As the sweltering South Florida summer temperatures drop, and listeners decide they can survive leaving their houses wearing more than just shorts and T-shirts, so the often equally-sweltering area jazz season begins.
The big news last year was the unfortunate suspension of the annual concert series by the West Palm Beach-based Jazz Arts Music Society (JAMS), a trend that continues into 2013-2014. The loss wasn’t felt as much as expected, especially last spring (when the Monterey Jazz Festival Tour, keyboardist Hiromi Uehara, guitarist John Scofield, and bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding all appeared over a nine-day span in April at four different venues between Martin and Miami-Dade counties), although the wow factor isn’t quite as high from this October through April. Yet there are repeats from last season (keyboardist Dr. Lonnie Smith and trumpeter Randy Brecker both return to the Arts Garage in Delray Beach, plus plenty of established and up-and-coming stars on the horizon.
She may be best-known as the seven-time Grammy Award-winning pop singer and lead vocalist for Miami Sound Machine, but Gloria Estefan’s new jazz CD The Standards is quite the departure from its electronic dance predecessors, from the self-titled 1978 debut Miami Sound Machine to the 2011 effort Miss Little Havana. The lush new disc features musicians from Miami (pianist, arranger, orchestrator and producer Shelly Berg, dean of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music) to West Palm Beach (acoustic upright bassist Jeff Adkins) and beyond on chestnuts from jazz and Broadway (Smile, What a Wonderful World, Young at Heart, What a Difference a Day Makes) to Latin (Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar) and pop (How Long Has This Been Going On). The 56-year-old vocalist will recreate these performances live with pianist and guest conductor Berg, plus the University of Miami’s acclaimed Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, on Oct. 1 at the University of Miami’s Gusman Concert Hall in Coral Gables (8 p.m., $60-80).
From a Grammy Award standpoint, vocal quartet the Manhattan Transfer was an original crossover act. Formed by singer Tim Hauser in 1969, the current third lineup solidified in 1978 when Cheryl Bentyne joined Hauser, Janis Siegel and Alan Paul — and they became the first group ever to win Grammys in both the jazz and pop categories in the same year in 1981. That lineup had already won two jazz Grammys for its 1979 debut album Extensions (both for a version of Weather Report guru Joe Zawinul’s classic composition Birdland, with lyrics by Jon Hendricks); its subsequent two releases each won as well, and the quartet’s 1985 effort Vocalese earned 12 nominations alone. In the nearly 30 years since, the Manhattan Transfer’s success has spawned solo CDs by the female vocalists, but also an ever-strong body of group work (including a creative The Chick Corea Songbook from 2009) and banner liver performances. See the Manhattan Transfer on Oct. 8-10 at Jazziz Nightlife in Boca Raton (7 and 9 p.m., $65-95).
New York City-born guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg moved to South Florida as a child; graduated from the University of Miami music program, then became a regional fusion star with his molten self-titled trio. But when hewent in a more traditional jazz direction in the late 1990s, Kreisberg also went in a different direction geographically, relocating northward to Brooklyn. His clean tones on originals and standards have since made him a European star, jump-started by his 2003 CD Nine Stories Wide, with
all-stars in bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Bill Stewart. Kreisberg has also appeared on one of the best jazz releases in each of the past three years. His 2011 effort Shadowless featured stirring original quintet material; ongoing tenure in Hammond organ icon Dr. Lonnie Smith’s trio is documented on Smith’s 2012 live CD The Healer, and Kreisberg’s 2013 disc ONE is an astonishing solo guitar masterpiece. See Jonathan Kreisberg on Oct. 12 at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach (8 p.m., $25-35).
