10th Anniversary / 10th Annual 2008 Healdsburg Jazz Festival!
Festival
Program available for download
WOW! The 10th Annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival was
May 30 - June 8, 2008! We celebrated a decade of great jazz with
a fantastic line-up of new and familiar names for this 10th Annual /
10th Anniversary Healdsburg Jazz Festival, including Charles Lloyd,
Zakir Hussein, Cedar Walton, Charlie Haden, Billy Hart, Joshua Redmond,
George Cables, Julian Lage, Pete Escovedo, Eddie Palmieri ... and so
many more! Ten great days of jazz to celebrate ten great years of jazz
in Healdsburg.
Many thanks to our sponsors (see below), patrons, and
members for supporting the Festival, the army of volunteers who pull
it all together, and - most of all - you, the fans and Festival attendees
that love and appreciate this extraordinary music and the incredible
musicians that performed!
Please come and enjoy the live music that happens all
year 'round here in Healdsburg at the Palette Art Café and the Hotel
Healdsburg, as well as our many special events.
Festival
Opening Night
Friday,
May 30
Fred Hersch Trio
John Hebert and Nasheet
Waits
with special guest Kurt Elling
Location: Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School,
4400 Day School Place, Santa Rosa (off Airport Blvd.)
A highly sympathetic accompanist, Fred Hersch has recorded
albums backing vocalists Leny Andrade, Jeri Brown, Chris Connor, Janis
Siegel as well as renowned operatic divas Renee Fleming and Dawn Upshaw.
But it was the voice of one particular singer he had in mind as he composed
his most ambitious project, a suite inspired by Walt Whitman's Leaves
of Grass. Though they had never worked together, Hersch conceived
of his evening-length project as a perfect vehicle for vocalist
Kurt Elling, the most flamboyantly creative male jazz
singer to emerge in the past 15 years. It wasn't just that the Chicago-based
baritone is a poetry fanatic and accomplished lyricist. Hersch knew
that Elling has the presence to deliver Whitman's most ecstatic verse
and the chops to handle his hybrid composition, which flows from jazz
to Coplandesque soundscapes to sensuous word painting. "I pretty much
had Kurt Elling in mind from the very beginning," says Hersch, who documented
Leaves of Grass on Palmetto in 2005. "I really respect his
musicianship."
Hersch hasn't had many opportunities to collaborate with Elling since
the Leaves project, which makes this performance particularly
welcome. The singer appears as a special guest with Hersch's trio featuring
Louisiana-raised bassist John Hebert (pronounced A-bear)
and the extraordinary drummer Nasheet Waits, a long-time
Hersch associate showcased on several of the pianist's recent Palmetto
albums, including last year's outstanding trio session Night and
the Music.
Saturday,
May 31
An Evening with Charles Lloyd in Quartet and Trio Forms:
Charles Lloyd Quartet with Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, and Eric Harland
Charles Lloyd's Sangam Trio with Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland
Location: Jackson Theater at Sonoma Country Day School,
4400 Day School Place, Santa Rosa (off Airport Blvd.)
The Memphis-born tenor saxophonist, Charles Lloyd,
attained rock star status in the mid 1960s at the Monterey Jazz Festival
with his first great band, which was powered by the protean trap set
genius Jack DeJohnette. After a decade-long hiatus, Lloyd resurfaced
in the 1980s backed by a stellar constellation of European musicians
and American master Billy Hart. It was another Billy, the late, beloved
Mr. Higgins, who lifted Lloyd's 1990s combos into the creative stratosphere.
Charles Lloyd's exceptional new ECM album Rabo de Nube showcases
the latest version of Lloyd's ensemble with Eric Harland,
bassist Reuben Rogers and the insistently exploratory
pianist Jason Moran. While many of his contemporaries
glean concepts and harmonic vocabulary from 1960s piano icons Herbie
Hancock, Chick Corea, and Keith Jarrett, Moran has sought out alternate
paths forged by knotty player/composers Jaki Byard, Muhal Richard Abrams,
Andrew Hill and multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers.
At
the heart of Lloyd's music is his electric connection with Harland.
The musical relationship between them has entered such a rarified realm
that the saxophonist has also enlisted him in his expansive Sangam Trio
with Bay Area-based tabla master Zakir Hussain. "It's
amazing to hear the two of them together!," Lloyd wrote in a recent
email exchange. "I am sure that Master Higgins sent Eric to me." For
Harland, the opportunity to play with Lloyd has been a process of constant
discovery. "Everything is invited," Harland says. "Charles doesn't push
for a specific sound. He trusts the fact that the music will bring the
best out of everyone."
