featuring Dave Ellis

A benefit concert for the Healdsburg Jazz Festival

Date: Saturday, April 28, 2012
Time: two sets starting at 7:30  
Cost: $25.00
Location: Healdsburg Center for the Arts,
130 Plaza St  | Phone: 707-431-1970
Tickets: For sale online on this page or at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts during business hours (daily 11am – 5pm).
Advance purchase recommended due to limited seating.

On Saturday, April 28, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival will present the Dmitri Matheny Group with special guest Dave Ellis at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts gallery. This is the second in the 2012 concert series “Jazz in the Gallery”  co-sponsored by Healdsburg Center for the Arts to support and benefit the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Dmitri will have performing with him an outstanding group with Dave Ellis on tenor sax; Matt Clark on piano; Seward McCain on bass; and Deszon Claiborne on drums.

Celebrated for his warm tone, soaring lyricism and masterful technique, Dmitri Matheny has been lauded as “the first breakthrough flugelhornist since Chuck Mangione” (San Jose Mercury News). First introduced to jazz audiences in the 1990s as the protégé of Art Farmer, Matheny has matured into “one of the jazz world’s most talented horn players” (SF Chronicle). Matheny leads an all-star quintet in a performance of material from his nine critically acclaimed CDs, possibly including selections from his conceptual film noir-influenced “Crime Scenes,”a  program inspired by espionage and underworld movie music.

The Saturday night show at HCA will be torqued up a notch by the presence of Dave Ellis, the tenor  saxophonist whose emphatic attack has earned him California Music Awards and Jazziz Best New Talent status (along with Diana Krall, 1997). As legendary record producer Orrin Keepnews writes in his liner notes to “State of Mind,” the first new Ellis recording in five years, “even on the shifting and difficult terrain of early 21st century jazz, a talent as formidable as his should and will be recognized.”

Wine and desserts will be available for purchase before the performance and during the break. Showtime is 7:30; tickets available online on this page

Thursday, February 2

For the second year, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival will present a benefit dinner at not one, not two, but over a dozen local restaurants — with live jazz from your favorite musicians — all to benefit our Education Programs.

Tickets for the After-Party now available ONLY at the door! (Doors open 7 pm)

The Main Course…
Music and Menus to Benefit Jazz in the Schools

Enjoy live jazz with great food at 15 restaurants in the Healdsburg-Geyserville area during the 2^nd annual “Jazz on the Menu.”  Each restaurant will feature their signature dish and live music, and 25% of meal only proceeds go to HJF’s Music Education programs. See the complete list of participating restaurants and musicians below.

And for Dessert…
After-Party and Dessert Bar at Costeaux

Again this year. the After-Party at Costeaux Bakery will be the place to be, with swinging sounds from the SSU Faculty Jazz Ensemble, wine by the glass, and fab desserts at Tony Bennett’s favorite Healdsburg bakery! Personnel includes Doug Leibinger on trombone, George Marsh on drums, Randy Vincent on guitar, Cliff Hugo on bass and Kasey Knudsen on saxophone.

Opening the After-Party lineup will be the Healdsburg High School Jazz Band, always a treat for locals and visitors alike.

Tickets for the After-Party now available only at the door.  Be sure to get yours online or phone 433-4644, as last year’s After-Party was a huge success! Doors open at 7:00 pm, music starts at 7:30, and the fun continues until 10:30. Remember it’s at  Costeaux French Bakery and Cafe, 417 Healdsburg Ave.

Participating Restaurants and Musicians

Here’s the line-up for this year’s Jazz on the Menu.  Reservations are recommended. All restaurants in Healdsburg unless otherwise noted.  Roll over restaurant names for their websites.

Affronti
235 Healdsburg Ave., 431-1113
Bennett Roth-Newell and John Norris, piano and bass

Agave Mexican Restaurant
1063 Vine St., 433-2411
Trio Batacha with Joel Bennett, Sebastian Link and Niobel Cintra, piano, bass and percussion

Baci Café and Wine Bar
336 Healdsburg Ave., 433-8111
Carl Vast Quartet with Bill Fouty, Bob Drew and Jimmy Robinson, guitar, alto saxophone, bass and drums

Barndiva
231 Center St., 431-0100
Susan Sutton Trio with David DeMarche and Piro Patton, piano, bass and drums

Bistro Ralph
109 Plaza St.,  433-1380
Jim Adams and Tom Shader, guitar and bass

Catelli’s (Geyserville)
21047 Geyserville Ave., 857-3471
Jimmy DeMartini and Phillip VanGelder, guitar and bass

Charcuterie
335 Healdsburg Ave.,  431-7213
Chris Pimentel and Andrew Emer, guitar and bass

Diavola Pizzeria (Geyserville)
21021 Geyserville Ave.,  814-0111
Ian Scherer and Steve Froberg, guitar and bass

Dry Creek Kitchen (music from 6 – 10 pm) 
317 Healdsburg Ave. ,  431-0330
Lee Charlton Trio with Rob Wright and Gary Digman, plus special guest Gary Johnson, guitar, bass, drums with flute and saxophone

El Farolito
128 Plaza St.,   433-2807
Mad and Eddie Duran Trio with Robert Rangel, guitar, saxophone and percussion

Healdsburg Bar and Grill
245 Healdsburg Ave.,  433-3333
John Mihalik and Blue 7 Quintet, with Alec Ax, Dave Webster, Ron Masi and Claus Brigmann

Ravenous
420 Center St., 433-1302
Trevor Kinsel and Jay Mayer, Wurlitzer piano and bass

Sizzling Tandoor
1280 Healdsburg Ave.,   433-2954
Dick Conte and Steve Webber, piano and bass

Spoonbar
219 Healdsburg Ave.,   433-7222
Christian Foley-Beining Group with Todd Smith and Tom Hayashi, guitar, bass and drums

Zin Restaurant and Wine Bar
344 Center St.,   473-0946
Ricardo Peixoto and Carlos Oliveira, guitar duo

Journey into Jazz with Bennett Friedman

With its rich history, vivid personalities and exponential expansion of schools and styles, jazz can be an intimidating art form for curious but uninitiated music fans. Veteran saxophonist and esteemed educator Bennett Friedman teaches a free four-part course that demystifies jazz, offering an historical overview and musical insight into compositional forms, improvisation and the nature of jazz’s essential pulse, swing.

It’s the perfect introduction for casual listeners looking to understand how jazz works and how the music evolved throughout the 20th century.

The goal of this class is to make jazz music accessible so that anyone can relate to it. The classes will outline the history and introduce ways of listening to the music and the great artists that shaped the art form. By using recordings and live demonstrations this class will be an enjoyable journey into the world of jazz.

There will be four 2-hour classes, on consecutive Wednesdays from 6 – 8 pm. They will be held at the Healdsburg High School Band Room, on the HHS campus (1024 Prince St. at Powell Ave). Admission is FREE. If you plan on attending please RSVP to info@healdsburgjazzfestival.org

Class schedule is as follows:

June 22: Foundations
This class starts at the beginning, exploring jazz’s origins in the blues, funeral marches, and popular songs of the early 20th century. Friedman explores early jazz styles that develop in New Orleans and Chicago, and the emergence of the music’s most influential star, Louis Armstrong, who radically shifted jazz’s focus from group improvisation to a soloist’s art form. By close listening to classic recordings, Friedman illustrates what sets jazz apart, and how to follow an improvised solo.

June 29: Swing to Bop
By the end of the 1920s, jazz had already undergone a startlingly rapid evolution, from the group improvisation of traditional New Orleans ensembles to the rise of swing orchestras. Friedman focuses on the most influential jazz orchestras of the era, from Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington in the late 1920s to the rise of Count Basie and bluesy swagger of the Kansas City sound in the mid 1930s. By the end of the decade, the most advanced improvisers were paving the way for the rise of bebop, a style forged in small groups, mostly quartets, quintets and sextets, which replaced the jazz orchestra as the music’s fundamental setting.

July 6: The 1950s
In the years after World War II, the jazz scene became increasingly diverse, as various musical factions pursued their own concepts and developed new forms and instrumental settings. The regional divide between the East and West Coast is easy to overstate, but there was a loose association between cool jazz and California and hard bop and New York City. Friedman shows how Miles Davis complicates and exemplifies these stylistic developments.

July 13: Coltrane and Beyond
Jazz’s diversification gathered speed in the 1960s, as John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor introduced new approaches to improvisation (free jazz) in which swing, compositional structures and harmonic centers opened up. While free jazz’s foundational figures all came of age in the 1950s, the style became strongly associated with the raucous politics of the 1960s. Jazz’s most controversial movement, free jazz never attained mainstream status, though elements continue to influence today’s jazz scene.