If vocalist Karrin Allyson ever quotes The Wizard of Oz to say she’s “not in Kansas anymore,” it’s because of how far she’s come since being born there (in Great Bend) in 1963. She’s since resided in Nebraska, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and currently New York City, as well as traveled the world in support of 13 CD releases since 1992. Her wide vocal range, exquisite timbre, torch singer expression on ballads, and rapid-fire scat-singing ability has been featured on gems like 2001’s Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane, 2002’s In Blue, 2006’s Footprints, 2008’s Imagina: Songs of Brazil and 2011’s ’Round Midnight, resulting in four Grammy Award nominations. After wowing University of Miami students with a master class the previous day (her expressive voice could recite The Wizard of Oz and leave a crowd transfixed), Allyson performs with the university’s Frost Jazz Vocal 1 Ensemble, under the direction of Kate Reid, on Oct. 24 at Gusman Concert Hall (8 p.m., $20-30).
Los Angeles-born vocalist Gregory Porter was destined for a career in the limelight, but things didn’t exactly go according to plan. Porter was a star high school football linebacker who earned a scholarship to San Diego State University, but then a shoulder injury ended his playing career. While there, he befriended a multi-instrumentalist and producer named Kamau Kenyatta, who invited the fledgling, Nat King Cole-influenced singer to L.A. to witness his production of a Cole tribute CD by flutist Hubert Laws. When Laws heard Porter singing Smile, a Charlie Chaplin-penned hit for Cole, he included a version with Porter’s lead vocal as a bonus track. Now Brooklyn-based, the soulful singer has since guested with Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; received Grammy nominations for his 2010 debut Water and its 2011 follow-up Be Good, and just released his third CD, Liquid Spirit. See Gregory Porter on Oct. 25 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay (8 p.m., $25-46).
Very few performances are staged around the work of a musical arranger, but then again, most arrangers aren’t Vince Mendoza. His arrangements for the likes of Joe Zawinul, John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Sting, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, and Randy Brecker have eclipsed his additional estimable output as a composer, conductor and recording artist. Mendoza also plays several different instruments, which helps him hear a large ensemble’s different components. The 51-year-old Connecticut native has earned multiple Grammy Awards, and composed material for albums by Gary Burton, Charlie Haden, Kurt Elling, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny. His own latest CD, Nights on Earth (2011), features Scofield, Lovano, John Abercrombie, Bob Mintzer, Christian McBride, Alan Pasqua, Peter Erskine and the heralded Metropole Orkest from Holland. Mendoza will present selections from throughout his elegant body of work with two of the University of Miami’s finest ensembles, the Frost Concert Jazz Band and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, on Oct. 25 at Gusman Concert Hall (8 p.m., $20-30).
There may not be a stronger underlying presence in modern jazz than bassist Christian McBride. The 41-year-old Philadelphia native started out playing electric bass, an instrument he continues to play on equal footing with his more-heralded acoustic work, albeit mostly as a session musician. He has credits in the hundreds on both instruments, including work with jazz stars Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Roy Haynes and Pat Metheny, pop singers Sting, Don Henley, and Carly Simon, classical icons Edgar Meyer and Kathleen Battle, and soul/R&B artists James Brown, Isaac Hayes, and The Roots. As an upright bassist, he was the musical director for last year’s Monterey Jazz Festival Tour to commemorate the festival’s 55th anniversary, and he also leads a self-titled big band (a 2012 Grammy winner for its latest release, The Good Feeling), his quintet Inside Straight, and the self-titled trio with pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. See the Christian McBride Trio on Oct. 30 at Gusman Concert Hall (8 p.m., $20-40).
Through his work with super-group Return To Forever, and solo classics like his 1976 album School Days, Stanley Clarke was the preeminent fretted electric bassist in fusion during the 1970s as Jaco Pastorius held the fretless title. The Philadelphia native’s thumping electric work resonated so much in fusion’s ’70s heyday that the equally impressive playing he’d done on acoustic upright, during Return To Forever’s initial, early-’70s acoustic Brazilian phase, seemed glossed over. The 62-year-old
has since rectified that with his banner playing on both instruments in sessions, solo CDs, Return To Forever reunions, soundtracks (Boyz N the Hood, What’s Love Got To Do With It, Romeo Must Die, The Transporter), and special projects. The four-time Grammy Award winner’s focus will definitely be on the acoustic side when he performs with the gifted Harlem String Quartet (violinists Melissa White and Ilmar Gavilan; violist Jaime Amador Medina, and cellist Matthew Zalkind) on Nov. 2 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (8 p.m., $25-46).