Lloyd has certainly provided a perfect improvisational platform for
Zakir Hussain, an artist whose musical contributions are impossible
to overstate. As the scion of a tabla dynasty headed by his late father,
the revered tabla guru Alla Rakha, Hussain has continued his father's
mission, tearing down musical boundaries while upholding the highest
standards of North Indian, Hindustani classical music. As a composer
of scores for films by Ismail Merchant and Bernardo Bertolucci, as a
tireless promoter of India's musical riches through his Masters of Percussion
tours, and as a cross-cultural musical explorer, Hussain is a well-traveled
one-man bridge between East and West.
Latin Jazz On The Green
Sunday,
June 1
Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Sextet
Brian Lynch, Conrad
Herwig, Jose Claussell, "Little Johnny" Rivero, and Luques Curtis
Pete Escovedo Ensemble
Roger Glenn, Murray
Low, Curtis Ohlson, and Paul Van Wageningen
with special guest John Santos
plus Salsa Lessons
with Antonio and Irene of Santa Rosa Salsa!
Location: Recreation Park in
Healdsburg - located at Piper and University Streets
Could there be a better setting to experience Latin music than an afternoon
concert in the park? Whatever time of day Eddie Palmieri
takes the stage, it's a safe bet that there will be plenty of heat.
At 71, Latin jazz's foremost composer is still a vital, commanding figure
with nine Grammys under his belt, most recently for his 2007 collaboration
with trumpeter Brian Lynch,
Simpatico. For more than five
decades, he has served as a tireless ambassador for Latin music, first
as a sideman in top dance orchestras, and then as the leader of the
innovative ensemble dubbed La Perfecta, a landmark conjunto with a distinctive
flute and trombone instrumentation that transformed Palmieri from a
respected accompanist into Latin music's vanguard standard bearer.
Pete
Escovedo may be living down in L.A. these days, but he left
his heart in the Bay Area, and the region continues to return his affections
tenfold. The Latin jazz percussionist has been a Northern California
institution since the late 1950s, when he performed widely with his
younger siblings, bassist Phil and drummer Coke in the Escovedo Brothers,
a pioneering Bay Area Latin jazz combo. From his work in the groundbreaking
Latin rock bands Santana and Azteca through his decades leading his
own popular Latin jazz orchestra, Escovedo has played a central role
on the West Coast music scene as a sideman, bandleader, and savvy talent
scout.
Sunday, June
1
Jazz Night at the Movies
with Mark Cantor
Location: Raven Film Center,
415 Center Street, Healdsburg
Film historian and archivist Mark Cantor possesses
one of the most comprehensive collections of American popular music
on film, with a particular focus on jazz. Returning to Healdsburg he'll
bring whatever juicy new footage he comes up with before the Festival,
and some of his long-standing favorites – rarities from New Orleans
and Chicago styles to swing and bebop, and some modern surprises too.
Monday,
June 2
"Bug Music for Juniors"
A Concert for Families with Don Byron Sextet
Ron Miles,
Robert DeBellis, George Colligan, Mark Helias, and Billy Hart
Location: Raven Theater, 115
North Street, Healdsburg
This event will bring the jazz experience to children and their families
across Sonoma County by presenting Don Byron's
Bug Music for Juniors. Bug Music for Juniors is for families
with children 7 and over - and for the kid in all of us. Fun-filled
and fascinating program unites live jazz, classic cartoons, and historic
film footage in a one-of-a-kind exploration of the Swing Era. Part concert,
part demonstration, part Q&A, and 100% pleasure, Bug Music for Juniors
is jazz education at its most entertaining and exciting.
Monday, June
2
Bop n' Shop
Location: Around Healdsburg Plaza, Downtown Healdsburg
Healdsburg will really be jumping on Monday, June 2, for the first ever
Bop 'n Shop. In conjunction with the 10th anniversary
of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, many stores in and around the Downtown
Plaza will be open from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Store windows will be
decorated in jazz themes by local artists and store owners, and many
merchants will serve wine and refreshments. Seven jazz bands will play
at various locations throughout downtown. During Jazz Festival week,
local restaurants will be featuring special menu items and creative
beverages attuned to the jazz theme. Participating restaurants include
Barn Diva, Bistro Ralph, Cena Luna, Charcuterie, Charlie Palmer's Dry
Creek Kitchen, Healdsburg Bar & Grill, Palette Art Cafe, Ravenous, Ravenette,
Scopa, Willi's Seafood, and Zin.
Bop 'n Shop bands include: In Black, Blue Seven,
Peter Van Gelder Quartet, Oat Valley Jazz Band,
Russian River Ramblers, Cannonball Horns,
and The Healdsburg High School Jazz Band Combo.
A special Bop 'n Shop, event not to be missed is a reception at the
Dovetail Collection, for luthier Tom Ribbecke, internationally known
for his handcrafted guitars, some of which will be on display.
Many Healdsburg merchants have made voluntary contributions to Bop 'n
Shop because all such money goes directly to support the Jazz Festival's
music education programs in the local elementary, junior and high schools.
