The second annual Tucson Jazz Festival begins Thursday, Jan. 14, flexing its young muscles and acting like a star with great legs. Joining in as co-presenters are UA Presents and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
Already plans are well underway for the third annual festival to run this time next year. HSL Properties and Humberto Lopez remain committed to being this budding event’s title sponsor through 2020.
“Humberto said he would sign up for 20 years,” laughed Yvonne Ervin, the festival’s executive director, adding that tickets are selling faster than last year and the business community’s interest in sponsorships keeps growing.
Just like last year, UA Presents will provide one of the biggest names on the poster Sunday, Jan. 17 with the Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour, a traveling sextet led by Nicholas Payton, trumpet, and Ravi Coltrane, soprano and tenor saxes.
Saluting the roots of jazz and providing the most accessible music at the festival is the Tucson Symphony Orchestra performing with internationally recognized trumpeter Byron Stripling to present “The Sounds of New Orleans” on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 16-17. Stripling’s extroverted personality and musicianship are reminiscent of the irrepressible Louis Armstrong.
The future of jazz gets the spotlight Friday, Jan. 15 when the young musicians of Snarky Puppy take over the Rialto Theater stage. Practically a big band — with 12 members and the title Best Big Band of 2015 from the Jazz Times Readers Poll — Snarky Puppy arrives in Tucson the same month Downbeat magazine has the band’s photo on the cover.
While improvisation and groove power are the heartbeat of Snarky Puppy, the players mix in a variety of styles and sounds freely embracing elements of funk, Latin, African, soul-jazz and crunchy-toned guitars, just not all in the same song. This band, says Downbeat, is “a friendly, funky monster.”
“Snarky Puppy has sold the most tickets so far,” said Ervin. “It will sell out, for sure. Overall for the festival, there is no doubt we’ll sell more tickets than last year.”
Last year’s absolute crowd favorite feature and a must-have tradition for every Tucson Jazz Festival to come is the downtown day of free jazz (as in no admission charge) to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Or as it is officially known, the Free MLK Day Downtown Jazz Fiesta, set for Monday, Jan. 18.
Latin jazz will reign on the spacious MLK Stage on the grass where Fifth Avenue meets Toole Avenue. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., five bands of local favorites will take their turn. They are the Tucson High Mariachi Band, Lo Bros, De Pedro and Special Guests, Grupo Manteca and Orkesta Mendoza.
Tucson’s straight-ahead jazzers will perform on the Connect Stage at 33 S. Fifth Ave., also at the Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., and in several downtown restaurants.
A longtime favorite of the Old Pueblo, Poncho Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band, returns on Thursday, Jan. 21, to fill the Fox Tucson Theatre with his Afro-Cuban rhythms and Grammy Award-winning Latin soul sound (see accompanying story).
Another of last year’s sold-out shows was the Hot Sardines, a band dedicated to re-creating speakeasy jazz of the Roaring ’20s.
“So this year we got the Rad Trads,” says Ervin.
This New York based piano-less sextet boasts of a tenor sax, trumpet and trombone horn section to power its Chicago and Delta blues stylings laced with early jazz and the driving rhythms of rock ’n’ roll. The band performs Jan. 22.
The Tucson Symphony has stepped up behind the scenes as well, taking on the computerized responsibilities of handling all festival ticket sales.
“We’ve got one-stop shopping now,” Ervin said proudly. No more having to contact different venues for different shows. Go to the jazz festival website, click on “tickets” and you will be taken to the Tucson Symphony ticket page.
The Etherton Gallery of Fine Art Photography, 135 S. Sixth Ave., has joined in the festival with an exhibition of 1950s-era black and white photographs by Herman Leonard. You might not know Leonard’s name, but you will recognize some of his pictures.
