Post recaps summer music festival season

A couple of interesting jazz-related tidbits emerged in a story in this weekend's Post-Dispatch recapping the summer music festival season. The article by pop critic Kevin Johnson looked at the attendance and financial results from a number of events, including the U.S. Bank Saint Louis Jazz Festival.

And so, we learned that: attendance at the 2005 Festival was only 8,000, about half the number who attended in each of the previous two years. Possible causes cited in the article include hot weather and the lack of a bigger name than Roy Hargrove to headline Saturday night. The weather was indeed nasty, at least on the Saturday of the Festival, which is when I went. But as I've said before, I have some major qualms with the notion that the booking policy should be driven solely by "star power".

Despite the low attendance, the Festival actually finished in the black - granted, only by about $5,000 or so, but in the black nevertheless, an impressive accomplishment for which the organizers should be commended. Given that, and the fact that lead sponsor U.S. Bank is reportedly signed for two more years, survivial seems assured, at least in the short term.

Now, let's hope the fine folks who put the Festival together will put on their thinking caps and come up with some imaginative programming for the 2006 edition, which is scheduled for June 23-24.

For the record, I don't think the idea of a tribute to New Orleans musicians, floated by Festival executive director Cynthia Prost in the article, is a particularly good one. For one thing, I fear that by next June, there will have been many, many such tributes, both here and around the country, and people are likely to be somewhat bored with the notion by then, unless the lineup of musicians is truly out-of-this-world exceptional.

Instead, I'd rather see the Festival programmers spend their time, energy and resources on creative progamming that will give the Festival a specific St. Louis flavor or vibe. New Orleans musicians will undoubtedly continue to get lots of attention in the coming weeks, months and years, but the creation of a distinctive identity for the Saint Louis Jazz Festival is already long overdue.