About Bennett Friedman: A Berkeley native, Friedman has been performing, writing and teaching music in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1960′s. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and San Francisco State University, where he received a master’s degree in music (performance) in 1971, Friedman has performed with Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, The Temptations and Michael Jackson among many others. He directed the jazz ensembles at San Francisco State University for 8 years, and since 1977 has been a full-time instructor at SRJC teaching jazz courses and conducting the Santa Rosa Wind Symphony. 

“The Anatomy of Latin Jazz”

• Looking for “One Voice: June 4 at Jackson Theater”? Go here!
• Looking for “Latin Jazz in Concert: June 5 at Jackson Theater”? Go here!
  

  

  May 15, 2011 | 6 – 8pm
  Healdsburg Center for the Arts
  130 Plaza St., Healdsburg

  Tickets Now Available
  $15 General |  $10 for Students and Seniors (65+)

  What do Louie Armstrong, Bo Diddley, Walt Disney, Elvis Presley, and Bill Cosby have in common? They’ve all used Latin American musical elements in their work, thereby playing important roles in the ever-growing awareness of Latin American roots in U.S. pop culture.

  The parallel relationship and syncretization of Jazz and Latin American music provide a rich and fascinating perspective on this process. It’s all quite logical when you consider that the birthplace of Jazz — New Orleans – is a Caribbean port.

  This lecture by five-time Grammy nominee John Santos will include rare recordings from Mr. Santos’s legendary collection and discussion of the roots and relevance of Latino Caribbean music throughout the Americas. Bring all your questions, propositions, opinions, and open ears to this unique event.

  

First Lady supports jazz education

Jazz fan Michelle Obama

Jazz has a big fan in the White House — Michelle Obama. The First Lady proved her affection for and committment to what she called “America’s indigenous art form” (where have we heard that before?) by hosting a Jazz Studio at the White House on Monday, June 15, where she called jazz “America’s greatest artistic gift to the world.”

About 150 middle and high school jazz students performed at the gathering in the East Wing, after participating in jazz workshops led by jazz musicians such as the Marsalis family — pianist Ellis, trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Brandon, and drummer Jason Marsalis. The seminars focused on the influence American history had on jazz, improvisation through jazz styles, and the influence of Duke Ellington.

Wynton Marsalis leads a student jam

“Today’s event exemplifies what the White House, the people’s house, should be about. This is a place to honor America’s past, celebrate its present and create its future,” Obama said in a speech. “And what better example of this is than jazz, America’s indigenous art form.”

She continued, “There’s probably no better example of democracy than a jazz ensemble; individual freedom but with responsibility to the group.”

Many of Obama’s comments restated the goals of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival’s Education Program , long a key component of the organization’s committment to the community.

Read related story on the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

It’s here, at last: the place to order CDs by the many artists performing at the 11th annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Just add the music you want to enjoy at home, in your car or at a party with this secure Amazon e-store. Shop on, brothers and sisters!

Just follow this link to launch in a new window.

Brazilian guitarist, composer
Toninho Horta shares his music

Brazilian jazz great Toninho Horta

Where: Palette Art Café
235 Center Street (Behind La Crema tasting room)

Date: Monday,  June 1, 2009
Time: 3:30 – 5:30 pm
Tickets: Limited availability
$75.00

Experience a rare opportunity to learn from a great living master of Brazilian jazz, Toninho Horta. This is truly a very special educational event, a chance to meet and talk with Toninho about his way of playing, his style of improvising his compositions.

Vocalists are welcome, and other musicians can bring their instruments — guitars, flutes, harmonicas, horns, drums, whatever – to the class, as there may be a chance to play with Toninho at the end of the two-hour class.

Toninho will talk about his background; explain about his way of playing, his style of improvising and talk about his compositions. He will also review his guitar left and right hand techniques.

The Toninho Horta Trio with special guest Airto will headline the “Stars of Brazil” show on the previous day, so ears will be perked and blood will be primed among musicians for this master class.

Here’s what Pat Metheny has to say about Toninho Horta: “Through his work with Milton Nascimento, his own recordings and the cover versions of his tunes that have appeared on various albums throughout the past decade or so, Toninho has emerged as one of the most harmonically sophisticated and melodically satisfying Brazilian composers of recent times.

