Healdsburg Jazz Festival

Khalil Shaheed

Oaktown Jazz Workshop

Each year, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival brings Khalil Shaheed and the Oaktown Jazz Workshop to work with Healdsburg High School jazz players on musicianship and improvisation. The Oaktown Jazz Workshop musicians are the elite of Bay Area jazz musicians, coming here each year because they believe in the festival’s mission to support and educate young jazz players.

A significant aspect of the Oaktown experience is the one-on-one mentoring that Healdsburg High students receive from professional musicians. For a young jazz musician, this is the real deal! In addition, Shaheed and HHS music teacher Randy Masselink will prepare the students for the June 4 Healdsburg Jazz Festival concert at the Raven Theater.

“Every year these workshops give our kids the unique chance to work with musicians who are out there working professionally,” says Masselink. “These are experiences that are invaluable as a teaching and motivational tools, and they also allow the kids to meet these people personally and get to know them in a much more realistic way than just watching them perform somewhere.”

Masselink adds: “The musicians have so much good advice, and are typically great role models for the kids, so the workshops become highlights of the school year. These are experiences that really stick with the kids and mean something to them.”

Performances/lectures for middle school and high school assemblies
These events showcase professional musicians who connect with students on many levels. Combining stellar musicianship and engaging storytelling, the musicians have introduced local students to jazz history, jazz styles, the connection between jazz and blues, and much more. Performers have included Ed Kelly, Charlie Musselwhite, Julian Lage, John Santos, Richard Howell, Babatunde Lea, Khalil Shaheed, and Angela Wellman.

Jazz Festival Musicians in the Schools
To augment our efforts to foster appreciation of the jazz art form among young people, Healdsburg Jazz Festival headliners often arrive prior to the festival, or stay a few days after, to visit and perform in local schools. Past participants include Billy Higgins, Charles Lloyd, Delfeayo Marsalis, John Abercrombie, Julian Lage, Chico Freeman, Billy Hart, Herlan Riley, George Coleman, and Harold Mabern.