappling with finding a way to limit the number of events on the historic Plaza to reduce the damage to the lawns and inconveniences to local businesses.
"It's very difficult as a commissioner to approve a new event when we have to look at reoccurring events with a jaundiced eye," said commission member Gerald Sanders.


One commission member, Bill Boerum, said he questions if the residents of the town want to increase tourism.
"We don't need to promote the town any more - people live here," Boerum said.
The Sonoma City Council recently partnered with the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau and promised to give up to $100,000 in matching funds to promote tourism.
The promotional campaign will include advertisements in upscale Bay Area magazines, such as San Francisco magazine, 7 X 7 magazine and Diablo magazine.
Councilmembers agreed to the partnership as a way to increase overnight tourism in the Valley in an effort to increase business at local lodging, restaurants and retail stores. The visitors bureau came up with the plan at a time when city officials were considering an increase in the transient occupancy tax, also called a bed tax, which is paid by hotel guests.
The Sonoma Jazz Plus application for a use permit for the free Plaza concerts was first denied administratively on Nov. 18 by the five city officials who serve as the Plaza use committee. The members of the Plaza use committee are: Public Works Administrator Al Bandur, Police Chief John Gurney, Fire Chief Mike Cahill, Parks Department Foreman Dave Chavoya and Deputy City Clerk Kerry Amormino.
Blackwood appeared before the Community Services and Environment Commission Wednesday to appeal the Plaza use committee's denial of the permit request.
According to a proposal submitted to the commission, the producers of Sonoma Jazz Plus had planned to erect a covered stage behind City Hall that would be used to provide free music to about 500 people on Saturday, May 28, and Sunday, May 29, while the festival itself would be held at the Field of Dreams.
As currently planned, the festival will start Thursday, May 26, in a 3,000-seat tent. Adjacent to the main site will be a patron tent with a capacity of 600 people.
The event producers will appear before the Sonoma City Council on Wednesday, Dec. 16, to request permits for the activities in the Field of Dreams.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

I guess we can take the question marks our of the thread title now:

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Jazz fest wins Sonoma approval
'World-class' event expected to attract big names to Plaza area, other venues
Thursday, December 16, 2004
By LORI A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


Despite reservations about parking and traffic congestion, the Sonoma City Council unanimously endorsed what's being billed as a "world-class" music festival that could attract 16,000 people over the Memorial Day weekend.
In addition to thousands of dollars in hotel taxes and restaurant revenue that would likely pour in during the four-day event, organizers of Sonoma Jazz+ pledged to divide the proceeds - a goal of $250,000 - equally between the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation.
Sonoma Jazz+ is an offshoot of Jazz Aspen Snowmass, a 14-year-old nonprofit whose music festivals fund music education programs in Colorado.
What started as three-day festival in 1991 has grown into a summer-long series of free and paid concerts and music education programs for gifted students, teachers and young musicians.
Some of the biggest names in jazz, including Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, India Arie, Norah Jones and Lucinda Williams, have performed at Jazz Aspen. Though the lineup for Sonoma Jazz+ won't be announced for a few weeks, organizers say the headliners will be heavyweights in the music world.
The main venue will be a 3,500-seat tent at Field of Dreams, just west of the Plaza, with satellite performances spread out in bars and courtyards around the Plaza where possible, said James Horowitz, the event's executive producer.
The festival took shape amid Sonoma's debate of how to minimize wear and tear on the popular Plaza and ensure that Plaza merchants - key to Sonoma's tourist trade and economy - aren't inconvenienced.
Some Plaza merchants have complained that using the city square every weekend hurts their business as event patrons fill parking spaces, attend events and leave.
A city committee last week denied Sonoma Jazz+ organizers permission to use the Plaza for two free concerts during their festival , scheduled for May 26-29.
"This would have been four weeks in a row of Plaza use," Sonoma Public Works Administrator Al Bandur said. "We're trying to get a weekend in between events to allow the use of the park for the general public as well as to let it recover. The Plaza isn't just a park, it's an ecosystem we try to maintain the health of."
Instead, Sonoma Jazz+ organizers hope to book local and regional musical acts at Sonoma bars and common courtyards to provide a citywide feel to the festival, Horowitz said.
"The idea is very much that you use the restaurant and bars in the town," he said. "In the afternoon, people will walk around, eat, drink, stroll. Eventually you stroll over to the main concert, then over to the Plaza, enjoy music in other clubs later.
"And you're on foot the whole time," he added.
City Council members expressed concern that the town could be overrun by cars. But they appeared satisfied with Horowitz's assurances that more than a decade of experience in Aspen organizing an event of similar size and logistics will make for a successful weekend.
"One side of me says we need another big event like I need another hole in my head," Mayor Larry Barnett said. But, he said, the potential for a high-quality, professionally run festival could raise the bar for events in Sonoma.
The idea wasn't without its critics, though, including organizers of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, who complained that the event could hurt theirs, which is scheduled one week later.
Another Sonoma resident decried the event as a "bad precedent" that appeals to tourists but does little for Sonoma residents.

