Ten Reasons to Attend the Healdsburg Jazz Festival
With the Healdsburg Jazz Festival just a week away, don’t think we’re running out of reasons to join us! Local talent, intimate settings, historic venues and the return of old friends – these are a few of the reasons to show up this year for the 12th annual festival. And as always, supporting jazz education remains a key priority for the friends, fans and supporters of the festival year round. (Follow this link to see all our past Reasons to Attend.)
Reason # 4: Cross-cultural interaction
But behind most of these reasons the core element of our Mission Statement, found in the right column of every page on our website.
“The Healdsburg Jazz Festival stimulates interest in and promotes awareness and appreciation of jazz by facilitating cross-cultural interaction, providing performance opportunities, and educating young people and adults about the important role of jazz as an indigenous American art form.”
Jazz is by its nature multi-racial, ethnically mixed, trans-generational. It’s an American art form, as we like to say, and America is a nothing if not a musical melting pot.
As far back as 2001 we featured a Latin Jazz Concert, when Pete Escovedo headlined at Rodney Strong. Babatunde Lea, Khalil Shaheed, Tacuma King and others, and Charles Lloyd and percussionist Zakir Hassain brought African and Indian flavors to the jazz stew.
New Orleans was represented in 2007, the year after Katrina, with our first “day on the green” at Rec Park, starring Delfeayo Marsalis and the Rebirth Brass Band, among others. And Brazil – home of the samba, of choro, and of Bossa Nova, has been represented throughout, an undercurrent of sultry polyrhythm flowing strong through the Festival History.
Sunday, June 6: Once again the Stars of Brazil shine all afternoon at Rec Park, with another amazing cross-cultural journey to the land of Bossa Nova. The seductive combination of jazz and samba was born more than 50 years on the streets of Rio de Janeiro’s southside, and we are again proud to present some of the pioneers of the sound alongside its newest interpreters. Oscar Castro-Neves, who was on stage with other Brazilian stars at the seminal Carnegie Hall Bossa Nova concert in 1962, brings a band of all-stars to town, following the Leny Andrade – Romero Lubambo Duo, plus the return of Claudia Vellela (left) to Healdsburg, with Brasilia to start the show.
Healdsburg’s Recreation Park opens at noon, and the music runs from 12:30 to 6:30, with music, wine and beer – and plenty of time to groove, chat and interact with other cross-cultural festival-goers. Get your tickets now to avoid the line of last-minute shoppers queuing up at the gate. ( Note: Although there is parking at Rec Park, it’s very limited, and the park is in a residential area so parking may be difficult if you show up late. But it’s within walking distance of downtown, and car-pooling remains a sound way to enjoy the Festival.)
Tuesday, June 8: There’s live music in the Healdsburg Plaza every Tuesday in summer, and the second Tuesday in June is reserved for Jazz Festival. This year the Latin Youth Jazz Ensemble of San Francisco puts on a lively summer sunset show (6 – 8 pm), presenting and preserving the traditions of Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban music.
Sunday, June 13: Speaking of Afro-Cuban, one of the stars of our Keepers of the Flame concert at Rodney Strong is the Cuban-bornpercussion whiz Dafnis Prieto (right) and the Si o Si Quartet, featuring reedman Peter Apfelbaum. Another native Cuban is in the band, too, with Manuel Valera on piano. The signature rhythms of Cuba – Cha-cha-chá, Rhumba, Son and of course Salsa – infuse jazz music today, compelling evidence of the musical “cross-cultural interaction” that we think is maybe the best way to say real jazz.
More information about this year’s Festival: