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Out with a bang: last week of the SF Jazz fest
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Don't miss free jazz legend Charlie Haden
I saw jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval perform years ago in New Orleans. It was in a tent set up as a minor stage at the Jazzfest, and I came expecting.. I don’t know what I expected, since my head was so full of the myriad other performers I’d seen and had planned to see. But when he and his band started playing it was like a clearing, 0 to 60 in an instant, a golden sound that washed everything away with a sustained and powerful blast that set the enthusiastic crowd back on its heels and the tent flaps flapping like gale force winds blowing through.
I also saw Toumani Diabaté at the same festival, who’s magical kora playing flowed like cool water and brought the soul and sound of Africa to our hot dusty fairground tent.
But I never got to hear bassist Charlie Haden, in his Nocturne days with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. They walked off the stage ten minutes into their set because the poorly set-up festival in Miami had a too-close stage of thumping soca music drowning out everything in a 100-yard radius. I interviewed Haden in his limo: he was gracious but pis'd.
Thankfully, I can finally see Haden in his full Liberation Music Orchestra glory (with Carla Bley) in the final days of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, which started on Oct. 3 and finishes up on Sunday, Nov. 9. I can also see Sandoval and Diabaté again, and a dozen other acts crammed into the last week and half of the fest. I’m hoping to catch DJ Spooky, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane and Dr. Lonnie Smith, the turbaned master of the Hammond B3.
It’s an eclectic and world-class festival, worthy of your effort. Check out the website for times, venues and tickets: www.sfjazz.org.
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