CDs of Note…

Roy Hargrove Big Band, Emergence (Groovin’ High/Emarcy)
Trumpeter Hargrove has dipped his horn, and his creative prowess, into a lot of musical pies over the past 20 years, including his hard-bop quintet, his Afro-Cuban Chrisol collaboration with Chucho Valdes, his funk- and hip-hop-oriented RH Factor, and various big band projects including a stint as featured soloist with Slide Hampton’s Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band. Now he’s out with his own dream contemporary big band project. There’s not a dud in this mightily swinging project that covers multiple styles with the robust support of the 19-piece group. Highlights - his delicate reading and reworking of “My Funny Valentine” on flugelhorn, the Afro-Cuban sizzler “Mambo For Roy” and “Tchpiso.” Hargrove adds a rare vocal on “September in the Rain” and labelmate Roberta Gambarini joins the project on two tracks, Everytime We Say Goodbye” and “La Puerta.” This an August 25 release.

Simon Fisk Trio, Unless (Plunge/Warner)
More often than not, the combination of piano, bass and drums is described as a piano trio. The piano generally feels like the principal instrument, no matter that the leader and musical architect on this project is the bassist. This is Simon Fisk’s fifth CD as a leader, and it is a gem from the Calgary-based western Canada native. It is filled with breathtaking beauty and introspective improvisation, the result being a contemporary “piano trio” recording containing a blend of soft and hard-edged, rock-influenced elements that draw from Keith Jarrett (Fisk has been mentored by longtime Jarrett bandmate Gary Peacock), E.S.T. and others. Pianist Chris Gestrin and drummer Jerry Granelli contribute mightily to the project as empathetic partners on this mix of originals, free-wheeling improvisations and two standards: Nat Adderley’s “Old Country” and the ballad “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”

Edmar Castaneda, Entra Cuerdas (artistShare)
At a JVC Newport Jazz Festival appearance by Paquito D’Rivera’s PanAmerican big band a few years ago, the leader followed Edmar Castaneda’s spotlight solo by telling the crowd “I don’t know why I invite him. He always steals the show.” The diminutive, joyful musician is a blazing-speed master of the Colombian harp, a smaller-than-usual cousin of the concert harp. Personal favorites here: the title track “Entra Cuerdas “(Between the Strings), “Song of Hope,” “Colombian Dixie” and “Afro Seis.” At several points, the CD is also a marvel of melodic doubling and/or tripling and interplay with trombonist Marshall Gilkes and vibes player Joe Locke. It is also an excellent showcase for Gilkes, a Castaneda bandmate who is one of the more creative and daring young trombonists. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of obscure instruments, give Castaneda’s long-overdue project a listen. He likely will turn you into a fan of his spellbinding playing.

Health Care rescues Wein's revived operation

Yes, there is life for George Wein's New Festival Productions operation beyond his commitment to stage both jazz and folk festivals this August 7-9 in Newport, where it all began.

Wein and CEO David Schlotterbeck of CareFusion announced today that the health-care corporation will be the title sponsor for George Wein's Jazz Festival 55 in Newport next month and will also sponsor a festival that Wein will produce in New York City next June.

As Wein explains it: "The magic is still with us. Over the decades, sponsors have always found us....We were going forward in producing the jazz festival in Newport without a sponsor; but when we got the call from CareFusion, this guaranteed that our work of 55 years in Newport would continue. New Yorkers and jazz fans around the world will be pleased to know that CareFusion will make it possible for jazz to once again take over the city in June. We are looking forward to creating an exciting and innovative 2010 CareFusion New York Jazz Festival to add to the important New York cultural scene."

Wein and his team have done a masterful job in resurrecting their operation after the rather apparent financial demise of Festival Network LLC, the upstart firm that bought his original Festival Productions Inc. in January 2009, Over the past year , Festival Network ran itself into the ground with overambition and overspending at the worst possible time.

The new Wein sponsor, picking up at least part of where JVC left off this year, is involved in a worldwide program to associate itself with jazz festivals in Newport, Chicago, Monterey, Manly (Australia), Paris and New York As part of its new Festival Series, CareFusion will broadcast live to hospitals the performances of select festival artists.

San Diego-based CareFusion is a global provider of product and services to improve the productivity and safety of health care. The wholly owned subsidiary of Cardinal Health is expected to become a public company from the planned spinoff of Cardinal Health's clinical and medical products businesses.

