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A little more than half a century into its existence, the Stanford Jazz Festival maintains a solid foundation in the history of jazz and continues building on it with artists who take jazz in new directions. It makes particular sense for a festival that has learning at its core.
Grammy Award-winning vocalist Luciana Souza performs June 28 with a string quartet as part of her New Moon project.
Courtesy Kim Fox.
The Stanford Jazz Festival is the public-facing performance arm of the Stanford Jazz Workshop, which provides educational programming for young people. Many musicians on hand to teach classes for the summer also perform at the festival. And as time goes on, musicians who were once workshop students return to teach and perform, such as Menlo Park-raised Grammy-winning pianist Taylor Eigsti, pianist Chistina Galisatus and vibraphonist Sasha Berliner.
This year’s festival runs through July 31, featuring tributes to some of the early giants of jazz and performances by current masters and up-and-coming stars. As has become a tradition, the festival kicked off early last weekend with the popular “Indian Jazz Journey,” featuring vocalist Mahesh Kale and tenor saxophonist George Brooks.
Opening weekend of the festival features a sold-out June 26 show with jazz luminary Branford Marsalis and a June 27 show with pianist and composer Billy Childs. Sunday, June 28, brings two performances with the annual family-focused Early Bird Jazz show with Dr. David Hart and the Zookeepers, and a concert with something you don’t hear every day in jazz: a string quartet. Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza will team with Brazilian guitarist Marcel Camargo and a string quartet to perform classics from Brazil and original songs.
We spoke with Stanford Jazz Workshop Executive Director Cory Combs about what to expect at the 54th annual festival. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Embarcadero Media: What’s new at the festival this year?
Cory Combs: We have a lot of shows from performers that have not been with us before. Branford Marsalis is opening up for us. He’s been at the workshop before, but this is the first time he’s headlining the festival for us, and L.A. pianist Billy Childs is coming. He was just shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize as a composer, so we’re very excited about that. There’s a really cool vocalist named Michael Mayo, who is a young singer who has developed a big following through his innovative approach to layering his own vocals. He just released a new recording.Â
Then we have our tent-poles that come back each year and do a fantastic show, and that’s artists like Taylor Eigsti and Anat Cohen.Â
This year we have some themed concerts that are celebrating centennials or developing the theme of an existing artist, and that’s the Miles Davis Centennial celebration; we’re celebrating the saxophonist Jimmy Heath; Duke Ellington is getting a tribute, and then great bassist Marcus Shelby is doing a tribute to the music of Charlie Mingus, and so he’s going to interpret that exciting songbook.
Pianist Billy Childs, a Grammy winner recently shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize, performs June 27 with his quartet. Courtesy Billy Childs.
We have some really exciting Cuban artists, as well, so we’re covering that geographical region too.
Embarcadero Media: The centennials and other tribute concerts highlight jazz heritage, but then you also have some newer, non-traditional takes, like Christina Galisatus playing Joni Mitchell and Luciana Souza with a string quartet. What do you look for in choosing that mix of heritage and more non-traditional shows?
Cory Combs: I work with a great partner here at the organization, Steven Lugerner, who’s our director of educational and festival programming. He’s a wonderful musician himself and leads a band. Through our experience in programming and of course, building community here in the Bay Area and beyond, with so many great musicians, we have always enjoyed looking at the blank slate and coming up with some of these broader ideas of what is in the jazz ecosystem right now that we could celebrate, and as an education institute, lean into to say, ‘this is this is an important figure, this is an important celebration.’
So that’s where we came up with the idea of the centennial celebration, but then we also go to the artist to say ‘What are you presenting that might be unique for us that you aren’t doing all the time or you haven’t done yet?’ That’s where we got to Christina Galisatus and her Joni Mitchell project. She’s been with the Jazz Workshop as a student and as a teacher for quite some time now. She came to us and said she’d love to do this tribute to one of her favorite composers and performers, Joni Mitchell, and so that was an easy yes for us. Similarly with Luciana, we talked to her about coming with just a straight duo, and they pitched to us,’ How about the string quartet?’
That’s the kind of attitude that we take to it, that we have an idea of what might be good in the venue or with our audience, and then always leave room for the performer to (offer their own angle). We have a really great audience that I think over the course of the time has learned to trust us in our curation, so we can take some chances with that.
Embarcadero Media: How does the workshop’s educational foundation shape the festival?
Cory Combs: That’s another piece of it, where it’s very exciting to have this period where we’re not only looking at the festival but we’re looking at the jazz camp and jazz institute, in terms of the faculty, like who hasn’t been with us maybe for a while, who do we know we want to have come back, and in that mix of that group of people who (can perform at) the festival as well.Â
That is where my colleague (Lugerner) really comes into play. He might know, for example, that Sasha Berliner is releasing a new CD and is going start touring this project, or in the case of Stefon Harris, vibraphonist, is someone I’ve known for quite some time, and we were able to say, ‘Can you do a week’s worth of teaching and a jazz festival performance?’ and fortunately he was very excited to do that — he’s such a great educator.
Generally speaking, we go with the strength of the educator first, and then secondarily knowing that they’re going to do an amazing festival concert, rather than the other way around.
Embarcadero Media: That must be inspiring for the students to know that this musician was where they are now, and to both learn from them and see them perform.
Cory Combs: I think, so because it definitely opens the door for hope, and it’s the antithesis to the kind of pessimistic note that a lot of them are likely getting, that you shouldn’t take this music too seriously, because pathways are so hard to find and that’s true, but it’s true with literally every profession to a degree, and yes, the arts has its own set of challenges. But these artists show that there is a pipeline from student to teacher to performer to recording artist to headliner. There are a number of them on our roster that fit that description, and for sure we hear that that’s inspiring.
Embarcadero Media: What do you hope audiences take away from this year’s festival?
Cory Combs: I always hope that people see the depth of creativity that these artists continually push forward. I mean, jazz musicians, in my experience, are forever developing their craft, and so I think each one of these shows will highlight that.Â
Then also we try to strengthen the Bay Area ecosystem by making sure that our festival is centered around local (artists) as well, and that’s something that throughout my work has always been important to (have a mix of national touring artists) but also a significant percentage of local talent to come and do the same level that you would see from any touring artist or from any region — New York, whatever, that people think is the highest level — we’re showcasing that, and they’re coming from San Francisco, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Oakland, and they’re all right in our backyard.
The Stanford Jazz Festival runs through July 31 at various Stanford University venues. Ticket prices vary by show. For more information, visit stanfordjazz.org/stanford-jazz-festival.
