SFJAZZ Collective. Critical Acclaim

Transcription

1 SFJAZZ Collective Critical Acclaim You can propose various definitions for what this band represents, but it s a superbrain for what serious jazz sounds like now. The New York Times Modernity is the Mantra of the SFJAZZ Collective, an emissary of the San Francisco arts organization SFJAZZ. The New York Times A serious jazz band rises in San Francisco. The New York Times These musicians are among the most in demand out there. The New York Times Sheer, out-of-the-box musicality revealed the joys and complexities of free improvising. Los Angeles Times We know they can play that s a given. What s special is the progressive repertoire they have chosen to champion. Variety The group was roaring with the kind of chemistry that could truly be deemed collective. San Francisco Chronicle The best overall live jazz set this writer has heard in the New Millennium. All About Jazz The SFJAZZ Collective has quickly established itself as a viable new model for exploring jazz composition. Boston Globe The San Francisco-based SFJAZZ Collective topped expectations in a buoyantly aggressive Chicago debut. Chicago Tribune SFJAZZ Collective continues to be a wildly successful experiment. Sacramento Bee [SFJAZZ Collective] is a project that does SFJAZZ and the city of San Francisco proud, and it deserves a long and fruitful life. Michael Holman, All About Jazz A uniquely collaborative endeavor Already the group has put together a formidable book of new music. San Jose Mercury News

2 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Critical Acclaim page 2 of 2 Critical Acclaim for Recordings The standard of musicianship here, in terms of solo firepower, could hardly be higher. The New York Times (on Live 2006: 3RD Annual Concert Tour) Quite possibly one of the best [CDs] we ll hear this year. As impressive a debut as we ve heard in recent years. The New York Times (on SFJAZZ Collective 2) All Music Guide (on SFJAZZ Collective 1) [Hancock s] rich palette makes great sense for the Collective s combined depth and intelligence. Sacramento Bee (on Live 2006: 3RD Annual Concert Tour)

3 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Texas Public Radio April 3, 2014 San Francisco Jazz Group Playing The Carver This Saturday Listen here By Jack Morgan The Carver Cultural Center hosts another music night at the Jo Long Theater. The band playing is called the SFJazz Collective, and as to what kind of music do they do, I asked drummer Obed Calvaire. "Chick Corea, Stevie Wonder, John Coltrane," he said. They also play their own original music. I asked him to describe the SFJazz Collective to someone who had never heard them. The collective is a group of guys who are an extremely high level of musicianship" Calvaire said. "And it s an amazing situation because you have eight guys who are excellent at what they do and there are no weak links basically. Everyone s a leader, everyone s strong musically, strong rhythmically. Basically you d want to say it s an all-star team. He said several times that the band had no leader. Given that they're a jazz band -- a genre known for improvisation -- I asked how eight top innovative players get together without a designated leader and not sound chaotic. Number one: ego goes out the door," Calvaire said. "Everyone respects the music. Basically everyone has their roll to play and we respect that and when we ve got a chance to shine, we do it. They re getting a chance to shine at the Carver on Saturday night, April 5, at 8 p.m.

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6 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE April 3, 2013 SFJAZZ ANNOUNCES NEW SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE LINEUP DRUMMER OBED CALVAIRE AND VIBRAPHONIST WARREN WOLF JOIN AWARD-WINNING ALL-STAR OCTET COLLECTIVE CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY IN FALL 2013 SFJAZZ today announced the new lineup and repertoire for the SFJAZZ Collective. Commissioned exclusively by SFJAZZ, the leading nonprofit jazz organization on the West Coast, the Collective welcomes new members - drummer Obed Calvaire and vibraphonist Warren Wolf. The all-star octet includes veteran alto saxophonist and original Collective member Miguel Zenón, tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, trombonist Robin Eubanks, pianist Edward Simon, and bassist Matt Penman. The Collective s new lineup strikes a perfect balance with a founding member, multi-year veterans, and exciting newcomers. In Fall 2013, the SFJAZZ Collective will celebrates its 10 th Anniversary by touring and performing material from its vast catalog of arrangements celebrating the work of legendary artists plus original compositions by many of Collective s current and past members. Joining the Collective means so much to me, says Obed Calvaire. The drum chair is not an easy one. The drummer needs to play so many styles of music. To be a part of this band is such an honor as I am able to play with the best musicians in the world and interpret the music of so many composers. "I'm very excited to be a part of the SFJAZZ Collective, adds Warren Wolf. From Bobby Hutcherson to Stefon Harris and now me, it's an honor to bring my sound to this star-studded world-class ensemble. I look forward to playing and composing new material for the band for many years to come. The SFJAZZ Center, a permanent home for SFJAZZ, opened on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 21, 2013 in San Francisco s vibrant Hayes Valley neighborhood. The SFJAZZ Center is a 35,000 square-foot transparent structure designed by renowned San Francisco architect Mark Cavagnero. With the SFJAZZ Center, jazz will take its place alongside major arts institutions such as the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet in the Civic Center performing arts district. Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ, the SFJAZZ Collective is a workshop band unlike any other in jazz. The group features a changing lineup with each member hand-selected to contribute their own unique sounds, styles, and voices. They are all distinguished not just by degree, but diversity of talent and each member is a celebrated instrumentalist, an outstanding composer and arranger, and most are among today s most lauded bandleaders. Given the elite talent assembled in the SFJAZZ Collective, it is tempting, on first glance, to think of this ensemble as just another all-star band. But as the Collective portion of the group s name suggests, these exceptional artists have

7 SFJAZZ Collective April 3, 2013 page 2 of 2 come together in a democratic pursuit of a larger purpose namely, the celebration of jazz as a constantly evolving, ever-relevant, quintessentially modern art form. Each year, the ensemble performs new arrangements of compositions by a modern jazz master and new compositions by the members, commissioned by SFJAZZ. Through this pioneering approach, honoring jazz history while championing the music s up-to-the-minute directions, the Collective embodies SFJAZZ s commitment to jazz as a living ever-relevant art form. After exploring the work of Ornette Coleman (2004), John Coltrane (2005), Herbie Hancock (2006), Thelonious Monk (2007), Wayne Shorter (2008), McCoy Tyner (2009), Horace Silver (2010), Stevie Wonder ( ), and in 2013, the Collective turned its sights on legendary pianist and composer Chick Corea. The idea for the Collective arose from discussions between SFJAZZ s founder and executive artistic director Randall Kline, and saxophonist and founding Collective member Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of jazz s origins and early traditions, SFJAZZ was concerned that the modern side of jazz, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present day, was often overlooked in the public eye in comparison with the music of jazz s so-called Golden Age. Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters to today s new generation of players. Much like chamber music, the music is designed for a small group of instruments to be performed in intimate settings and atmospheres including performing arts centers, concert halls and salons. Past Collective members have included the likes of Eric Harland, Mark Turner, Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Renee Rosnes, Robert Hurst, Brian Blade, and other jazz stars. Each season, SFJAZZ produces a limited edition CD set of live performance recordings of the SFJAZZ Collective s entire repertoire for that year. The upcoming release Live 2013: 9th Annual Concert Tour features the Collective s 2013 repertoire, including the work of Chick Corea and original compositions by group members. Live 2013 was recorded at the SFJAZZ Center on March 28-31, SFJAZZ has released eight previous limited-edition live sets since 2004, well as a concert DVD filmed at 2007 s Jazz à Vienne Festival in France. All recordings and more information on the SFJAZZ Collective and SFJAZZ can be found at

8 San Francisco Jazz Organization Three Embarcadero Center Lobby Level San Francisco, CA T F mailbox@sfjazz.org sfjazz.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SFJAZZ ANNOUNCES NEW SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE LINEUP SAXOPHONIST DAVID SÁNCHEZ AND DRUMMER JEFF BALLARD JOIN ALL-STAR OCTET SEASON DEVOTED TO REPERTOIRE OF CHICK COREA AND NEW COMPOSITIONS BY COLLECTIVE MEMBERS (SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 5, 2012) SFJAZZ, the leading non-profit jazz institution on the West Coast and the presenter of the current 2012 SFJAZZ Spring Season and the upcoming 30th Anniversary San Francisco Jazz Festival, has announced the new lineup of its award-winning all-star octet, the SFJAZZ Collective. The new additions are saxophonist David Sánchez and drummer Jeff Ballard, replacing Mark Turner and Eric Harland, respectively. The SFJAZZ Collective lineup includes founding member and alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trombonist Robin Eubanks, pianist Edward Simon and bassist Matt Penman. A Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 tour is planned and will soon be announced. In addition to its outstanding lineup, the SFJAZZ Collective has been praised for its innovative approach to repertoire. Each year, the ensemble performs new arrangements of compositions by a modern jazz master and new compositions by the members, commissioned by SFJAZZ. Through this pioneering approach, honoring jazz history while championing the music s up-to-the-minute directions, the Collective embodies SFJAZZ s commitment to jazz as a living ever-relevant art form. After exploring the work of Ornette Coleman (2004), John Coltrane (2005), Herbie Hancock (2006), Thelonious Monk (2007), Wayne Shorter (2008), McCoy Tyner (2009), Horace Silver (2010), Stevie Wonder ( ), the Collective now turns its sights on legendary pianist and composer Chick Corea. "I've been looking forward to working on Chick's music with the Collective for a very long time. He is one of my biggest inspirations as a player and composer and his music has in many ways shaped the direction of jazz for the past 40 years. I'm sure that delving into his vast songbook will be an amazing experience for the band, and for our audiences, said Zenón. Simon adds, Chick encompasses my definition of a true and complete artist: a master of his instrument and a prolific composer who continues to explore new arenas and break down barriers between musical genres. Without doubt, he has been and continues to be one of the strongest living musical forces of our time... a great source of inspiration. Among the many giants in jazz history, none stands taller than Armando Chick Corea. While still in his twenties he developed an utterly unique signature sound, on both acoustic and electric keyboards. Quickly noticed by 1

9 Miles Davis in the late 60s, Corea appeared on Filles de Kilimanjaro and Bitches Brew, two of the era s landmark recordings. As a leader, Chick s adventurous work with Return to Forever helped define the fusion movement of the 70s and introduced younger stars such as Al Di Meola and Stanley Clarke. Corea s numerous collaborations include stunning duets with Herbie Hancock, Gary Burton and Bobby McFerrin, as well as historic groups with Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell, John McLaughlin, Hubert Laws, John Patitucci, Steve Gadd, Roy Haynes and dozens of others. Several of his compositions, including Spain, La Fiesta and Windows have become established standards in the jazz canon. Chick has been nominated for 52 Grammy Awards, winning 18 of them to date. Now 70, he continues to tour worldwide with an array of contemporary jazz projects. Among the great saxophonists to emerge at the end of the 20th century, Puerto Rican tenor virtuoso David Sánchez is in a class by himself. Following studies under the great Kenny Barron at Rutgers, the saxophonist was selected by jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie to join his renowned United Nation Orchestra. Sánchez went on to become a one of the most celebrated instrumentalists in jazz, recording nine albums as a leader and winning a Latin Grammy Award for his 2004 Columbia orchestral session, Coral. The five-time Grammy nominee has performed with a roster of greats including Charlie Haden, Eddie Palmieri, Roy Haynes, Tom Harrell and countless others. In addition to his work as a performer, Sánchez has an impressive résumé as an educator, conducting master classes, workshops and residencies at the world s top universities and conservatories. His latest album is the Concord release Ninety Miles, a project recorded in Cuba and co-led by trumpeter Christian Scott and fellow Collective member, vibraphonist Stefon Harris. Jeff Ballard is one of the most original and inventive drummers in modern jazz. Raised in Santa Cruz, California, he cut his teeth in the Bay Area jazz scene before hitting the road with soul legend Ray Charles at the age of 25. He has since became a highly sought-after collaborator, working with an impressive cast of jazz luminaries including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Danilo Perez, Joshua Redman, Eddie Harris, Diane Schuur, Mike Stern and many others. Ballard s seamless melding of jazz sensibility with rhythmic influences from around the world was displayed brilliantly as part of Chick Corea s explosive Origin sextet and New Trio, with whom he performed for six years. Since 2002, Ballard has worked extensively with Fly, the eclectic trio he co-leads with tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and bassist Larry Grenadier. In 2004, he again joined forces with Grenadier as a member of pianist Brad Mehldau s vaunted trio a high-profile group often compared to the timeless piano trios of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ and named Small Group Ensemble of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2009, the SFJAZZ Collective is a workshop band unlike any other. Each member was selected to contribute his own unique sound and all are celebrated instrumentalists, outstanding composers and arrangers, and are highly recognized both as bandleaders and first-call sidemen. The Collective presents a global music perspective with musicians hailing from Israel (Cohen), New Zealand (Penman), Venezuela (Simon) and Puerto Rico (Zenón and Sánchez). 2

10 The idea for the Collective arose from discussions between SFJAZZ s founder and Executive Artistic Director Randall Kline, and saxophonist and original Collective member Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of the origins and early traditions of jazz, Kline was concerned that the modern composers, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present, were often overlooked in the public eye. Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters to today s new generation of players. Past Collective lineups have featured luminaries including Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Renee Rosnes, Robert Hurst, Brian Blade and other jazz stars. All of this work is documented through U.S. and international tours, as well as multi-cd sets recorded, produced and distributed by SFJAZZ. SFJAZZ Records has released eight previous limited-edition CD sets since 2004, as well as a concert DVD filmed at 2007 s Jazz à Vienne Festival in France. All recordings and more information on the SFJAZZ Collective and SFJAZZ can be found at sfjazz.org. ABOUT SFJAZZ Founded in 1983, SFJAZZ is the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz and education programs in the western United States. SFJAZZ presents over 100 concerts a year to over 100,000 fans and is dedicated to advancing the art form of jazz and cultivating new audiences through innovative programming, including: The San Francisco Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Spring Season, SFJAZZ Collective, SFJAZZ Summerfest, SFJAZZ Hotplate and SFJAZZ Education. The SFJAZZ Center, a permanent home for SFJAZZ, is currently under construction. This remarkable new facility, located in San Francisco s vibrant Hayes Valley neighborhood, will open on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 21, The SFJAZZ Center will be a 35,000 square-foot transparent freestanding structure designed by renowned San Francisco architect Mark Cavagnero. With the SFJAZZ Center, jazz will take its place alongside major arts institutions such as the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet in the Civic Center performing arts district. Visit sfjazz.org to learn more about this exciting new development. Media Contact: Marshall Lamm, (510) , marshall@sfjazz.org ##### 3

11 SFJAZZ ANNOUNCES NEW SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE LINEUP TENOR SAXOPHONIST MARK TURNER, TRUMPETER AVISHAI COHEN, PIANIST EDWARD SIMON JOIN ALL-STAR OCTET AND VIBRAPHONIST STEFON HARRIS RETURNS 2010 SEASON DEVOTED TO REPERTOIRE OF HORACE SILVER PLUS NEW COMPOSITIONS BY COLLECTIVE MEMBERS (SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 12, 2010) SFJAZZ today announced the new 2010 lineup and repertoire for the SFJAZZ Collective. Commissioned exclusively by SFJAZZ, the leading nonprofit jazz organization on the West Coast and the presenter of the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the 11th Annual SFJAZZ Spring Season, running February 19 through June 12, the Collective will welcome tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and pianist Edward Simon. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris also returns to the Collective after a one-year hiatus from the band. The all-star roster includes veteran alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, trombonist Robin Eubanks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. The Collective s new lineup strikes a perfect balance among founding members, multi-year veterans and exciting newcomers. In 2010, the Collective will feature new arrangements of the work of legendary pianist Horace Silver and fresh original compositions by each of the eight Collective members. Miguel Zenón says of Horace Silver, If I had to describe Horace Silver in one word it would be originality. From the early examples of him as a player and composer, we can hear that he is a special voice that is funky, groovy and bluesy. It will be our pleasure to dig into his music and try to make it as much ours as it is his. Edward Simon mentions, Horace Silver is a master of the small jazz ensemble form who has managed to produce a consistent catalog of great tunes. His tunes are a joy to play. His compositions have strong melodies and grooves, two of the elements that excite me the most about music! Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ and named Rising Star Jazz Band of the Year in Down Beat s 2006 International Critics Poll and 2009 Small Group Ensemble of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, the SFJAZZ Collective is a workshop band unlike any other in jazz. The group features a changing lineup with each member hand-selected to contribute their own unique sounds, styles and voices. They are all distinguished not just by degree, but diversity of talent and each member is a celebrated instrumentalist, an outstanding composer and arranger, 1

12 and most are among today s most lauded bandleaders. The Collective also presents a global music perspective with musicians from Puerto Rico (Zenón), Israel (Cohen), New Zealand (Penman) and Venezuela (Simon) Hailed by The New York Times as possibly jazz s premier player, Mark Turner has been quietly building a reputation as a musician s musician. He attended Berklee College Of Music in the late 80s where he met musicians that would figure prominently in his later work, including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Joshua Redman. Turner has recorded five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and he has also appeared with such luminary artists as Dave Holland, Brad Mehldau, Dave Douglas and Lee Konitz. His latest project is the trio FLY with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Their new album Sky And Country appeared on ECM in early 2009 and was selected as one of the year s best jazz albums by The Village Voice Critics Poll. Trumpeter Avishai Cohen is one of the most sought-after players of his generation and an assertive and accomplished trumpeter with a taste for modernism according to The New York Times. Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Cohen began performing at age 10 and toured the world with the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Relocating to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College Of Music, he placed third in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Trumpet Competition in After developing his craft at New York s Smalls jazz club alongside contemporaries such as pianist Jason Lindner and bassist Omer Avital, Cohen has expanded his sonic palette to include African music (with Lionel Loueke), funk (Meshell Ndegeocello), folk/pop (Keren Ann) and effects-laden avantgarde explorations. Pianist Edward Simon was born in the coastal town of Punta Cardón, Venezuela, where he grew up in a family of musicians surrounded by the sounds and rhythms of Latin and Caribbean music. Settling in New York City in 1989, he played with numerous jazz masters, including Herbie Mann, Paquito D'Rivera, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby Watson, Terence Blanchard and Don Byron. He has produced seven critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including two New York Times top ten jazz records of the year: Simplicitas (Criss Cross, 2005) and Edward Simon (Kokopelli, 1994). Currently, Simon leads his own trio, Ensemble Venezuela, collaborates with saxophonist David Binney in the quartet Afinidad and also appears alongside his brothers in the group Simon, Simon & Simon. A member of the Collective in 2008, vibraphonist Stefon Harris returns to the group after a one-year hiatus. Harris has been called one of the most important young artists in jazz by The Los Angeles Times. He displays passionate artistry, energetic stage presence, and astonishing virtuosity that have propelled him into the forefront of the current jazz scene. The 36-year-old is committed both to exploring the rich potential of jazz composition and blazing new trails on the vibraphone. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Harris has received numerous accolades including the Jazz Journalists Association s Best Mallet Player for four years running ( ) and #1 Rising Star Vibraphonist in 2

13 the 2006 Down Beat Critics Poll. His string of Grammy-nominated albums for Blue Note includes Kindred, Black Action Figure, The Grand Unification Theory and the latest release, Urbanus, with his group Blackout Given the elite talent assembled in the SFJAZZ Collective, it is tempting, on first glance, to think of this ensemble as just another all-star band. But as the Collective portion of the group s name suggests, these exceptional artists have come together in pursuit of a larger purpose namely, the celebration of jazz as a constantly evolving, ever-relevant, quintessentially modern art form. This conception of the music is shared by SFJAZZ, the San Francisco based nonprofit institution that is the group s namesake and producer. The idea for the Collective arose from turn-of-the-millennium discussions between SFJAZZ s founder and executive director, Randall Kline, and saxophonist and founding Collective member Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of jazz s origins and early traditions, SFJAZZ was concerned that the modern side of jazz, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present day, was often overlooked in the public eye in comparison with the music of jazz s so-called Golden Age. Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters like John Coltrane (2004), Ornette Coleman (2005), Herbie Hancock (2006), Thelonious Monk (2007), Wayne Shorter (2008), McCoy Tyner (2009) and now, Horace Silver, to today s new generation of players. Much like chamber music, the music is designed for a small group of instruments to be performed in intimate settings and atmospheres including performing arts centers, concert halls and salons. Past Collective members have included the likes of Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Renee Rosnes, Robert Hurst, Brian Blade and other jazz stars. Each season, SFJAZZ produces a deluxe, limited edition CD set of live performance recordings of the SFJAZZ Collective s entire repertoire for that year. The current release Live 2009: 6th Annual Concert Tour features the Collective s 2009 repertoire, including the work of McCoy Tyner and original compositions by group members recorded live on tour dates in the U.S. and Europe. The 2010 tour will be documented and a deluxe, limited edition CD set of live performances will be released in Fall SFJAZZ Records has released six previous limited-edition CD sets since 2004, documenting the SFJAZZ Collective s complete annual repertoire in concert, as well as a concert DVD filmed at 2007 s Jazz à Vienne Festival in France. All recordings and more information on the SFJAZZ Collective and SFJAZZ can be found at The Collective devotes several weeks each year to a group residency, which includes an intensive rehearsal period and educational workshops. During this 3