When gauging the talents of Sammy Figueroa, all you need to know is that he was the percussionist chosen for the current band led by Sonny Rollins, the 83-year-old saxophone colossus. The New York City-born, Miami-based Figueroa, who’s also played congas, bongos, timbales, and practically every other Latin percussion instrument imaginable in sessions — with everyone from Miles Davis, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the Brecker Brothers to David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, and James Taylor — also leads his incendiary Latin Jazz Explosion band as well as Sally’s Tomato, his stately homage to American Latin jazz aficionado and vibraphonist Cal Tjader (1925-1982). Brian Potts fills the vibes slot in the sextet, rounded out by pianist Alex Hoyt, bassist Paul Shewchuck, and additional percussionists Chino Nunez, Richie Bravo and Freddy Lugo. Sammy Figueroa Presents Sally’s Tomato — A Tribute To the Music of Cal Tjader, on Nov. 16 at a Jazz at Pinecrest Gardens presentation in the Banyan Bowl in Pinecrest (8 p.m., $20-25).
Two underappreciated bandleaders team up in South Florida two weeks before Christmas. Shelly Berg is likely best-known as a preeminent jazz educator, having spent 16 years on the faculty at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music before taking the title of dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami since 2007. Yet the 58-year-old Berg is also a gifted, animated pianist who has a half-dozen CD releases with his trio (including bassist Chuck Berghofer and drummer Gregg Field) and others. Berg’s trio will be joined by vocalist Tierney Sutton, who taught at the Thornton School with Berg; now heads the vocal department at the Los Angeles Music Academy, and whose soaring, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan-influenced voice has been featured with the same personnel in her self-titled quintet since 1998. See the Shelly Berg Trio with Tierney Sutton on Dec. 11 at the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale (7:45 p.m., $40).
At age 51, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis may be the most recognizable jazz figure in the world. He’s earned nine Grammy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, all the result of his impeccable 31-year recording career; outspoken nature, marketing policies, and artistic direction of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, plus leadership of its touring orchestra. Its South Florida holiday performances feature Miami-born vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant, winner of the 2010 Thelonious Monk Competition, with the orchestra’s fabulous lineup of trumpeters Ryan Kisor, Marcus Printup and Kenny Rampton; trombonists Vincent Gardner, Chris Crenshaw and Elliot Mason, saxophonists Joe Temperley, Sherman Irby, Ted Nash, Walter Blanding Jr. and Victor Goines, pianist Dan Nimmer, bassist Carlos Henriquez, and drummer Ali Jackson. See the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis on Dec. 19 at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach (8 p.m., $20 and up), and on Dec. 20 at the Knight Concert Hall in Miami (8 p.m., $25 and up).
Turban-topped, 71-year-old Hammond organ surgeon Dr. Lonnie Smith is a familiar figure in South Florida, having spent most of the late 1980s to early 2000s playing in the house band at O’Hara’s in Fort Lauderdale. The Buffalo, N.Y., native still lives in Fort Lauderdale for part of the year, but the masterful musician — who has recorded since 1967, when he released his iconic Finger-Lickin’ Good debut album and appeared on guitarist George Benson’s classics It’s Uptown and The George Benson Cookbook —has enjoyed a career resurgence over the past decade since moving back to his home state and settling in New York City. Smith started his own Pilgrimage Productions recording label last year, and its first release was the live set The Healer, which documents his blazing trio with inspirational young players Jonathan Kreisberg (guitar) and Jamire Williams (drums). See the Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio on Dec. 20-21 (8 p.m., $25-35) and Dec. 22 (7 p.m., $25-35) at the Arts Garage.