So come to Healdsburg on June 2, for Bop 'n Shop to hear great music,
enjoy good food and drink and support an event which helps deliver the
gift of jazz music to the schools!
Monday, June
2
Jazz & Wine Dinner at the Dry Creek Kitchen
Lee Charlton Trio
Greg Hester
and Steve Webber
Location:
Dry Creek Kitchen, 317 Center St., Healdsburg
The Jazz and Wine Dinner Series returns to Dry Creek Kitchen along with
the cuisine from Charlie Palmer. Drummer Lee
Charlton is a well-traveled player whose credits include recordings
with pianists Ellis Marsalis and Vince Guaraldi, and master singer/songwriters
Mose Allison and Van Morrison. The long-time Bay Area resident performs
with his stylish trio featuring pianist Greg Hester
and bassist Steve Webber.
Concert,
Dance, and Party
Tuesday, June 3
Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Ensemble
David Belove,
Murray Low, Michael Spiro, Paul Van Wageningen, and special guest Melecio
Magdaluyo
Pre-concert performance by Tacuma King
and the Children's Percussion Workshop
Location: Healdsburg Plaza,
Downtown Healdsburg
The Healdsburg summer tradition, Tuesdays in the Park, again
starts with the "next generation" of jazz percussionists from local
schools under Tacuma King's inspirational leadership. Then the
concert and dance begins with the extraordinary Latin sounds of the
Wayne Wallace Ensemble.
Wayne Wallace is the kind of musician who rarely calls
attention to himself, while contributing to everyone else's albums and
projects. With credits that range from the Count Basie Orchestra and
Benny Carter Big Band to Sonny Rollins and Earl "Fatha" Hines, Wallace
has performed with many of the most significant musicians of the past
century. And his work is hardly confined to the realm of jazz. He's
also recorded with the likes of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Earth,
Wind and Fire. As both an improviser with a huge, beautifully burnished
sound and a dependably creative arranger, Wallace has also been an essential
element in several of the region's best Latin bands, including Pete
Escovedo, John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Conjunto Cespedes, and
Jesus Diaz y Su QBA. For his Healdsburg performance, Wallace has distilled
his working band into an all-star sextet steeped in Afro-Caribbean grooves,
featuring the Bay Area's first-call Latin jazz players, including pianist
Murray Low, bassist David Belove,
percussionist Michael Spiro, drummer Paul Van
Wageningen, and special guest Melecio Magdaluyo
on reeds.
Tuesday,
June 3
Angela Wellman Quintet featuring Lori Wellman
Location: Palette
Art Café, 235 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg
Kansas City-native Angela Wellman is a commanding trombonist
with a big, rounded tone who has performed with jazz greats such as
McCoy Tyner and Joe Williams as well as fellow "bone" authorities Al
Grey and Slide Hampton. The long-time Oakland resident performs with
her quintet featuring her sister, Lori Wellman, a gifted
singer who got her start sharing stages with Angela when they were kids
growing up in a highly musical family. An esteemed music educator with
a Masters Degree from the Eastman School of Music, Angela Wellman is
the founder and director of the innovative Oakland Public Conservatory
of Music.
Wednesday,
June 4
Healdsburg High School Jazz Band – Past and Present
With Sarah Wilson’s Trapeze Project with Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg,
and Matt Wilson
Location: Raven Theater, 115
North Street, Healdsburg
Tonight's program showcases the musicians from the Healdsburg
High School Jazz Band, featuring members past and present,
including illustrious alumnus Sarah Wilson. The evening
opens with a group performance by jazz band alumni, followed by the
current HHS Jazz Band performing three pieces conducted by Randy
Masselink and Khalil Shaheed. For their finale,
the HHS Jazz Band performs "Ricochet," a piece by Sarah Wilson, a trumpeter
and vocalist who graduated from Healdsburg High School and the HHS Jazz
Band in 1986, and has gone on to become a successful jazz musician and
composer. Wilson closes the evening playing music from her Trapeze Project
featuring a breathtaking ensemble of musicians who are all esteemed
bandleaders and composers, including pianist Myra Melford,
clarinetist Ben Goldberg, drummer Matt Wilson
and bassist/guitarist Jerome Harris. No doubt about
it, Wilson knows how to come home in style.
Wednesday,
June 4
Herb Gibson Quartet
Location:
Palette Art Café,
235 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg
Veteran vibraphonist Herb Gibson has been an important
figure on the Bay Area scene for decades, approaching his instrument
with a strong feel for the blues and a command of the bebop idiom. Also
an effective vocalist, Gibson is well known in wine country through
his long-running weekend gig at Brannan's Grill in Calistoga. Though
he recorded his first album late in life in 1995, he's made up for lost
time. His latest CD, Blue Vibes,
features piano legend Cedar Walton and charismatic bluesman Keb' Mo',
Gibson's first cousin.
Thursday,
June 5
Marc Cary's Focus Trio
David Ewell
and Sameer[...]