14 time, the Collective members also mentor promising young musicians, including the 20-strong SFJAZZ High School All-Stars ensemble. SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE 2010 INTERNATIONAL TOUR The Collective undertakes annual U.S. and international tours. This year s dates are as follows: February 25 28, Jazz Alley, Seattle, WA March 2 - Campbell Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA March 4 - Mondavi Center for the Arts, University of California, Davis, CA March 5 SFJAZZ Spring Season, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco, CA March 6 - Van Duzer Theater, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA March 11 - Konzerthaus Mozart Saal, Vienna, Austria March 12 - Auditori Hall B, Barcelona, Spain March 13 - Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal March 15 - New Morning, Paris, France March 17,18 - Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands March 19 - Lantaren, Rotterdam, The Netherlands March 20 - Fasching Club, Stockholm, Sweden March 21 - International Bergamo Jazz Festival, Bergamo, Italy March 22 - Auditorium S. Chiara, Trento, Italy For more information, please visit, ABOUT SFJAZZ SFJAZZ, founded in 1983, is the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz in the western United States. SFJAZZ presents over 100 concerts a year to over 100,000 fans and is dedicated to advancing the art form of jazz and cultivating new jazz audiences through artistic and educational programming, including: The San Francisco Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Spring Season, SFJAZZ Collective, SFJAZZ Summerfest, SFJAZZ Education, SFJAZZ Membership and SFJAZZ Hotplate (a new nightclub series featuring the Bay Area s best musicians, info at sfjazzhotplate.org). SFJAZZ Collective is generously supported by Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. Media Contact: Marshall Lamm (510) , marshall@sfjazz.org ##### 4

15 San Francisco Jazz Organization Three Embarcadero Center Lobby Level San Francisco, CA T F mailbox@sfjazz.org sfjazz.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SFJAZZ ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE: MUSIC OF STEVIE WONDER AND NEW COMPOSITIONS LIVE IN NEW YORK 2011 SEASON 8 ALL-STAR ENSEMBLE S LATEST LIMITED, NUMBERED EDITION FEATURES THE CLASSIC MUSIC OF STEVIE WONDER PLUS NEW COMPOSITIONS FROM COLLECTIVE MEMBERS OCTOBER 2011 LIVE PERFORMANCES IN U.S. & CANADA RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 Miguel Zenón Alto Saxophone Mark Turner Tenor Saxophone Avishai Cohen Trumpet Robin Eubanks Trombone Stefon Harris Vibraphone Edward Simon Piano Matt Penman Bass Eric Harland Drums (SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 31, 2011) SFJAZZ today announced the release of the SFJAZZ Collective s eight limited-edition set, SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie Wonder and New Compositions, Live in New York 2011 Season 8, of which a maximum of 5,000 copies will be produced. Available exclusively from SFJAZZ presenter of this year s 29th San Francisco Jazz Festival, running September 15 through December 18 the deluxe, hand-numbered 3-CD set is the definitive recording of this all-star jazz ensemble s eighth year. Recorded live April 30-May 3, 2011 at famed New York City venue, Jazz Standard, the release features new arrangements of the classic works of Stevie Wonder, as well as, allnew original compositions by Collective members. The Collective has received worldwide critical acclaim. The New York Times said, "You can propose various definitions for what this band represents, but it s a superbrain for what serious jazz sounds like now. And The Wall Street Journal proclaimed, "There hasn't been a group to call itself the All Stars at least not without irony since the death of Louis Armstrong, but this collective deserves the title more than any other band playing today." According to jazz journalist Don Heckman in the CD s liner notes, The unique qualities of the SFJAZZ Collective now firmly established continue to make the ensemble one of the remarkable accomplishments of 21st century jazz. Each year, since the founding of the Collective in 2004, has brought musically adventurous new achievements. Jack Conte, of famed YouTube sensation Pomplamoose, has directed four videos of the Collective performing Wonder s music. The first, Superstition, has received over 72,000 views on YouTube since its release. The three additional videos will be released in September and October to coincide with the 1

16 Collective s Fall 2011 tour (dates below). A full-length documentary of the group is currently in production. Directed by Ken Ellis, Collective Wonder, captures the group s creative process with interviews, rehearsals and live performance. The Collective s 2011 personnel features MacArthur Genius Grant winner, three-time DownBeat #1 Rising Star Alto Saxophonist and founding member Miguel Zenón; trombonist Robin Eubanks, a two-time DownBeat Trombonist of the Year, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and Grammy-nominated vibraphonist Stefon Harris. The incendiary rhythm section boasts 2010 Guggenheim Fellow Edward Simon on piano along with two of the most in-demand sidemen on the international scene bassist Matt Penman and Eric Harland, winner of DownBeat #1 Rising Star Drummer for the last four years. The Collective has a decidedly global music perspective with musicians from Puerto Rico (Zenón), New Zealand (Penman), Venezuela (Simon) and Israel (Cohen). In addition to its outstanding lineup, the SFJAZZ Collective has been praised for its innovative approach to repertoire. Each year, the ensemble performs a new list of compositions by a modern jazz master and new pieces by the Collective members (commissioned by SFJAZZ). Through this pioneering approach, the Collective simultaneously honors jazz history while evolving its own compositional style. After exploring the work of Ornette Coleman (2004), John Coltrane (2005), Herbie Hancock (2006), Thelonious Monk (2007), Wayne Shorter (2008), McCoy Tyner (2009) and Horace Silver (2010), the Collective takes on the material of pop music icon Stevie Wonder in Stevie s music has a lot in common with great jazz music, says Penman. There are so many infectious grooves, a sense of joy and celebration, sophisticated harmonies that are great vehicles to improvise over and a general spontaneous feeling. To cultivate its distinctive sound, the SFJAZZ Collective convenes in San Francisco each spring for a multi-week residency. Throughout this extended rehearsal period a rarity in today s jazz the octet rehearses the season s new repertoire and interacts with the Bay Area community through SFJAZZ s education programs for youth and adults. The Collective then takes to the performance stage, including home season concerts under the auspices of SFJAZZ and a national and international tour, with stops in some of the world s most prominent concert halls and venues. The idea for the Collective arose from discussions between SFJAZZ s founder and Executive Artistic Director, Randall Kline, and saxophonist and original Collective member, Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of jazz s origins and early traditions, Kline was concerned that the modern side of jazz, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present day, was often overlooked in the public eye in comparison with the so-called Golden Age of jazz. Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters to today s new generation of players. 2

17 SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie Wonder and New Compositions Live in New York 2011 Season 8 Track Listing DISC 1 1. Sir Duke Stevie Wonder, arranged by Avishai Cohen 2. Do I Do Stevie Wonder, arranged by Eric Harland 3. Family Avishai Cohen 4. Blame It On the Sun Stevie Wonder, arranged by Mark Turner 5. Superstition Stevie Wonder, arranged by Miguel Zenón DISC 2 1. Race Babbling Stevie Wonder, arranged by Robin Eubanks 2. Visions Stevie Wonder, arranged by Stefon Harris 3. Orpheus Mark Turner 4. Young and Playful Edward Simon 5. The Economy Matt Penman DISC 3 1. Life Signs Stefon Harris 2. Creepin Stevie Wonder, arranged by Matt Penman 3. Metronome Robin Eubanks 4. More to Give Miguel Zenón 5. Eminence Eric Harland 6. My Cherie Amour Stevie Wonder, arranged by Edward Simon SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie Wonder and New Compositions, Live in New York 2011 Season 8 is priced at $35 (plus tax and shipping). The physical 3-CD set is available exclusively at sfjazz.org and at the SFJAZZ Store (located at 3 Embarcadero Center, Lobby Level, San Francisco, CA 94111; phone SFJAZZ Members enjoy a 10% discount. The Collective s new set will also be available at itunes, Amazon, Spotify and a variety of other online outlets worldwide. SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE FALL 2011 TOUR October 5 - McCarter Theater, Princeton, NJ October 6 - Anderson Center, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY October 7 - Hamilton College, Clinton, NY October 8 - Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD October 9 - Music at Gretna, Elizabethtown, PA October 12 - L Astral, Montreal, Quebec, Canada * October 13 - Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ottawa, Canada* October 14 - Grand Theatre, Kingston, Ontario, Canada* October 15 - Royal Conservatory, Toronto, Ontario, Canada* October 18 - West Virginia University, Parkersburg, WV * October 20 - Center for the Performing Arts, Carmel, IN* October 21 - Dalton Center, Kalamazoo, MI* October 22 - Indiana University Auditorium, Bloomington, IN* * Note: Kendrick Scott substitutes for Eric Harland on these dates. The Collective has released seven previous multi-cd sets since 2004, documenting their annual repertoire and featuring luminaries including Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Renee Rosnes, Brian Blade and other jazz stars. All recordings and more information on 3

18 the SFJAZZ Collective s history can be found at sfjazz.org. The Live 2010 set is also available at itunes, Amazon, Spotify and other digital outlets. ABOUT SFJAZZ Founded in 1983, SFJAZZ is the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz and education programs in the western United States. SFJAZZ presents over 100 concerts a year to over 100,000 fans and is dedicated to advancing the art form of jazz and cultivating new audiences through innovative programming, including: The San Francisco Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Spring Season, SFJAZZ Collective, SFJAZZ Summerfest, SFJAZZ Hotplate and SFJAZZ Education. In May 2011, the organization broke ground on the SFJAZZ Center, a permanent home for SFJAZZ. This remarkable new facility, located in San Francisco s vibrant Hayes Valley neighborhood, will be a 35,000 square-foot transparent freestanding structure designed by renowned architect Mark Cavagnero. With the SFJAZZ Center, jazz will take its place alongside major arts institutions such as the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet in the Civic Center performing arts district. Visit sfjazz.org to learn more about this exciting new development. Media Contact: Marshall Lamm (510) , marshall@sfjazz.org ##### 4

19 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE The Wall Street Journal January 29, 2013 This Building Sounds the Right Note BY LARRY BLUMENFELD Trombones issued long tones from a balcony on the corner of Franklin and Fell streets in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood. Soon more brass players answered from another balcony, as if the building itself were sounding off. In a way, it was. On a warm, sunny Monday last week, a crowd assembled at the former site of an auto-repair shop for the opening of the $64 million, 35,000-square-foot SFJazz Center. Trombonist Jacob Garchik's cleverly positioned 16- piece brass choir inaugurated what was billed as "the first stand-alone structure built specifically for jazz." Such distinction might sound like a mere technicality, in contrast to the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex tucked within Manhattan's Time Warner Center, were it not for architecture's power to communicate ideas and stake claims within an urban landscape. The new building's sleek three-story exterior reflected the sunlight, its irregularly spaced glass panels suggesting contrapuntal rhythms against a steady beat of steel. Inside was the Robert N. Miner Auditorium, named for the late Oracle Corp. ORCL +1.66% co-founder, with flexible seating for 350 to 700 people; the Joe Henderson Lab, an 80-seat black-box space named for the late saxophonist; a digital learning lab; offices; and a street-level 60-seat café. Within a six-block radius stood War Memorial Opera House, Herbst Theatre, Davies Symphony Hall and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, all venues used by SFJazz during its 30-year rise from upstart weekend festival to standardbearing year-round jazz nonprofit. Earlier Randall Kline, SFJazz's founder and executive artistic director, recalled talks a decade ago with the city's symphony and opera about a shared site. Spurred on by an anonymous $20 million donation, the organization's board pursued a dedicated home. "The vision wasn't a citadel to culture," he said, "but something that projects jazz's energy and openness a place that's integrated into the neighborhood." In fact, a driver at a red light where Franklin meets Fell might just see straight through transparent glass to the new auditorium's stage as concertgoers file in. Architect Mark Cavagnero described gaining inspiration from "gathering spots like Boston's Old South Meeting House and Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple." The steeply raked design of the Miner Auditorium, he said, owes to practicality as well as to saxophonist Joe Lovano's description of European amphitheaters "where the musicians look into the audience's eyes." At Wednesday's opening-night concert nearly all the featured musicians had close ties to SFJazz. Miner Auditorium, on which Messrs. Kline and Cavagnero collaborated with acoustician Sam Berkow and theater consultant Len Auerbach, was itself among the star performers. The narrow white-oak slats banding its walls and ceiling promoted mindful serenity while helping to create an admirably dry sound. Basses and drums seemed correct, not overblown or blurred. Strong sightlines and close proximity, even from the balcony, conveyed the tenderness of pianist Chick Corea's firstever duet with guitarist Bill Frisell on the standard "It Could Happen to You" and the honking intensity of Mr. Lovano's exchanges with saxophonist Joshua Redman on Mr. Lovano's tune "Blackwell's Message." Pianist McCoy Tyner's forceful left hand rang just right, especially on his "Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit." The precocious talents in the high-school all-star group backing singer Mary Stallings and violinist Regina Carter came across as clearly as the mature glow of a solo by 72-year-old vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. The bonds during drummer Eric Harland's duets exuberant with pianist Jason Moran, blissful with bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding were palpable.

20 SFJAZZ Collective The Wall Street Journal January 29, 2013 page 2 of 2 A tiled mural in the center's second-story lobby depicts storied San Francisco clubs, including Jimbo's Bop City, home to all-night jam sessions during the music's heyday, and the Keystone Korner, last of the city's iconic jazz rooms. In the Bay Area as elsewhere, jazz clubs are not as viable as they once were. Yoshi's, in Oakland, continues with distinction but its sister club, in San Francisco, recently removed the word "jazz" from its moniker. Some locals question whether SF Jazz's season, expanded from 100 to 200 shows, threatens a delicate ecosystem. Others expect a rising tide that lifts all boats. It's worth noting that the center features chef Charles Phan's street-level café, open all day, serving customers who aren't ticketholders. Also, unlike Jazz at Lincoln Center, there is no nightclub here. Jazz at Lincoln Center is staked to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's impressive appeal and his clearly expressed aesthetic of what does and does not constitute jazz. At SFJazz's ribbon cutting, the first musician to speak was 18-year-old singer Laila Smith, who described jazz as "about passion and vulnerability, heart and soul, and telling a story." Next up was Mr. Santos, who grew up in San Francisco, of Puerto Rican descent. He talked about jazz as "a noble mission that gets past 'isms,'" and chanted for Eleggua, the Yoruba deity who "opens the door to the path." The organization's flagship group, the SFJazz Collective, is a flexible octet of established players, each with his own stylistic bent. It performed with power on Wednesday night, as did SFJazz's five resident artistic directors: Messrs. Santos, Frisell and Moran, Ms. Carter, and saxophonist Miguel Zenón. Through four-night residencies, SFJazz's season will tease out some far-flung connections, as with tabla player Zakir Hussain, and strike unexpected local chords, as when Mr. Moran collaborates onstage with skateboarders. ("When I came here as a teenager," he said, "that was part of the culture.") Meanwhile, jazz's past looms large, literally. Blown-up Herman Leonard photos of legendary musicians cover the windows of the former Commerce High School, directly across the street from the new center. Last week, Mr. Hutcherson glanced at them during a break. He recalled playing San Francisco clubs like the Blackhawk, where Miles Davis famously recorded. "There are a lot of musicians up there on that wall," he said, "that would have liked to play here."

21 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE The New York Times January 24, 2013 SFJazz Center Opens in California BY NATE CHINEN SAN FRANCISCO Congratulations, Bill Cosby told a roomful of jazz patrons on Wednesday, near the outset of the opening-night concert at the SFJazz Center here. This is your place, you know. The crowd, which filled the 700-seat Robert N. Miner Auditorium, laughed appreciatively at Mr. Cosby s line, which was no less welcome for being obvious. The SFJazz Center, a $64 million performance space, proudly billed as the first stand-alone building designed for jazz in this country, was being consecrated in the presence of assorted board members, capital donors and series subscribers, who all had a stake in the project. But the concert, which was broadcast on radio by WBGO and WWOZ (and online by NPR Music), was also intended for a larger audience of the jazz faithful, a global audience. If all goes as planned, this is to be their place too. SFJazz, the Bay Area nonprofit organization devoted to presenting this art form, is celebrating its 30th season this year, and Randall Kline, its founder and executive artistic director, wanted the evening s festivities to showcase longstanding bonds. So the concert featured musicians who have a history with the organization, including the tenor saxophonists Joshua Redman and Joe Lovano and the pianists McCoy Tyner and Chick Corea. Each of this season s five resident artistic directors the guitarist Bill Frisell, the pianist Jason Moran, the violinist Regina Carter, the percussionist John Santos and the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón had some integral part to play. Several of the evening s highlights were touched by serendipity. Mr. Corea and Mr. Frisell, who had never played together before, fashioned an exquisite duo improvisation on the standard It Could Happen to You. The bassist Esperanza Spalding played for the first time with Mr. Corea and the drummer Jeff Ballard. Mr. Tyner led a heavyweight quartet with Mr. Lovano, Ms. Spalding and the drummer Eric Harland in a version of his 1970s staple Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit. And Mr. Moran teamed up with Mr. Harland for a spikily abstracted take on Fats Waller s Yacht Club Swing. Naturally, there were performances by artists from the area. The singer Mary Stallings, who grew up not far from the site of the new center, sang an arrangement of I Love Being Here with You with the SFJazz High School All-Stars, an education initiative. (Ms. Carter also played one song with the high schoolers, sounding effortless.) And Mr. Santos worked in several formats, including a percussion-choir version of Tito Puente s Ti Mon Bo. (Pete Escovedo, another important Bay Area fixture, was on timbales; Mr. Cosby played cowbell.) As for the SFJazz Collective, a rightly acclaimed flagship band, it played two numbers: Mastermind, a metrically tricky piece by Mr. Zenón, and Spain, one of the best-known tunes by Mr. Corea, who sat in on keyboards. (Despite its name, the Collective now has just one member who hails from the region: Mr. Ballard, a native of Santa Cruz. Its roster otherwise represents Israel, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and New Zealand, along with Philadelphia and Albany.) The Miner auditorium, a steeply raked cube of a hall, offers a lot of promise: its sound is clear and warm from almost any vantage, and its seating plan gives an impression of intimacy even from the balcony. The architect was Mark Cavagnero, and the acoustician was Sam Berkow; both are justifiably proud of their work here. This long-awaited enterprise is off to a bang-up start.

22 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE San Francisco Chronicle January 22, 2013 SFJazz Center opens with a joyful noise BY SAM WHITING Before the public could test the acoustics inside the country's first stand-alone jazz concert hall, it got to test the acoustics out on Fell Street, where a raucous New Orleans-style street parade was held to puff up the opening of the SFJazz Center on Monday. The long and low building, three stories of sleek glass wrapping onto Franklin Street, proved a perfect sound baffle for the San Francisco Bourbon Kings as they snaked along the closed-off street, wailing away at "When the Saints Go Marching In" to hundreds waiting to go marching in and inspect the new $64 million facility. The red ribbon was waiting to be cut with the oversize scissors, and among those eager for it to happen was Randall Kline, founder and executive artistic director of SFJazz. He had heard sound checks inside the 700-seat Robert N. Miner Auditorium and exclaimed: "It sounds knock-your-socks-off great." There were plenty of people walking around sock-less without hearing a note inside. They were amazed just to be standing there. Asked whether he had ever thought he would see this day, Willie Brown was unusually succinct. "No," said the former mayor, a member of the SFJazz Board of Trustees. Revitalizing neighborhood Once over the shock, he was instantly pontificating, with his eyes on a building directly across Franklin Street that belongs to the San Francisco Unified School District. "This facility will fuel the energy that gets the School of the Arts built across the street, and the Performing Arts Center will be complete." Former board chairwoman Srinija Srinivasan said that when she joined the board, "the idea of a home of our own was a central conversation." That was in It took a while for the conversation to get anywhere, long enough for Srinivasan to serve 11 years and rotate off the board. "There are 10 good reasons not to own a building," said Srinivasan, who could count one reason to own that supersedes the 10 reasons against. "It utterly transforms our ability to perform our mission." Sounds from on high An example rose into the air when the ceremony began with a horn ensemble weighing in from a balcony at the corner of Fell and Franklin streets. It was performing "Creation's Creation" by trombonist and composer Jacob Garchik, son of Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik. The call of trombones and tubas was responded to by a second ensemble on a balcony at the other end of the building. The sound bounced off the taco trucks as it rose to its crescendo, "The Problem of Suffering." It felt as if a second line New Orleans funeral procession were about to start when Srinivasan cut the mood by announcing, "It is with extreme joy that I say, 'Welcome to the SFJazz Center.' "

23 SFJAZZ Collective San Francisco Chronicle January 22, 2013 page 2 of 2 Mayor Ed Lee was excused to be at the Obama inauguration, and former Mayor Brown stayed low under his fedora and did not speak. But the other prominent fedora did. That was the one on the head of Robert Mailer Anderson, the Boonville (Mendocino County) author turned well-to-do jazz savant. His father-in-law is the late Oracle co-founder Robert Miner, whose name is on the auditorium. "San Francisco has got its soul back," said Anderson, who accented his blue pinstriped suit with a new hat in " 'Round Midnight" blue, freshly purchased from Paul's Hat Works on Geary Boulevard. A major donor to the president's reelection campaign, Anderson could have been expected to be wearing his suit in Washington, D.C., on this day. "This is more important," he said. "I'm trying to do President Obama's work here in San Francisco." Sunny side up The day was as hot as New Orleans in January. It got hotter as the sun reflected off the white glass, making both sides the sunny side of the street. When the ribbon was cut, the crowd pressed into the cool lobby and up the stairs to see a mural on tile detailing the history of jazz in the city. Before the day was done, upward of 3,000 people had dropped by for the free holiday open house. Among the first was Juanita Peterson, 73, who arrived from her home nearby, wearing her 49ers jacket and shirt from the NFC championship game the day before. "This is wonderful. I had to see it," said Peterson, her euphoria tempered by studying the mural upstairs. "It reminded me of the Fillmore and everything we had lost," she said. At first glance, the concert hall seems too clean for its style of music, an argument that SFJazz president Kline rejects. "This isn't a classical concert hall," he said. "There is grit enough to make it interesting." Down on the stage, the SFJazz High School All-Stars were warming up in anticipation of playing an original composition that would be the first live jazz heard by the public in the new auditorium. On drums was Malachi Whitson, 19, of Richmond, by way of the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. He whisked his brushes across a snare and took measure of the acoustics. "The sound is exuberant; the acoustics are perfect for jazz," was his analysis. "The audience will be able to vibe with the waves that we will be producing on the bandstand." It's not all roses One faction not vibing with the waves was the stage employees union, Local 16, whose members were distributing flyers on the street. Local 16 represents crew for the San Francisco Ballet and San Francisco Opera, and union organizers said this explains why there were no elected officials on the podium. SFJazz is opening as a nonunion shop, and according to Steve Lutge, business manager-secretary for Local 16, the crew members working at SFJazz are not getting benefits. Kline is confident that an agreement will be reached. "We've been working with them for 30 years," he said, "and it's an open dialogue."

24 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Los Angeles Times January 5, 2013 SFJAZZ plays another bold riff Construction of a $63-million home is a chancy move, but the aim is to excite the masses about jazz and invite everyone inside. BY CHRIS BARTON SAN FRANCISCO "This is one of my favorite rooms," said SFJAZZ founder and Executive Artistic Director Randall Kline, smiling as he stepped over exposed pipes and dusty planks in the SFJAZZ Center. "Then again, they're all my favorite rooms," he added. You'll forgive Kline for sounding a bit excited. This month, construction on the $63-million SFJAZZ Center will finish with a grand opening scheduled for Jan.21, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Two days later, a roster of opening-night performers that includes McCoy Tyner, Joshua Redman, Chick Corea and Esperanza Spalding (with Bill Cosby as master of ceremonies) will christen the first SFJAZZ season in the building (though SFJAZZ has been presenting concerts in and around San Francisco for 30 years). "I think it's going to be a great thing, not only for the Bay Area but just for music in general to have a space like that," said New York saxophonist Miguel Zenón, who for nine years has been a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, a sort of musical outreach arm that performs concerts nationwide. SFJAZZ isn't "going to just go through the motions and book the same people every time, or book whoever's hot," he said. "They're really into presenting new music and giving people a sense of what's happening." At 35,000 square feet, the center is the first free-standing hall of its kind built exclusively for jazz, and its debut comes at a time when presenting live music and jazz in particular could be considered a risky proposition. A tough economic climate has seen clubs closing around the country, including Los Angeles with the still-itinerant Jazz Bakery (whose ambitious plans for a new, Frank Gehry-designed Culver City home in some ways mirrors aspects of the SFJAZZ Center). The same applies to San Francisco, where the city's second location of the venerable Oakland jazz club, Yoshi's, filed a petition for involuntary bankruptcy in November. Despite his contagious air of optimism and excitement while touring his new facility, Kline is aware of the challenges ahead. "'Terrified' is a good word," Kline playfully admitted at a restaurant a half a block away from the center, situated in the vibrant Hayes Valley neighborhood not far from City Hall. Kline worked at the Boarding House, a San Francisco club that hosted the Wailers, Janis Ian and Steve Martin, in the '70s before starting SFJAZZ as a two-day festival called Jazz in the City in "When we decided to do this project it was 2006 or 2007 the whole world fell apart in 2008 as we were going into this. And the fact we raised most of the money for this we're now at 57 and a quarter million, in a time of the worst economic times in San Francisco where else could something like this happen?" Watching a sold-out Herbst Theatre revel in a performance by Mallorca-raised singer Buika around the corner later that night, you begin to understand Kline's point. Presented by SFJAZZ, the show dipped into Flamenco and Gypsy music while brushing into Latin jazz, and the crowd hung on the magnetic singer's every word, even as she grinned through rapid-fire asides in her native Spanish.

25 SFJAZZ Collective Los Angeles Times January 5, 2013 page 2 of 3 The concert reflected an eclectic program that's been in place since the beginnings of SFJAZZ as an annual concert series, which booked Tony Bennett alongside a tribute to John Coltrane. The organization offers a broader vision for the music than its analogue in New York City, Jazz at Lincoln Center, which for years was criticized for its rigid view of what could be considered jazz. Another SFJAZZ-presented show in the '90s, a far-out night with Ornette Coleman that featured live body piercing, received plenty of criticism but remained consistent with San Francisco's history of free-spirited happenings. The philosophy extends to SFJAZZ's varied resident artistic director program, which allows artists to experiment with different programs during a run of shows. This year's roster includes guitarist Bill Frisell performing a multimedia piece inspired by Hunter S. Thompson and pianist Jason Moran improvising alongside pro skateboarders riding a halfpipe that will be assembled near the stage. "That's the whole idea here what can you do to create better context for people to experience the music?" Kline asked. "If one thinks that jazz is something you have to know a lot about and get over a hurdle, well, it doesn't have to be all jazz you're going to hear in there to get you in the building. "A little bit of context goes a long, long way," he added. "So if you know a little about history or theory, it doesn't take much to learn it. It isn't a lifelong course to understand jazz; it could probably be 20 minutes." The center's considerable journey from project to reality was sped along by a lead gift of $20 million from an anonymous donor. This allowed the nonprofit SFJAZZ to set aside early plans to partner with other arts presenters in the city and pursue a home of its own instead. In the design, an effort was made to give SFJAZZ's inclusive philosophy a physical form. Sheathed in glass at ground level, the center reflects Kline's vision for a cultural institution open to the whole city. That favorite room still taking shape during the tour in November? It was the Ensemble Room, an 80-seat space that will also offer intimate performances from smaller acts as well as clinics and workshops. The space will be visible to those on Franklin Street outside. This ground-floor meeting point between the city and the institution was key for Kline, who envisioned a feeling of the sidewalk merging with the inside of the center. "The conceit of building is an openness to the street, making the art feel accessible to the community," Kline said, referencing the glass-walled design that also echoes the Allen Room in Jazz at Lincoln Center's home, which features a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Central Park. "We want people to experience what's happening here, even if they're not in it." The idea extends to the center's main performance space in the Robert N. Miner Auditorium. The latter features a piano positioned just so onstage, giving onlookers on neighboring Fell Street a chance to see part of any given performance. It's a nod to a feature at the Giants' home at AT&T Park, where fans can get a distant view of a few innings without buying a ticket. (Prices for many shows at SFJAZZ begin at $20, with an option to become a member to receive discounts on select concerts and eliminate ticket service fees.) The center has met its goal of being based in a "place that has life" as well as nearby access to public transit. It's also near established institutions such as the Herbst Theatre and Davies Symphony Hall, a perk for SFJAZZ that makes it, in Kline's words, "even hipper." But he adds that the aims of the SFJAZZ Center are "different from being a bastion of culture, built at a time when being imposing was part of the shtick," he explained. "We're building a culture of what's now." "The building is very much something that's a reflection of who's in it and what's going on inside; there's no departing from that," said architect Mark Cavagnero, drawing a comparison with the more imposing look of the center's neighbors. Designer of several Bay Area arts institutions including the Community School of Music and Arts in

26 SFJAZZ Collective Los Angeles Times January 5, 2013 page 3 of 3 Mountain View and an expansion of the Oakland Museum of California, Cavagnero added that the goal was "making a building that was so transparent and people would just be drawn in with no boundaries, no thresholds, and they could come by and say, 'Gee, one of these days I'm going to buy a ticket and see what it's all about. It looks fun, it looks interesting. I can see myself in that space.'" Just over a mile away in the city's Fillmore District, the contrast between the ideas of the SFJAZZ Center and the troubled Yoshi's San Francisco is striking. A glossy, high-end hybrid of a restaurant, cocktail lounge and jazz club, Yoshi's is all swooping lines, high ceilings and an almost alarming amount of square footage. "Yep, industrial jazz," someone behind the bar smirks when the room's cavernous size is mentioned, a trait that becomes more apparent on a sparsely attended Friday night, which kept an upstairs sake lounge from even being opened. With the SFJAZZ Center's opening weeks away, Yoshi's manager that night, Beniyam "Benny" Kebede, sounded equal parts optimistic and realistic. "It might draw some of our business away, but we're not thinking straight-ahead jazz so much," he said as a suit-clad Jeff Hamilton Trio gamely chugged through standards in the performance space around the corner and down a narrow hallway from the bar. "They don't book R&B or smooth jazz, which we do, so that kind of gives us a leg up. "We're trying to reach a younger crowd," Kebede said, and explained that recent comedy shows with Dave Chappelle and Robin Williams have sold well. "We're open to trying different things. Although it is Yoshi's Jazz Club we try and stay true to who we are." Reaching a new audience is a key part of what Kline sees as the mission of SFJAZZ, and it manifests in the main performance hall, which places intimacy at a premium with a maximum of 700 seats, and customizability that allows for seats to be removed to accommodate a dance floor for more groove-oriented acts such as Medeski Martin and Wood or be divided by curtains to make the space more intimate. "What Randall was really after is something that had performance quality and focus of a great music hall but the intimacy, the warmth, the vibrancy of the club," said Cavagnero, who added that he also hoped to set aside the feeling of a conventional theater and an "us versus them" barrier between musician and audience with the room's sight lines. "Each time you're viewing the performer you're looking across the stage and seeing audience on the other side, so you're kind of enveloping their energy, right? You are intimately aware that you are in a room of like-minded people," he explained. Walking through the construction site, Kline excitedly talks about the efforts taken to build the room's acoustics as well as the possibilities in lighting and projections behind the stage. "I'm feeling very kidlike, the idea of these little things we're talking about," Kline said. But despite all the talk of the technology behind the SFJAZZ Center's acoustics, modern lighting and performance space, Kline described his goals as something much simpler. "Part of this is really a return to a much more primitive thing.... The design of the theater is really gathering around the fire. You've got this space in the middle and everyone is around it, and you see everybody else and they're having an experience together. It's a much more primal thing that we're doing in a contemporary manner," he said. "So," he added with a laugh, "hopefully it can work."

27 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Jazz Times October 23, 2012 SFJAZZ Collective in NYC BY EVAN HAGA The imaginative repertory band tackles Chick Corea classics at Jazz Standard Each year since 2004, the mid-sized SFJAZZ Collective has come together to rehearse, write, tour and document its gigs in triple- or double-album form. SFJAZZ, the organization, fosters new music by band members as well as new arrangements of material by one iconic source composer; this year, the Collective s lodestar is Chick Corea. The band s lineup has changed considerably over the years, but the quality of the players, plucked from postbop s midcareer A-list, hasn t. (This season, the Collective comprises saxophonists David Sánchez and Miguel Zenón, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Jeff Ballard.) In all, the enterprise has given jazz repertory ensembles a better, or at least different, name, effectively deflecting the common criticisms against institutional bands whose business is interpretation. ( Interpretation is a key word here, as opposed to recreation. ) You can t, for instance, say that SFJAZZ is reactionary in its composer choices, which have included Monk, Ornette, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver and even Stevie Wonder. You also can t accuse the group of mining nostalgia or enforcing a musical preservationist act. As demonstrated during its late set on Oct. 14 at New York City s Jazz Standard, its arrangements are too mercurial and intricate and accomplished. They certainly don t sound old, yet they also aren t willfully progressive. Hardwon evolution has been the band s m.o.: This band recasts hard-jazz tenets without conceding to pop. (Yes, it often swings.) On this past tour, the band didn t have as much stylistic distance to bridge and ornament as it did with, say, Wonder s R&B or Silver s archetypal hard bop and soul jazz. Corea s music, with its advanced harmonies, nook-filled architecture and cerebrally rhythmic thrust, is a bedrock on which the Collective s members operate when composing for and leading their own bands. (Some of the members, like Cohen and Ballard, have performed with the man himself.) As is the Collective s custom, the arrangements were baroque in their blend of sections, aesthetics, meters and feel, but the expert execution helped the complexities go down smooth. Cohen s arrangement of Corea s Matrix, best known in its trio rendition off Now He Sings, Now He Sobs, employed a kitchen-sink strategy: There was polyphony, athletic ensemble themes, dialogue between vibes and high-note trumpet, impellent swing, march-inflected rhythms, and more. Harris take on the formative Return to Forever staple 500 Miles High forged headlong on the strength of Ballard s slippery rockish beat. That shifty straight groove, along with some studiolike backgrounds from the horns, covered the performance with an L.A. sort of sheen, but Harris taut arrangement eventually opened to accommodate a lengthy vibes solo. Eubanks closing arrangement of Return to Forever s Space Circus moved from ruminative waltz toward Irakere territory. Eubanks thankfully arranged-in a trombone solo, during which he made climactic use of an extended vocalizing technique. A highlight of the original portion of the hour-long set was Penman s Vegan Las Vegas, a song whose intimations of popinfluenced score and minimalism brought to mind his other collective ensemble, James Farm. Simon s original contribution, Incessant Desires, featured inspired solo spots from Sánchez, whose lines magnified the tune s Eastern bent, and Ballard, who offered breakbeat-like fusillades on top of Harris ostinato. Aside from certain associations you might have imposed yourself, the members compositions didn t seem to pointedly invoke Corea (not that they had to). But in their integrity and bewitching sophistication, they managed to anyway.

28 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Washington Examiner October 21, 2012 SFJAZZ Collective world premieres The Music of Chick Corea and New Compositions at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center BY BRIDGET ARNWINE On Friday, October 12, 2012 at the University of Maryland s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, the SFJAZZ Collective premiered their newest work entitled The Music of Chick Corea and New Compositions. The Collective, an all-star group comprised of some of the brightest stars in jazz from around the globe, has now been together in different configurations for nine years. The group s longest standing member Stefon Harris (vibes) performed along with Robin Eubanks (trombone), David Sanchez (sax), Miguel Zenón (sax), Avishai Cohen (trumpet), Matt Pennman (bass), Edward Simon (piano) and Jeff Ballard (drums) before the enthusiastic crowd earning a standing ovation that seemed to delight the musicians as much as the music seemed to delight the crowd. Every year, the group is commissioned to record and perform the music of a particular artist along with a few selections of original work. Last year s artist was the incomparable king of R&B, Stevie Wonder, and the year before that the group focused their efforts on the great Horace Silver. This year the Collective shined their light on pianist/keyboardist Chick Corea, performing five of eight arrangements and three original compositions that appear on the recording. Among the night s originals, Stefon Harris took a moment to gush about the love he has for his wife of twenty years. Let s Take A Trip to the Sky was Harris s love song to her, and some members of the audience well, at least one man sitting nearby wondered aloud if Harris would be able to pull it off. This guy obviously had never heard Harris perform before, but, after the song had ended, the man was only able to utter one word: wow. From that point forward, he communicated by nodding, smiling and clapping, seemingly enjoying himself for the rest of the night. Robin Eubanks was responsible for the arrangement of Corea s Space Circus, making sure the performance reflected Corea s more adventurous/exploratory side. Miguel Zenón s arrangement of La Fiesta included a nice groove while Avishai Cohen s original composition Home Is was simply mellow. For those who d never heard the Collective or any of its members perform, the night was a great introduction. And judging by the standing ovation the Collective received at show s end, they represented well for Chick Corea too. The University of Maryland Jazz Big Band will perform a pre-halloween concert on Monday, October 29th

29 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE The New York Times April 1, 2012 Jazz Evangelists Borrow Some of Stevie Wonder s Cool BY BEN RATLIFF It says a lot about SFJazz, the San Francisco-based organization, that its house band would make a project out of the music of Stevie Wonder. Not that jazz musicians haven t long since gotten to Stevie Wonder as material: plenty have, from tentative, cred-building, bell-bottomed experiments by Ella Fitzgerald and Woody Herman, to newer and deeper versions of his songs by Marcus Strickland and Vijay Iyer. It s that Mr. Wonder s music is generally not part of an official representation of jazz, the kind of thing put forth by a performing-arts institution like SFJazz. But SFJazz s basic position, in its Bay Area concert productions and its work with the touring, recording eight-piece SFJazz Collective, seems to be about blending, transforming, expanding: spreading out rather than shoring up. The organization put the band together in 2004, regularly swapping out its members. To create a touring repertory, each year SFJazz has commissioned from members of the collective an original piece and an arrangement of the jazz eminence under the microscope at the time. The eminences thus far have included Coltrane, Monk and Herbie Hancock; this year, it s Stevie Wonder. The collective has been on tour for a month, performing in concert halls, and in New York it s playing eight sets in four nights at the Jazz Standard. The hourlong late set on Thursday, its first night, wasn t the greatest SFJazz Collective program I ve ever seen, but then it was shorter than what I ve usually seen. It was, however, typical in the good sense. It represented SFJazz s philosophy. The set split itself evenly between originals and Stevie Wonder songs. Of the covers, the best arrangements were Visions, by the vibraphonist Stefon Harris, and My Cherie Amour, by the pianist Edward Simon. Each cracked the song open, shuttling it through different time signatures often based on Mr. Wonder s vocal phrasing and building new tensions between riffs and solos. They were also extremely sensitive with rhythm, from Mr. Harris s locomotive hammering that ran like an I-beam through his piece, to the flowing polymetric craziness in Mr. Simon s. You can propose various definitions for what this band represents, but it s a superbrain for what serious jazz sounds like now. In the last 15 years or so, Mr. Simon and the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón have helped create a new kind of Afro-Latin jazz, and the trumpeter Avishai Cohen and the saxophonist Mark Turner have established a new kind of soloistic virtuosity. The bassist Matt Penman and the drummer Eric Harland have been supreme generalists, playing all over the place. And for twice as long, since the early 1980s, the trombonist Robin Eubanks has worked funk and odd meters into the mainstream language in ways that still sound current. They re all serious composers; what they do is going to be good. Of the originals, I liked the threshing, machinelike Metronome, by Mr. Eubanks, and Mr. Harland s cool, rustling and expanding Eminence, with Mr. Turner playing a flowing solo that started in an analytical mode and pushed toward a rapturous one. But there remains the question of whether you can out-arrange Stevie Wonder, who at least during the mid- 70s, the period from which most of the band s choices came had fantastically elastic and natural conceptions of harmony, rhythm and tune. It s not a fair question; building on other work is what jazz musicians do. But it s an inevitable one. At worst, the SFJazz Collective s work felt a little overdetermined, a little underintuitive. But only a little.