Part of the reason that 52-year-old, Detroit-born alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett hasn’t quite become a superstar is the fact that he’s been too busy focusing on being a working musician instead. It’s a rare and noble trait, especially for a player whose credentials include work with Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, the Mercer Ellington-led Duke Ellington Orchestra, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Garrett spent five years in Miles Davis’ final band before the trumpeter’s death in 1991; has a stellar
20-year recording career as a leader, and was the saxophonist of choice by Five Peace Band co-leaders John McLaughlin and Chick Corea for their 2008 CD and 2008-2009 tour (along with bassist Christian McBride and alternating drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Brian Blade). Garrett’s quintet on his latest release, 2012’s Seeds From the Underground, includes pianist Benito Gonzalez, bassist Nat Reeves, drummer Ronald Bruner and percussionist Rudy Bird, and performs on Jan. 11 at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center in Davie (8 p.m., $40).
One of the top male jazz vocalists of the 21st century, Kurt Elling didn’t exactly reach that pinnacle through expected channels. The Chicago native grew up singing in church choirs, yet performing classical rather than gospel music. Interests in careers in both jazz and religion intertwined until, as Elling has famously said, “Saturday night won out over Sunday morning.” The 45-year-old singer’s sonorous baritone has since been instantly identifiable from his Grammy-nominated 1995 debut Close Your Eyes onward. Each of his 10 releases has, in fact, been nominated for at least one Grammy Award — a streak unequaled in Grammy history — including 2009’s Grammy-winning Dedicated To You and Elling’s latest, the 2013 CD 1619 Broadway: The Brill Building Project. On it, he covers early rock ‘n’ roll, pop, and R&B hits with fellow Chicago aces like longtime pianist Laurence Hobgood and guitarist John McLean. See KurtElling on Jan. 24 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (8 p.m., $25-46) and on Jan. 25 at the Duncan Theatre on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth (8 p.m., $29).
Most veteran instrumentalists have a list of recording credits. Sixty-seven-year-old trumpeter Randy Brecker has a scroll, and not only in jazz (including Jaco Pastorius, George Benson, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver, and Larry Coryell). Yet Brecker’s work can also be heard with James Brown, Steely Dan, Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, B.B. King, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Parliament/Funkadelic, the Average White Band, and Blood, Sweat and Tears. Elegant and powerful, Brecker has a dozen solo CDs between his 1969 debut Score and his latest, The Jazz Ballad Songbook, a 2011 effort with the DR Big Band and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. He also once teamed with his younger brother, saxophonist and fellow Grammy-winner Michael Brecker (who died of leukemia in 2007 at age 57), in the Brecker Brothers — a group that won each of them multiple Grammys, and whose eight-CD set The Complete Arista Albums Collection is now available. See Randy Brecker on Jan. 25 at the Arts Garage (8 p.m., $25-35).
Don’t look now, but guitarist Pat Metheny has an outside chance to eclipse the late Chicago Symphony director Sir Georg Solti’s record of 31 Grammy Awards before he retires. At age 59, Metheny has 20, tying him for seventh all-time with a variety of artists including fellow jazz great Chick Corea — who’s 13 years his senior. The Missouri-born guitarist’s recording career is filled with milestones, from his 1976 trio debut Bright Size Life (with bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses) to 2000’s Trio 99-00 (Larry Grenadier, Bill Stewart); the Pat Metheny Group gems from the self-titled 1978 debut to Offramp (1982) and Imaginary Day (1997), and a vast collection of offshoot projects. His latest Grammy winner is the 2012 CD Pat Metheny Unity Band (for Best Jazz Instrumental Album), with saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams, and drummer Antonio Sanchez. That quartet adds multi-instrumentalist Guilio Carmassi to appear on Feb. 7 at Knight Concert Hall (8 p.m., $25 and up).
