Terence Blanchard, SFJAZZ’s executive artistic director, is thinking big.
Given the trumpeter’s track record — with scores for dozens of film and television productions, groundbreaking operas, and a thriving career as a jazz bandleader — his new vision for the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and SFJAZZ itself, bears close scrutiny.
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While the festival was the primary vehicle that turned SFJAZZ a powerhouse presenter in the 1990s, the advent of the SFJAZZ Center in 2013 relegated what was essentially a three-week concert series into something of an afterthought.
Despite the festival’s loss of impact amidst the torrent of regular programming at the venue, SFJAZZ left the format largely unchanged, until this year’s reinvention. Packing some three-dozen acts into a single weekend, June 13-15, the San Francisco Jazz Festival gets a whole new look with multiple stages at the SFJAZZ Center and an adjacent tent covering the parking lot at Franklin and Oak streets.
For Blanchard, a Crescent City native who takes the famously sprawling New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival as his aspirational model, the event should galvanize the city, while serving as a major cultural destination.
“Festival, just the word itself describes something more communal,” he said. “The entire neighborhood should be involved.” While giving props to SFJAZZ founder Randall Kline, “who did an amazing job building this place,” Blanchard said it was time to think outside the box. “We already do a bunch of shows in the building. We need to engage the community.”
The revamped festival is one piece of Blanchard’s vision for SFJAZZ’s expansion via a series of collaborations that extend its reach (and brand). The organization is partnering with San Jose Jazz at Summer Fest Aug. 8-10, programming the Montgomery Theater, the festival’s primary indoor venue. SFJAZZ is also presenting a fall concert series at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.
The San Francisco Jazz Festival itself is a rising tide that is elevating jazz programming across the region. Kuumbwa Jazz Center’s ’s June calendar is rife with acts in the area for the festival, starting with 87-year-old tenor sax star Charles Lloyd’s all-star Sky Quartet with pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Eric Harland, which headlines Friday’s roster (before playing Kuumbwa June 15).
Bass great Dave Holland, like Lloyd an NEA Jazz Master, is touring with Cuban piano maestro Gonzalo Rubalcaba, playing Kuumbwa June 14 and the San Francisco Jazz Festival June 15. And pianist Orrin Evans hits Kuumbwa with his trio June 13 before the group’s festival set June 14. Somi, a vocalist with roots in East Africa whose latest album celebrates the legacy of South African star Miriam Makeba, performs at the festival June 14 and Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society June 15.
SFJAZZ’s reach extends up to the 27th Healdsburg Jazz Festival, which opens Friday, with pianist and NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron’s trio featuring Oakland-reared drummer Savannah Harris and special guest vocalist Tyreek McDole (Healdsburg runs through June 22).
McDole has done two residencies at Black Cat in the Tenderloin, a venue that has introduced dozens of rising out-of-town artists to Bay Area audiences. But as only the second male artist to win the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal competition in 2023, he’s on a roll of high-profile appearances, bringing his own band to the San Francisco Jazz Festival on June 15 and Kuumbwa on June 16.
The timing is auspicious, as his just-released debut album “Open Up Your Senses” reveals an artist with supple rhythmic phrasing and sumptuously warm baritone applied to a book of tunes informed by his embracing spirituality.
“My debut album is my introduction to the world and I wanted to pick music that really inspired me,” said McDole, 25, a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory. “Whether it’s Pharoah Sanders’ ‘The Creator Has a Master Plan’ or the title track by Horace Silver, the content of each song is trying to say that all music is a spiritual thing.”
McDole is one of several rising artists well equipped to reach younger audiences. There’s pianist/keyboardist Jahari Stampley, charismatic Cuban vocalist Cimafunk, and Los Angeles trumpeter Tatiana Tate.
No one knows the challenges of building and sustaining an urban jazz festival better than Bruce Labadie, who’s booked San José Jazz’s Summer Fest from the beginning. Watching as SFJAZZ recalibrates its festival, he sees the new path as fraught with challenges.
“In the past they’ve just taken 11 days out of the season and declared it a festival,” he said. “Now it’s a real festival. But you have to be so committed and have the right strategy. There’s so much competition.”
Blanchard isn’t fazed by the obstacles. His abiding faith in power of jazz-steeped artists to reach beyond the music’s usual audience centers on musicians like veteran keyboardist and vocalist Patrice Rushen, who’s making her SFJAZZ debut presenting her own music after several appearances with bass star Christian McBride.
“People are sleeping on how much of a pioneer she’s been,” he said. “No other women was doing what she was doing in the ‘70s and ‘80s. She’s still a powerhouse and a great composer. She’ll have people moving.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at [email protected].
SAN FRANCISCO JAZZ FESTIVAL
When: 2-9 p.m. June 13; 1-10 p.m. June 14-15
Where: SFJAZZ Center, 201 Franklin St., San Francisco
Tickets: $50-$650; www.sfjazz.org
