SFJAZZ at 25: 'Jazz in the city' and beyond

Last fall’s San Francisco Jazz Festival marked the beginning of SFJAZZ’s 25th Anniversary, a celebration that continues in 2008 with the Ninth Annual Spring Season. In its first quarter-century, SFJAZZ has expanded from a small-scale, part-time organization into one of the world’s most expansive non-profit jazz instititutions, presenting year-round concerts, jazz education programs, and the SFJAZZ Collective. But, as SFJAZZ Executive and Artistic Director Randall Kline is quick to point out, the organization did not do it alone.

“The Bay Area community deserves a lot of the credit for any contributions SFJAZZ has made to the region's cultural life,” Kline said. “There's a desire to explore and take chances here without which SFJAZZ's programming simply wouldn't be possible. Our patrons, and especially our SFJAZZ Members, have really built SFJAZZ.”

It all began in 1983, with a three-day festival named Jazz in the City, featuring Bay Area-based artists like Orquestra Batachanga. In time, this event grew into today’s San Francisco Jazz Festival, featuring premier artists from around the world, from now-departed greats like Joe Henderson, Celia Cruz, Betty Carter, Gerry Mulligan, and Alice Coltrane to living legends Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, Abbey Lincoln, Ornette Coleman, and hundreds more. In 2000, the organization, renamed SFJAZZ, unveiled the SFJAZZ Spring Season, adding what now amounts to dozens more performances each year. Also in 2000, SFJAZZ greatly expanded its education work, debating a full-fledged Education Department that now oversees the SFJAZZ High School All-Star Band, Discover Jazz courses, and the Jazz in the Middle program.

Fast forward to 2007. In an October cover story in its Sunday ‘Datebook’ the San Francisco Chronicle wrote “SFJAZZ has catapulted into the front rank of world jazz festivals, rivaling behemoths like Umbria and Montreal, and pretty much owning the U.S. field.” Further honors for this milestone year included the Standing Ovation award from the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society and the Wallace Foundation Excellence Award grant for developing young audiences.

Your generous contributions to SFJAZZ are essential to the continued growth of the organization. To commemorate this key milestone, we ask that you consider a 25th Anniversary gift to SFJAZZ, to help sustain and expand this organization for the next quarter century and beyond. Get more information on additional gifts and read an entertaining abstract of 25 Milestone Accomplishments.