30 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Lincoln Journal Star March 13, 2012 Review: SF Jazz Collective celebrated music of Stevie Wonder at Lied BY TOM INECK The SF Jazz Collective lived up to its name in a Tuesday night performance at the Lied Center for Performing Arts. In a concert largely devoted to the music of legendary Motown songwriter Stevie Wonder, the eight-piece, all-star ensemble proved it's a democratic union with shared improvisational freedom and shared responsibility for the diverse arrangements and for disciplined group interplay. There were no prima donnas, just plenty of creativity and lots of exciting music. Formed in 2004 and based in San Francisco, the band draws its evolving personnel from all over the country to pay tribute to a different jazz great every year and also contribute original material. The Wonder material resulted in a three-disc live recording last year, and the Lied audience of about 700 heard a good sampling, beginning with "Race Babbling," a medley of tunes from Wonder's "Secret Life of Plants," arranged by trombonist Robin Eubanks. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris, no stranger to Lincoln, arranged "Visions," which had trumpeter Avishai Cohen plugging in a wah-wah pedal to send notes into the stratosphere. In his meditative tune "Eminence," the formidable drummer Eric Harland generously showcased tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and added subtle percussion. Turner took advantage of the opportunity in a splendid, wide-ranging display of his talent. Turner's arrangement of the Wonder ballad "Blame It on the Sun" had Harris stating the melody and Harland shifting tempos and power-drumming Art Blakey-style. Simon's composition "Young and Playful" was as breezy as its title, and Eubanks used some echo effects on "Metronome." Highlights of the evening included bassist Matt Penman's imaginative arrangement of "Creepin'", and Cohen's stylistically complex take on "Sir Duke," which included everything from funk to big band polyphony. "Superstition" was a funky and crowd-pleasing encore. It was arranged by regular alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, who was replaced in the lineup by the excellent Antonio Hart.

31 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Downbeat February 29, 2012 On The Road With... The SFJAZZ Collective Week One Let s Go BY EDWARD SIMON, PIANIST I feel super excited about going on tour with what I think is one of the most exciting ensembles out there right now. Due in part to the fact that we'll be playing compositions by the great Stevie Wonder, whose music is full of beautiful melodies and earthy grooves, the music this season strikes a good balance between the intellectually stimulating, edgy, emotional and heartfelt. It is such a thrilling experience to have your music played, night after night, by such great musicians as those in the SFJAZZ Collective. Among my favorite songs are Miguel's funky arrangement of "Superstition" and Stefon's "Visions." I can't wait to hear Avishai's trumpet solo on "Visions" and the trading between the saxophones followed by Stefon's climactic solo on "My Cherie Amour". Meet the SFJAZZ Reed Section Antonio Hart, Alto Saxophone Antonio Hart is sitting in for Miguel Zenón during the Spring 2012 Tour. One of the "young lions" to emerge in the late 1980s, Antonio was first recognized for his influential work with trumpeter Roy Hargrove. Since then, the Grammynominated alto saxophonist has established himself as one of the finest instrumentalists in jazz. He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music and has recorded and performed with such jazz icons as Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner and Nat Adderley. Antonio has maintained a long-term relationship with bass master Dave Holland and balances his performing schedule as a full-time professor of jazz studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He has released seven acclaimed albums, including his latest Chiaroscuro release, All We Need, which features tenor sax legend Jimmy Heath. Mark Turner, Tenor Saxophone Described in one major jazz magazine as "an extremely thoughtful and cerebral player," Mark Turner has quietly built a reputation as a musician's musician. He attended Berklee College Of Music in the late '80s where he met musicians that would figure prominently in his later work, including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Joshua Redman. Turner has recorded five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and has also performed or recorded with artists such as Dave Holland, Brad Mehldau, Dave Douglas and Lee Konitz. His current project is the trio FLY with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Their latest album, Sky And Country, appeared on ECM in Spring Tour Repertoire "Wonder" what the Collective might be playing as they storm across America? Here's some of the tunes they've got worked up. Stevie Wonder Tunes Blame it on the Sun arranged by Mark Turner

32 SFJAZZ Collective Downbeat February 29, 2012 page 2 of 2 Creepin' arranged by Matt Penman Do I Do arranged by Eric Harland My Cherie Amour arranged by Edward Simon Race Babbling arranged by Robin Eubanks Sir Duke arranged by Avishai Cohen Superstition arranged by Miguel Zenón Visions arranged by Stefon Harris Band Originals More To Give by Miguel Zenón Young and Playful by Edward Simon Family by Avishai Cohen Life Signs by Stefon Harris The Economy by Matt Penman Orpheus by Mark Turner Metronome by Robin Eubanks Eminence by Eric Harland

33 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Jazz Times January/February 2012 Music of Stevie Wonder and New Compositions: Live in New York 2011, Season 8 BY PHILIP BOOTH There are lots of advantages to a musical collective, at least the way such an entity is operated by SFJAZZ, the organization behind multiple inspired jazz initiatives in San Francisco. SFJAZZ Collective has an occasionally shifting lineup, sometimes gaining and losing high-profile members as they enter and exit other projects. The group regularly shifts its repertoire, having previously taken on the music of Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman and others. And the octet has the option of alternately sounding like a small combo or a little bid band, an aptitude nicely displayed on last year s release, featuring arrangements of Horace Silver compositions. New season, same lineup, new material and new recording location for the Collective, founded in 2004 by Joshua Redman (not aboard this year). For the first time, the Collective salutes a pop composer with eight engaging, oftensurprising arrangements of Stevie Wonder tunes plus eight originals. The music, recorded over five nights at the Jazz Standard in New York City, again iis spread across three discs and accompanied by an impressively designed booklet detailing the project and its participants. Wonder s music is inherently rich and elastic, as has been demonstrated by previous interpretations of his work, by jazz composers and others. The arrangements underscore that pliability, starting with a version of Sir Duke, arranged by trumpeter Avishai Cohen, that ofofers open space for drummer Eric Harland, brief figures by the horns, and bits of the melody voiced by vibraphonist Stefon Harris before shifting to solos and closing out with a long, funky jam. superstition recasts the tune s groove with greater syncopation, gives the melody to trombonist Robin Eubanks, and is spiked with sudden brass climaxes and full stops, with the piece s arranger, alto saxophonist with Miguel Zenón, cranking up the intensity. Visions, a beautiful ballad arranged by Harris, has the horns sounding the shifting tonal colors played by synthesizers on the original, and set closer My Cherie Amour, arranged by pianist Edward Simon, alternates brash brass splashes with quiet readings of the romantic melody. The originals are impressive too, among them Cohen s atmospheric Family ; bassist Matt Penman s grooving, harmonically complex The Economy ; Eubanks Metronome, with it overlapping interlaced rhythmic figures; and Zenón s sweet ballad More to Give.

34 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Jazz Times November 1, 2011 The Montreal Jazz Festival: Jazz All Year Round BY SHARONNE COHEN SFJAZZ Collective, Ari Hoenig and Maceo Parker keep things warm up north The Montreal Jazz Festival s Jazz à l année (Jazz All Year Round) series is in full swing, its fall offerings illustrative of its all-encompassing nature: jazz and blues alongside soul, folk-rock, Gypsy wedding jams, Brazilian and African music. Among the concerts presented in October were three very different, yet equally engaging groups: the SFJAZZ Collective, the Ari Hoenig Quartet and the Maceo Parker Band. SFJAZZ do Stevie The SFJAZZ Collective is truly a collaborative project, all members contributing arrangements as well as their own compositions, taking turns presenting tunes, sharing their artistic visions. The collective has gone through various personnel changes since forming in 2004; its current configuration features eight members of diverse backgrounds, hailing from New Zealand, Venezuela, Israel, Puerto Rico and the U.S., and bringing distinct and complementary flavors to the mix. Each year the band interprets compositions penned by a chosen jazz giant (previous seasons have explored the works of Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner); in season eight the band reworks the music of Stevie Wonder, a choice which some have considered anomalous, but which works fantastically well, given Wonder s influence and these creative musicians. Opening the first set at L Astral was a swinging rendition of Wonder s Race Babbling (off his Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants album), arranged by trombonist Robin Eubanks, whose bouncy Latin-tinged solo inspired trumpeter Avishai Cohen to dance at the back of the stage. Next came vibraphonist Stefon Harris arrangement of Visions (Innervisions), opening with Harris single, vibrating notes gradually coming together to form the lush intro, propelling the tune as the horns laid down the melody. Cohen introduced his reflective ballad Family (the title track off his new album with siblings Anat and Yuval), pianist Edward Simon taking a gorgeous solo. Bassist Matt Penman addressed the appreciative audience in French as he presented his tune The Economy, a tragicomic subject marked by driving rhythm and a sense of foreboding, slowing down as the horn players harmonized, scattering around the stage. Kendrick Scott, substituting for Eric Harland on this and other Canadian dates, broke it down on drums, leading into a strong statement by Miguel Zenón on alto. The second set opened with Young and Playful, a composition penned by Simon and dedicated to his son, featuring a scorching Cohen solo. Zenón shone again on Mark Turner s arrangement of Blame it On the Sun while Cohen and Turner stood out on Penman s reworking of Creepin (Fulfillingness First Finale), the muted trumpeter s dark colorings setting an ominous tone before the other horns joined in with stunning harmonies, Turner entrancing on tenor. Superstition, artfully arranged by Zenón to reflect Wonder s different statements of the theme, closed the evening; Eubanks stated the melody, rhythm reigned supreme, and inspired ideas kept flowing from all band members. The audience was seized by the band s cohesion and energy. The Collective s original compositions and interpretations of Wonder s music are documented on a three-cd set entitled Live in New York Season 8: Music of Stevie Wonder. The Ari Hoenig Quartet: Pyrotechnics

35 SFJAZZ Collective Jazz Times November 1, 2011 page 2 of 2 The following week L Astral hosted Ari Hoenig and his fiery working quartet, with music derived mostly from his recent recording Lines of Oppression. Hoenig, joined by pianist Tigran Hamasyan, guitarist Gilad Hekselman and bassist Chris Tordini, opened with the album s title track, alluding to the troubling labor dynamics he observed while on tour in Port au Prince, Haiti. This somber yet energetic tune, gradually building both rhythmically and harmonically, signaled what was to come Hoenig demonstrating his versatility, explosiveness and mad skills, Hekselman s fingers alternately flying along the fretboard and expressing tender lyricism, Hamasyan exhibiting intensity and facility, and Tordini effective if reserved (he was reportedly under the weather). The lyrical ballad Wedding Song had Hoenig switching sticks and brushes, contributing evocative wordless vocals as the tune built to its apex. Thelonious Monk s Rhythm-A-Ning was given a thorough Hoenig-esque treatment, going from angular to round and back again, Hamasyan s classical influences seeping through his virtuosity. Hoenig s pyrotechnics made use of anything and everything, including an idle music stand, his facial expressions disclosing the intensity and sheer joy experienced through this highly communicative group interplay. And the crowd was feeling it! Next came Ska, an older tune infused with its namesake rhythm and deep groove, Hoenig gradually accelerating just as Hekselman delivered his most poignant lines; the ska beat returned at the end of the tune, building up to a frenetic speed that seemed it could go no faster, then desisting all at once. The quartet s second set opened with The Painter, a Hoenig post-bop number off his 2004 album of the same title, which showcased Hamasyan, to the delight of his local following. Hoenig opened Bobby Timmons s classic Moanin playing the theme (!) using mallets, fingers and elbows, making the melody sing on his drum kit. The leader s captivating Arrows and Loops in 11/8 ended the set, with Hamasyan s solo drawing on his Armenian roots, Hekselman and Tordini tapping on their instruments, Hoenig getting up and clapping. Smiles all around; this band has a uniquely familiar, warm rapport. The audience responded with roaring applause and a standing ovation, and a few moments later Hoenig returned to deliver a solo encore. This is a folk tune some of you might know, he said grinning, and then launched into a poignant, mesmerizing rendition of This Little Light of Mine. A night of pure energy, emotion and technique. Maceo Parker: Funk All the Way Is this a jazz festival? asked Maceo Parker as he greeted a hyped crowd at the jam-packed L Astral. Two percent! yelled back an audience member. Well, we re gonna play 2 percent jazz, and 98 percent funk! promised Parker, and that s exactly what he delivered: nearly two hours of unbridled, booty-shaking funk. Nothing could have made this adoring audience a mix of 20-somethings, 60-somethings and everything in between any happier. They were there for the funk. Montreal s own DJ extraordinaire, Andy Couchman, opened for Parker with a set of choice funk and soul nuggets; Maceo soon followed, with a youthful energy far exceeding his 68 years. He was accompanied both by veterans (Rodney Skeet Curtis on bass; William Boulware on keys; Bruno Speight on guitar) and young cats (nephew Marcus Parker on drums, and trumpeter Lee Hogans, who was mostly responsible for the 2 percent). Parker delivered some vintage funk, including the James Brown classics Make it Funky and Pass the Peas, sprinkling a bit of Some Enchanted Evening in between. In what was the evening s highlight, backup singer Martha High of the James Brown Band killed Lyn Collins 70s classic Think (About It), her vocals as strong as ever. Towards the end of the show Parker channeled Ray Charles dark sunglasses, body swaying side to side and sang a verse of You Don t Know Me, melting the audience before bringing the funk back. We love you! We love love! We love to love! called the funk master, and the crowd loved him back. Upcoming fall-winter concerts in the Montreal Jazz Festival s Jazz All Year Round series will include blues guitarist Coco Montoya, Juno award winning jazz vocalist Sophie Milman, Malian ngoni master Bassekou Kouyate, Chicago blues saxophonist Eddie Shaw and his Wolf Pack, British bluesman John Mayall, Spanish flamenco singer Diego El Cigala, Montreal s own Gypsy jazz band Maânouche Swing, Al Di Meola and many more. Stay tuned.

36 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE all about jazz October 29, 2011 The SFJAZZ Collective: Toronto, Canada, October 15, 2011 BY ALAIN LONDES The SF Jazz Collective Koerner Hall Toronto, Canada October 15, 2011 The eight-piece, all-star SFJAZZ Collective rolled into town with its current project, dedicated to the music of Stevie Wonder, its original arrangements reflecting the Collective's personality. Part of a successful group of this magnitude is the talent, respect, and chemistry that helps everyone contribute to the whole. They work as one with the different textures of the rich instrumentation at their disposal. Kendrick Scott's delicate drum intro quietly paved the way for trumpeter Avishai Cohen's rearrangement of Wonder's "Sir Duke," featuring brief solos from tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and pianist Edward Simon. For this project, Wonder's melodies provided a contextual grounding for improvisation, making the pieces more open. This was not a literal homage to the well-known singer/composer, though vibraphonist Stefon Harris admitted, during the band intros, that he was both a fan and an expert in Wonder's works. On alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón's "More To Give," the vibraphonist and bassist Matt Penman demonstrated perfect timing matching, note-for-note the intro to its soft theme. Trombonist Robin Eubanks who grew up with his other talented siblings, guitarist Kevin and trumpeter Duane-was exposed to funk and rock at an early age, before really getting into jazz when he turned 20, a combination which encouraged him to experiment with enhanced sounds, created by feeding his horn through a laptop by his side, on his own "Metronome." Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" was given an open-ended arrangement, with Simon and Harris weaving around each other during the intro. Followed by another chorus, this time from the brass, its slowly amplifying sound ultimately shifted towards an easy Latin feel. The show's climactic composition emerged near the end of the second set, Turner's contemplative and melancholic "Orpheus." An "out there" piece that included European chamber music motifs, Cohen's opening trumpet opening solo led to improvised sounds from Penman, created by pivoting his bass on its axis. Turner's tenor solo almost echoed a "call of the wild" in nature, based on its sound and feel. Scott punctuated with delicate effects, scratching his stick lightly over his cymbals, while Eubanks and Cohen joined in passing the baton, playing in perfect harmony. Harris and Simon brought the tune to a close, with a sound resembling clock chimes. Zenón's arrangement of Wonder's popular "Superstition" closed the set, with Eubanks leading the way over a groove that started funky, but later turned to Latin. Cohen's "Family," the group's encore, was a quiet ballad dedicated to his loved ones. THE SFJAZZ Collective is a group of true professionals, with no evidence of clashing egos stifling each individual's musical creativity. At its Toronto show, the group demonstrated complete unity, in the context of its work as a collective that has been built over the past eight years.

37 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE all about jazz October 28, 2011 SFJAZZ Collective: Ottawa, Canada, October 13, 2011 BY JOHN KELMAN Centrepoint Theatre, Ottawa, Canada October 13, 2011 In its eight-year existence, the SFJAZZ Collective has gone from triumph to triumph, each year choosing a specific artist to honor past years including pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonists Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter and giving each of its eight members the mandate of coming up with a new arrangement and a new composition, making the Collective the best kind of jazz laboratory; one where the heroes of the past are celebrated alongside these relatively young icons in the making. The 2011 edition of this gradually changing collective only alto saxophonist Migel Zenón remains from the inaugural 2004 season paid tribute, for the first time, to an artist outside (though certainly informed by) the jazz purview, Stevie Wonder. The source music for the Collective's return to Ottawa on October 13, 2011 may have been distanced considerably from its 2009 Ottawa performance when a substantially different lineup performed its homage to McCoy Tyner but the below-capacity but enthusiastic crowd at Centrepoint Theatre would have been hard-pressed to tell the difference. That's because this was no get-down, shake-your-booty look at the music of Stevie Wonder, though there were grooves aplenty delivered, this time, by drummer Kendrick Scott, who was substituting for regular drummer Eric Harland on eight of the fall tour's thirteen US and Canada dates. But if the coda to trumpeter Avishai Cohen's radical reinvention of "Sir Duke" was enough to get everyone in the audience's heads bopping, it's a fair bet most of them didn't even notice the extra beat being tagged onto every fourth bar, or how it seemed to magically interlock when the horns began playing the familiar chorus ("You can feel it all over...") over top of it, in straight time. And for those already familiar with the new tunes and arrangements on the Collective's recently released Live in New York Season 8: Music of Stevie Wonder (SFJAZZ, 2011), it was clear that the music was a living, breathing, evolving thing, as vibraphonist Stefon Harris playfully stretched and contracted the time of another of the song's familiar themes, keeping the rest of the Collective on its toes. This incarnation of SFJAZZ Collective represents the first time that there's been no change in the lineup since the previous year, when it paid tribute to pianist Horace Silver, documented on Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert (SFJAZZ, 2010). A consistent lineup may mean more opportunity to hone its chemistry, but the Collective has always managed change well; with its lineup changing gradually, year-after-year, there was always some residual chemistry while achieving, at the same time, the best possible sound of surprise, from the introduction of someone new to the mix. This may have only been Scott's second date, but he nailed it from the get-go, while bringing a different kind of energy to the music that changed the complexion of the Collective. This isn't the first time he's followed in Harland's footsteps, either replacing the barely-older drummer in trumpeter Terence Blanchard's band at the time of Flow (Blue Note, 2005) but if that suggests Scott's some kind of second-stringer, waiting in the wings like an actor's stand-in, nothing could be further from the truth, on the basis of the 31-year-old's leader debut, The Source (Word Culture Music, 2007), and subsequent work with trumpeter Sean Jones, saxophonist Myron Walden and singer Gretchen Parlato.

