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Season-Wide Overviews
Someone glancing at the SFJazz 2009 Spring Season schedule might conclude that the jazz is an afterthought.
With Israel, Iran, Cuba, North Africa, South Africa, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Serbia, Japan and Canada represented, you might call it a regular U.N. symposium.
—David Rubien, SFGate.com (03/07/09)
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There was a time when SFJAZZ was content just to present the San Francisco Jazz Festival each fall.
It's a bit hard to remember those days, in light of how the organization's other big event, the annual Spring Season, has grown through the years. This year's Spring Season, which kicks off this weekend, is roughly triple the size of the first concert series SFJAZZ held back in 2000. In all, the 2009 edition will feature more than 40 events and concerts on a schedule that now reaches into late June.
—Jim Harrington, InsideBayArea.com (03/05/09)
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With some three-dozen concerts presented over three months, the SFJazz Spring Season offers a wealth of music from around the globe. Here are 10 recommended gigs.
—Andrew Gilbert, MercuryNews.com (03/04/09)
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There’s a big difference between inorganic all-star bands, cobbled together to boost sales, and actual collectives—focused, well-rehearsed, consistently creative units in which everyone’s a leader. The SFJazz Collective has the added advantage of spanning generations and hemispheres, with players hailing from the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada and even New Zealand. The group was formed in 2004 when SFJazz, a West Coast nonprofit devoted to festival programming, education and outreach, partnered with then artistic director Joshua Redman to launch an illustrious touring ensemble.
—TimeOutNewYork.com (03/05/09)
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Past Shows
Born in San Francisco 60 years ago Tuesday, Tillery was once a queen of the San Francisco rock scene.
As lead singer of the Loading Zone, a psychedelic soul-rock band from the East Bay, she recorded an
album for RCA Victor and frequently appeared at the Fillmore Auditorium on bills with the likes of
Cream, the Grateful Dead, Albert King, B.B. King and the Who. She was one of four big-voiced women
fronting bands on the local rock circuit, the others being Tracy Nelson with Mother Earth, Lydia
Pense with Cold Blood and Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company.
—Lee Hildenbrand, nytimes.com (09/01/08)
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The New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint hinted at the scope of his musical lore in a whimsical solo montage
halfway through his early set at the Village Vanguard on Tuesday night. Fragments of old New Orleans songs
(like “Big Chief”), classical pieces, boogie-woogie, “The Sound of Music” and other tunes interrupted one
another and gradually mingled, giving barrelhouse flourishes to a Chopin prelude. After a few more segues
Mr. Toussaint called Elvis Costello out of the audience to sing “Ascension Day,” a song from the 2006 album
they made together, “The River in Reverse.”
—Jon Pareles, nytimes.com (05/20/09)
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Goran Bregovic calls Gypsy music "a metaphor for that part of the soul that defies gravity." That sense of being
transported describes the effect he has on fans - not only on his former Yugoslavian countrymen, who are able
to dance and celebrate their shared Balkan heritage, but also on the audiences who have flocked to hear his
concerts around the world. Currently on an eight-city North American tour, Goran Bregovic and the Wedding and
Funeral Orchestra touch down at the Masonic Auditorium next Sunday.
—Elena Park, SFGate.com (06/14/09)
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For a while there the Roots were the best-kept secret in live-band hip-hop, boasting jazz chops pushed by ultra-funky drummer
?uestlove and consciousness raps from MC Black Thought worthy of Chuck D. Now, pasty-faced dork Jimmy Fallon had to ruin everything
by hiring the Roots to be the house band for yet another late-night gab fest. We hope the Roots enjoy the bucks. The good news
is that they're still concertizing, and SFJazz had the good sense to hire them for its Spring Season. Their live shows are
anarchic, unpredictable, monstrous fun.
—David Rubien, SFGate.com (05/24/09)
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Born within months of each other, trumpeter Roy Hargrove and saxophonist James Carter are Universal Jazz labelmates,
but musically they're miles apart.
