Posted on Sun, Sep. 05, 2004
Jazz hot at clubs, festivals
HERE'S A GUIDE TO WHAT'S AHEAD
By Richard Scheinin
Mercury News
You'd almost think we were in New York: That's how much jazz is happening in the Bay Area this fall. The club scene is picking up. The festivals are relentless.
Suggestion No. 1
Go to the
Monterey Jazz Festival, Sept. 17-19. Prestigious arena seats may be hard to come by. But don't worry: Most of the best acts also play on small stages around the Monterey Fairgrounds; you can spend entire days prowling the grounds, soaking up music, inexpensively. And this year's acts are remarkable: Drummer Jack DeJohnette in a variety of settings, including a trio led by high-concept clarinetist Don Byron. There's a slew of pianists: Marian McPartland, Jason Moran, Bill Charlap, Uri Caine. There are old-timers (Clark Terry) and new-timers (The Bad Plus). (
www.montereyjazzfestival.org).
Suggestion No. 2
Go to the
San Francisco Jazz Festival, which runs in a variety of concert halls Oct. 14-Nov. 7. This annual celebration is amazing: Often, two or three worthy concerts happen in a single day. You say you're into singers? See Dena DeRose the afternoon of Oct. 31, Dianne Reeves that evening. Guitarists? Jim Hall and Kurt Rosenwinkel share a bill on Nov. 4. If you want Brazilian, choose your favorite genius: Caetano Veloso (Oct. 16) or Hermeto Pascoal (Nov. 3). Pop-savvy avant-gardists? How about keyboardist Vijay Iyer (Oct. 20) or the Scandinavian trance-band Supersilent (Nov. 4)? (
www.sfjazz.org).
Suggestion No. 3
Stay plugged into the club scene. San Francisco's rejuvenated
Jazz at Pearl's overflows with local and national talent, including the commanding saxophonist George Coleman and his quintet, which counts fellow tenor player Eric Alexander and piano master Harold Mabern on Sept. 24-25.
Yoshi's, in Oakland, has its usual lineup of legends (Jackie McLean, Abdullah Ibrahim), and there's almost too much to choose from at
Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz (Oregon, David Sánchez, Phil Woods and Bud Shank). In San Jose,
Pete Escovedo's Latin Jazz Club, a glittery new downtown place, brings in conguero Mario Flores and his band Friday and Saturday, and little ol'
Espresso Garden & Café hosts virtuoso bassist David Friesen on Sept. 24.
Here's a list of don't-miss shows:
•*Sept. 17-18: Jean-Michel Pilc Trio with bassist François Moutin and drummer Ari Hoenig. Pianist Pilc is hard-driving, inventive and not as well known as he deserves to be. He has a heavyweight band; Hoenig is a tenacious drummer. Jazz at Pearl's, 256 Columbus Ave. (at Broadway), San Francisco. Tickets at the door or online at
www.jazzatpearls.com.
•*Sept. 17-19: If I could stake out only one venue at the Monterey Jazz Festival, I'd pick Dizzy's Den. Get in line early and sit up front. Friday night, you'll hear Charlie Hunter and The Bad Plus, conveyors of ``new grooves.'' Saturday night, it's pianist Bill Charlap's flawless trio, pianist Mark Levine's Latin Tinge, and Byron's ``Ivey-Divey Trio'' with Jason Moran and Jack DeJohnette. (``Ivey-Divey'' also plays the San Francisco Jazz Festival on Oct. 17). Sunday: DeJohnette's Latin Project and Regina Carter's Quintet. Wow! (925) 275-9255 or
www.montereyjazzfestival.org.
•*Oct. 8: Preservation Hall Jazz Band and BeauSoleil. It's true: Jazz can be fun. The dance floor will be open for this double bill, presented by University of California-Santa Cruz Arts & Lectures. Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, 307 Church St.. (831) 459-2159 or
www.events.ucsc.edu/artslecs.
•*Oct. 9: Tierney Sutton and Roberta Gambarini. Two classy singers, an American and an Italian, with their trios. Sunset Center, San Carlos Street at Ninth Avenue, Carmel. (925) 275-9255 or
www.montereyjazzfestival.org.