“Somehow, he writes chord progressions that defy gravity, moving up when you think they’re going down. His melodies stay with you for days; you’re sure you’ve heard them before, but they are brand new. And as an arranger, he’s a master, moving up when you think they’re going down. His melodies stay with you for days; you’re sure you’ve heard them before, but they are brand new.”  (For more, visit Toninho Horta’s MySpace page).

This two-hour class begins promptly at 3:30 at the Palette Art Café, with  a special lunch menu is available for class participants starting at 2:30.  The lunch special costs $15 and includes a sandwich of your choice: Turkey Club, Chicken Pesto or Veggie Club, a glass of wine, beer or soft drink, and a side of soup or salad.  (Please pre-order. We will contact you by email after registration about this option.)  Coffee drinks will be available as well.

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival is very fortunate to have Toninho Horta bring his music to town for the 11^th annual festival, and doubly fortunate that he is willing to share his knowledge and love of the music with us in this intimate setting. “I am looking forward to meet all friends together,” he tells us.

For more information phone (800) 838-3006 or email the Healdsburg Jazz Festival.

Mission Accomplished!

Today Operation Jazz Band finished their week in Healdsburg by playing in concert before all SIX fifth grade classes: Fitch Mountain Elementary, St. John School, Alexander Valley School, Geyserville School, Westside Elementary School, and Sonoma Country Day School! About 200 students in all filled the Raven Theater in Healdsburg to hear what Operation Jazz Band really sounded like.

During the past week Operation Jazz Band, led by Babatunde Lea, had broken down into the main sections of a jazz band: drums, rhythm, horns, and vocals. Those sections then visited all six schools to demonstrate their instruments, discuss the history of jazz, teach the different forms of jazz, and introduce the children to basic musical concepts. Criss-crossing the town every day, two teams of musicians in caravans dashed from one classroom to the next entertaining the kids and getting them introduced to their musical art form, the one true American musical art form: jazz.

This was the ninth year for Operation Jazz Band, sponsored by the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. This year Operation Jazz Band members were:

• Babatunde Lea: band leader, drums, and percussion
• Clairdee: vocals
• Ken French: piano accompanist
• Dave Bass: piano
• Gary Brown: acoustic bass
• Angela Wellman: trombone
• Khalil Shaheed: trumpet
• Richard Howell: saxophone

As mentioned, the musicians took to the stage as a full band all together to play for the children. The kids, having become acquainted with the musicians in the intimate settings of their classrooms, greeted them as they took to the stage with screams and raucous applause akin to the screaming teen girls meeting The Beatles at JFK!

All week long the musicians prepped the kids to not only listen to jazz, but to participate as well. Babatunde Lea took to the stage with his call-and-response chant in Yoruba (from Nigeria, and presented phonetically):

“Ah-go ee-lay ah-go! Ah-go ee-lay ah-go! Ah-go ee-lay ah-go YA! Ah-go ee-lay ah-go YA”

… all the while keeping the beat on a shekere. Then the band launched into an vibrant take on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Birk’s Works”:

Then the band brought the lovely Clairdee onstage to the roars from the kids, and she cooled the children down a notch with a wonderful version of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”:

Highlights for the kids include audience participation; Dave Bass had taught the kids Ray Charles’ version of “Hit The Road Jack”, with boys and girls singing the parts appropriately! Clairdee got the whole audience singing “Let The Good Times Roll”, and then brought up a select group to join her in free-form scat:

With our culture in full gear to the future, our children often do not get introduced and familiar with so much of our cultural history such as art, music, and literature. Mainstream media focuses on the here and now, with radio pretty much focusing on the hear and now. Many kids only know about jazz as background music for car commercials or guys in Ray-Bans and berets. Operation Jazz Band is unique to Healdsburg, and to-date thousands of kids have been introduced to the musicians who perform jazz for a living, hear jazz from swing to Afro-Cuban to bebop, and come to understand that it is part of their musical heritage that they can embrace and enjoy.

Next Friday is the 11th Annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival Gala Dinner, Dance, and Auction at the Vintners Inn in Santa Rosa. This annual Gala raises money to fund Operation Jazz Band and other jazz education programs sponsored by the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Please come, enjoy a wonderful dinner, dance to great jazz, and bid high and often – knowing your dollars will help our children know and appreciate jazz.

