SFJazz to open season of stars, 400 shows
SFJazz commences its 201920 season this month with four nights of piano legend Ahmad Jamal at SFJazz Center’s Robert N. Miner Auditorium and vocal rising star Veronica Swift in the venue’s clublike Joe Henderson Lab. By the time its eighth season concludes in May, with four nights of fado giant Mariza and the East Bay groove unit Atta Kid (May 2831), the nonprofit organization will have presented more than 400 shows.
Highlights of the season include four live filmscore performances: GoGo Penguin is scheduled to play Philip Glass’ score for “Koyaanisqatsi” (Oct. 12), while pipe organist Dorothy Papadakos is slated to accompany the 1922 silent film “Nosferatu” on Halloween at Grace Cathedral.
Pianist Jason Moran is expected to recreate his own score for Ava DuVernay’s “Sel
ma” with guitarist Marvin Sewell, conductor Sarah Hicks and the newly formed San Francisco Philharmonia for two nights in spring (May 2122 for SFJazz members only), and guitar maverick Marc Ribot is on the bill to perform a solo live score for the short films of Jennifer Reeves on May 17. Rock & Roll and Blues halls of fame member Mavis Staples is slated to be honored at the 2020 SFJazz Gala at Miner on Jan. 30 before headlining the same bandstand on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
To keep the female power going strong, the allwomen, allstar Artemis sextet — with tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Anat Cohen and trumpeter on the front line and pianist/SFJazz Collective cofounder Renee Rosnes in the rhythm section — is scheduled to headline a hefty bill April 1012.
But before the season kicks into high gear, it all starts with a membersonly Opening Night on Thursday, Sept. 5, and an Opening Weekend extravaganza that runs from Friday to Sunday, Sept. 68.
Ahmad Jamal Quartet and Veronica Swift with the Emmet Cohen Trio
Pianist supreme Ahmad Jamal, a National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master and a 2017 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, headlined nearby Davies Symphony Hall when SFJazz presented his quartet in 2013 and again last summer. The idea of downsizing — rightsizing, some might say — to the more intimate confines of SFJazz Center’s Miner Auditorium came from the maestro himself.
A pioneer of the piano trio as an interactive team and of restrained playing, the 89yearold Pittsburgh native wasn’t playing many concerts when he was last booked to perform at Davies. So he set up a couple of rehearsal sessions in Miner beforehand, said Randall Kline, SFJazz founder and executive director.
”He said to me something along the lines of, ‘I loved the SFJazz hall, and when I come back (to San Francisco) I want to play there,’ ” Kline recalls, with a chuckle. “Not only did he love how it sounded, but he loved what it represented.”
As in previous opening weeks where talent such as guitarist Julian Lage (2016) and the duo of keyboardistproducer Taylor McFerrin and drummer Marcus Gilmore (2018) were booked in Joe Henderson Lab, the next generation of jazz artists will be well represented there by the dynamic vocalist Veronica Swift, who is scheduled to perform with pianist Emmet Cohen’s Trio.
“Veronica is an exceptional talent — very precocious,” says Kline about the second place winner of the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Vocals Competition. “She’s still in her mid20s, but she sounds like she’s been doing this way longer. And Emmet is a rising star in his own right.”
Ahmad Jamal Quartet: 7:30 p.m. ThursdaySaturday, Sept. 57; 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8; $35$125. Robert Miner Auditorium. Veronica Swift with Emmet Cohen’s Trio: 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., ThursdaySaturday, Sept. 57; 6 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8. $35$45. Joe Henderson Lab.
ECM 50th anniversary week
In past years there have been two previous weeks of shows at the SFJazz Center dedicated to artists on the famed German jazz label, which is celebrating its 50th year.
In honor of its golden anniversary, SFJazz is presenting its artists in both Miner and the Joe Henderson Lab for the first time. The Oct. 25 Miner show is a double bill of bands led by two notable trumpeters — Wadada Leo Smith’s Golden Quintet and former SFJazz Collective member Avishai Cohen’s quartet.
Shai Maestro Trio: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Oct. 24. $25. Joe Henderson Lab. Tigran Hamasyan with Areni Agbabian: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 $35$75. Robert Miner Auditorium. Larry Grenadier: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Oct. 25. $30. Joe Henderson Lab.
Avishai Cohen Quartet and Wadada Leo Smith Golden Quintet: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25. $25$55. Robert Miner Auditorium. Peter Erskine: 7 and 8:30 p.m. Oct. 26. $30. Joe Henderson Lab.
Vijay Iyer Trio: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26. $40$105. Robert Miner Auditorium. Ralph Alessi’s “This Against That”: 6 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27. Joe Henderson Lab. Egberto Gismonti: 7 p.m. Oct. 27. $30$85. Robert Miner Auditorium.
National Endowment for the Arts week
Since 1982, the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded as many as seven musicians and advocates the title of Jazz Master. For the first time since it was produced in Los Angeles in 2005, the corresponding Jazz Masters Tribute Concert will be held in California when SFJazz presents the special show on April 2.
“The NEA put out a national call for proposals, and we applied and were chosen,” Kline says. “We’re quite honored, needless to say.”
2020 Jazz Masters Tribute Concert: 7:30 p.m. April 2. Tickets available in February. Robert Miner Auditorium. Jason Marsalis: BGQ Ex
ploration: 7 and 8:30 p.m. April 34; 6 and 7:30 p.m. April 5. $30$35. Joe Henderson Lab. Eddie Palmieri Sextet: 7:30 p.m. April 3. $40$80. Robert Miner Auditorium. Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya: 7:30 p.m. April 4. $40$80. Robert Miner Auditorium. Benny Golson Quartet: 7 p.m. April 5. $25$45. Robert Miner Auditorium.