[Boris Badenov]

I had no idea that Lucinda Williams was one of the biggest names in jazz. All these years I thought she was a country singer! Silly me!

[Dr Dave]

You should hear Lucinda with her big band wailin' on Cherokee! When Lucinda's band comes to town, everybody wants to sit in! Why, last time at Aspen she had Wynton, Branford, and Delfeyeo Marsalis all on the bandstand at the same time! And Hamid Drake! And Cecil Taylor! It was awesome! She still wears the cowboy boots, but she does a Coltrane tribute, a Monk tribute, and at Sonoma will have a 3-D holographic representation of Count Basie, created from old Kinescopes lovingly curated by none other than Phil Schaap! Rumor has it Ornette Coleman will be there to premiere a song-cycle based on "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road," scored for alto saxophone, brass choir, pedal-steel guitar, the Texas A&M Marching Band, and the New York Philharmonic!

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

But don't forget that the REAL Sonoma County jazz festival takes place in Healdsburg the following week!

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Stars aligned for Sonoma jazz fest
Headliners for May event include Tony Bennett, Diana Krall, Boz Skaggs, Steve Winwood
Thursday, February 24, 2005
By JOHN BECK
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT


The Sonoma Jazz+ Festival, the newest entrant in Wine Country's festival season, announced an all-star lineup Wednesday, with musicians ranging from jazz heavyweights Tony Bennett and Diana Krall to blues and soul artists Boz Scaggs and Steve Winwood scheduled to play in concert Memorial Day weekend.
"The 'plus' allows us to be musically diverse by design," said festival executive producer Jim Horowitz. "In addition to the food and wine, it just leaves open a lot of possibilities."
A spinoff of the renowned Jazz Aspen Snowmass, Sonoma Jazz+ will be the first major music festival in the town of Sonoma, set for May 26-29 on the city's Field of Dreams.
Sure to belt out "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," Bennett opens the festival Thursday night. Grammy Award-winning singer-pianist Krall performs Saturday, and Scaggs and Winwood close it out Sunday. A Friday night headliner has yet to be named. Out of respect for war veterans, no events will be held on Memorial Day, said Jim Pugash, chairman of the festival board.
Inspired by a conversation with former Denver Post Publisher and current MediaNews Chief Operating Officer Jerry Grilly, Horowitz began researching the concept of holding a walkabout, European-style festival while visiting Wine Country in 2003.
"The goal in Sonoma seems to be to accomplish in one year what we took about 10 years to do in Aspen," said Horowitz, who founded Jazz Aspen in 1991 after attending a jazz festival in the French village of Marciac.
In addition to established musicians, he's also bringing in up-and-coming talent such as Regina Carter and Lizz Wright, whom he describes as "the most exciting young jazz singer I've heard in 15 or 20 years. If Aretha Franklin could sing jazz, this is what she would sound like."
Organizers were originally more ambitious, but the Sonoma City Council rejected plans to hold two free concerts in the town Plaza in addition to the Field of Dreams series. Instead, the festival has created a Wine and Song series of pairings that will take place in restaurants, hotels and bars around the Plaza.
Bracing for as many as 16,000 people over four days, Sonoma Mayor Larry Barnett is concerned about traffic congestion and parking, but pointed out the city's annual Salute to the Arts festival brings in 10,000 to 20,000 people in one day.
"At this point we're viewing this first-time event as an opportunity, but also an experiment," said Barnett, admitting he's looking forward to seeing Bennett even if it makes him wonder. "What is he, 111 years old? I guess I have to see him before he's no longer with us."
To alleviate traffic congestion, the festival has created several satellite parking locations where fans can shuttle to the Field of Dreams, which holds slightly more than 3,000 people.
A nonprofit organization, Sonoma Jazz+ has raised nearly $2 million to produce the festival. The goal is to give $250,000 of the event's proceeds to the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and the Sonoma Valley Hospital Foundation.