38 SFJAZZ Collective all about jazz October 28, 2011 page 2 of 3 If Scott was the fire in the engine room, then bassist Matt Penman was the engineer keeping that fire stoked. A masterful player, he held down the shifting landscape of Zenon's second set-closing arrangement of Wonder's "Superstition," which deconstructed the tune down to its fundamental motifs, rebuilding them in various permutations and combinations, for a reading as fiery as it was cerebral. Penman's unshakable time was balanced by thoughtful solos, in particular his pizzicato work on tenor saxophonist Mark Turner's "Orpheus," a heady composition that created a variety of contexts for inspired free play that gradually coalesced into a form only truly revealed at its conclusion. Turner a one-time regular collaborator with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel but, in recent years, seen with everyone from trumpeter Enrico Rava to saxophonist David Binney and his collaborative Fly, and last heard on Sky & Country (ECM, 2009) has always been considered a cerebral player, and while there's little doubt he's spent a lot of time honing a style that's predicated on remarkable technique and an ability to navigate huge intervallic leaps with frightening accuracy, he's got plenty of heart, too, engaging in some escalating interplay with Zenón at the end of pianist Edward Simon's lyrical arrangement of Wonder's "Ma Cherie Amour." An irregularly metered, richly harmonized take on the memorable melody led, as Simon's arrangement opened up into a piano solo of such motivic focus and invention that it's a wonder the Guggenheim and MacDowell fellowship inductee hasn't reached critical mass yet, for his work with the Collective and superb solo records like Poesia (Cam Jazz, 2009). Simon's solo on the first set-opener, "Sir Duke," was equally impressive, with remarkable left/right-hand independence that, at one point, built to stunning polyphonic lines in contrary motion, his left hand descending to the piano's lower register while his right ascended to its upper; but what the tune also made clear, early in the evening, was that this incarnation of SFJAZZ Collective wasn't afraid to introduce some processing into the mix. Cohen's trumpet was fed through some guitar pedals wah wah, distortion and delay pedals could easily be heard and into a Fender amplifier, while Robin Eubanks laptop processing turned his trombone solo, during his own aptly titled "Metronome," into a sonic tour de force, with the Collective ratcheting up into some near-fusion energy. Perhaps the Collective's greatest strength was its ability whether on arrangements of classic Wonder material or new compositions to blend improvisational freedom with modernistic charts that took full advantage of its mid-sized instrumental palette. SFJAZZ Collective is unequivocally a blowing band, but these were anything but simple headsolo-head arrangements. At various points during the set, band members could be seen quickly flipping sides and scrambling to opening up multi-multi-page charts in time. That everyone in the band is a leader in his own right means that when the Collective reconvenes each year, there are experiences gained elsewhere brought to the table. Harris' own groove-heavy group, Blackout last heard on Urbanus (Concord, 2009) may be more decidedly urban than SFJAZZ Collective, but a taste of it was an undercurrent on the vibraphonist's original, "Life Signs" a tune which started as an ostinato-based feature for Simon, but as the group gradually entered, revealed its intrinsic complexity. With eight strong soloists, it was almost impossible to pick favorites, and it's more than likely that those choices would change each night. With players at this level, it's unlikely anyone ever has a bad night, but they surely have better ones, and in Ottawa, Eubanks, Zenón and Harris seemed especially on fire, the cream of a very rich crop: Eubanks' ability to build solos to fever pitch; Zenón combining a particularly warm alto tone with solos that seamlessly combined head and heart; and Harris, who was capable of frightening speed and four-mallet dexterity, but who could say just as much with a single repeated note, laid into it hard. In the spirit of its egalitarian nature, different members of the band Harris, Simon, Eubanks introduced the band and its tunes, but it was Cohen's introduction of the encore, his own dark but tender ballad, "Family," that drew the most laughs. After reiterating that there were, indeed, CDs for sale in the foyer, and that the band would be out to meet and sign after the show, he said "And all proceeds are going to needy families...ours." This is jazz, after all, and despite the popular and critical accolades these players draw as members of SFJAZZ Collective and as leaders of their own projects and despite the kind of response they were able to draw from the sadly only half-full Centrepoint Theatre, nearly as loud and raucous as a full house these stellar musicians know that they gain ground one town at a time, one fan at a time. After the show, as they mingled with the folks who hung around in the foyer, it was clear that they

39 SFJAZZ Collective all about jazz October 28, 2011 page 3 of 3 appreciated the value of connecting with their fans, and if their Ottawa show was any indication, they're clearly on a winning streak. While the house wasn't as full as the Ottawa international Jazz Festival might have hoped, sponsoring this show as part of its Fall-Winter off-festival programming, it was a tremendous step forward to begin using this venue, a fine sounding room that, capable of seating nearly 1,000 people, is still able to retain a certain sense of intimacy. While the venue SFJAZZ Collective played in 2009 the downtown-located Dominion Chalmers Church is a fine room for certain kinds of shows, anything that begins to build on volume gets lost in its high cathedral ceiling, which can be such an asset in other cases but a real liability in others. Hopefully the less-than-stellar turnout won't discourage the festival from using Centrepoint Theatre in the future, because it really is a far more suitable room for this kind of music.

40 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Kalamazoo Gazette October 22, 2011 SFJAZZ Collective meets Stevie Wonder in jazz-time BY JOHN EPHLAND KALAMAZOO - They played only one encore. But the audience seemed to get it. Indeed, there was a vibe between this packed house and the SFJAZZ Collective a kind of mutual understanding that said something like, "We played our hearts out, and you got your fill, didn't you?" Yeah. A full-course meal only needs one dessert. Right? This traveling octet made a stop at Western Michigan University's Dalton Center Recital Hall Friday night for a Fontana Chamber Arts jazz concert trumpeting their new collection of Stevie Wonder re-imaginings and original compositions. In all, it was a swirl of musical activity, for fans of Wonder as well as jazz overall. Although, for jazz fans and Wonder acolytes alike, you might've needed a scorecard to keep track of how re-inventive this aggregate of baby superstars put this music together (trombonist Robin Eubanks was, and is, the lone "veteran" here). In the democratic spirit of the Collective, various members addressed the crowd with introductions at certain points, starting with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, someone who seems to liken Kalamazoo and WMU to an adopted second home. Starting off slow and swinging with Eubanks' imaginative medley arrangement pulled from Wonder's "The Secret Life Of Plants," the pace suddenly quickened with Harris' lightening-fast, single-mallet playing, the mood full of soul, Harris hitting those bars like a drummer, full of feeling. Eubanks' work here recalled his work with bassist Dave Holland, the arrangement featuring a tricky meter that allowed for that sweet melodic spot to balance things out. Harris' arrangement of Wonder's ballad "Innervisions," "Visions," had him using four mallets with a slow, impressionistic intro. By the time the horn section was making their theme statement, the SFJAZZ Collective's take on Wonder was starting to invoke musical memories of all those '70s crossover jazz albums by artists who did pop covers for labels like CTI and Kudu. Only now we had freshly minted players with a completely different pedigree. A pedigree that includes all manner of backgrounds, if not ages: trumpeter Avishai Cohen hailing from Israel; alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon from Puerto Rico; pianist Edward Simon from Venezuela; bassist Matt Penman from New Zealand; with Eubanks, Harris, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and drummer Kendrick Scott all from the U.S. Yes, their takes on Wonder were more intricate, stemming, no doubt, more from university training than the street. Still, with subtle yet fiery reinterpretations along with their own compositions, it became clear that each player, a leader in his own right, was also writing for the band, for others as much as for themselves. In this sense, they also recalled someone who made a career out of being "beyond category": Duke Ellington. Incidentally, that encore was Penman's waltz arrangement of Wonder's lovely ballad "Creepin,'" featuring a fetching solo from Simon, the tune may be designed to cool things off after so much buzzing about.

41 SFJAZZ Collective Kalamazoo Gazette October 22, 2011 page 2 of 2 They may have been a tad too elaborate here and there, perhaps more classical than jazz at certain points (so what?), but the SFJAZZ Collective clearly had their hearts and horns in the right place. And, they all showed an affinity for Stevie Wonder's music that had you wondering who they might focus their musical attention on next.

42 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Indianapolis Star October 21, 2011 Review: Jazz octet's virtuosity offers night of wonder BY JAY HARVEY The all-star octet known as the SFJazz Collective has ranged over modern jazz masters for seven years now, but by saluting a pop-music master this season, it by no means compromises its artistic vision. As its concert here demonstrated Thursday night, the Collective maintains its practice of including originals by its members in a split with the honored icon. Some Stevie Wonder fans might have expected a near-exclusive focus on their idol and also may not have been prepared to hear his songs so freely treated in the Collective's amazing arrangements. But the ensemble clearly won over the fans, particularly by ending with something they could dance in their seats to -- "Superstition," in alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon's perky arrangement. Essentially, the program never deviated from the Collective's strengths: a flexible ensemble sound with a great variety of texture, folding in the individuality of eight vital soloists. There may have been a nod to the force of electronics in jazz with the pedaled manipulation of their instruments' natural timbre by trumpeter Avishai Cohen and trombonist Robin Eubanks. Other than that, the concert proved that well-balanced acoustic jazz can thrive in the 21st century when writing and playing are equally inspired. Kendrick Scott, filling in for Eric Harland in this stretch of the Collective's annual tour away from its San Francisco home, started things off with an imaginative drum solo heralding the airy feeling of Wonder's "Sir Duke" in Cohen's arrangement. There was always room for subtlety in even the most high-powered charts. That's why it seemed that the relative newcomer to the band was too loud in trying to match the intensity of Zenon's cascading solo in Eubanks' "Metronome." But Scott redeemed himself with marvelous sensitivity throughout bassist Matt Penman's arrangement of "Creepin.' " He was properly on fire in the mounting exchange of solos by Zenon and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner in "My Cherie Amour," which was also remarkable for Edward Simon's cogent piano solo and a stunning display of virtuosity and wit from vibraphonist Stefon Harris. Harris' "Life Signs" struck me as a bright contribution to the sort of ballad that naturally assembles itself into a groove machine. At the other end of the spectrum in the originals department was Turner's "Orpheus," which, despite some poignant solos and bass-drums interplay, was tedious and derivative.

43 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Ottawa Citizen October 14, 2011 SFJAZZ Collective at Centrepointe Theatre BY PETER HUM Months before they got their show on the road, some members of the SFJAZZ Collective had worried that they might be stepping too far out of the jazz box. The all-star jazz octet decided that it would pay tribute in 2011 not to a jazz giant, as it had for the previous seven years, but to no less than pop superstar Stevie Wonder. However, as the group s concert Thursday night showed, the band sounds just as epic and true to jazz values playing My Cherie Amour and Superstition as it does when it tackles Thelonious Monk or Herbie Hancock. In fact, group s latest combination of musicians, its Wonder-ful embrace of pop inspiration, and its rich originals made for one of the sure highlights of Ottawa s fall season of jazz. Presented by the TD International Jazz Festival, the group, made music as rich as diverse as the backgrounds of its musicians. (The group of musicians, most of whom are in their 30s and 40s, includes a Puerto Rican, a Venezuelan, a New Zealander, an Israeli, and four Americans although most call New York home). In Centrepointe Theatre a venue that the jazz festival had not previously used the music came across clearly and vividly. The group began and ended with showstoppers penned by Wonder but smartly transformed into dynamic, contemporary jazz blowouts. No tune was more expansive and grand than the night s opener, Sir Duke. Arranged by trumpeter Avishai Cohen, the bubbly Wonder hit that nods to jazz and Duke Ellington had been chopped up and its constituent riffs had been mashed up with extravagant new material. Moving from fanfare to swing to funk, the piece flaunted the punch and virtuosity of the group s four horns and pianist Edward Simon. The show s second set closed with alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón s sophisticated yet funky take on Superstition that featured trumpeter Cohen and trombonist Robin Eubanks playing exuberantly while processing their sounds with electronic effects. Reworked by pianist Simon, My Cherie Amour had been extended and reharmonized. During the piece, Zenón and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner made for a study in contrasts as they took turns blowing on a Latin groove. Zenón played up his passionate, rhythmic side while Turner, one of jazz s most intriguing, ear-catching soloists, opted for more enigmatic melodies that leapt, twisted and spiralled. With so much virtuosity and power on stage, it s natural for the SFJAZZ Collective to go in for big, rabble-rousing musical gestures. But they also displayed finesse after finesse in terms of how the music was crafted and layered, and how the musicians interacted with one another. The most striking example of the group s artistic and emotional range came during tenor saxophonist Turner s refined original Orpheus, which unfolded as a series of dignified but melancholy solo and duet performances. Cohen and Turner were magnificent musical orators. Also in the piece s rotation were various pairings drummer Kendrick Scott and bassist Matt Penman, Eubanks trombone and Cohen s trumpet, and Zenon s alto and Turner s tenor saxophone all moving the music forward to it fitting octet conclusion.

44 SFJAZZ Collective Ottawa Citizen October 14, 2011 page 2 of 2 For sheer lyrical beauty, two originals were standouts. Zenón s More to Give, a stunning, flowing love song to his wife, included a gorgeous introduction by vibraphonist Stefon Harris and bassist Penman, accompanied by pianist Simon, before they were respectively featured, playing from the heart. The night s encore, Cohen s composition Family, was another solemn ballad that allowed Harris, a scene-stealing soloist if ever there was one, to hold the audience rapt before the band sent the audience home. Contrary to the show-off ethos that can animate some jazz performances, the composers of those and other songs, in lieu of soloing themselves, simply stood back and basked in their colleagues expressive playing. In a nutshell, those gestures speak volumes to the cameraderie that helps makes the SFJAZZ Collective shine indeed as one of the very brightest of jazz s all-star bands.

45 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE all about jazz September 7, 2011 SFJAZZ Collective: Live in New York Season 8 - Music of Stevie Wonder BY JOHN KELMAN SFJAZZ Collective Live in New York Season 8: Music of Stevie Wonder SFJAZZ 2011 One old adage says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But another says, "Change is good." For the first time in its eight touring seasons, the SFJAZZ Collective has found a way to manage both. This is the first time that the lineup has remained constant from one year to the next, with the 2011 incarnation identical to that which released Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour (SFJAZZ, 2010). But while previous seasons have found this most modern of mainstream mid-size ensembles honoring a selected jazz icon with each participant contributing both a new arrangement of an old tune and a new composition inspired, in some way, by the honoree 2011 is the first year the SFJAZZ Collective has paid tribute to an artist outside the purview of jazz. It has done so in the same year that others are similarly stretching, such as British arranger/big band leader Colin Towns, who's followed up large ensemble tributes to Mahavishnu Orchestra and trumpeter Miles Davis with a fine tribute to John Lennon, In My Own Write (Provocateur, 2011). That said, Stevie Wonder is certainly a closer fit, given so much of his music has always possessed a clear harmonic connection to the jazz vernacular. And so, while last year's tour collected well-known songs from pianist Horace Silver, Live in New York Season 8: Music of Stevie Wonder culls some of the R&B/soul legend's most iconic songs, largely from his from 1972 to 1976 heyday, when he released a string of now-legendary Motown albums, starting with 1972's Music of My Mind and ending with the 1976 megahit Songs in the Key of Life. Of the eight Wonder tunes here ranging from trumpeter Avishai Cohen's episodic look at "Sir Duke" so radically altered that only the barest trace elements remain to alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón's revision of "Superstition" that, if not exactly literal, manages to collect the song's multiple threads, bringing them together in a near-endless series of permutations and combinations throughout its eleven-plus minutes only two come from albums outside that golden period. Trombonist Robin Eubanks at fifty, the oldest member of a Collective whose average age has dropped almost every year since its inception reinvents "Race Babbling," from 1979's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (Motown). A swinging, mid-tempo intro leads to a set-defining solo from vibraphonist Stefon Harris, before a taste of the highvelocity, fusion-esque theme from Songs in the Key of Life's "Contusion" powers an equally impressive trombone solo, bolstered by pianist Edward Simon's brisk, Latinesque support. Eubanks' gritty multiphonics ultimately signal the return of the rest of the horns, a knotty but increasingly gentle coda bringing to a close one of set's best rearrangements, despite being sourced from an album that proved to be Wonder's first major career misstep. Another change with Music of Stevie Wonder is the incorporation of electronics into what has, traditionally, been an all-acoustic group. Cohen's processed trumpet is the featured voice on Harris' unexpectedly fiery look at "Visions," a

46 SFJAZZ Collective all about jazz September 7, 2011 page 2 of 3 dark ballad from Wonder's Innervisions (Motown, 1973). Bassist Matt Penman's rework of "Creepin,'" on the other hand, moves the song from Fulfillingness' First Finale (Motown, 1974) into even darker territory, another feature for Cohen this time with an unaffected, muted horn and again made stronger still through Simon's pliant support, before the tune turns to a more energetic end, with drummer Eric Harland pushing the pulse hard as Penman's arrangement moves further and further from its earlier balladic vibe. Harland's rim shot sets the pace for Eubanks' aptly titled original, "Metronome," though it's not long before the trombonist's contrapuntal and syncopated writing leads into more complex territory of shifting tempo and meter, again sharing the solo space with Harris. In another reprise of the MO from "Race Babbling," Eubanks' solo sends the tune soaring into the stratosphere, this time with his processed trombone building to a breathtaking climax of multiphonics and otherworldly sounds that again signal the fundamental shift away from the SFJAZZ Collective's traditionally acoustic approach. It's a shift that should come as no surprise to those familiar with the players' own work in particular Harris' recent Blackout band and Urbanus (Concord, 2009), and Eubanks' outer-reaching EB3 trio and Live Vol. 1 (RKM, 2007). And while those only familiar with their work in the context of SFJAZZ Zenón the only original member from the first season in 2004, Penman and Harland joining the next year, Harris and Eubanks in 2008, and Cohen, Simon and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner in 2009 may find this change to be a little more dramatic, the fact is that since its inception when Joshua Redman was spearheading a group that also included a legacy artist of its own in vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson the SFJAZZ Collective has been moving steadfastly towards increased modernity; one foot still firmly planted in the mainstream, to be sure, but taking material from John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and McCoy Tyner to places none of these admittedly forward-thinking icons could ever have imagined themselves. Turner has long been a musician's musician, greater fame eluding him while those around him, such as guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and pianist Brad Mehldau, have achieved giant profiles. But what the greater jazz public is missing is also their loss; like Simon, Turner is a cerebral player with a heart, capable of creating nothing more than a conceptual context for group interaction with his own "Orpheus," while building lush, Gil Evans-style horn arrangements on a brighter, more emotive version of Wonder's "Blame It On the Sun," from Talking Book (Motown, 1972) where Harland takes the song out with a characteristically powerful and unfettered ostinato-driven solo. While it's easy enough to assess the changes SFJAZZ Collective has wrought on Wonder's music, its own original material is no less compelling. This is also the first time that the recorded document hasn't been culled from across the entire tour; instead, these recordings come from a five-night run at New York City's Jazz Standard in the spring of 2011, where it's also clear that Harris acts as the group's spokesperson. As much as each season uses a single honoree's music as the focal point a selling point, even for this gradually but inexorably evolving group, it's more about what its members bring to the table as composers, arrangers and players that's the real reason SFJAZZ Collective continues to be so successful. "Superstition" may groove with a joyously loose funk that even Wonder (a fine drummer, in addition to being an exceptional keyboardist/singer) couldn't match and Simon's mammoth reading of "Ma Cherie Amour" may go positively nuclear at its midpoint, with Turner and Zenón engaging in a lengthy trade-off but the pianist's "Young and Playful" is just as appealing, as Cohen's powerful solo leads to Simon's best feature of the set, as the tempo picks up and Penman and Harland swing mightily. With a lineup that only has one member left from the original lineup, and a year-after-year change in personnel that, under any other circumstance, would prevent a group from establishing a unique identity, it's hard to believe that SFJAZZ even has one; but as strong as every individual has been throughout the Collective's eight-year history and they're no less distinctive here it's truly less about the individual and absolutely more about the concept of the collective that gives this group its enduring voice. With Live in New York Season 8: Music of Stevie Wonder, the SFJAZZ Collective demonstrates the ability to look beyond jazz for inspiration while still remaining true to its core concept. And as it strives to maintain an atmosphere of both consistency and flux, this stable lineup of two seasons

47 SFJAZZ Collective all about jazz September 7, 2011 page 3 of 3 benefits from what is, for SFJAZZ Collective, a rare opportunity to hone the strong relationships that may well make Live in New York Season 8: Music of Stevie Wonder its best year of music yet. Tracks: CD1: Sir Duke; Do I Do; Family; Blame It On the Sun; Superstition. CD2: Race Babbling; Visions; Orpheus; Young and Playful; The Economy. CD3: Life Signs; Creepin'; Metronome; More To Give; Eminence; My Cherie Amour. Personnel: Miguel Zenón: alto saxophone; Mark Turner: tenor saxophone; Avishai Cohen: trumpet; Robin Eubanks: trombone; Stefon Harris: vibraphone; Edward Simon: piano; Matt Penman: bass; Eric Harland: drums.