The late electric bassist Jaco Pastorius arguably set the bar for jazz excellence on his instrument higher than even saxophonist Charlie Parker (who was followed by John Coltrane) or drummer Buddy Rich (Tony Williams). Of the crop of contenders for the current bass title, including Gary Willis, Victor Wooten, and Oteil Burbridge, only Jeff Berlin was a peer to Pastorius during his mid-’70s-to-early-’80s reign. The 60-year-old Berlin was born a year after Pastorius, and mirrored the late bass champion’s excellence (with Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, and as a solo artist) as this contender stood out on 1978-1980 albums with drummer Bill Bruford’s heady fusion band, which also included underrated keyboardist Dave Stewart and volcanic guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Now based in Clearwater, where he runs the Players School of Music, Berlin plays with his trio mates Richard Drexler (piano, acoustic upright bass) and Mike Clark (former drummer with Herbie Hancock’s ’70s Headhunters band) on Feb. 8 at the Miniaci Center (8 p.m., $40).
Perhaps the most versatile act currently touring, quirky, Oregon-based group Pink Martini actually appeared in our pop previews last season. They could be listed in classical or world music categories as well. The 10-to-12-piece, self-described “little orchestra” was founded as a quartet in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale, who was working in politics — yet decided to put together a diverse, entertaining musical ensemble that would appeal to either side of the political aisle at fundraisers rather than run
for mayor of Portland. Nearly 20 years later, he teams with vocalists China Forbes and Storm Large; trombonist Robert Taylor, trumpeter Gavin Bondy, violinist Nicholas Crosa, cellist Pansy Chang, guitarist Dan Faehnle, bassist Phil Baker, and percussionists Timothy Nishimoto, Brian Lavern Davis and Anthony Jones to perform material from the group’s new seventh CD, Get Happy. See Pink Martini on March 25 at the Kravis Center (8 p.m., $25 and up) and on March 26 at Knight Concert Hall (8 p.m., $35-95).
Texas-born conguero/vocalist Poncho Sanchez got an early career jump-start by recording and touring with another American percussionistimmersed in Latin music traditions, vibraphonist Cal Tjader, from 1975 until Tjader’s death in 1982. The 61-year-old Sanchez started recording under his own name during that time frame, and earned a Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy Award 20 years later for his 2000 CD Latin Soul. More recently, the conga master has paid tribute to departed horn and percussion
greats. His 2011 CD Chano Y Dizzy! paired Sanchez with trumpeter Terence Blanchard (also a renowned educator in the University of Miami program) to honor the work that Cuban conguero Chano Pozo and American trumpet legend Dizzy Gillespie did together in the 1940s. For this Ole Coltrane show, Sanchez and his Latin Jazz Band are joined by gifted saxophonist James Carter to perform Latin-tinged material from John Coltrane’s 1962 album of the same name on April 5 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (8 p.m., $29-50).
A Florida native, Jacksonville-born Brad Mehldau has been one of the most influential jazz pianists of the past 20 years. Following his studies at The New School in New York City, his two-decade recording career as a sideman (with the likes of Pat Metheny, Joshua Redman, Michael Brecker, John Scofield, and Charlie Haden) has coincided with recordings under his own name that uniquely blend structure with improvisation. The 43-year-old Mehldau’s impressive trio includes bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, whose previous trio experience included Metheny and Chick Corea, respectively. The pianist’s original material is influenced by Brazilian and classical music as well as the jazz greats — and like the Bad Plus, this trio is as likely to offer a facelift of a popular rock song by The Beatles, Soundgarden, Paul Simon, or Radiohead as play a jazz standard, albeit with more subtlety and less overt bombast. See the Brad Mehldau Trio on April 12 at the Miniaci Performing Arts Center (8 p.m., $40).