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| San Jose's jazz festival caters to every taste |
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| By Jim Aquino |
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A colorful mix of venerable jazz radio
favorites and newer, up-and-coming jazz acts
will be showcased at the 13th annual AT&T
San Jose Jazz Festival, Aug. 7-11. The
event attracts 150,000 fans to downtown San
Jose each year.
Presented by Southwest Airlines and the San
Jose Jazz Society, the free outdoor festival
will be spread out all over downtown on nine
stages, which will include a Latin stage, a
world music stage, a "sisters in jazz" stage
with all-female artists, a stage honoring the
late Bay Area pianist Smith Dobson and a main
stage featuring the festival's most
well-known performers.
Festival Director Bruce Labadie says he's
pleased with how the festival gives the
audience many different stages to choose
from.
"A lot of people might want to go to the Main
Stage and hang out there, but they also have
the opportunity to come to the smaller stages
and have more intimate experiences, which is
something you don't get at every jazz
festival," Labadie says.
The most notable acts from this year's
festival lineup will include:
- the New Orleans-based Afro-Latin band Los
Hombres Calientes, one of the festival's
newer acts and a critics' favorite. The band,
whose name is Spanish for "the hot men" and
is a play on the name of the New Orleans rap
act The Hot Boys, will perform on the Main
Stage at Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
- singer Oleta Adams, who burst onto the pop
charts in 1991 with her ballad Get
Here. The song struck a chord with
R&B and smooth-jazz listeners who had
loved ones stationed in the Middle East
during the Gulf War. Adams will perform on
the Main Stage as well.
- smooth-jazz radio staple George Duke, who's
best known for the 1977 soul instrumental
Reach for It. The Marin County-born
keyboardist and record producer was also
behind A Taste of Honey's 1980 R&B cover
of the Japanese pop song Sukiyaki.
Duke is another Main Stage headliner.
- guitarist and jazz-rock fusion pioneer
Larry Coryell, another Main Stage performer.
- trumpeter Jon Faddis, the musical director
of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. He will also
be found on the Main Stage.
- Cuban-born percussionist Jesus Diaz and his
Bay Area band QBA, who will appear on the
Latin Stage (see see related story page 24).
- 17-year-old Menlo Park pianist Taylor
Eigsti, who will have his last "youth
performance" on the Youth Stage before
entering the University of Southern
California this fall. Eigsti has played piano
since the age of four and has opened for the
likes of Diana Krall, David Benoit, Al
Jarreau and Natalie Cole.
"What's good about the festival is that we
break a lot of new acts," Labadie says.
One of these acts that the festival will
introduce is the San Jose Jazz Orchestra,
which will have its first performance at the
festival's opening night gala at the San Jose
Repertory Theatre. Patterned after the jazz
orchestras that were led by Count Basie and
Duke Ellington, the new orchestra will be
conducted by trombonist Dennis Wilson and
will serve as the San Jose Jazz Society's
"house band." The San Jose Jazz Orchestra's
debut concert will be recorded for airplay on
National Public Radio.
Past noteworthy festival acts have included
Etta James, Bobby Hutcherson, Spyro Gyra,
Larry Carlton, Richard Elliot, Hiroshima, Roy
Hargrove, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Angelique
Kidjo and Pete Escovedo. The festival began
in 1990 as a two-day event, attracting
15,000.
"We wanted to treat the patrons like they
were respected," says Labadie, describing how
he and the festival organizers wanted to make
their event a classy one in its first year by
bringing in a quality sound system and
comfortable seating.
The following year, the festival's audience
doubled in size. It continues to increase as
the festival draws fans from outside San Jose
and all over the world. Labadie says there
have been those in the audience who have come
from Europe, South America, Mexico and Japan
to watch the festival.
According to festival publicist Julie
Applebaum, the festival has been the city's
largest cultural event in terms of generating
business for local hotels.
However, like many other cities, San Jose is
currently suffering from a post-Sept. 11
hotel industry slump. Labadie is confident
that the festival will boost hotel business.
"It's the only event in San Jose that fills
the hotel rooms," says Labadie, who adds that
tourists usually don't think of San Jose as a
vacation destination like Santa Cruz or San
Francisco.
Labadie says the festival is good for San
Jose because the event gives the city lots of
activity, which he says is always needed.
Activity is certainly something that the
festival isn't lacking. Besides the
performances, the festival will also offer
jazz master classes, jazz masses at St.
Joseph Cathedral, a panel discussion with
jazz musicians and journalists and an
all-star jam session open to any member of
the public who would like to jam with their
idols.
Proceeds from the festival will help support
the San Jose Jazz Society's educational and
outreach programs, which include the Jazz 4
Kids program, the VH1 Save the Music program
and Jazz Goes to College music camps.
Labadie says he enjoys having San Jose serve
as the backdrop for a jazz festival.
"The San Jose setting is a good and positive
one. The weather is great. We're lucky to be
in the most ethnically diverse city in the
United States," Labadie says. "It's great to
see all these people coming out and having a
good time together."
The AT&T San Jose Jazz Festival will
take place Wed., Aug. 7-Sun., Aug. 11 in
downtown San Jose. The opening night gala,
'Tiny Bubbles & Big Stars,' will be held
Aug. 7 at the San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101
Paseo de San Antonio. Tickets for the gala,
which will be the festival's only non-free
show, are $25. The performances on the
festival's nine stages will all be free and
will run Aug. 10-11, noon-8 p.m.
For more information about the festival, call
the San Jose Jazz Society at 408.288.7557 or
visit www.sanjosejazz.org.
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