Yesterday's Post-Dispatch had a story officially announcing the lineup for the 2005 US Bank St. Louis Jazz Festival, and the roster of touring acts is precisely as previously revealed in down beat magazine and blogged about here last week. Oddly, there's barely a mention of Dave Douglas, who for my money is the most interesting musician on this year's bill, by either writer Kevin Johnson or Cynthia Prost, the Festival's executive director and source for the story.
There is plenty of info in the article about the Festival's precarious financial situation, how they fear the recent loss of the local smooth jazz radio outlet will hurt them, and the steps they're taking to attract a larger audience, many of which seem to involve providing additional physical comforts for people who won't attend just for the music. (You can read the whole article here.)
The other newsworthy bit is the announcement of the local groups that will be performing at this year's Festival. The Carolbeth True Trio was a logical choice - she's a fine mainstream jazz pianist, one of the best in the city, and I'm sure she'll bring a little extra something to her performance for a special occasion.
I don't know anything about the Jonathan Whiting Trio. A Google search revealed mentions of a scant half-dozen or so local gigs over the past several years, including one at a previous Jazz Festival and one at the St. Louis Art Fair, which shares management with the Festival, so perhaps he's a proven commodity and favorite of theirs. The info about one of the vibist's gigs lists the band members as Darell Mixon on bass and Gary Sykes on drums, which at the very least suggests that he has excellent taste in musicians.
The third local act booked is Hot House Sessions, which I must admit leaves me a bit puzzled. From what little I've heard of them, I thought they were a DJ-based electronic dance music group that uses occasional improvised solos, often over single-chord vamps. But apparently, they're a jazz group, or close enough for Ms. Prost, who's quoted as saying, "We were attracted to them because of the way they meld together different styles. They provide a fresh take on music."
Now this is where I began to feel the snowflakes falling. If Ms. Prost had just come out and said that Hot House Sessions was booked in hopes of attracting the young crowd that frequents Washington Avenue dance clubs, I'd have believed her and admired her candor, if nothing else.
If there were 10 or 20 local jazz groups performing at the Festival, perhaps one could justify giving a slot to such a band from a genre with a tangential relationship to jazz as a way of potentially broadening the overall audience. But to give a non-jazz group one of just three coveted slots allocated to local bands in the Festival would seem to be giving short shrift to an awful lot of other deserving local jazz musicians. And attempting to paper over that fact by making exaggerateed claims for Hot House Sessions just compounds the problem. (And, for the record, let me state that I've got no beef against Hot House Sessions. For the most part, I've liked what little I've heard of their music - it's just that they're not a jazz group, even by the most elastic definition of the concept.)
Mr. Johnson piles up a bit of snow on the subject of local bookings, too, stating that "the festival will continue its commitment to St. Louis acts this year," like it's a big deal.
But consider this: Based on best guesses and the prevailing pay scales for other similar local gigs, the three St. Louis bands at this year's Festival will probably earn, in total, something less than 1 percent of the event's $500,000 budget. Does spending less than 1% of your budget on local talent really constitute a "committment"? I'm just askin'.
And the final bit of blizzardy goodness is this:
All in all, says Prost, "We have a variety of stylings from smooth jazz to jazz vocalists to purist jazz," says Prost. "This is jazz festival programming at its best."
Um, no - what it really is, is a couple of good half-days of outdoor concert programming.
Jazz festival programming at its best should have a more expansive spririt, and should involve the community more. Other festivals, both larger and smaller, have, for example, successfully incorporated events at clubs and concert halls all over the host city; educational programs for local music students, and non-concert programming like film series, "meet-the-musicians" sessions, public or academic panels and symposia, and much more. And other festivals also find a way to incorporate pre-war New Orleans, Chicago and swing styles alongside newer strains of jazz, providing context and a sense of history.
Beyond the artistic and educational benefits, this approach to programming can offer real economic benefits. A multifacted festival would provide more incentive for out-of-town visitors to make St. Louis a destination every year. And involving more organizations - universities, museums, other businesses, presenters and not-for-profits - in the festival would tend to increase the St. Louis community's stake in its success.
But most important, jazz festival programming at its best should be done from an aesthetic point of view, and with a desire to give audiences something they can't hear anywhere else. Excellence must mean more than just seeing who's on tour this summer, and then trying to book a viable balance of mainstream and smooth jazz acts. Where are the original programming ideas for the St. Louis festival, ideas that are specific to our city and its musical heritage?
Everyone's done a Miles Davis tribute by now, so there are compelling reasons not to go there again. But what about an Oliver Nelson tribute? A Black Artists Group reunion? An R&B sax retrospective with homeboy David Sanborn, his stylistic forefather Hank Crawford, and a young smooth jazz star or two jamming on some Oliver Sain and Jimmy Forrest tunes? How about commissioning some new work from St. Louis jazz composers, or giving John Norment some bucks to reform his Universal Orchestra, or giving Dave Stone the cash to assemble a big band of young local improvisors? How about putting Dave Venn, Ptah Williams, and Carolbeth True onstage together, for a local jazz piano summit? Sure, there are budget constraints, but the Festival needs to start cooking from scratch, not just ordering off the menu.
I don't mean to be too harsh on Ms. Prost or the Festival organization. In all my dealings with them, they've been pleasant, professional and extremely accomodating. They do an excellent job managing all the physical and logistical aspects of a large outdoor concert, and every year they seem to book at least one musician or group that I'm surprised and truly excited to see.
The performances at the Festival by the Dave Holland Big Band two years ago and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra last year were thrilling, and exactly the sort of thing that exemplifies the best of what only a relatively big-budget festival can do.
I understand there's a need to balance artistic and business concerns, but I wish the Festival's booking committee were willing to think a bit larger, to challenge themselves, the community and the listening audience a bit more.
It is their past successes in taking risks, coupled with the Festival's unrealized potential, that make me want to hold someone's feet to the fire a bit when the snow starts flying, like in the P-D story. I'll close by saying that despite all these criticisms, I urge anyone reading this who cares about jazz to attend and enjoy this year's Festival. There will be plenty of good music each day to justify your time and the price of a ticket.
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