Looking at the festival's Main Stage line up, the jazz content is decidedly hit or miss. But wander away from Plaza de Cesar Chavez to the Tech Museum's IMAX Theater, the San Jose Rep, or the Almaden Walkway, and it's a safe bet you'll catch some world-class improvisers.
Running Friday through Sunday, the San Jose Jazz Festival has reached a creative crossroads in its 19th season. The event is well established as one of the West Coast's top 10 jazz events, ranking behind only Vancouver, Healdsburg, San Francisco, Stanford, Monterey and Seattle's Earshot Jazz Festival when it comes to programming breadth and depth. Even having doubled admission this year from $5 to $10 a day (or $25 for a three- day pass, with kids 12 and under free), San Jose is by far the least expensive of the leading festivals.
Besides great entertainment value, what sets San Jose apart from the West Coast's other signature jazz events is a stylistically expansive mission that embraces blues, R&B and salsa. And more than any other jazz festival in the West, it puts a consistent spotlight on Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian jazz, reflecting the region's love affair with grooves from Havana and Rio de Janeiro.
The question raised by the Main Stage lineup goes to the heart of the festival's identity, as the acts showcased on Plaza de Cesar Chavez define the event for many festival-goers who settle in and spend most of the day camped there. Rather than sending the audience home with a glimpse of jazz's possibilities, the Main Stage's three closing acts include Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, an entertaining jump blues band; David Sanborn, one of the most influential R&B alto saxophonists of the past 30 years; and The Manhattan Transfer, a polished vocal ensemble that's a decade past its creative prime.
One could easily name a dozen internationally recognized jazz artists with broad appeal better suited for marquee Main Stage slots, from Dianne Reeves and Dee Dee Bridgewater to Terence Blanchard, John Handy or Kenny Barron. Geoff Roach, the executive director of San Jose Jazz, the non-profit organization that produces the festival, notes that the Main Stage is a more appropriate venue for high volume, high energy acts rather than quieter acoustic combos, and he has a point.
“If you just look at the Main Stage and say here's what the festival is about, you're missing most of the festival," Roach says. “One of the things we've learned is that certain acts belong on certain stages. You wouldn't put a chamber music ensemble in a football stadium. We're presenting more intimate acts and straight ahead bands in the Rep. We're using the IMAX Theatre for the Smith Dobson Stage, because those bands need a quieter and more intimate space."
And to be fair, there are some exceptional jazz artists featured on the Main Stage.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