48 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Chicago Tribune May 16, 2011 A jazz nexus takes shape in San Francisco BY HOWARD REICH SAN FRANCISCO The auto repair shops at the corner of Franklin and Fell Streets, near the Civic Center district, don't look quite as glamorous as the symphony hall and opera house nearby. But by October of 2012, if all goes according to plan, a gleaming new building will stand here, lights glowing along its glass façade, the sound of jazz pulsing inside. Ground breaking has just begun for the new home of SFJAZZ, the leading jazz presenter in San Francisco and one of the most important in the United States. Never before has this country produced a free-standing, full-service cultural center devoted to jazz (the sprawling Jazz at Lincoln Center complex in Manhattan operates inside the towering Time Warner Center at Broadway and 60th Street). At a cost of $60 million (which includes a $10 million endowment), the SFJAZZ Center will give jazz presentation a kind of cultural parity with the highbrow classical edifices that rose up across America a century ago, or more. "It's really the establishment of a permanent home for jazz," says Randall Kline, executive artistic director and founder of SFJAZZ, which has been presenting the San Francisco Jazz Festival and other offerings in this city since "What this means is that there will be a place where the culture of jazz can be celebrated and encouraged forward. We've done very well being nomads but we won't be nomads anymore." Yet Kline hastens to add that the SFJAZZ Center will look nothing like the immense Davies Symphony Hall (where Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony) or the colossal War Memorial Opera House (home to the much-admired San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet). Those buildings, and other historic structures in the Civic Center neighborhood, evoke an earlier kind of cultural palace: huge, towering and somewhat removed from the hustle of everyday existence. A jazz center, says Kline, needs to be different more reflective of American life in the 21st Century than European culture of the 19th (the obvious model for America's historic music halls). The San Francisco center, says Kline, "is stand-alone, but it's not going to be a monument or a citadel of culture. Those Beaux Arts buildings (nearby) are beautiful, but we want to have a building that looks like a jazz building, so you can see the building is alive." Any jazz center worthy of the name, in other words, needs to connect to the rhythms of the street, which is why San Francisco architect Mark Cavagnero has wrapped the SFJAZZ Center's design in glass, in hopes of obliterating barriers to what happens inside. "It's a building that, in a sense, would dissolve into the night," says Cavagnero, of a structure that will have an auditorium that can be adjusted to seat 350 to 700, plus an 80-seat multi-purpose room, rehearsal spaces and sidewalk level café. "When you're in the main hall, it's a private room, a quiet room, a very focused room. It's all about the music," adds Cavagnero.

49 SFJazz Collective Chicago Tribune May 16, 2011 page 2 of 2 "But when you're outside of that, the rest of the building is extremely public and transparent. The (digital learning) lab, the education space, the lobby they're all intended and designed to be as open as possible to the street, to the city, to the people driving and walking by. "I think of jazz as being this urban art form of music, and the building needs to reflect that ever-changing, everdynamic aspect of city life. It's all about now. It's about 2011 and looking forward." What happens musically, of course, is what counts most, and here, too, Kline and colleagues are venturing beyond conventional approaches. Rather than build their programming around the ideas of a single artistic director, for instance, the SFJAZZ Center has enlisted fully five artistic directors: pianist Jason Moran, saxophonist Miguel Zenon and violinist Regina Carter (all MacArthur Fellows), plus guitarist Bill Frisell and percussionist John Santos. Each will curate two weeks of programming per season, and each will serve for two years. Their far-flung cultural input clearly will be needed, for SFJAZZ expects to double its capacity in the new center, expanding from the approximately 100 shows it presents across the city today to more than 200 in its new home. Remarkably, the organization to date has raised $46.2 million toward the goal of $60 million, a testament to the support the venture is enjoying in San Francisco, which has been a key jazz city through most of the 20th century. "Some of the funders come from old-school philanthropy," says Kline, "some are Silicon Valley money all of them are die-hard jazz fans, people who really believe in this art form." One of them an anonymous donor made a big difference, initially giving $20 million and, recently, committing to an additional $5 million matching grant. Though SFJAZZ clearly follows in the footsteps of Jazz at Lincoln Center, it also goes its own way. So while the New York institution spreads its name around the globe through the travels of the unrivaled Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (led by Wynton Marsalis), the West Coast counterpart presents the SFJAZZ Collective, a smaller ensemble that emphasizes contemporary repertoire (that band will be in residence in the SFJAZZ Center). Each approach has its virtues, each heightens the profile of jazz in America and each, in a way, beckons other cities to follow suit. "I believe this is something that could happen elsewhere," says Kline, "If we do a good job with this and set it up right." Certainly they're off to a strong start.

50 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE The Wall Street Journal March 31, 2011 Building Jazz Its Own Home BY LARRY BLUMENFELD When the SFJazz Collective concludes a 13-city tour with four nights at Manhattan's Jazz Standard beginning Thursday, it will play music composed and inspired by Stevie Wonder. Tackling Mr. Wonder's music is no radical act for this all-star octet, which waves high the banner of the San Francisco arts organization SFJazz. But it hints at the organization's liberated sense of jazz's canon "a tradition in transition," Randall Kline, its executive artistic director, explained. The band, founded in 2004, is a true collective, which befits an organization not firmly rooted in any one musician's conception of jazz (as, say, Jazz at Lincoln Center's program is grounded in trumpeter Wynton Marsalis's aesthetic). If SFJazz reflects anyone's drive and ideals, they are Mr. Kline's. Mr. Kline visited New York on a different sort of tour earlier this year. "I'm doing the venture-capital road show," he said, looking very much the Northern California entrepreneur as he cracked open his laptop in a midtown hotel room. "Jazz has been declared dead or dying on and off throughout my organization's history," he said. "But the truth is it grows and shrinks just like, say, the bond market. It's always worth the investment. What's been exciting has been watching an audience expand even as naysayers say it is disappearing." Founded in 1983, SFJazz presents more than 100 concerts each year, including the city's annual fall jazz festival, to a growing audience that includes a 3,000- member subscriber base. "There's never been an arrival moment," he said of his organization. "It's always been just a gradual figuring things out." Yet SFJazz is poised to arrive at a signal moment. In May, the organization will break ground for a 35,000-square-foot building that will include the Robert N. Miner Auditorium (named for the late Oracle Corp. co-founder), with flexible seating for 350 to 700 people; an 80-seat black-box performance, rehearsal and education space; three practice rooms; a digital learning lab; and a street-level 60-seat café. SFJazz's new center will be the first freestanding building designed and named for jazz. The campaign was initiated in 2008 with a $20 million donation from a Bay Area donor who wished to remain unidentified; SFJazz has raised nearly three-quarters of the project's $60 million total. Next month, Mr. Kline will announce a new collective of sorts: Guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Jason Moran, violinist Regina Carter, percussionist Jon Santos and alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón will serve as resident artistic directors for the first two seasons in the new building, starting October The spot where Franklin and Fell streets meet in San Francisco's bustling Hayes Valley neighborhood is now home to Chris's Muffler Shop and U&I Auto Safety. But when Mr. Kline clicked on a rendering of San Francisco-based architect Mark Cavagnero's design, it was transformed by a three-story structure whose exterior blends glass and steel into a translucent (and, on the first floor, transparent) skin, surrounding a main theater meant to evoke the intimacy of a club more than the formality of a concert hall. "The vision wasn't a citadel to culture," Mr. Kline said, "but rather something that reflects jazz's energy and openness a place that's integrated into the neighborhood." That neighborhood includes, within a six-block radius, War Memorial Opera House, Herbst Theatre, Davies Symphony Hall and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music all venues SFJazz has used for performances.

51 SFJazz Collective The Wall Street Journal March 31, 2011 page 2 of 2 According to Mr. Kline, the concert hall was conceived before the building's exterior. He took his team Mr. Cavagnero, acoustician Sam Berkow and theater consultant Len Auerbach on a research trip that included not just concert halls and landmark clubs, but also the tiny Barbés, at the rear of a Brooklyn bar, and Fat Cat, within a Greenwich Village pool hall. "We were after a vibe," he said. The steeply raked design of the Miner Auditorium owes to saxophonist Joe Lovano's description of his favorite amphitheaters, "where the musicians are looking into the audience's eyes." The decision to place the "lab space" a rehearsal and performance room behind street-level clear glass on one corner was inspired by Mr. Kline's experience of walking past Manhattan's Alvin Ailey Dance Theater studio and seeing dancers in action. Long before he envisioned the current project, Mr. Kline began spearheading what would become SFJazz. "I first produced a series of failed jazz events," the former bassist, who had done music promotion and production work, said. But emboldened by "the strength and diversity of San Francisco's jazz scene" and some funding from the city's hotel tax fund, in 1983 he founded the nonprofit Jazz in the City, which grew into SFJazz. "At that time, there was no institutional model for jazz," he said. "So I researched how other cultural organizations operate." At an early meeting with city officials, Mr. Kline could see the San Francisco Symphony's offices: Here was one model, he thought. The National Endowment for the Arts funded the organization's first development director in 1985, and, years later, its earliest strategic plan. By 2000, SFJazz was presenting concerts year-round, and had hired saxophonist Joshua Redman, a Bay Area native, as spring season artistic director (a post he held through 2006). "He coined that phrase, 'tradition in transition,' which I think articulated our idea of jazz as a living, breathing thing," Mr. Kline said. "I learned from him to use artists as guides." The idea for a facility had long been in Mr. Kline's sights; in 2000, he set about creating a plan. Soon Mr. Kline was in extended talks with the city's symphony and opera toward constructing a shared site. "I found myself sitting at the table with them as partners. That alone felt like a triumph," he said. Ultimately, SFJazz's board decided its strongest future involved a dedicated home. And the $20 million anonymous donation, coupled with an initial $10 million raised by its board, provided the spark. Mr. Kline revels in the finer details of the building to come: cup holders to help concertgoers feel more like they're in a club; movable seating ("there will be dancing here"); high-end coffee served in the café daily starting at 7 a.m. These little things help advance a big-picture mission. "We're trying to change the game a little, not just for jazz but for cultural consumption," he said. "That's the audacious idea on the table. Will our building feel radical when you go there? Probably not. The big success is it will feel comfortable. And we hope that, in opposition to the urge to huddle around smartphones and computers, it will create a new sort of gathering space around culture."

52 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Emory Wheel March 21, 2011 Stevie Wonder Meets Jazz BY MICHELLE IZMAYLOV Reinterpreting jazz musicians Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter is a challenge in its own right. But embracing pop music icon Stevie Wonder and reinventing his work into modern jazz? Seems impossible. In last Friday s performance as part of the Flora Glenn Candler Concert Series, an octet of the finest performers and composers on today s jazz scene the Collective tackled that curve ball and presented fresh interpretations of some of Wonder s greatest hits. Each year the Collective, launched in 2004, brings the best in contemporary jazz as they reinvent a new jazz master by performing original arrangements of his or her work. The tunes of past greats such as Ornette Coleman, McCoy Tyner and Horace Silver are played along with the group s own pieces. This spring, for the first time, the group departed from the jazz canon to plunge into the genre of pop and hit a high note. Playing Stevie Wonder s music with the SFJAZZ Collective is exhilarating because it s the music I grew up with, said musician Eric Harland in the program notes. Drummer Harland is one of eight musicians in the award-winning lineup, which also includes alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist Edward Simon and bassist Matt Penman. When warm crimson light flooded the stage, the soulful calm of the performance hall quickly thrummed to life with loose adaptations of Wonder s most renowned works including Do I Do, Look Around and Sir Duke, Wonder s own 1977 tribute to influential jazz legend Duke Ellington and other jazz hits. A Grammy-nominated vibraphonist, Harris was a personal favorite, springing in with flawless timing to coax soul from the vibraphone. The instrument resonated with headbobbing jazz tunes and hummed like human vocals under Harris s expert hands. The most memorable performances came later in the evening when the Collective shifted from Wonder songs to their own inventions. Hailing from as close as New York, Berkeley and Houston and as far off as Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Israel and New Zealand, each artist spiced up the night with his own unique flavor of music. New colors of lighting swept the stage before each song, carefully chosen to complement the musical mood of the coming piece. More To Give, another personal favorite of the evening, was composed by Zenón. A founding member of the Collective, Grammy Nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, Zenón, like his fellow jazz stars, is no stranger to compelling and commanding music, rich in passion. The eight new songs commissioned for this year s spring tour by SFJAZZ will appear alongside Stevie Wonder compositions on a multi-cd set, Live 2011, which is due out in the coming fall. SFJAZZ, the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz and education program on the West Coast, seeks out soloists, composers and other greats who represent the frontier of modern jazz. The Collective joins the education movement by mentoring young musicians in addition to touring and showcasing fresh takes on jazz classics repertoires.

53 SFJazz Collective Emory Wheel March 21, 2011 page 2 of 2 Prior to their Saturday evening performance, trumpeter Cohen and bassist Penman led a Q&A with Emory jazz students at 2 p.m. But the highlight of the day for those students and all who were witness to the evening was the passion of the performers for their craft. Bathed in a rich darkness where warmth and music played on the stage like flames from the soul of jazz, the soft tapping of audience shoes and the sway of heads confirmed the gripping momentum of the Collective s latest triumph.

54 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE San Francisco Chronicle March 13, 2011 SFJazz Collective takes on Stevie Wonder: review BY AIDIN VAZIRI It takes a brave soul to tackle the music of Stevie Wonder. The latest incarnation of the SFJazz Collective happens to contain eight of them. Having taken on jazz titans like John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Thelonious Monk in the past, the group, which played at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre on Friday as part of the SFJazz Spring Season, picked an equally challenging target for its first foray into the pop world. "We are celebrating the music of one of my great, great heroes," said vibraphonist Stefon Harris. The Grammynominated New York musician recalled listening to Wonder's 1976 masterpiece, "Songs in the Key of Life," five times in a row as a kindergartener: "That's when I knew I had a passion for music." With a blast of horns and a skitter across the vibraphone's bars, intimidation quickly gave way to experimentation at the Herbst. The ensemble features the same lineup for the second year running - Harris, drummer Eric Harland, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, bassist Matt Penman, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Edward Simon, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and trombonist Robin Eubanks. Together they offered four distinct, loose-limbed adaptations of some of Wonder's best-known tunes alongside several original compositions by the individual band members. The voluptuous melody of the Wonder-penned set opener "My Cherie Amour" was pulled apart and served up in an expansive jam that saw Zenón spitting back notes and Harland drawing out a maniacal groove while his head tilted back some 90 degrees. Penman issued a dark-hued deconstruction of Wonder's "Creepin,' " while Turner retained just a few familiar chord changes amid the rousing fanfare of "Blame It on the Sun." Zenón, meanwhile, a Puerto Rican-born musician who studied at Boston's Berklee College of Music, was responsible for the Caribbean influence on the night's most faithful cover, "Superstition." He said he "put a little rice and beans and plantains into it." The ensemble's sense of adventure spilled over into the new pieces, which veered from Harris' buoyant tribute to his 2- year-old son, "Lifesigns," to the Israeli-born Cohen's meditative, minimalist encore number, "Family." Brave doesn't really begin to describe it. The collective serves as the house band for SFJazz, the long-running arts organization that also programs the San Francisco Jazz Festival and Summerfest, along with a host of educational services. The spring season calendar is highlighted this year by jazz guitarist Marc Ribot, playing a live soundtrack score for Charlie Chaplin's classic 1921 film "The Kid" on Wednesday at YBCA Forum; Randy Newman performing a rare solo concert at Davies Symphony Hall on April 22; and 84-year-old Tony Bennett revisiting some of his biggest hits at the same venue on May 28. SFJazz Spring Season 2011: Through June 25. Tickets may be purchased at the SFJazz Store, Embarcadero 3, lobby level, San Francisco, by phone at (866) or online at

55 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Mercury News March 11, 2011 SFJazz Collective gives a new spin to music by Stevie Wonder BY RICHARD SCHEININ Stevie Wonder's songs are a celebration: extravagantly joyful, spilling over with great melodies, underpinned by cool harmonies that you don't even think about while the songs are happening. And then there's the matter of Stevie's voice; what could be more inspiring? He's an uplift generator for the world, a genius, a pinnacle. So how do you re-sculpt the pinnacle? With mixed results, the SFJazz Collective, an all-star octet, is launching a Stevie Wonder project, re-casting his songs in complex new arrangements, drawing on a palette of 21st century colors, harmonies and rhythms. Thursday at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, the band rolled out some of those arrangements, as it will tonight when it performs at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco as part of the SFJazz Spring Season. This band is stocked with leading players -- vibraphonist Stefon Harris, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, drummer Eric Harland -- and having a chance to see it up close, in a 200-seat club, was a treat. But these re-conceived Wonder tunes, by and large, had way too many gears in motion. There was too much obvious effort behind the performances of songs that we associate with effortlessness. And, sorry guys, but it was hard not to miss Stevie's voice. Harris's arrangement of "Visions" included some fresh sounds: Phrases kept budding open through the band's front line of trombone, trumpet, tenor and alto saxophone. Zenon's take on "Superstition" had attractive down-shifting effects, beautiful gospel-inspired chords and a solo by Harris that was so soulfully relaxed that, yes, it momentarily brought Wonder to mind. Across two sets, the vibraphonist kept melting through the music, consistently inspired. As an example of what didn't work -- I'll give only one -- there was trumpeter Avishai Cohen's arrangement of "Sir Duke." It turned the hit single into a piece of chamber jazz, isolating key themes, as if they were Webern tidbits. It segued into some Mingus-inspired urban-bustle swing, then gave way to an odd duet between drummer Harland, who began with a "Sing, Sing, Sing" rumble, and tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, whose up-the-down-staircase solo was like dry ice. It was a mishmash: "Interesting," some might say. The Collective, created eight years ago by the SFJazz organization, was coming off two weeks of rehearsal, getting ready to go on tour. Maybe its upcoming performances in San Francisco and beyond will find more of a flow, become less fussy. But I found myself wondering -- as I did last year, when the group re-arranged classics by Horace Silver -- why anyone would want to tamper with songs that are essentially perfect. Turning an essence into a puzzle isn't the way to go about it. Much more successful were the band's original tunes. Pianist Edward Simon's "Young and Playful," inspired by his children, found its own perfection. The arrangement wasn't overcrowded; it conjured happy images of children spinning in circles. And the rhythm section -- Simon, Harland and bassist Matt Penman -- achieved a joyfully insistent, levitating swing that recalled Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins and Paul Chambers. Penman's aptly titled "The Economy" -- he talked about the tune's ups and downs, its angst and moments of nostalgia -- was a puzzle that worked. It began with half a dozen interlocking gears in motion, then stopped. Cohen pointed his

56 SFJazz Collective Mercury News March 11, 2011 page 2 of 2 trumpet into the grand piano and poured out plaintive melody, creating overtones and echoes. Zenon, whose sound is extravagantly beautiful, mimicked some of Cohen's lines and later uncorked a solo of pure celebration -- the spirit of Stevie Wonder. And toward the end of the night, there was "Metronome" by trombonist Robin Eubanks. Its grooves kept advancing and accumulating, led by Harland, his eyes pointed at the sky, as Eubanks jabbed through one of his nail-hard, staccatoburst solos, breaking into multiphonics, the music in a constant state of explosion. On paper, this tune is another puzzle. In performance, it became music.