—Phil Freeman, SF Weekly (05/26/09)
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For a while there the Roots were the best-kept secret in live-band hip-hop, boasting jazz chops pushed by ultra-funky drummer
?uestlove and consciousness raps from MC Black Thought worthy of Chuck D. Now, pasty-faced dork Jimmy Fallon had to ruin everything
by hiring the Roots to be the house band for yet another late-night gab fest. We hope the Roots enjoy the bucks. The good news
is that they're still concertizing, and SFJazz had the good sense to hire them for its Spring Season. Their live shows are
anarchic, unpredictable, monstrous fun.
—David Rubien, SFGate.com (05/24/09)
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Chick Corea’s last piano-duets recording came in 1978, and he was joined by stalwart Herbie Hancock.
For Corea to team with Hiromi Uehara, a Japanese woman relatively unknown in the U.S., still in her
late 20s when this concert took place in Tokyo, sends a solid message that he wants her heard.
The album was a huge seller in Japan in 2007 and deserves a similar fate in the U.S.
—Jeff Tamarkin, JazzTimes (04/09)
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The pianist Kenny Barron has a brisk but unostentatious technique and a deceptively casual way with a phrase.
He conveys a number of things clearly in his playing; what comes across over all is the quiet hum of effortless
erudition. Within his playing you can hear a digest of mainstream jazz piano traditions, with bebop as the root.
You can also hear the measured tension of an expert nudging himself toward a challenge.
—The New York Times (01/18/07)
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- 7x7 Magazine
Watch as two of the swing era's greatest big bands duke it out in a '30s music battle presented by SFJAZZ.
The Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey orchestras come face to face playing classics like "In the Mood"
and "I'll Never Smile Again." Which side are you on?
—7x7 (05/18/09)
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Sunday @ Palace of Fine Arts Theatre: Even by the spectacular standards of 1959, a landmark year for modern jazz,
Charles Mingus was in prodigious form, recording three albums for the ages for three labels - "Mingus Ah Um"
(Columbia), "Blues and Roots" (Atlantic) and "Mingus in Wonderland" (Blue Note) - each of which featured riveting
solos by Oakland-raised altoist John Handy. Fifty years later, Handy makes a rare foray into the volatile bassist's
coruscating music with Mingus Dynasty, an all-star New York septet
—Kimberly Chun, Andrew Gilbert, Justin Gillett,Mosi Reeves, San Francisco Chronicle (04/30/06)
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Part Portuguese, part German, part Mozambican, she strides out with her corn-rowed hair and elongated face, looking a bit
extraterrestrial. Then, with the power of a Maria Callas, she sings fado, Portugal's Afro-influenced guitar-based folk form,
with desperate passion. The result: Your heart breaks in an instant. Not for nothing does Mariza create pandemonium.
This is one of the most anticipated shows in the SFJazz Spring Season.
—David Rubien, San Francisco Chronicle (04/26/06)
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In our conversations, Duke Ellington never called his music jazz. He opposed putting any music in categories.
So too did Charles Mingus, who said of his compositions and performances that they were—and still are—“Mingus music.
I’m trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it’s difficult is because I’m changing all the time.”
—Nat Hentoff, JazzTimes (12/08)
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Mariza, a rising international star who sings the traditional Portuguese style called fado, will perform Friday at Tilles Center.
Who is Mariza? Born in Mozambique, Mariza was raised in a traditional quarter of Lisbon, where she began singing fado at the age of
5 in her parents' taverna. After dabbling with popular styles, she cut a well-received album of fado songs in 2001 and never looked back.
Fado, she says, "was always my destiny." Today, she is one of the preeminent stars of world music, performing at the 2004 Athens
Olympics with Sting and at the 2002 World Cup.
—Marty Lipp, Newsday (02/25/06)
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MHonor the master: McCoy Tyner is coming through the area for three shows, so prepare to pay obeisance. If you are a jazz fan, then you already know how Tyner, over the course of five decades, has reinvented the very sound of the piano. If you simply would like to witness a legendary genius in action, then make a point of attending one of these shows. At age 70 and despite some health concerns, Tyner continues to deliver his ringing, earth-moving and overwhelmingly beautiful sounds. His music is a spiritual elevator: Step inside.
—Richard Scheinin, Mercury News (04/23/06)
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Hugh Masekela was one of South Africa's top jazz players when he packed his trumpet and left his homeland to go into
self-imposed exile to protest apartheid.