•*Oct. 12: Branford Marsalis and Miguel Zenón. Each saxophonist leads his quartet. Marsalis is arguably the leading tenor saxophonist of the day. Zenón is the new alto player everyone's talking about. Cal Performances. Zellerbach Hall, University of California-Berkeley. (510) 642-9988 or
www.calperfs.berkeley.edu.
•*Oct. 20: Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd, San Francisco Jazz Festival. Iyer is a crunching pianist and painter of sonic landscapes. Ladd is a poet and hip-hop artist with a biting, post-Sept. 11 political viewpoint. This collaboration updates their ``In What Language?'' CD, one of the best of 2003. Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 776-1999 or
www.sfjazz.org.
•*Oct. 21: Plays Monk: Scott Amendola/Devin Hoff/Ben Goldberg, San Francisco Jazz Festival. The music of Thelonious Monk is endlessly pliable and should be turned on its head by this terrific drum-bass-clarinet trio. (Monksieland, another potent, Monk-based band led by trombone innovator Roswell Rudd and trumpeter Dave Douglas, performs Oct. 28 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre). San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third St. (between Mission and Howard streets), San Francisco. (415) 776-1999 or
www.sfjazz.org.
•*Oct. 26: Instant Composer's Pool Orchestra. A rare appearance by this free-wheeling collective, which has been inspired by sources as diverse as Monk and Anton Webern since the '70s. The ICP boasts some of the best European improvisers of our time: pianist Misha Mengelberg, drummer Han Bennink and expatriate clarinetist Michael Moore. Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. (831) 427-2227 or
www.kuumbwajazz.org.
•*Oct. 28: Michel Camilo Trio. Pianist Camilo is an outrageous virtuoso who swings with feeling. (Camilo also performs, solo and with trio, at the San Francisco Jazz Festival on Oct. 29.) Sunset Center, San Carlos Street at Ninth Avenue, Carmel. (925) 275-9255 or
www.montereyjazzfestival.org.
•*Oct. 28-31: Abdullah Ibrahim Trio. The South African pianist/composer's music is quietly sanctified. One of jazz's great elders, he almost always goes deep into the well; it's music as ritual. Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or
www.yoshis.com.
•*Nov. 3: Hermeto Pascoal band, plus Monica Salmaso. Composer/multi-instrumentalist Pascoal is known in Brazil as ``O Bruxo,'' meaning ``the sorcerer.'' Miles Davis thought him a genius: Pascoal has created an unclassifiable brew of jazz, rock, folkloric and invented sounds. The show opens with Salmaso, a fine singer and songwriter. San Francisco Jazz Festival, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, Bay and Lyon streets, San Francisco. (415) 776-1999 or
www.sfjazz.org.
•*Nov. 7: Conga Kings, featuring Candido, ``Patato'' Valdez and Giovanni Hidalgo. The relationship between jazz and Latin rhythms has been there from the start. Now, increasingly, the kinship is being recognized at major festivals. This show features some of the finest Latin jazz percussionists on the planet. San Francisco Jazz Festival, Calvin Simmons Theatre, 10 10th St., Oakland. (415) 776-1999 or
www.sfjazz.org.
•*Nov. 10: Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O'Farrill. As I was saying: New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center now has its own Latin jazz orchestra, led by pianist O'Farrill, whose father, Chico O'Farrill, was one of the genre's groundbreakers for half a century. Stanford Lively Arts, Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University, (650) 725-ARTS or
http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.
•*Nov. 10-14: Cedar Walton Trio with Jackie McLean. Alto saxophonist McLean is jazz; he expresses the spirit of the music as well as anyone alive. Walton has been one of jazz's leading pianists and composers for more than 40 years. Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200 or
www.yoshis.com.
Final suggestions
•*Trumpeter Wallace Roney brings his quintet to Yoshi's Saturday and next Sunday; a new jazz film series kicks off with ``Bebop, Blues and Mother's Love'' at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco on Oct. 16; the Turtle Island String Quartet performs at the University of California-Santa Cruz on Oct. 16.
•*Trumpeter Eddie Gale's Inner Peace Orchestra performs two Concerts for World Peace on Oct. 23 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown San Jose. Violinist Billy Bang collaborates with poet and author Ishmael Reed at Yoshi's on Nov. 15.
•*One last tip: Even though it's sold out, try to cadge a ticket to pianist Joe Sample's show at the Carriage House Theatre at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga on Oct. 15.
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