SUMMER Sizing up FEST
How to get the most out of San Jose Jazz’s big show.
Alot has changed since the fledgling San Jose Jazz Society successfully launched Summer Fest on a shoestring budget in August 1990 (including the organization’s name, which is now San Jose Jazz, or SJZ). With a population of less than 800,000, San Jose itself was an aspiring city anxiously assessing the impact of declining military spending on Silicon Valley after the Cold War. The looming recession made it an inauspicious time to plan an ambitious new cultural event, but San Jose Repertory
Co. founder Jim Reber thought the moment was ripe to create a musical companion to the San Jose New World Festival (now the July 4 San Jose America Festival). He approached Jazz Society founder Sammy Cohn, who brought in Mountain Winery booker Bruce Labadie to line up talent for what was originally called the San Jose Jazz Festival, which was slated to take place in the San Jose Convention Center. Looking back at Summer Fest’s birth three decades later, what’s most striking is how many decisions the team got right. Instead of holding it in a cavernous hall, they moved the free two-day event outside to the Plaza de Cesar Chavez and presented a stylistically encompassing array of heavy
weight talent, including vibraphone legend Bobby Hutcherson, Brazilian percussionist Airto and vocalist Flora Purim, and trumpeter-percussionist Jerry Gonzalez and his groundbreaking Latin jazz band Fort Apache. From the first year, Latin music was baked into the mix. They also decided to offer a ticketed VIP section for festival supporters, which helped offset the free admission policy. Labadie financed the undertaking on his credit cards and was mightily relieved when more than 10,000 people came out for the event, which ended up in the black. Summer Fest has expanded greatly since then, with stages dedicated to salsa and gospel, blues and swing, big bands and student ensembles. One of the nation’s premier jazz events, it long ago went from free to ticketed. But with a basic general admission price of $20/$25 ($5 for children ages 5-12), the festival is one of the Bay Area’s prime entertainment bargains. In a region with no shortage of world-class jazz festivals, Summer Fest stands out with its musical diversity and headspinning programmatic density. The 30th edition of Summer Fest offers the most generous helping of talent yet. Winnowing down the offerings to 10 recommendations was excruciating, but that’s why journalists get the big bucks. Find the full lineup at summerfest.sanjosejazz.org.
SJZ COLLECTIVE >> Launched last year with a repertoire of creatively reimagined Thelonious Monk compositions and a bevy of international gigs, the SJZ Collective returns to tackle the rambunctious music of bass legend Charles Mingus. Featuring a multigenerational cast spearheaded by drummer Wally Schnalle with veteran trumpeter John Worley Jr., bassist Saúl Sierra, organist Brian Ho, saxophonist Oscar Pangilinan and guitarist Hristo Vitchev, the group also performs at Art Boutiki on Aug. 31 to support an extensive Asian tour later this year. 6:30 p.m. Aug. 9, Adobe Silicon Valley Stage. MARQUIS HILL BLACKTET >> Since winning the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition, the Chicago-reared Marquis Hill has honed a spacious group sound drawing on hard bop and hip-hop. Featuring rising drum star Jonathan Pinson and vibraphonist Joel Ross, the pianoless quintet is a sleek and subtly grooving unit. 8:30 p.m. Aug. 9, Heritage Bank Cafe Stritch Stage. (The Blacktet also performs Aug. 8 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz.)
SAMMY MILLER AND THE CONGREGATION >> As the band’s name implies, drummer Sammy Miller’s Congregation evokes the raucous, celebratory cadences of a Pentecostal service. With Santa Cruz-raised tenor saxophonist Ben Flocks, trumpeter Alphonso Horne and trombonist Sam Crittenden, the seven-piece combo delivers a syncopated sonic punch packed with joy. 11 p.m. Aug. 9, Heritage Bank Cafe Stritch Stage, and 1 p.m. Aug. 10, Blues/Big Easy Stage.
SYLVIA CUENCA QUARTET WITH JON GORDON >> San Jose-reared drummer Sylvia Cuenca has been thriving on the New York scene for some three decades, and on her frequent Bay Area return trips, she usually travels with top-shelf Gotham players. For this gig, she’s joined by bassist Essiet Okon Essiet, who put in a seminal stint in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and alto saxophonist Jon Gordon, a fleet and fiery improviser too rarely heard in the Bay Area. Sacramento pianist Joe Gilman rounds out the band. 2:30 p.m. Aug. 10, Heritage Bank Cafe Stritch Stage.
RICHARD HOWELL PLAYS “A LOVE SUPREME” >> There’s hardly another saxophonist on the West Coast better equipped to scale the heights of “A Love Supreme” than Richard Howell, a veteran improviser who brings a huge, pliable sound, boundless energy and probing imagination to John Coltrane’s spiritually charged masterpiece. His young quartet includes his son, rising drummer Elé Howell, bassist Nick Panoutsos and pianist Ian McArdle. 3 p.m. Aug. 10, Adobe Silicon Valley Stage.
ARSENIO RODRIGUEZ PROJECT >> Cuban composer and tres master Arsenio Rodriguez was a foundational figure in son and mambo who reshaped the Havana music scene in the 1940s. By the time he died in Los Angeles in 1970, his star had faded, and this excellent nine-piece L.A. combo is working hard to ensure that the maestro gets his due. 4:30 p.m. Aug. 10, Salsa Stage.
FRED HERSCH >> There are few experiences in jazz more rapturous and transporting than a solo recital by pianist Fred Hersch. A profound influence on former students such as Brad Mehldau, Jason Moran and Ethan Iverson, Hersch combines steely intelligence with exquisite lyricism and uncanny rhythmic ingenuity. 5 p.m. Aug. 10, Hammer Theatre Stage.
JACKIE GAGE TRIBUTE TO NANCY WILSON >> San Jose native Jackie Gage has been making her way on the New York scene in recent years, and on every return home, she seems to have grown exponentially. Accompanied by pianist “Orange Julius” Rodriguez, she pays tribute to the late, supremely stylish song stylist Nancy Wilson, digging into a repertoire laden with tunes ideally suited for an incisive storyteller 10 p.m. Aug. 10, Heritage Bank Cafe Stritch (They also perform Sunday at San Francisco’s Black Cat.)
VERONICA SWIFT FEATURING THE EMMET COHEN TRIO >> The child of jazz royalty, vocalist Veronica Swift is a prodigy who is emerging as a full-grown master at the age of 25 with the upcoming release of her major label debut, “Confessions” (Mack Avenue). Half the album features her with the Benny Green Trio, while on the other equally impressive half, she’s backed by 29-year-old pianist Emmet Cohen’s trio, who join her at the festival. 5 p.m. Aug. 11, Hammer Theatre Stage.
ELIO VILLAFRANCA’S CINQUE >> Inspired by the feats of Joseph Cinque, who led the 1839 revolt by enslaved Mende people on the Spanish slave ship La Amistad, Cuban pianist-composer Elio Villafranca presents music from his Grammy Award-nominated double album “Cinque,” a five-part suite exploring the distinctive and shared cultural (and rhythmic) currents connecting Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. His all-star band features saxophonists Vincent Herring and Greg Tardy, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, trombonist Steve Turre, drummer Lewis Nash and percussionist Arturo Stable. 7 p.m. Aug. 11, Hammer Theatre Stage.