All that SFJ@%Z

June 25, 11:20 AMSF Music ExaminerDerk Richardson

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How about that jazzbeau Randy Newman? And that legendary bebopper Toumani Diabate? And that big band swinger Jake Shimabukuro? They're just three of the headliners of next fall's 26th annual San Francisco Jazz Festival. The line-up was announced on Tuesday. Other star attractions include Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Amy Winehouse and Hannah Montana.

OK, those last two are jokes. But you knew that—before you started reading this.
 
But really, a casual perusal of the world-famous festival's roster, posted now at the SFJAZZ Web site, might leave some purists scratching their heads at the inclusion of the socio-spiritual a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock (Oct. 4), soul-gospel great Mavis Staples (Oct. 15), the funky Brazilian Forro in the Dark (Oct. 31) and a "Masters of the Oud" concert (Nov. 6), as well as sardonic pop songwriter Newman (Oct. 17), Malian kora master Diabate (Nov. 5) and ukulele phenomenon Shimabukuro (Nov. 9).

In fact, SF JAZZ founder and grand poobah Randall Kline has been expanding the festival's franchise for many years now, edging toward a hybrid jazz–world music fest, which isn't a bad idea when you figure that precious few jazz originators of the swing, bebop or even mainstream modern era are still standing, let alone playing. Indeed, other than Dave Brubeck (Oct. 22),  the music's living history, in terms of the people who were there then and are still here now, doesn't go back much further than free-jazz piano shaman Taylor (Oct. 24) and "new thing" sax avatar Shepp (Oct. 23) (and Ornette Coleman, who has become a more-or-less every-other-year fixture at the festival).

Not that jazz is dying, and not that the festival isn't bursting with the "sound of surprise." My snap-judgment short list for the fall calendar includes, in addition to all of the above, SFJAZZ Beacon Award-winner Rebeca Mauleón (Oct. 16), pianist Marilyn Crispell (Oct. 26), Peter Apfelbaum's New York Hieroglyphics (Oct. 29), a "Bay Area Sax Summit" with Dave Ellis, Dayna Stephens and Mitch Marcus (Oct. 30), the Marcin Wasilewski Trio (Nov. 2), Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra with Carla Bley (Nov. 2), and the Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet (Nov. 9).

Alas, Winehouse might be back in rehab. But how about that Randy Newman?

Here's Jake Shimabukuro playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps":