Benson, Lewis, Sanchez to headline abbreviated 2007 jazz festival

In an apparent artistic retrenchment paralleling the event's financial and scheduling difficulties, guitarist George Benson, pianist Ramsey Lewis and percussionist Poncho Sanchez (pictured) will be the headliners and only national acts to appear at the 2007 edition of the St. Louis Jazz and Heritage Festival, which this year has been reduced to a one-day event that will be held Saturday, June 2 in Clayton's Shaw Park.

In the past, the two-day version of the event had mixed crossover performers with more musically substantive jazz acts such as saxophonist Joe Lovano, the Dave Holland Big Band, Lincoln Center's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra and the Dave Douglas Quintet. Last year's festival, while lacking a major headliner playing straight-ahead jazz, fielded an entertaining lineup topped by St. Louis native David Sanborn, and drew the best crowds in five years.

Unfortunately, it looks like with the loss of an apparently diminished role for former lead sponsor US Bank and the inability to find a suitable replacement, the situation has deteriorated to the point where all that's being offered is a bill that might make a nice summer evening smooth-jazz package at Riverport/UMB Pavilion/whatever-they're-calling-it-these-days. It's not that Benson, Lewis and Sanchez are bad musicians, or lack entertainment value - heck, I own records by all three, and paid cash money to see Benson in concert back in the day. But to book three acts that represent only a tiny fraction of what's going on in jazz today and then call it a festival pretty much makes a mockery of the concept.

As for the local acts announced so far, singers Kim Massie and Jeanne Trevor are both reliable performers with good fan followings, and although both are skilled entertainers, neither could be called particularly adventurous. Somewhat more likely to deliver something novel are trombonist Lamar Harris, a repeat booking from 2006; Latin-jazz group SL Son; or the SIU-Edwardsville Big Band, which presumably may have a few faculty guest stars salted in amongst the student players.

Meanwhile, under the category of "WTF?" bookings, there's the Collin Community College Jazz Band, which apparently will be coming all the way from the jazz hotbed of Plano, Texas for the gig, and, in what seems almost like a purposeful insult to St. Louis musicians who have to work for a living, another group that shall go unnamed here but who are most notable for being fronted by an amateur singer whose wealthy husband is a generous donor to many local arts organizations, including the StLJ&HF.

The Post-Dispatch article by pop critic Kevin Johnson announcing the festival lineup contains a number of attempts by organizers to put the best possible face on things, but the arguments advanced seem unpersuasive:

"Cynthia Prost of Cultural Festivals emphasizes that even though the festival will be one day, the music will not suffer. The event will open three hours earlier than usual to welcome more acts."

In fact, this year will feature fewer hours of music and fewer bands and musicians in total than in the past. So, except for there being less of it, the music won't suffer?

"Whenever you get three performers of this stature on the same stage on the same weekend, it's a tremendous value for anyone who loves jazz."

Unless you happen to be someone who loves traditional jazz, bebop, hard bop, cool jazz, fusion, avant-garde or one of the other styles once again unrepresented in this year's festival lineup, in which case: not so much.

And finally, after a passage about the difficulties negotiating with the city of Clayton for the use of Shaw Park:

"Prost says the new date also is better because the weather probably won't be as hot. It also puts more time between the jazz festival and Fair St. Louis, and it gives Prost and her staff more time to prepare for the St. Louis Art Fair in September."

The notion that a jazz festival ought to or does compete for crowds with an event like Fair St. Louis seems profoundly misguided. But let's read that last clause again, because therein lies, as Frank Zappa used to say, the crux of the biscuit: "gives Prost and her staff more time to prepare for the St. Louis Art Fair in September."

It's hard not to take that as tacit confirmation of what many in the local jazz community have long suspected: namely, that this event was created not by or for people who truly enjoy and understand jazz, but rather to provide the staff of Cultural Festivals with gainful employment between Art Fairs.

I could go on for several more paragraphs about how the 2007 festival is falling short of what it's been in the past, what it could or should be, what's offered in other cities of comparable size and/or historic musical importance, and what St. Louis deserves. But frankly, I'm loathe to expend all that effort once again writing about an event seemingly relegated by its own organizers to a position of little importance.

Since the mission here is to cover as much local jazz-related news as possible, StLJN will undoubedly revisit the subject again as June 2 draws near, but for now, use the comments to share your thoughts. Are you excited about seeing Benson, Lewis and/or Sanchez? Or are you as underwhelmed by this lineup as yr. humble editor? Does St. Louis deserve a bigger, better, hipper jazz festival? If so, should it be run by an organization dedicated to presenting music, rather than as an afterthought by a group whose primary purpose is unrelated to jazz? The floor is open.

UPDATE - 11:30 a.m., 3/17/06: I see from perusing the festival's newly updated Web site that US Bank is still involved as a sponsor, though their billing has moved from above the title of the event to below it. The original version of this post said they were no longer a sponsor. I regret the error, and have corrected it.

Still, related questions remain. The difference between being above the title and below can be anywhere from a few thousand dollars to, in the case of very large events, millions. If US Bank's new billing is indicative of a reduced financial committment, then it follows that a reduced budget would be one reason for the cutbacks in this year's festival. That's not one of the reasons for shrinking the event mentioned in the Post article. On the other hand, if US Bank and the other sponsors are paying the same as before, where's the financial need to cut back the festival? And wouldn't they be getting less for their money when the event runs one day instead of two?

(Edited after posting to correct the spelling of "Poncho," edited again correct information about festival sponsorship, and edited again to fix some typos. Man, I hate it when a screed goes awry.)