SFJAZZ Offers an International Array of Jazz

What began in the early 1980s as a small gathering of jazz musicians to celebrate the local jazz scene has evolved into one of the leading jazz events on the West Coast: the annual four-week San Francisco Jazz Festival. Hardly your every-day kind of jazz festival, the annual fall event features a series of more than 30 jazz concerts that run from October 10 through November 21 at a variety of venues, featuring performances by jazz legends Ornette Coleman, Mark Murphy, Poncho Sanchez, Pat Martino, John Abercrombie and John Handy, who receives this year's SFJAZZ Beacon Award on Sunday, November 1 for a lifetime in music. "It's in trying times that music is most powerful," says festival director Randall Kline. "I find it very gratifying to see people continue to fill up the concert halls, applaud for audacious solos, sing along with inventive melodies and celebrate the gift of creation. "Much more than a series of concerts," adds Kline, "it is a celebration of the season and the transcendent vitality of music."

Over the years, SFJAZZ has been known for its unique musical and thematic presentations. This year's festival is no exception, with offerings that include the globe-spanning music of Gal Costa and Milton Nascimento (Brazil); Yasmin Levy (Israel); Sara Tavares (Portugal); Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Omar Sosa and Alfredo Rodríguez (Cuba); Giovanni Allevi and Patrizia Scascitelli (Italy); and Zakir Hussain, Ravi Shankar, and daughter Anoushka Shankar (India). Looking for something a little different? Check out tap dancer extraordinaire Savion Glover, a little "Backyard Alchemy" with Jesús Diaz, Scott Amendola & Jaz Sawyer, and some blues you can use with Keb' Mo', Solomon Burke, and the James Cotton "Superharp" Band with special guest Herbert Sumlin.

Also on tap for this year's fall concert season: the up-and-coming jazz bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding (who's making the rounds of the country's festivals this summer); a "Benny Goodman Centennial Salute" with the Eddie Daniels Quartet and Jim Rothermel's Jazztet; singer/songwriter Melody Gardot, Trio 3 (featuring Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille); and a "Meeting of the Minds" between tabla master Zakir Hussain, banjoist Bela Fleck and visionary bassist Edgar Meyer.
http://www.sfjazz.org/.
http://www.jazzwest.com/articles/sfjazz_fall_2009.html