The CareFusion Jazz Festival Series also includes:
CareFusion Chicago Jazz Festival, September 4 - 6, 2009
CareFusion Presents Dizzy's Den at the Monterey Jazz Festival, September 18 - 20, 2009
CareFusion Manly Jazz Festival (Australia), October 3 - 5, 2009
CareFusion Paris Jazz Festival, October 16 - 24, 2009
CareFusion New York Jazz Festival, June 2010 (exact dates TBD)

Economic domino effect on jazz is troubling

These are indeed troubling times for the general economy – and the spillover to the jazz world was inevitable. Just as some companies and some parts of the economy seem to be doing OK, or at least surviving, others are folding or in danger of disappearing.

I took no pleasure in reporting (see my December 31, 2008 post) the earliest word about the apparent demise of Festival Network LLC. And now fellow blogger and jazz journalism colleague Howard Mandel has reported troubling news about the ill state of health of JazzTimes.

There is a spinoff economic effect at work here – since JT seems to have been quite dependent on the revenue it received by producing and publishing JVC festival supplements in three of its issues each summer. With JVC’s festival sponsorships down the tubes, it had to hurt deeply. Read Howard’s perceptive take on it in several posts he filed this week at his blog, Jazz Beyond Jazz. This is extremely painful. I have had a relationship with JT since the early 1980s (back when founder Ira Sabin produced it tabloid newsprint style) as a writer and photographer, and still do the occasional review for its Web site. I hope someone indeed steps in to ensure its survival because of its prominent stature in the jazz community.

These turns are troubling, as were some of the perspectives in West Coast saxophonist Mel Martin’s latest Jazz and Saxophone Newsletter. Mel reported that he “played the last night at Jazz at Pearl's (in San Francisco) while they were hauling out the coffee machine and the paintings on the walls. The Jazz and Blues Store in Carmel has folded, the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles is closed at the end of May and may relocate in Santa Monica.”

Struggles go on everywhere, yet there have been some glimmers of hope. George Wein, who sold his Festival Productions Inc. organization to Festival Network two and one-half years ago only to see the new owners run its operations into the ground by overspending and expanding at the worst possible time, found a way to continue jazz and folk festivals under his own name in Newport this summer despite uncertain sponsorship.

A few other former Wein-affiliated festivals continue to operate. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, produced by Wein associate Quint Davis, never was a part of the Festival Network deal. Two other festivals that were part of the FN operation in 2007 and ’08 – Freihofer’s Jazz Festival in Saratoga NY and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, saw those contracts expire. Two other longtime Wein affiliates – Dan Melnick and Darlene Chan – now produce them (Melnick has Saratoga, Chan has Playboy).

The Montreal International Jazz Festival is preparing to celebrate its 30th annual event – expanding and vibrant despite this being the last year of title sponsorship by General Motors.

On the positive side of the California jazz club scene, Andrew Gilbert reported in the San Jose Mercury News that Yoshi’s jazz club recently ended an experiment with other forms of booking and returned with a solid lineup of stellar jazz bookings, particularly at the new San Francisco venue, in addition to its Oakland location.

Newport lives

George Wein wasn't about to let Festival Network LLC's financial woes put an end to the two festivals in Newport, Rhode Island that launched his 55-year run of producing festivals across the United States and around the globe. (See December 31 blog entry for background.)

While it is unclear what will happen to the rest of the festival events that Wein produced before he sold his Festival Productions Inc. operations to a group of investors and young entrepreneurs two years ago, including the JVC Jazz Festivals in New York and elsewhere, Wein had some welcome news today.

He announced that he applied for – and received – a license from the State of Rhode Island to produce a folk festival this July 31 to August 2 and a jazz festival the following weekend, August 7 to 9. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Newport Folk Festival, and it is 55 years since the jazz festival concept blossomed in Newport in 1954.

The license to put on these two 2009 events going to the Wein production team is not surprising, considering that Festival Network, as of late January, hadn't paid the state the thousands of dollars in usage fees it was due from the 2008 festivals at Fort Adams State Park last August. Other vendors from those weekends were also owed money. Festival Network did pay the $200,000+ owed to the state - due since August - sometime in February. The state subsequently voided its three-year contract with FN because of the late payment. That gave Wein the opportunity to step back into the picture.

"When I was informed that the festivals, which have been the most important part of my life since 1954 and 1959, might be lost forever, I realized that it was necessary for me to come back and apply for the rights to produce jazz and folk festivals in 2009 and beyond," Wein said in a news release. “The traditions we have established (in Newport) mean everything to me."

If you read between the lines, and not very deeply, it sounds like Festival Network has a slim-to-none chance of righting its ship – and slim stayed in port.