—J. Poet, East Bay Express (04/22/06)
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Hugh Masekela is the legendary South African musician whose songs were an inspiration in the fight to end apartheid.
He tells CNN about growing up under apartheid, why he left South Africa and what is was like to move back to Johannesburg
after 30 years away.
—Tony Wende, CNN (04/17/06)
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Hugh Masekela, the South African music legend, is celebrating his 70th birthday on 4 April. He will mark the occasion
by performing at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. The world-renowned trumpeter and flugel horn player is a
lot mellower these days. During a break from rehearsals in Johannesburg, he is in a contemplative mood. "I've been
calm for a while. I miss my temper, but it's gone," he says. "I'm still outraged by injustice. I always will be.
But I'm not wild. I'm not self-indulgent anymore. I live a very healthy life.
—Peter Biles, BBC (04/03/06)
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If Adam Theis were compressed into a pill we all could swallow, we'd suddenly see our ability to work expand in four
dimensions, allowing us to accomplish more than we ever dreamed possible. Theis, 34, not only leads or is integral
to about 10 bands, including the Shotgun Wedding Quintet, the Realistic Orchestra, the Jazz Mafia Trio and SpaceHeater,
but he also writes music and arranges for them, schedules rehearsals, hustles gigs and does the publicity. All of Theis'
activity falls under the rubric Jazz Mafia.
—David Rubien, San Francisco Chronicle (04/17/06)
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I can hear Chris Potter's sound even before he starts to improvise." These are the words of Ravi Coltrane,
Potter's fellow saxophonist and contemporary, in a November 2005 Blindfold Test for Downbeat. The track Coltrane
heard was "Sintra," from David Binney's 2004 release Welcome to Life (Mythology). Potter states the initial melody
in a calm yet resolute tenor voice--nothing fancy, just 10 or so legato notes, but enough for Coltrane to identify
him. This is perhaps the ultimate compliment for a saxophonist, who invests his very breath in the instrument and
strives for a personal tone above all else.
—David R. Adler, JazzTimes (03/06)
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Adam Theis hasn’t forgotten the early days, learning the art of live jazz in a downtown Santa Rosa sports bar-pool hall in the mid-’90s.
“We would play at Masse’s on Fifth Street. There’s no stage and we’re playing in this corner of a giant cavernous room,” he says.
“Looking back it was rough, but when we were doing it, we thought it was the best thing ever. We had regular gigs playing jazz.”
—John Beck, The Press Democrat (04/10/09)
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There couldn't possibly be a better band than Tinariwen playing at Coachella. The upcoming music festival's 100-degree heat?
No problem for a group of nomads who grew up in the Sahara surviving brutal conditions, crushing droughts, and widespread
dstarvation. How about the fest's famously hostile security guards?
—Dan Strachota, SF Weekly (04/10/09)
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Groove has always been an essential element for the jazz guitarist John Scofield, expressing itself in ways either
subtle or obvious, depending on the setting. “Piety Street” (Emarcy), released last week, falls in the obvious
category, with a fortunate twist: it’s Mr. Scofield’s old-time gospel album, recorded in New Orleans with a band
drawn mainly from that city’s robust R&B scene. It’s a basic concept, and it makes all kinds of sense.
—Nate Chinen, The New York Times (04/06/09)
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Nobody plays the blues quite like Ahmad Jamal. The old-school jazz pianist influenced many of his contemporaries,
including trumpeter Miles Davis. Jamal is a highly imaginative rhythm player. He knows how to change a melody in
subtle ways to make it more interesting.
—Rachel Swan, EastBayExpress.com (03/31/09)
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Kayhan Kalhor has spent much of his adult life introducing Western audiences to the seductive subtleties of Iranian music. An unsurpassed
master of the kamancheh, the ancient four-string Persian spiked violin, Kalhor is a founding member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble
and the driving force behind the esteemed groups Dastan, Ghazal and Masters of Persian Music.
—Andrew Gilbert, MercuryNews.com (03/27/09)
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From the moment that Joshua Redman made his debut on the national stage, his career has been inextricably linked with Branford Marsalis', and not just because they're two of the most visible and commanding tenor saxophonists playing today.
—Andrew Gilbert, MercuryNews.com (03/26/09)
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