57 Portland Jazz Festival 2011: SF JAZZ Collective premieres Stevie Wonder in all its wonder Oregon Music News 2/27/11 2:23 PM Portland Jazz Festival 2011: SF JAZZ Collective premieres Stevie Wonder in all its wonder by Angela Allen on February 27, 2011 How were we to know that Portland would be the first audience to hear SF JAZZ Collectiveʼs interpretation of the great Stevie Wonder, who as vibes man Stefon Harris says, played the sound track of my life. The octet, composed of hot instrumentalists and elegant composers, blew the audience away Saturday at Portlandʼs Newmark Theatre during the last weekend of Portland Jazz Festivalʼs Bridges and Boundaries: Jewish and African-Americans Playing Jazz. As promised, these eight guys played complex, eartitillating arrangements of Stevie Wonder songs, along with own new compositions. Each year, the group focuses on a significant jazz composer, though genrebending Wonderʼs work will be featured in both 2011 and SF JAZZ Collective / Photo by Kevin Tomanka SF JAZZ Collective / Photo by Kevin Tomanka In previous years SF JAZZ Collective has interpreted the work of jazz giants John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, and most recently hard-bop pianist Horace Silver. The group produces a two- or three-cd package each year. Wayne Shorter interpretations (2008) is the best-seller up to this point, but who knows what will happen with ever influential crossover king Stevie Wonder? His music lures lots of younger fans as Saturdayʼs concert proved. Who doesnʼt know Stevie Wonderʼs music (Obama loves him too!)? Which jazz musician hasnʼt been influenced by him? The knock-out opener was Venezuelan-born pianist Ed Simonʼs lovely arrangement of My Cherie Amour, which featured his cerebral playing but gave plenty of space to the other musicians. The piece went on for 20 minutes, after all. Vibes musician Stefon Harrisʼs take of Wonderʼs Visions followed, and then came Triple Threat, an original composition by New Zealand-born bassist Matt Penman, which gave alto saxophonist solo. Miguel Zenon a hoppinʼ I loved tenor saxophonist Mark Turnerʼs laid-back Brother and Sister, Two ( there must be a One somewhere, Cohen joked). Turner, who was in a nasty accident, took off and put back on a black glove to keep his left hand warm (reverse of Michael Jackson) between pieces. Still the disrobing of the very plain black glove (Harris said it should have some bling, but hey, this is jazz, not pop weʼre listening to) ) didnʼt appear to interfere with is soulful playing. Zenonʼs rousing rendition of Wonderʼs Supertsition was the closer. Zenon, the longest member of the band launched by the nonprofit institute SF JAZZ in 2004, kept his cool like the well-mannered ensemble leader he is throughout the set, but when Superstition unfolds, he let any inhibitions go. And can he play? Yes, like a madman. And arrange? Yes, to that, too. The collective passed around the microphone and kept the music and its presentation democratic, though vibes wizard Harris is the guy who likes to talk. Trumpeter Aivashi Cohen and trombonist Robin Eubanks have astoundingly good horn chemistry (both during serious music-playing and onstage ribbing) though their arrangements werenʼt featured. Youʼll have to wait for the new CD, yet to be recorded to hear each of these star soloists and composers pull out all the stops on Wonder and his wonderful music. Oregon Music News is happy to be the Online Media Sponsor for the Portland Jazz Festival Tags: Avishai Cohen, Edward Simon, Eric Harland, Mark Turner, Matt Penman, Miguel Zenon, Newmark Theatre, Portland Jazz Festival 2011, Robin Eubanks, SF JAZZ Collective, Stefon Harris, Stevie Wonder Angela Allen Page 1 of 2

58 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE The New York Times October 26, 2010 Jazz With Updates on the Past and Eyes on the Future BY NATE CHINEN The music of Horace Silver doesn t exactly beg for reinvention. His compositions especially those made famous from the mid-1950s through the mid-60s, when he was the high-spirited skipper of hard bop come prefitted with guideposts and grace notes, an array of breezy embellishments that turn out to be essential. These are songs of brisk efficiency and elegant simplicity. You wouldn t want to mess any of that up. Which is one of many reasons to marvel at the current edition of the SFJazz Collective, an eight-member delegation of the San Francisco organization SFJazz. As it has every year since 2004, this all-star ensemble is exploring the repertory of a single modern-jazz composer, along with works by each of its members. The band has a fine new three-cd set, Live 2010: 7th Annual Concert Tour (SFJazz), recorded this spring. On Friday night it played the Jazz Gallery, a smaller room than usual, and blew the place apart. Cape Verdean Blues opened the first set, in an arrangement by the vibraphonist Stefon Harris. One of Mr. Silver s enduring anthems, the song involves a hiccupping piano vamp and an ebullient parade rhythm. Both were preserved here, though the rhythm section Mr. Harris, the pianist Edward Simon, the bassist Matt Penman and the drummer Eric Harland brought more chop and churn to their groove. And after the theme had run its course, complete with quick-flash solos by Mr. Harris and the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, it ducked into a syncopated coda, suggestive of a D.J. s cuts, with thrashing accents by Mr. Harland. The collective took a more liberal approach to Mr. Silver s finest ballad, Lonely Woman. Miguel Zenón played an imploring preface on alto saxophone, gradually settling into a droning rhythm, the engine behind his dream-state revision of the song. The rhythm section picked up this tempo, agitating quietly while the horns Mr. Zenón, Mr. Akinmusire, the tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and the trombonist Luis Bonilla drifted above, orderly at first and then in a bleating polyphony. There would have been no complaints had the SFJazz Collective filled the rest of the set with Silver. But because the group puts equal emphasis on original music, three new compositions came next, all clearly conceived for this instrumentation. Collective Presence, by Mr. Simon, and Triple Threat, by Mr. Penman, each featured a processional cadence and noble harmony, with careful interplay among the horns. ( Triplet Threat also included a calmly devastating solo by Mr. Turner, covering what seemed like the extended range of his instrument, with an even keel.) For the closer, Mr. Harland s Harlandia, the group added Avishai Cohen, its regular trumpeter. (He sat out this tour because of the recent birth of his son.) Mr. Cohen played an expressive introduction, pointing his horn into the chassis of the piano to produce sympathetic vibrations; Mr. Akinmusire backed him deferentially, slurring his pitch. The song swelled up beneath them, a Coplandesque vista. Grander than any theme by Mr. Silver, it suited this band perfectly.

59 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE Postmedia News September 24, 2010 CD Review from Ottawa: SFJAZZ Collective Live 2010 BY PETER HUM SFJAZZ Collective Live 2010 (SFJAZZ) SFJAZZ Collective Rating: four stars One of jazz's leading all-star bands is back with its annual three-cd live set, following its formula but with a few changes in the roster. The SFJAZZ Collective now lacks three of the big names that were in the group last year when it played Ottawa: pianist Renee Rosnes, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas. Replacing them are pianist Edward Simon, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and trumpeter Avishai Cohen. As result, the average age of the group's musicians - who also include alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, trombonist Robin Eubanks, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland - has dropped a few years. More importantly, the co-op group is a bit more cohesive, given the common interests of these musicians in their 30s and early 40s. The group fulfills the now-standard SFJAZZ Collective mandate, with each member contributing an original tune and an arrangement of a piece by the year's venerated jazz composer. In 2010, the honoree is jazz's proto-funkmeister Horace Silver, and several of his best-known groove tunes have been transplanted into the realm of 2010 funk. Cape Verdean Blues makes a fine first impression, ably representing the group's high-energy, high-gloss, new-groove esthetic. In a similar vein is Harland's arrangement of Senor Blues, which features some turbulent collective soloing and then a soaring Simon solo. The best of the Silver flag-wavers is Simon's grand, 13-minute arrangement of Song For My Father, spun into 7/4 and festooned with droning hypnotic chords for vibes and piano and a rousing shout chorus for the front line. Zenon, Simon and especially Harland - roaring on Simon's an expanded version of introductory figure - really take off on this tune. The octet also tackles the classic Silver ballads Peace and Lonely Woman. Arranged by Turner, Peace begins with sublime passage for the horns alone, before Penman and Simon solo tenderly and compellingly. Lonely Woman, arranged by Zenon, is more tense and modern, powered by Penman's pedal tones and Harland's chattering drums, as if Silver's Lonely Woman had been crossed with Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman. Turner takes a solo filled with his typically corkscrewing melodies until the whole band releases the tension. The collection's originals continue to stress the collective's signature blend of exuberance and complexity. With its interlocking horn lines, surplus of syncopation, odd-meter grooving and broad tunefulness, Eubanks' More Than Meets The Ear sounds like it would have suited a Dave Holland band as much as the Collective. Zenon's The Mystery of Water winningly covers a broad range of material, from its contemporary fanfare opening to its folkloric theme reiterated several ways, to its classy, flowing solos by Harris and Zenon himself.

60 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE EdwardSimon.com July 28, 2010 Edward Simon named Guggenheim Fellow New Member of the SFJazz Collective Guggenheim Fellow. International jazz artist Edward Simon was just awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition. Often characterized as a "mid-career" award, Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for those who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. A recording artist for the CAM Jazz recording label based in Rome, Italy, Simon is a composer and pianist originally from Venezuela who is based in Orange City, Florida. Simon commented on his plans for the award: I feel deeply honored by this award and plan to compose several works for strings. I'll begin with a series of string quartets and later expand into various combinations such as string quartet and piano, string quartet and jazz piano trio, and finally a work for piano and string orchestra. In my compositions, I endeavor to develop a sound that strikes a balance between the structural clarity of classical music and the moment-to-moment interaction of jazz. I revel in the hybrids resulting from the integration of ethnic rhythms, jazz harmony and improvisation. The music of Latin America, with its infectious rhythms, poetry and passion, is one of my greatest resources. It offers an ocean of possibilities both rhythmically and melodically. Thus this series of works will be based on rhythms and forms such as danzón, Venezuelan merengue, joropo, bolero and baiao. I'm presently seeking established string quartets to work with. Preference is given to ensembles who improvise, are looking to expand their musical vocabulary and repertoire and are open to influences such as jazz and world music. Guggenheim Fellowships are grants made for a minimum of six months and a maximum of twelve months. The purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship grant program is to help provide Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants are made freely. No special conditions are attached to them, and Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work. CAM Jazz. Simon's most recent recording for CAM Jazz was 2009's Poesia which followed his acclaimed debut for the label, Unicity. Both featured his trio with Edward Simon, piano; John Patitucci on bass and Brian Blade on drums. Agostino Campi, Managing Director, of CAM Jazz, noted, "We are privileged to have someone of Edward's artistic talent and emotional resonance recording for our label. We're thrilled for him that his considerable contributions to jazz and composition have been recognized by such an esteemed organization. We can't wait to hear what he creates!" SFJAZZ. Simon recently became a member of the renowned SFJazz Collective, an all-star jazz ensemble comprising eight of the finest performer/composers at work in jazz today. Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ - the West Coast's largest non-profit jazz institution and the presenter of the annual San Francisco Jazz Festival - the Collective has quickly become one of the most exciting and acclaimed groups on the American and international jazz scenes. NPR. Simon will be heard this summer on NPR's Jazz Set radio program, which will broadcast the premiere performance of his "Sorrows and Triumphs" work.

61 SF JAZZ Collective The New York Times May 6, 2010 San Francisco Jazz Group Plans Its Own Building Dedicated to the Genre BY BEN RATLIFF SFJazz, the San Francisco arts organization, will announce plans on Friday to build its own facility dedicated to jazz: a 35,000-square-foot building in that city s Hayes Valley neighborhood, with two adaptable theater spaces inside. The concept of an institution for jazz is a very new thing obviously, Jazz at Lincoln Center made that concept work, said Randall Kline, the group s director. It s the idea that jazz has earned a right to permanence. And because our view of jazz is wide-angled, it s a great thing for the art form. The building, to be called the SFJazz Center and designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects, is scheduled to break ground in spring 2011 and open in fall It will entail a $60 million capital campaign, including a $10 million operating endowment. The campaign was initiated in 2008 by a $20 million donation from an individual from the Bay Area who wished to remain unidentified, Mr. Kline said. Beyond the gift, $10 million has been raised from the SFJazz board; Mr. Kline hopes to raise 80 percent of the $60 million total by next spring. Founded in 1983, SFJazz offers nearly 100 concerts a year to a growing audience that includes a 3,000-member subscriber base. As the most visible presenter of jazz in San Francisco, it produces the city s annual fall jazz festival, as well as its own year-round schedule of concerts, talks and workshops. Since 2004 it has cultivated its own in-house band, the SFJazz Collective, whose members have included some of the genre s marquee names Joshua Redman, Dave Douglas, Joe Lovano, Bobby Hutcherson and Nicholas Payton. The band records and tours with a new program every year. In many respects, SFJazz has functioned like a West Coast counterpart to New York s Jazz at Lincoln Center. But the creation of a bricks-and-mortar home base where the organization will present 90 percent of its concerts near the city s conservatory of music and symphony hall seals that comparison. Mr. Kline said the theater inside the building would be a steeply raked, 700-seat space. It s acoustically friendly to jazz both in the sound aspect and the proximity aspect, he said. The idea I m trying to capture is intimacy. He added, When we visited other theaters with our architectural people, we went to many smaller places, including Barbès and the Brooklyn Lyceum in New York. We wanted a hybrid of different theater shapes, not necessarily associated with a particular art form, whether music or theater. And we wanted a community room, welcome to everybody.

62 SF JAZZ COLLECTIVE The New York Times May 6, 2010 page 2 of 2 Another space inside the building, he said, will be a multi-use room with an 80-person capacity that will serve as a daytime rehearsal hall for the Collective, SFJazz s high school band and community big band, as well as handle smaller concerts at night. There will also be a cafe, and four other rooms for rehearsal and recording. If we get it right, it s going to be a great place to experience music, Mr. Kline said. It truly could be a center for jazz.

63 Silver Linings : Latest incarnation of inspiring SFJAZZ Collective s point of departure was the music of legend Horace Silver Tuesday night at UCSB Campbell Hall By Josef Woodard NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT March 4, :43 AM On one hand, the return of the SFJAZZ Collective, Tuesday at Campbell Hall, was a case of déja vu all over again, this being the fourth local appearance by a project that started back in On the other hand, things inherently change as they embrace tradition in this band, which has grown into one of the more exciting entities in the current jazz scene. By blending respect for history and tradition and the natural jazz yearning for the new and the "now," the eight-piece "little big band" Collective is a blissfully evolving and revolving musical organism. It fosters and commissions new material each year, written by a cast of top-drawer musical characters. DAVIDBAZEMORE.COM PHOTO So what began as a project, an ambitious offshoot of the San Francisco Jazz Festival and more or less led by tenor saxist Joshua Redman (involved in the first two Santa Barbara concerts, also at Campbell Hall), shifted gears to include such high-stakes players as tenor titan Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas in the version that landed at the Lobero Theatre in As for this year's model, alive and kicking and thinking and swinging on Tuesday night, the only charter member was alto saxist Miguel Zenon, while drummer Eric Harland dates back to Bassist Matt Penman, trombonist Robin Eubanks and vibraphonist Stefon Harris have been in the fold for two-plus years, and the newcomers are pianist Edward Simon (replacing charter member Renee Rosnes), tenor saxist Mark Turner and trumpeter Avishai Cohen. Again, things change as they remain, and the Collective's essential sound and musical philosophy prevails even as the personnel shifts. Roll call aside, the most important thing to understand, and the message rang out clearly at Campbell Hall, is that these players are among the finest and most thoughtful jazz musicians of our day, brought together under one roof and one rubric in the Collective.

64 As part of the annual structure of the Collective's residency, involving commissioning, a residency, a tour and a resulting live recording each season, a legendary jazz composer is chosen as a source of tribute and new arrangements. This year, the focus was on the music of the melodic and groove-inclined pianist-composer great Horace Silver. Tuesday's set kicked off with Mr. Harland's jubilant, riff-based and occasionally abstract take on the Silver classic "Senor Blues," followed by Mr. Eubanks' propulsive but also odd-metered version of Mr. Silver's "The Lady from Johannesburg," replete with a stunning solo by the trombonist, certainly one of the greatest living jazz bone players. Closing the set, proper, on a high and disarmingly intricate note, was Mr. Harris' stirring new arrangement of Mr. Silver's "Cape Verdean Blues," its coda section turning evermore rhythmically tricky, and a fine setting for a knotty-cool drum solo by Mr. Harland. Each member also is assigned to write a new composition for this group - now the proud owners of a sizable songbook of charts. Highlights from that original segment of the Collective songbook on Tuesday included Mr. Cohen's variation-based "Suite for Ward Martin Tavares" (its title an allusion to Horace Silver's other names), and Mr. Penman's "Triple Threat," which opens with pensive softness but rallies into rousing energy. For an encore, the band closed on a cool, almost hymnal note, with the contemplative Silver ballad "Peace," as arranged by Mr. Turner - who nicely demonstrated his proven penchant for haunting lyricism. The full and varied evening of jazz, circa 2010 but with well-rooted tentacles in jazz history, closed with a poised luster.

65 SF JAZZ Collective The Santa Barbara Independent March 2, 2010 Robin Eubanks of SF JAZZ Collective Trombonist and Composer Robin Eubanks On Horace Silver and SF JAZZ BY CHARLES DONELAN The SF JAZZ Collective has earned a worldwide reputation for keeping the tradition of post-bop composition and arrangement alive. Although the personnel changes every year, players who fit the goals and process of the organization particularly well get invited back, and trombonist Robin Eubanks is a prime example of that elite group within the group. Eubanks writes great originals, does funky, challenging yet playable arrangements, and roars on his horn. I spoke with him recently about the group, its tour, and his contributions to this year, which is dedicated to the music of Horace Silver. How s the repertoire shaping up? What kind of music can we expect? Everyone has to bring in a Horace Silver arrangement plus an original composition. I picked something I had actually never heard before, a tune called The Lady from Johannesburg. I cued up about 80 songs by Horace Silver on Rhapsody and that s the one I chose. The original has some great personnel Mike Brecker, Ron Carter, Lewis Nash, and my friend Steve Turre on trombone. It was recorded back in 1996, and I just did one of my usual numbers on it. The original I wrote is funk based, and it s in an unusual time signature 5, or maybe 7, I forget which. How do you go from your big book of tunes to a set list for that particular night? When we create the evening s set list we need to look at a number of things. There s the type of song and how that s sequenced, because you don t necessarily want to follow a ballad with a ballad, for instance, so we try to balance that. With 16 songs to choose from you also need to have some respect for set form, and for the contributions that each guy has made. It s a puzzle, but we figure it out. SF JAZZ has a tradition of working hard before hitting the road. Is that being kept up? We ve been rehearsing 6 hours a day for over a week now, and ask any jazz musician and you ll find out that that is not the norm. Even so, given the ambition and complexity of this music we re still not at 100 percent now, but we ll get

66 SF JAZZ The Santa Barbara Independent March 2, 2010 page 2 of 2 there. We have four nights at Jazz Alley from February 25 through February 28 booked as our first gig, and that s a great place to play that will give us a chance to really find the groove in front of a good audience. You keep coming back to this group, so you must like it. What s so special about the Collective? I love the SF JAZZ Collective. It s a great organization to work for, especially if you care about writing and arranging. They pay us well, they put us up, and they are open to our suggestions. As a result, the band tends to attract top players. The new additions this year are all excellent. We have Ed Simon on piano, and he s somebody I ve known about for a while because he used to work with my brother Kevin. We were on a tour together that took us to Aruba, and it s been nice to see him again. Mark Turner plays sax with the Dave Holland Big Band as well, so you know he s got to be good. The trumpeter, Avishai Cohen, was someone I did not know so well, but from what I have heard so far, I am really impressed. He s great. What kind of a tour do you have planned? We get to go to Amsterdam, and you know, when a jazz group books a European tour, typically the first two questions that a musician will ask are how long do we get to spend in Amsterdam? and are we going to Italy? This time the answers are both good, because we are going to Italy, and we re spending three whole days in Amsterdam. [Laughs.] What makes SF JAZZ special for you? Every year it s brand new. That s both the beauty of it and the hard part of it, because it s a shame to put all this work into the arrangements and then throw it all away at the end of the year because we re on to a new composer. To be compensated for this type of work is a dream. Of course no one would do it if they weren t, but still. For me, it s one among many great opportunities, because I m also playing with Dave Holland, and teaching at Oberlin, so I m keeping busy.

