The 12th
Annual Portland Jazz Festival Presented by Alaska Airlines is set to commence
Wednesday, February 18 through Sunday, March 1 with a record number of 30
headline concerts at venues throughout the Portland metro region. The festival
was co-founded in 2004 with Travel Portland to establish a cultural tourism
initiative in the metro Portland area, and to celebrate Black History Month
through education and outreach programming.
[Photo Top: Christian McBride, Lucky Peterson; Bottom: Kurt Elling, Nicholas Payton]
This
year's 12-day celebration will also boast the first annual Jazz Forward
Competition, a high school competition drawing students from throughout the
western region. In partnership with Portland State University, the JFC was
created to establish a scholarship program in the tradition of other
prestigious regional events held in Reno, Nevada, Monterey, California and
Moscow, Idaho. Finalists will compete in five categories, with the winners receiving
main stage exposure.
An
astounding array of nine singers will headline shows throughout the festival.
Kurt Elling and the Art Abrams Big Band are paying tribute to the seminal early
'60s period that focused on three Sinatra/Basie collaborations in a For
Portland Only program, which features original arrangements by Quincy Jones,
titled Elling Swings Sinatra. Bay Area singer Jackie Ryan debuts in honor of
2015 Portland Jazz Master, Wayne Thompson. This special program will highlight
the music of Michel Legrand with music director Randy Porter.
Bebel
Gilberto, the daughter of the legendary Joao Gilberto appears for the first
time since 2010 in support of her latest album, Tudo. Karla Harris, a Portland
favorite, will join Luis Conte to cook with the Bobby Torres Full Ensemble; and
Joe McBride makes his debut festival appearance digging Ray Charles with the
Mel Brown B-3 Organ Band. NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan debuts, joined by her
longstanding bassist Cameron Brown. Becca Stevens, who is breaking out all over
the New York region, and making her Portland debut, will hit three ways -
she'll accompany Taylor Eigsti, perform in solo, and cover the captivating
music of Laura Nyro.
Label
sponsor Mack Avenue Records recently released albums from two stunning
vocalists who are set to perform. Vocalist Freda Payne will make her Portland
debut with the Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group, and offer up a sultry mix of jazz and
R&B, all the while recalling her Motown roots, while label-mate Cyrille
Aimée returns to PDX with an expanded ensemble since performing her Django to
Jobim tribute in 2012. Adrien Moignard and Guilherme Monteiro, two French
guitarists in the style of Reinhardt, will also join Aimée.
Moignard
and Monteiro aren't the only guitarists slated to perform. Joel Harrison debuts
at the festival with his long anticipated Free Country Ensemble (their 2002
release featured Norah Jones), while Russell Malone will back the legendary Ron
Carter. Portland's Dan Balmer and John Stowell revisit the subtle genius of Jim
Hall, and Balmer will also join Trio Subtonic and Frank Catalano. Julian Lage
brings in jazz heavyweights Scott Colley and Eric Harland in an exciting new
trio, and legendary blues guitarist Lucky Peterson will conclude the festival
with what is guaranteed to be a smokin' affair.
Three
soulful saxophonists, Von Freeman, Eddie Harris and Gene Ammons, will be fondly
remembered on Blowin' in From Chicago: For Vonski, Jug and Eddie Who? Frank
Catalano, who holds court weekly at the famed Green Mill, will be joined by
native Chicagoans Clark Sommers and Mike Raynor with B-3 and piano support from
George Colligan and guitarist Dan Balmer.
A
handful of celebrated piano trios are scheduled to perform: Bill Charlap makes
his first festival appearance since 2009, and also celebrates Sinatra on, In
the Wee Small Hours, a For Portland Only instrumental program with the focus on
Sinatra's early to mid and late '50s Capitol Records material; he'll be
accompanied by Peter and Kenny Washington. Benny Green, who last appeared in
2004 as a sideman on a tribute to Ray Brown, will feature his long standing
trio; while ECM artist Vijay Iyer debuts his classic trio with Stephan Crumb
and Marcus Gilmore. Taylor Eigsti will make his festival debut in three diverse
settings: solo piano, trio with Becca Stevens, and the Free Country Ensemble.
Classic Pianos will boast five intimate shows: Eigsti, Stevens, Marc Cary's For
the Love of Abbey, former Kurt Elling Music Director Laurence Hobgood, and
Portland's number one piano son, Tony Pacini.
"There's
a wealth of critically acclaimed artists in Portland, and what better way to
showcase them than in the Festival," states Managing Director Don Lucoff.
"Just on the headline shows alone, not counting the free gigs around town,
we'll have over 50 Portland musicians playing in leader and sideman
roles." Bobby Torres, Mel Brown and Hailey Niswanger will lead their
respective bands at Jimmy Mak's, the venerable jazz club that is home base to
PDX Jazz where upwards of 15 shows a year are presented outside the annual
Festival.
Two new
initiatives put the spotlight on local artists: The NYC to PDX Project, an
assembly of transplanted New Yorkers, directed by Darrell Grant, playing in a
manner of configurations not seen before in PDX; and Young Lions Revisited,
co-led by Chris Brown and Devin Phillips welcoming an original young lion,
Ralph Bowen and special guest Kamasi Washington (a Billy Higgins World Stage
disciple and Gerald Wilson Big Band alumni). The Portland Jazz Composers
Ensemble Showcase also returns with three bands in support of new albums under
the direction of Ryan Meagher.
Ron
Carter
Additional
headline shows at P5 (Newmark and Winningstad Theatres) pair Lou Donaldson, who
last appeared at the festival in 2009, and Grammy® Award-winning bassist
Christian McBride, who is making his trio debut with American Pianists
Association Cole Porter Fellow, finalist Christian Sands and Ulysses Owens, Jr.
Billy Childs, the longtime pianist for Freddie Hubbard and Chris Botti,
introduces a bold project: Mapping the Treasure: A Tribute to Laura Nyro.
Appearing on the same show is adventuresome trumpeter, pianist, and vocalist
Nicholas Payton with Bill Stewart and Vicente Archer. Lee Konitz makes his
festival debut with Dan Tepfer, Alan Jones, and Tom Wakeling, and the iconic
Ron Carter will make a rare Portland appearance on a double bill with Benny
Green to conclude the festivities at the Newmark Theatre.
Lucoff
concludes, "This year's line-up will certainly appeal to a broad
demographic of music fans with an ample amount of free music all over the
Portland metro area. We are presenting music for the first time in the First
Congregational Church and return to the Aladdin Theatre and The Old Church. We
look forward to nine exciting shows at Jimmy Mak's, the most we have ever
produced during the Festival, our ongoing programming at Classic Pianos, and
the Newmark and Winningstad Theatre shows complimented by free Jazz Conversations,
music in the Art Bar Atrium of P5, and various hotels throughout the downtown
corridor."
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