Looking Ahead: Southwest Florida jazz preview (February and March)

The 2014-15 jazz concert season is running hot in Southwest Florida. Here is a rundown of noteworthy jazz events, principally in the Sarasota to Naples territory, in February and March.

Pat Martino

•  Wednesday, February 4 – Guitarist Pat Martino is the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra’s special guest. Daniels Pavilion, Naples. 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
• Monday, February 9, 2015 – Twin saxophonists Peter and Will Anderson are featured in the Charlotte County Jazz Society‘s Artists Series. Cultural Center of Charlotte County. 7 p.m.
• Thursday, February 12 – Trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa.
• Saturday, February 21 – 10^th annual Punta Gorda Wine & Jazz Festival, Laishley Park, Punta Gorda, 1-6 pm. Saxophonist Mindi Abair (back for her seventh consecutive year), guitarist Nick Colionne and saxophonist Dave Koz are featured at this smooth jazz event. The mainstream jazz portion of the weekend is at the Isles Yacht Club Sunday jazz brunch, which is sponsored by Presley Beane Financial Services. The brunch will feature drummer-singer Patricia Dean, trombonist Herb Bruce, pianist Jeff Phillips, bassist and guitarist Dave Trefethen, and trumpeter John DiPaola. All will mix it up in varied combinations between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
• Wednesday, February 25 – Singer Rene Marie. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa.
• Saturday, February 28 – Singer Giacomo Gates, South County Jazz Club concert series, Glenridge Performing Arts Center, Sarasota, 8 p.m.

• Sunday, March 1 to Saturday, March 7 – 35^th annual Sarasota Jazz Festival. The lineup includes pianist Dick Hyman, clarinetist Ken Peplowski, singers Freddy Cole, June Garber, Karla Harris, and Kitt Moran. Concerts are at the Riverview High School Performing Arts Center in Sarasota.
• Wednesday, March 4 – Saxophonist Jimmy Heath is the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra’s special guest. Daniels Pavilion, Naples. 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
• Sunday, March 8 – Trumpeter/sanger Bria Skonberg. South County Jazz Club concert series, Glenridge Performing Arts Center, Sarasota, 2 p.m.
•  Monday, March 9  – Trombonist Bill Allred’s Classic Jazz Band in concert, Charlotte County Jazz Society’s Artists Series. Cultural Center of Charlotte County. 7 p.m.
• Saturday, March 14 and Sunday, March 15  – Banjo player Cynthia Sayer. South County Jazz Club concert series, Glenridge Performing Arts Center, Sarasota. Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
• -Friday, March 20 – Singer Carla Cook with the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto Quintet. Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, Fort Myers.

Several local restaurants (including J.D.’s in Port Charlotte, The Orange House in Punta Gorda, The Roadhouse in Ft. Myers, and Alto in Naples) offer jazz steadily. Be sure to check the Alto and JD's websites for occasional guest headliners. A variety of matinee concerts sponsored all season by the Jazz Club of Sarasota and the South County Jazz Club also keep things swinging for jazz lovers.

Once again, the jazz is at the Sunday brunch

The Punta Gorda (FL) Chamber of Commerce has announced the dates and the lineup for the10th annual Punta Gorda Wine & Jazz Festival at Laishley Park, on the shore of the picturesque Peace River where it flows into Charlotte Harbor.

Sad to say, there is no jazz on the main stage for the main event on Saturday, February 21, 2015. The three acts are all from the smooth jazz (instrumental pop) genre.) They are saxophonists Mindi Abair (back for the seventh consecutive year) and Dave Koz, and guitarist-singer Nick Colionne, who sounds to me like a young, smooth George Benson without the latter's strong jazz chops.

For true jazz at the festival, we must once again turn to the Jazz Brunch at the nearby Isles Yacht Club on Sunday, February 22. Brunch producer Brian Presley has not yet announced the lineup of local mainstream jazz talent, but it is always a fine mix of Southwest Florida musicians. Presley's firm, Presley Beane Financial Services, sponsors the brunch. Presley has had minimal success through the years in getting jazz onto the main stage. I have no doubt he'll keep trying.

Aside from 2013, which included Sergio Mendes' band and a local mainstream jazz quintet, this festival keeps missing opportunities to share with its devoted main stage audience a richer, deeper, broader musical palette encompassing a variety of jazz genres. And that is a pity. It could be so much more.

Finding the jazz at a “jazz festival”

The cachet of jazz sometimes is stronger than the music itself. Madison Avenue continues to use bits and pieces for some of its commercials, and more than a few events across the country bill themselves as jazz festivals when nothing could be farther from the truth. A couple come to mind in the Mountain and Pacific time zones whose lineups are mostly R&B or pop stars with perhaps a bit of “smooth jazz” – a radio programming consultant’s term for contemporary instrumental music that raged across the country in the mid-1980s and well into the 1990s.

Digging into the jazz side of Raphael Ravenscroft

It’s one of rock and roll’s most distinctive and memorable saxophone riffs – ever. In fact, many would argue the sax work was primarily responsible for transforming Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” into a mega hit.

Rafferty and producer Hugh Murphy had considered a variety of instruments for the tune’s long instrumental break. Young U.K. saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft got the call and laid down the bluesy riff for what became the featured track on Rafferty’s 1978 album City to City.  

"Baker Street" catapaulted Ravenscroft's productive career as a respected studio musician, saxophone technique book author, composer and film music scorer. After the Baker Street success, he went on to be featured on recordings by Alvin Lee, Pink Floyd, Robert Plant, Marvin Gaye, ABBA, Kim Carnes, Mike Oldfield, Mary Hopkin, Bonnie Tyler, Roger Waters, Willie & The Poor Boys, and Phil Collins' Brand X, among others.

9th Wine & Jazz Festival schedule set

Gerald Albright

The main acts are nailed down for the ninth annual Punta Gorda Wine & Jazz Festival, which is scheduled February 20-22, 2014, with a main stage lineup of smooth jazz/instrumental pop saxophonists Mindi Abair, Richard Elliott and Gerald Albright, plus singer-guitarist Norman Brown.

Albright and Brown are the day’s closing act at Laishley Park along the picturesque Peace River / Charlotte Harbor waterfront. Punta Gorda Chamber of Commerce President John Wright says all four will perform together at the finale.

8th annual Punta Gorda Wine & Jazz Festival

Hot music overcomes chilly weather


Sergio Mendes

This year's Punta Gorda Wine & Jazz Festival was noteworthy for its musical additions, its loyal, enthusiastic and expanding audience, and the degree to which the music made everyone grin and bear unusually chilly and windy weather, and a passing shower. [You can read my full review at JazzTimes.com.]

One step at a time

Sérgio Mendes

The Punta Gorda Wine & Jazz Festival, a local Chamber of Commerce production with a loyal following from near and far, continues to evolve. This is a good thing.

Mixing wine and jazz – and sunshine

I spent much of President’s Day Weekend covering the seventh annual Punta Gorda (FL) Wine & Jazz Festival for JazzTimes.com. The main event at the city’s Laishley Park along picturesque Charlotte Harbor featured pop saxophonist Mindi Abair (pictured), guitarist Peter White and The Rippingtons.

The festival is evolving beyond a one-day event. This year, organizers added a Sunday program that featured a mainstream jazz brunch in the ballroom of the nearby Isles Yacht Club. It drew a full house of 250. May the festival continue to grow - and evolve.

In addition to jazz, the Saturday program at Laishley Park lets attendees enjoy a huge variety of wines and tapas-sized portions of food from several dizen restaurants. Those are included in the cost of a ticket. All you need to bring are sunblock and your listening ears.