67 SF JAZZ Collective Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations January 13, 2010 SFJAZZ Announces New SFJAZZ Collective Lineup, 2010 Tour Dates MARSHALL LAMM PROMOTIONS & PUBLIC RELATIONS SFJAZZ today announced the new 2010 lineup and repertoire for the SFJAZZ Collective. Commissioned exclusively by SFJAZZ, the leading nonprofit jazz organization on the West Coast and the presenter of the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the 11th Annual SFJAZZ Spring Season, running February 19 through June 12, the Collective will welcome tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and pianist Edward Simon. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris also returns to the Collective after a one-year hiatus from the band. The all-star roster includes veteran alto saxophonist Miguel Zenn, trombonist Robin Eubanks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. The Collective's new lineup strikes a perfect balance among founding members, multi-year veterans and exciting newcomers. In 2010, the Collective will feature new arrangements of the work of legendary pianist Horace Silver and fresh original compositions by each of the eight Collective members. Miguel Zenon says of Horace Silver, If I had to describe Horace Silver in one word it would be 'originality.' From the early examples of him as a player and composer, we can hear that he is a special voice that is funky, groovy and bluesy. It will be our pleasure to dig into his music and try to make it as much ours as it is his." Edward Simon mentions, Horace Silver is a master of the small jazz ensemble form who has managed to produce a consistent catalog of great tunes. His tunes are a joy to play. His compositions have strong melodies and grooves, two of the elements that excite me the most about music!" Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ and named Rising Star Jazz Band of the Year" in Down Beat's 2006 International Critics Poll and 2009 Small Group Ensemble of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, the SFJAZZ Collective is a workshop band unlike any other in jazz. The group features a changing lineup with each member hand-selected to contribute their own unique sounds, styles and voices. They are all distinguished not just by degree, but diversity of talent and each member is a celebrated instrumentalist, an outstanding composer and arranger, and most are among today's most lauded bandleaders. The Collective also presents a global music perspective with musicians from Puerto Rico (Zenon), Israel (Cohen), New Zealand (Penman) and Venezuela (Simon). Hailed by The New York Times as possibly jazz's premier player," Mark Turner has been quietly building a reputation as a musician's musician. He attended Berklee College Of Music in the late '80s where he met musicians that would figure prominently in his later work, including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Joshua Redman. Turner has recorded five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and he has also appeared with such luminary artists as Dave Holland, Brad Mehldau, Dave Douglas and Lee Konitz. His latest project is the trio FLY with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Their new album Sky And Country appeared on ECM in early 2009 and was selected as one of the year's best jazz albums by The Village Voice Critics Poll. Trumpeter Avishai Cohen is one of the most sought-after players of his generation and an assertive and accomplished trumpeter with a taste for modernism" according to The New York Times. Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Cohen began performing at age 10 and toured the world with the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Relocating to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College Of Music, he placed third in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Trumpet Competition in After developing his craft at New York's Smalls jazz club alongside contemporaries such as pianist Jason

68 SFJAZZ ANNOUNCES NEW SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE LINEUP TENOR SAXOPHONIST MARK TURNER, TRUMPETER AVISHAI COHEN, PIANIST EDWARD SIMON JOIN ALL-STAR OCTET AND VIBRAPHONIST STEFON HARRIS RETURNS 2010 SEASON DEVOTED TO REPERTOIRE OF HORACE SILVER PLUS NEW COMPOSITIONS BY COLLECTIVE MEMBERS (SAN FRANCISCO, CA, January 12, 2010) SFJAZZ today announced the new 2010 lineup and repertoire for the SFJAZZ Collective. Commissioned exclusively by SFJAZZ, the leading nonprofit jazz organization on the West Coast and the presenter of the San Francisco Jazz Festival and the 11th Annual SFJAZZ Spring Season, running February 19 through June 12, the Collective will welcome tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and pianist Edward Simon. Vibraphonist Stefon Harris also returns to the Collective after a one-year hiatus from the band. The all-star roster includes veteran alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, trombonist Robin Eubanks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland. The Collective s new lineup strikes a perfect balance among founding members, multi-year veterans and exciting newcomers. In 2010, the Collective will feature new arrangements of the work of legendary pianist Horace Silver and fresh original compositions by each of the eight Collective members. Miguel Zenón says of Horace Silver, If I had to describe Horace Silver in one word it would be originality. From the early examples of him as a player and composer, we can hear that he is a special voice that is funky, groovy and bluesy. It will be our pleasure to dig into his music and try to make it as much ours as it is his. Edward Simon mentions, Horace Silver is a master of the small jazz ensemble form who has managed to produce a consistent catalog of great tunes. His tunes are a joy to play. His compositions have strong melodies and grooves, two of the elements that excite me the most about music! Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ and named Rising Star Jazz Band of the Year in Down Beat s 2006 International Critics Poll and 2009 Small Group Ensemble of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association, the SFJAZZ Collective is a workshop band unlike any other in jazz. The group features a changing lineup with each member hand-selected to contribute their own unique sounds, styles and voices. They are all distinguished not just by degree, but diversity of talent and each member is a celebrated instrumentalist, an outstanding composer and arranger, 1

69 and most are among today s most lauded bandleaders. The Collective also presents a global music perspective with musicians from Puerto Rico (Zenón), Israel (Cohen), New Zealand (Penman) and Venezuela (Simon) Hailed by The New York Times as possibly jazz s premier player, Mark Turner has been quietly building a reputation as a musician s musician. He attended Berklee College Of Music in the late 80s where he met musicians that would figure prominently in his later work, including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Joshua Redman. Turner has recorded five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and he has also appeared with such luminary artists as Dave Holland, Brad Mehldau, Dave Douglas and Lee Konitz. His latest project is the trio FLY with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Their new album Sky And Country appeared on ECM in early 2009 and was selected as one of the year s best jazz albums by The Village Voice Critics Poll. Trumpeter Avishai Cohen is one of the most sought-after players of his generation and an assertive and accomplished trumpeter with a taste for modernism according to The New York Times. Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Cohen began performing at age 10 and toured the world with the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Relocating to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College Of Music, he placed third in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Trumpet Competition in After developing his craft at New York s Smalls jazz club alongside contemporaries such as pianist Jason Lindner and bassist Omer Avital, Cohen has expanded his sonic palette to include African music (with Lionel Loueke), funk (Meshell Ndegeocello), folk/pop (Keren Ann) and effects-laden avantgarde explorations. Pianist Edward Simon was born in the coastal town of Punta Cardón, Venezuela, where he grew up in a family of musicians surrounded by the sounds and rhythms of Latin and Caribbean music. Settling in New York City in 1989, he played with numerous jazz masters, including Herbie Mann, Paquito D'Rivera, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby Watson, Terence Blanchard and Don Byron. He has produced seven critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including two New York Times top ten jazz records of the year: Simplicitas (Criss Cross, 2005) and Edward Simon (Kokopelli, 1994). Currently, Simon leads his own trio, Ensemble Venezuela, collaborates with saxophonist David Binney in the quartet Afinidad and also appears alongside his brothers in the group Simon, Simon & Simon. A member of the Collective in 2008, vibraphonist Stefon Harris returns to the group after a one-year hiatus. Harris has been called one of the most important young artists in jazz by The Los Angeles Times. He displays passionate artistry, energetic stage presence, and astonishing virtuosity that have propelled him into the forefront of the current jazz scene. The 36-year-old is committed both to exploring the rich potential of jazz composition and blazing new trails on the vibraphone. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Harris has received numerous accolades including the Jazz Journalists Association s Best Mallet Player for four years running ( ) and #1 Rising Star Vibraphonist in 2

70 the 2006 Down Beat Critics Poll. His string of Grammy-nominated albums for Blue Note includes Kindred, Black Action Figure, The Grand Unification Theory and the latest release, Urbanus, with his group Blackout Given the elite talent assembled in the SFJAZZ Collective, it is tempting, on first glance, to think of this ensemble as just another all-star band. But as the Collective portion of the group s name suggests, these exceptional artists have come together in pursuit of a larger purpose namely, the celebration of jazz as a constantly evolving, ever-relevant, quintessentially modern art form. This conception of the music is shared by SFJAZZ, the San Francisco based nonprofit institution that is the group s namesake and producer. The idea for the Collective arose from turn-of-the-millennium discussions between SFJAZZ s founder and executive director, Randall Kline, and saxophonist and founding Collective member Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of jazz s origins and early traditions, SFJAZZ was concerned that the modern side of jazz, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present day, was often overlooked in the public eye in comparison with the music of jazz s so-called Golden Age. Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters like John Coltrane (2004), Ornette Coleman (2005), Herbie Hancock (2006), Thelonious Monk (2007), Wayne Shorter (2008), McCoy Tyner (2009) and now, Horace Silver, to today s new generation of players. Much like chamber music, the music is designed for a small group of instruments to be performed in intimate settings and atmospheres including performing arts centers, concert halls and salons. Past Collective members have included the likes of Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Renee Rosnes, Robert Hurst, Brian Blade and other jazz stars. Each season, SFJAZZ produces a deluxe, limited edition CD set of live performance recordings of the SFJAZZ Collective s entire repertoire for that year. The current release Live 2009: 6th Annual Concert Tour features the Collective s 2009 repertoire, including the work of McCoy Tyner and original compositions by group members recorded live on tour dates in the U.S. and Europe. The 2010 tour will be documented and a deluxe, limited edition CD set of live performances will be released in Fall SFJAZZ Records has released six previous limited-edition CD sets since 2004, documenting the SFJAZZ Collective s complete annual repertoire in concert, as well as a concert DVD filmed at 2007 s Jazz à Vienne Festival in France. All recordings and more information on the SFJAZZ Collective and SFJAZZ can be found at The Collective devotes several weeks each year to a group residency, which includes an intensive rehearsal period and educational workshops. During this 3

71 time, the Collective members also mentor promising young musicians, including the 20-strong SFJAZZ High School All-Stars ensemble. SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE 2010 INTERNATIONAL TOUR The Collective undertakes annual U.S. and international tours. This year s dates are as follows: February 25 28, Jazz Alley, Seattle, WA March 2 - Campbell Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA March 4 - Mondavi Center for the Arts, University of California, Davis, CA March 5 SFJAZZ Spring Season, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco, CA March 6 - Van Duzer Theater, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA March 11 - Konzerthaus Mozart Saal, Vienna, Austria March 12 - Auditori Hall B, Barcelona, Spain March 13 - Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal March 15 - New Morning, Paris, France March 17,18 - Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands March 19 - Lantaren, Rotterdam, The Netherlands March 20 - Fasching Club, Stockholm, Sweden March 21 - International Bergamo Jazz Festival, Bergamo, Italy March 22 - Auditorium S. Chiara, Trento, Italy For more information, please visit, ABOUT SFJAZZ SFJAZZ, founded in 1983, is the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz in the western United States. SFJAZZ presents over 100 concerts a year to over 100,000 fans and is dedicated to advancing the art form of jazz and cultivating new jazz audiences through artistic and educational programming, including: The San Francisco Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Spring Season, SFJAZZ Collective, SFJAZZ Summerfest, SFJAZZ Education, SFJAZZ Membership and SFJAZZ Hotplate (a new nightclub series featuring the Bay Area s best musicians, info at sfjazzhotplate.org). SFJAZZ Collective is generously supported by Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. Media Contact: Marshall Lamm (510) , marshall@sfjazz.org ##### 4

72 SF JAZZ Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations January 13, 2010 page 2 of 3 Lindner and bassist Omer Avital, Cohen has expanded his sonic palette to include African music (with Lionel Loueke), funk (Meshell Ndegeocello), folk/pop (Keren Ann) and effects-laden avant-garde explorations. Pianist Edward Simon was born in the coastal town of Punta Cardn, Venezuela, where he grew up in a family of musicians surrounded by the sounds and rhythms of Latin and Caribbean music. Settling in New York City in 1989, he played with numerous jazz masters, including Herbie Mann, Paquito D'Rivera, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby Watson, Terence Blanchard and Don Byron. He has produced seven critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including two New York Times top ten jazz records of the year: Simplicitas (Criss Cross, 2005) and Edward Simon (Kokopelli, 1994). Currently, Simon leads his own trio, Ensemble Venezuela, collaborates with saxophonist David Binney in the quartet Afinidad and also appears alongside his brothers in the group Simon, Simon & Simon. A member of the Collective in 2008, vibraphonist Stefon Harris returns to the group after a one-year hiatus. Harris has been called one of the most important young artists in jazz" by The Los Angeles Times. He displays passionate artistry, energetic stage presence, and astonishing virtuosity that have propelled him into the forefront of the current jazz scene. The 36-year-old is committed both to exploring the rich potential of jazz composition and blazing new trails on the vibraphone. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Harris has received numerous accolades including the Jazz Journalists Association's Best Mallet Player" for four years running ( ) and #1 Rising Star Vibraphonist" in the 2006 Down Beat Critics Poll. His string of Grammy-nominated albums for Blue Note includes Kindred, Black Action Figure, The Grand Unification Theory and the latest release, Urbanus, with his group Blackout. Given the elite talent assembled in the SFJAZZ Collective, it is tempting, on first glance, to think of this ensemble as just another all-star band." But as the Collective" portion of the group's name suggests, these exceptional artists have come together in pursuit of a larger purpose--namely, the celebration of jazz as a constantly evolving, ever-relevant, quintessentially modern art form. This conception of the music is shared by SFJAZZ, the San Francisco-based non-profit institution that is the group's namesake and producer. The idea for the Collective arose from turn-of-the-millennium discussions between SFJAZZ's founder and executive director, Randall Kline, and saxophonist and founding Collective member Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of jazz's origins and early traditions, SFJAZZ was concerned that the modern side of jazz, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present day, was often overlooked in the public eye in comparison with the music of jazz's so-called Golden Age." Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters like John Coltrane (2004), Ornette Coleman (2005), Herbie Hancock (2006), Thelonious Monk (2007), Wayne Shorter (2008), McCoy Tyner (2009) and now, Horace Silver, to today's new generation of players. Much like chamber music, the music is designed for a small group of instruments to be performed in intimate settings and atmospheres including performing arts centers, concert halls and salons. Past Collective members have included the likes of Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Renee Rosnes, Robert Hurst, Brian Blade and other jazz stars. Each season, SFJAZZ produces a deluxe, limited edition CD set of live performance recordings of the SFJAZZ Collective's entire repertoire for that year. The current release Live 2009: 6th Annual Concert Tour features the Collective's 2009 repertoire, including the work of McCoy Tyner and original compositions by group members recorded live on tour dates in the U.S. and Europe. The 2010 tour will be documented and a deluxe, limited edition CD set of live performances will be released in Fall SFJAZZ Records has released six previous limited-edition CD sets since 2004, documenting the SFJAZZ Collective's complete annual repertoire in concert, as well as a concert DVD filmed at 2007's Jazz Vienne Festival in France. All recordings and more information on the SFJAZZ Collective and SFJAZZ can be found at

73 SF JAZZ Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations January 13, 2010 page 3 of 3 The Collective devotes several weeks each year to a group residency, which includes an intensive rehearsal period and educational workshops. During this time, the Collective members also mentor promising young musicians, including the 20-strong SFJAZZ High School All-Stars ensemble. SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE 2010 INTERNATIONAL TOUR The Collective undertakes annual U.S. and international tours. This year's dates are as follows: February 25-28, Jazz Alley, Seattle, WA March 2 - Campbell Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA March 4 - Mondavi Center for the Arts, University of California, Davis, CA March 5 - SFJAZZ Spring Season, Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco, CA March 6 - Van Duzer Theater, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA March 11 - Konzerthaus Mozart Saal, Vienna, Austria March 12 - Auditori Hall B, Barcelona, Spain March 13 - Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal March 15 - New Morning, Paris, France March 17,18 - Bimhuis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands March 19 - Lantaren, Rotterdam, The Netherlands March 20 - Fasching Club, Stockholm, Sweden March 21 - International Bergamo Jazz Festival, Bergamo, Italy March 22 - Auditorium S. Chiara, Trento, Italy ABOUT SFJAZZ SFJAZZ, founded in 1983, is the largest nonprofit presenter of jazz in the western United States. SFJAZZ presents over 100 concerts a year to over 100,000 fans and is dedicated to advancing the art form of jazz and cultivating new jazz audiences through artistic and educational programming, including: The San Francisco Jazz Festival, SFJAZZ Spring Season, SFJAZZ Collective, SFJAZZ Summerfest, SFJAZZ Education, SFJAZZ Membership and SFJAZZ Hotplate (a new nightclub series featuring the Bay Area's best musicians, info at sfjazzhotplate.org). SFJAZZ Collective is generously supported by Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts.

74 SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE BY RACHEL SWAN SF JAZZ Collective East Bay Express November 26, 2009 A-list San Francisco repertory band the SFJAZZ Collective went all out this year with its new three-disc set, which includes interpretations of tunes by Wayne Shorter and an original composition by each band member. The set kicks off, as would be expected, with an arrangement by MacArthur Genius awardee Miguel Zenón, who emerged as the group's hot young star after saxophonist Joshua Redman departed. Zenón has a gift for turning everything he writes into epic material, and his rendition of Shorter's 1964 tune "Armageddon" is no exception. In this case, the altoist pushes the beat and emphasizes the tautness of those stacked minor chords. He also adds several theatrical horn lines, including a grand wallop at the beginning and one that undergirds Robin Eubanks' trombone solo. "Armageddon" closes on a diminuendo to make room for one of the most sophisticated compositions on the set, a sinewy piece called "Aurora Borealis" by pianist Renee Rosnes. Live 2008 is full of surprising moments, such as vibraphonist Stefon Harris singing audibly during his solos on "Go" and "Yes and No," and the voiceover recording on Eric Harland's "The Year 2008," which gives the album a more contemporary edge. Harland said he based his tune on a sample from hip-hop producer J Dilla. It begins with a shard of melody that builds over several bars, as band members gradually waft in (beginning with a light fizzle from Rosnes and bassist Matt Penman, who give the theme a bit more scaffolding before the horns start embellishing it). A stand-out on disc two which also features Penman's inventive reinterpretation of Shorter's 1966 tune "El Gaucho," plus some killing trombone solos "The Year 2008" highlights the talents of Harland, a now-ubiquitous sideman who should really consider dropping his own album. For a band that's so format-oriented, and so grounded in its principles, Live 2008 seems fairly adventurous. These musicians show respect for Shorter's material but take more liberties than they did in last year's homage to Thelonious Monk. More importantly, the new compositions are wonderful.

75 SFJAZZ Collective June 16, 2009 The Jazz Journalists Association Announces 2009 Jazz Award Winners The Jazz Journalists Association announced winners of 2009 Jazz Awards at the Jazz Standard in New York City Tuesday, June 16, honoring 90 year-old elder statesman Hank Jones and 25 year-old up 'n' coming bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding, among 40 more musicians, presenters, jazz supporters and jazz journalists for the 13th year. Recipients of the Jazz Awards receive engraved statuettes from the international organization of some 450 writers, broadcasters, photographers and new media producers. The three-hour cocktail-barbeque party was attended by 150 jazz movers and shakers, record company executives such as Bruce Lundvall, celebrated during the 70th anniversary year of Blue Note Records which he revived, and George Wein, named "Producer of the Year," perhaps for announcing plans to sustain the Newport Jazz Festival, which he established in Also in attendance: Maria Schneider, Terence Blanchard, Anat Cohen, Roswell Rudd, Frank Wess, Sue Mingus, Michael Cuscuna, Dr. Agnes Varis, and Richard Parsons (for the Jazz Foundation of America). Music at the event was provided by the Charles Tolliver Big Band, Romanian pianist Marian Petrescu and Swiss guitarist Andreas Öberg, Jane Bunnett's Spirits of Havana, saxophonist Carol Sudhalter accompanied by pianist Daryl Sherman and the Matt Miller Trio. Boosey and Hawkes, the Jazz Foundation of America, North Coast Brewing Company, Resonance Records, Sunnyside Records and SESAC, Inc. are among some of the sponsors of the 2009 Jazz Awards. Small Ensemble Group of the Year SF Jazz Collective

76 SF JAZZ San Francisco Bay Guardian March 12, 2008 Big Footprints BY MARCUS CROWDER New members, new songbooks for SF Jazz Since its inception in 2004, the SFJAZZ Collective has changed out six of its eight original members. But now in the midst of its fifth season, the band sounds and, more importantly, interacts more cohesively than ever. "All the people we've had, have been very beneficial to the band," says pianist and original member Renee Rosnes, during a recent rehearsal at the Masonic Auditorium. "They just bring another color to the music." Veteran saxophonist Joe Lovano, who joined last summer and replaced Joshua Redman, now nominally serves as resident sage, the position formerly held by vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Also last summer, youthful Stephon Harris took Hutcherson's slot, and this spring trombonist Robin Eubanks was added for the San Francisco residency and both the national and European tours. Despite the shifts, the ensemble's firepower hasn't diminished and the members are especially eager to tackle Wayne Shorter's quixotic music, which they'll be playing along with their own. Saxophonist Shorter's career has evolved from writing and playing on the front line of hard-bop standard-bearing Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers to a similar position with Miles Davis's great shape-shifting quintet of the early '60s. While playing with Davis, Shorter compiled one of the most distinguished solo careers ever with an incomparable series of albums on Blue Note (1964's JuJu and Night Dreamer and 1965's The All Seeing Eye) that forever cemented his stature as a major composer. Subsequent turns as the cofounder of Weather Report and now the leader of an exquisite quartet have simply embellished Shorter's reputation. Rosnes considers her time playing with Shorter a revelation. "It was such an impactful experience," Rosnes explains. "The intensity and passion that he played with literally took my breath away." On the brief 1988 tour that took the all-star band through the United States and Europe, Rosnes played a nightly duet with Shorter on his Brazilian ballad "Diana." "There was complete spontaneity from night to night. He cherishes a lot of freedom within the music, and that really opened up my mind," she says. Since each Collective member arranges a tune from the season's composer, Rosnes has written the chart for "Diana" as well as Shorter's classic "Footprints." Other arrangements include "Armageddon" by saxophonist Miguel Zenón, "Aung