James Moody Quartet

James Moody

featuring special guest

Marlena Shaw

Location: Rodney Strong Vineyards
11455 Old Redwood Highway, Healdsburg

Date: Sunday, June 7
Time: 3 pm (gates open at 2 pm)
Tickets: $45

MC: Greg Bridges
General Outdoor seating on the lawn. Low chairs allowed. Umbrellas permitted along the back fence only. Children 10 and under are free.

“Moody plays with all types of soul, and his music is optimistic music, infectious” — Wynton Marsalis

James Moody is America’s irrepressible ambassador of swing, an NEA Jazz Master whose career stretches back to the advent of bebop when he made his recording debut with Dizzy Gillespie in 1946.

A muscular tenor saxophonist and pioneering flutist with a ravishing tone, Moody is also a delightfully effective singer whose vocalese version of his jukebox hit “Moody’s Mood For Love” is a bona fide classic. At 85, he’s an ageless jazz legend playing with as much brawn and wit as ever, a masterly showman and improviser who combines a wicked sense of humor with a profound improvisational concept.

Marlena Shaw (Allen Mercer Photographer)

In an historic pairing, Moody is joined by the indomitable jazz chanteuse Marlena Shaw. The first female vocalist ever signed by the storied Blue Note label, she’s won a new generation of fans through the widespread sampling of her classic tracks by contemporary R&B and hip hop artists looking for an instant infusion of soul.

While Shaw has sung everything from R&B and rock to disco and gospel, her rhythmic sophistication and salty blues feeling unmistakably distinguish her as jazz royalty, a title conferred by giants with whom she’s toured and recorded, such as Ray Brown, Benny Carter and Joe Williams.

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Richard Howell Quintet

“Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane, Charles Lloyd and Ernie
Watts. . . Richard brings all of that and more.” — Babatunde Lea

Richard Howell (Photo by Francois La Forgia)

Tenor saxophonist/vocalist Richard Howell calls the Bay Area home, but he’s been a leading light on the international scene for decades. A riveting improviser who is also a prolific producer and respected educator, he’s worked and recorded with leading figures in rock, pop, blues and jazz, from Etta James, Chaka Khan and Cecil Taylor to Charlie Haden, Willie Bobo, and Pete Escovedo. Locally he’s been an essential member of the cross-cultural  Mo’Rockin Project and drummer Babatunde Lea’s spiritually charged combo.

It’s hardly surprising that Howell’s at the center of a combustible quintet featuring drummer E.W. Wainwright, bassist Gary Brown, pianist Frederick Harris and Destiny Muhammad on harp and vocals. The ensemble exemplifies the exuberant cultural heritage and spontaneous creativity of jazz. Balancing tradition and innovation, the band explores accessible melodies and grooves while offering spiritual tribute to the great artists who came before.

» Visit Richard Howell’s website

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Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir

Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir

Under the direction of Terrance Kelly

Location: Raven Performing Arts Theater
115 North Street

Date: Sunday, June 7
Time: 10 am to noon
Tickets: $25

“These people love to sing and it shows” — San Francisco Chronicle

Since time immemorial, humans have raised their voices in praise and song. The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (OIGC) brings a bracing jolt of energy to age-old spirituals and gospel standards, creating music that’s steeped in tradition but utterly contemporary.

Some 50 voices strong, the OIGC is a beloved Bay Area institution that has been raising roofs, stirring souls and inspiring uninhibited hand clapping for more than two decades. Founded in 1986, the OIGC boasts an impressive book of arrangements by Emmy-winning artistic director Terrance Kelly, son of the late, beloved jazz pianist Ed Kelly.

Multi-racial and multicultural, the Choir expresses the power and spirit of African-American gospel music through its soaring vocal harmonies and rousing rhythms. The Choir’s timeless message of faith, hope, love and joy has attracted some of the world’s greatest artists, leading to collaborations with Five Blind Boys of Alabama, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Stan Getz, Jeffrey Osborne, Peter Gabriel and Carlos Santana. The Choir has spread the g ood news through international performances, while also appearing on Grammy-winning albums by Linda Ronstadt, MC Hammer and Tramaine Hawkins. Join us for a very special and moving morning in the historic Raven Theater with the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir.

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