Wein and his veteran team are among the best at producing festivals. After all, they pretty much created the mold. It’s a pity that the Festival Network LLC team never took the opportunity to learn from the masters. Rather, they ran the operation into the ground – and doubtless created angst and heartache for this true gentleman of jazz. Fortunately, he persevered.

Stay tuned. We still haven’t heard what may become of the other festivals that became part of the Festival Network LLC operation.

A month of Marco, sort of

Keyboard player Marco Benevento is on the cutting edge of blending modern and classic rock with the art of jazz improvisation, often in an other-worldly sonic atmosphere. The intensity, gorgeous musical palette and his vivid imagination make it something to check out.

Bay Area fans are getting a month (sort of) to do so in a live context, with Benevento performing at Yoshi’s in Oakland, Calif., every Tuesday in February with a different set of special guests each week.

Those of us not on the Left Coast don't need to feel slighted. Benevento’s newest CD Me Not Me is out on his own new label, The Royal Potato Family. In addition to three originals, it includes covers of material ranging from Deerhoof, My Morning Jacket and Leonard Cohen to Beck, George Harrison and Led Zeppelin. His band includes ex-Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey bassist Reed Mathis, and Andrew Barr and Matt Chamberlain splitting the drum work. Benevento’s sonic arsenal includes piano, Optigan, Mellotron, tack piano and clavinet.

Benevento played a packed side stage at last August’s JVC Newport Jazz Festival, where saxophonist Chris Potter joined the trio for its rousing take on Led Zeppelin’s “Friends” and it is good to see that tune is superbly included here, albeit without sax. Chris Potter sits in with the Marco Benevento Trio, JVC Newport, August 2008 ... >
Me Not Me opens with Jim James’ My Morning Jacket hit “Golden.” As the CD features Leonard Cohen’s “Seems So Long Ago Nancy,” it isn’t surprising to hear Benevento dropping a few most-memorable bars of Cohen’s anthemic “Hallelujah” into his take on “Golden.”

The leader’s own material includes “Now They’re Writing Music,” a rather straight-ahead version of his catchy tune “Mephisto,” and his Beatles-reminiscent “Call Home.”

And what of the music festival scene, Newport and beyond?

Will there be jazz and folk festivals in Newport next summer, and JVC Jazz Festivals elsewhere in the world? If so, who will be producing them? Those are valid questions these days. Questions without firm answers as of this writing.

Dave Brubeck & George Wein, backstage 2006

Two years ago, festival impresario George Wein sold his very successful Festival Productions Inc. to a newcomer on the entertainment scene, Festival Network LLC, for a handsome sum. The new company, which hired Wein and some of his longtime staff as contract employees, had a greater mission beyond merely running the eight JVC-sponsored festivals across the U.S. and around the world and other FPI staples, including the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles.

The new mission was to also create a series of “destination festivals” in exotic resort locations to lure large numbers of music fans to places like Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod or the mountain resort town of Whistler, British Columbia. The theory being – if we build it, they will come. Festival Network also invested in enhanced equipment and amenities for the existing festivals, including the place where Wein started it all in 1954 with the Newport Jazz Festival in coastal Rhode Island.

In the overall scheme of things, spending money willy-nilly on frills in venues new and old, and ignoring the sage advice of Wein’s lower-level staff may have backfired. The high overhead, higher expectations, ever-increasing talent costs and modest-at-best turnouts at its ”destination” events, proved costly in more ways than one.

At the end of 2008, word was out that Festival Network had closed its New York office, either furloughed or laid off employees, and had terminated the contracts of its “contract employees.” Some Newport vendors reported they still are awaiting payment for festival services provided last August. Word was also out that Festival Network’s executives were trying to raise more capital for the company by reaching out to new investors.

What a challenge, given that initial investors may not be thrilled the way their money seemed to go out the door the way water flows down the gutters in a rainstorm. If Festival Network can save itself, it needs to do soon despite the mess in the world economy. It likely will have to scale back on the newer festivals and stick with the tried-and-true festivals that enjoy corporate sponsorship, such as the JVC events in New York, Newport, Los Angeles and Concord, Calif., Chicago, Miami, Paris and The Netherlands (home of the North Sea Jazz Festival), as well as The Newport Folk Festival, which ran in extravagant fashion in 2008 without having a title sponsor.

If Festival Network cannot save itself, one has to believe that George Wein, now 83, will find a way to marshal his loyalists, regain key festival ownership rights, and do his darnedest to make sure the major festivals continue to operate. It is difficult to think otherwise. Music festivals have been in his blood since 1954. Besides, the Newport Folk Festival began in 1959… and there is a 50th anniversary that is ripe for celebration this coming August.