Bay Area Jazz Fest Echoes City's Eclectic and Appreciative Tenor

By DON HECKMAN

Oct. 15, 1999 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The City by the Bay becomes the jazz center of the country next week as the San Francisco Jazz Festival kicks off its 17th annual jubilee. In locations all around the Bay, jazz and jazz-related events will take place for more than two weeks, from Wednesday through Nov. 6.

How does such a major program come together?

“With a tremendous amount of work,” says Randall Klein, the festival’s founder and executive director. “It literally takes about 18 months to put together each festival. So we’re now well into our planning for the year 2000 program.”

One would assume that overlapping festival planning could cause more than a fair share of commotion, but Klein, fingers firmly crossed for luck, reports that this year’s program is in good shape.

“I almost hesitate to say that,” he notes with a laugh. “And we have had a few glitches, but at the moment everything is looking good.”

The “glitches” consist primarily of two key cancellations. Singer Teri Thornton, last year’s winner of the Thelonious Monk Institute Competition, has had to cancel her appearance on Oct. 29, reportedly because of ill health. That program has now been completely canceled. And vibist Gary Burton, originally scheduled to appear Thursday with Chick Corea, has also bowed out, also because of a reported health problem. He will be replaced by veteran vibist Bobby Hutcherson.

Those problems aside, the festival should roll forward as planned, with an expansive lineup of stellar artists--among them, Charlie Haden, Shirley Horn, Gato Barbieri, Tito Puente, Jackie McLean, Steve Lacy, Tommy Flanagan, Brad Mehldau, Paco De Lucia, Ibrahim Ferrer and his Orchestra and dozens of others. The Ferrer concert (which also includes Ruben Gonzalez and his group) sold out so quickly that Klein was obliged to add two additional dates in February.

The San Francisco festival’s range of styles, from bebop to swing, from avant-garde to Afro-Cuban, with a performance by Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet tossed in for good measure, is characteristic of the way the event has been programmed from the very beginning.

“That’s been our philosophy all along,” says Klein, “to reflect the eclecticism that is an essential part of San Francisco. The success of the festival is really based on that; it’s a product of that.

“We know that we have the kind of audience that allows us to sell the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the Levay Smith Red-Hot Skillet Lickers show on Sunday, the same day that we’re offering Jackie McLean and Steve Lacy. On Saturday, we’ve got a huge salsa party with Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri and Israel ‘Cachao’ Lopez on the same day that we’ve got programs by such avant-garde and chamber jazz performers as David Murray, Kenny Wheeler and Kenny Werner. We couldn’t do that if we didn’t have audiences that really know their stuff when it comes to jazz.”

* The 17th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival, Wednesday-Nov. 6, at locations around San Francisco and Oakland. Ticket prices range from $15 to $60. Information: (415) 788-7353.

Jazz Auction: The San Francisco Jazz Festival won’t be the only event attracting jazz fans to the Bay Area next weekend. On Oct. 25, an unusual performance and auction will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Palace Hotel. Sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program, the event will feature the auction of an ornate, 1904 Steinway grand piano once owned by legendary jazz artist Earl “Fatha” Hines, who lived in Oakland from the ‘50s until his death in 1983.

Made of Honduran mahogany, with baroque-style wood carvings, inlaid gilded beading, a lyre-shaped pedal holder and a sculpted music holder, the instrument was given to Hines in 1969 by jazz fan Scott Newhall, former managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. The silent auction also includes more than 200 other items: music and celebrity memorabilia; opportunities to meet and/or spend time with artists such as McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Joshua Redman and others; live performances by and lessons with Bay Area musicians.

Proceeds from the auction will go to the Young Musicians Program, a 32-year-old outreach offering professional music education on a full scholarship basis to gifted, low-income Bay Area students, ages 11 to 18.

The auction will be administered by Christie’s at a gala that also includes performances by Tommy Flanagan, Benny Green, Cyrus Chestnut and Billy Taylor. The co-administrator of the Hines estate, UC Berkeley music professor Olly Wilson, anticipates that the Hines piano might go for a figure somewhere between $250,000 and $1 million. Interested parties are directed to call (510) 642-9394 for further information about the silent auction and the gala.

Steam Heat Party: Steamers Cafe, the club that has proven the viability of jazz in Orange County, is celebrating its fifth anniversary tonight. The event confirms owner and former musician Terence Love’s belief “that there was, and continues to be, a need for a musician-friendly establishment in Southern California that presents and perpetuates straight-ahead, big-band and Latin jazz.”

Featured artists for tonight’s anniversary party will be the all-star Joe La Barbera quintet, featuring Alan Pasqua on piano, Bob Sheppard on reeds, Clay Jenkins on trumpet and Tom Warrington on bass. The inimitable Chuck Niles, from jazz radio station KLON-FM (88.1), will emcee the program.

* Steamers Cafe, 138 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton. (714) 871-8800. 8:30 p.m. $5 cover charge.