THE SIXTH ANNUAL Lafayette Jazz Festival turns downtown Lafayette into a musical mecca this weekend, with performances by some of the finest improvisers on the West Coast.
Presented by the Generations in Jazz Foundation, an organization dedicated to building and maintaining strong music education programs in local schools, the festival mostly takes place at Town Hall Theatre.
Friday's concert features percussionist John Santos' Quintet with the legendary timbales player Orestes Vilato and expert reedman Melecio Magdaluyo. As an opening act, acclaimed educator Bob Athayde presents the Stanley Jazz Messengers, the award-winning ensemble from Stanley Middle School.
Saturday's concert at the Town Hall Theatre features the 20th anniversary reunion of Marcos Silva and Intersection. This powerful Brazilian jazz group recorded several excellent albums for Concord Records, and features saxophonist Mary Fettig, bassist Gary Brown, guitarist Ricardo Peixoto, drummer Celso Alberti and master percussionist Michael Spiro playing original compositions and arrangements by Silva, a commanding keyboardist. The evening opens with a set by the Acalanes High School Jazz Ensemble with special guest trumpeter Mic Gillette, a founding member of Tower of Power.
The festival concludes on Sunday afternoon at the Performing Arts Center at Acalanes High School with sets by the Contra Costa County Middle School Jazz Honor Band and guest director Dave Martell, and the Contra Costa County High School Jazz Honor Band, composed of the best student jazz musicians from seven local high schools, under the direction of Wayne Wallace.
At a private concert tonight in Rossmoor, Rossmoor Big Band saxophonist Les Peterson receives a lifetime achievement award from the Generations in Jazz Foundation, which produces the Lafayette Summer Jazz Camp and Jazz Outreach Workshops for Bay Area schools. Trumpeter Namaye Bailey, a sixth-grader at Oakland's Westlake Middle School, is being presented with the Second annual Harvey Rosenblum Scholarship Award.
Details: Tickets for the sixth annual Lafayette Jazz Festival are $16 and are available at the Town Hall Theatre box office, 3535 School St. Contact 925-283-1557 or
www.generationsinjazz.org.
THOSE WHO TEACH CAN ALSO PLAY: Saxophonist Michael Zilber, the head of Los Medanos College's jazz program, and pianist Susan Muscarella, founder and director of the innovative Jazzschool, join forces and names for a regular Monday night gig at Anna's Jazz Island. The gig means that the downtown Berkeley club, which is run by jazz singer Anna DeLeon, is now presenting music seven nights a week. Focusing on radically reconstructed standards and Zilber's complex original compositions, the Zilberella Quartet includes ace bassist John Shifflett and inventive drummer Tim Bulkley. The group has been playing together intermittently for the past year, and a weekly gig will give them a chance to hone more original material.
"I feel especially fortunate to play with all three of those guys," Muscarella said. "They're at the top of their game. Mike's playing is inspiring. He's able to really transform a standard into a more contemporary-sounding piece. His originals are so challenging, with unpredictable melodic lines and odd meters. But it's nice to be able to just show up for a gig, because I'm just the piano player. I'm the 'rella.'"
HOT TIPS: The 17-year-old pianist Julian Pollack celebrates the release of his new CD, "Goin' For It," on the Jazzschool's Rising Stars label (full disclosure: I wrote the liner notes) at Jazz at Pearl's tonight. He's a prodigiously talented player and composer who leads a thrilling trio with bassist David Ewell and drummer Darrell Green.
Details: Pollack plays at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., 256 Columbus Ave. in North Beach. Tickets are $10. 415-291-8255,
www.jazzatpearls.com.
It seems just yesterday that Taylor Eigsti was a Bay Area teenage piano phenomenon. But now he's 22, with his debut album on Concord Records, "Lucky to Be Me," due out on March 28. Eigsti performs on March 17 at a benefit for the Jazzschool at Berkeley's First Congregational Church with revered mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.
Details: The church is at 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley. Tickets are $125. 510-845-5373 or
www.jazzschool.com.
On Saturday, the Lynne Arriale Trio, one of jazz's most melodically inventive groups, performs at the San Ramon Library as part of its long-running jazz concert series. Led by Arriale, a pianist with a beautiful, bell-like touch, the trio features bassist Tom Warrington and drummer Steve Davis.
Details: The library is located at 100 Montgomery St., San Ramon. Tickets are $20. 925-973-2850.
In a fascinating meeting of Bay Area originals, pop/jazz vocalist Spencer Day, a rising star on the new cabaret scene who has won strong reviews with recent performances in New York City, shares a Herbst Theatre bill on March 18 with the Turtle Island String Quartet, who just won a classical crossover Grammy for their stellar album "4+Four" (Telarc) with the Ying String Quartet. Focusing on material from his recent EP, "Movie of Your Life," Day will play his own set with his seven-piece band, followed by TISQ, and then both groups will come together for several numbers at the end of the show.
Details: Herbst Theatre is located at 401 Van Ness Ave., S.F. Showtime is 8 p.m. For tickets, $20-$50, contact 415-392-4400 or
www.cityboxoffice.com.
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