Wrath of Khan

JBG JazzFest, Friday

JBG JazzFest, Saturday

Chaka waves: (From top)
Headliner Chaka Khan staves off the spotlight; hip-hop artist H20
points out Sergio Mendes, his musical partner at the Fest. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

A change of sponsorship (the 2008
edition was rechristened the JGB Syracuse Jazz Fest) accounted for a
lack of funding for a traditional third day, however, which also meant
an obvious paring down of the festival’s typically ambitious lineup.
Still, a sliver of local musical history was made last weekend. Such an
undertaking seems to be the perpetual goal of the festival’s intrepid
organizer, Frank Malfitano, and that goal was met, albeit with some
notable snafus.

Less money meant an emphasis on more
scholastic groups from the area, as they contributed plenty of local
color to the festival. Those jazz-loving kids were a welcome substitute
for the many nationally syndicated acts that have traditionally filled
the bill at previous Jazz Fests. As was the case since Malfitano moved
from downtown’s Clinton Square to the OCC campus in 2001, performances
were divided between the Y94FM main stage and the National Grid
scholastic stage. Of course, the dual stages allowed one band to tear
down or set up gear while the other group held the crowd’s attention.

Highlights from the two days of
school-age performances included the Liverpool High School Jazz
Ensemble’s Friday performance of “Body and Soul,” the classic written
in 1930 that was made famous by sax player Coleman Hawkins. James
Spadafore, the school’s music teacher at the helm, chose a neatly
written, speakeasy arrangement by Syracuse native and saxophonist Joe
Riposo, which gave the song additional import.

The Onondaga Community College Jazz Band
also played a lively set of standards under the careful direction of
Steve Frank; the band was an apt opener for Friday headliner Sergio
Mendes. And the West Genesee High School Jazz Band functioned well as
the precursor to Chaka Khan’s hour-late set on Saturday.

The festival was electrified into the
upright position under the hand of the Oz Noy Trio as dusk slowly
settled on Friday. The Israeli electric guitarist performed along with
bass phenom Will Lee (half of Paul Shaffer’s rhythm section on Late Show with David Letterman),
as well as South African-born Anton Fig (the other half of Shaffer’s
most-necessary support). Noy performed a fusion rendition of Thelonious
Monk’s “Blue Monk,” tossing references to Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone
From the Sun” into a mix of rock-heavy jazz. Perhaps Noy set a
precedent with that aural decision: Nearly every guitar player
throughout the festival at some point added a mote of Hendrix’s
ethereal rocker into their solos.

While onlookers set up their folding
chairs in front of the stage and casually browsed through magazines,
Noy then sent up Shostakovich-esque atonal screeches through his axe,
perhaps most obvious in a song Noy called “Epistrofunk,” a take on
pianist Monk’s classic “Epistrophe.” Noy’s style in that song featured
effect-heavy licks akin to those of Tom Morello, guitarist of Rage
Against the Machine. Of course, Noy also included a run through
“Fuzzy,” the namesake song of the guitarist’s second studio album,
released last year on the Magnitude Recordings label.

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The day’s acts continued with a group
dubbed the West Coast/East Coast Dream Band, which fielded an
impressive conglomeration that included Lee on bass, David Garfield on
keys, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Bob Sheppard on saxophone, Chuck Loeb
on guitar, Steve Ferrone on drums and Alex Ligertwood as vocalist. The
group acted as a sort of advanced-level cover band, performing a
variety of selections from their own careers.

“Josie,” a Steely Dan number, formed one
of the amalgam’s pivotal moments, largely due to shared musical
exchanges between Garfield and Ligertwood amid harmonic meandering that
accentuated the more jazz-like components of the song. Garfield stood
up and took a bow mid-set, having rifled through an
electric-piano-via-synthesizer solo, in which its notes clocked in at
slightly less than the speed of sound. 

That skill is not surprising, coming as
it does from a keyboardist who has performed with an endless list of
well-known artists. That list included the late Joe Zawinul, who helped
pioneer jazz fusion into a musical superpower, and to whom this year’s
festival was dedicated. 

The group also covered Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” a song recorded by Garfield on the CD Tribute To Jeff Porcaro
(Lightyear), in memory of the drummer and former member of Toto. The
group then closed with Eric Clapton’s “Layla,” which meandered
effortlessly in and out of samba jam sessions.

The Ivan Lins Band focused on
pop-sounding music that referenced bossa nova among other Latin styles.
Pianist Lins chose tunes that carried the dulcet sounds of Portugese
lyrics from his native country, while also performing more palpable
numbers such as “Love Touches.” Lins’ pop-centric arrangements, alas,
seemed lethargic in the context of Jazz Fest’s other high-energy acts.

Following Lins’ lackluster dreamscape,
Sergio Mendes and Brazil 2008 took the stage, as he continued his tour
in support of his new CD Encanto (Concord), a star-studded throwback to Mendes’ career that draws obvious comparisons to Carlos Santana’s 1999 album Supernatural
(Arista). While some might look at the work as a similar mishmash of
styles hell-bent on updating Mendes’ persona, the album’s tracks
performed live at Jazz Fest came across as genuinely artistic layers of
new musical styles. Mendes’ album has also garnered much attention for
its inclusion of the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am and Fergie among its
dazzling stars. 

Mendes brought rapper H20 to serve as
emcee; H20 had a role on the album’s catchy version of the standard
“The Look Of Love.” Mendes also played through a few more traditional
bossa nova tunes, including the evergreen “One Note Samba” as well as
“Agua De Beber,” two songs made famous by saxophonist Stan Getz during
the genre’s initial movement that started in 1960s Brazil. 

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Those songs were supplemented by this
year’s pairing of Mendes-esque femme fatales Kate Ryan and Dawn Bishop,
both of whom swam between Portugese and English lyrics amid Mendes’
weaving of complex harmonies and hip-hop rhythms. Mendes induced
further cultural osmosis by splicing segments of French composer
Joseph-Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” in the mix of his subtle solo work.

Those who could get past Ryan’s
man-maddening, curvaceous manner of shaking her hips (admittedly, it
was nearly impossible) were later treated to some of the better points
of Mendes’ album. “Funky Bahia” is a “chill-out” song capable of
fitting into the Ibizia sun-worshiping scene, while Mendes’ famed “Mas
Que Nada” could be described as the drinking chant of Brazil. Mendes
commanded an impressive electric piano lead through the latter tune, as
he sprinkled sample-like licks on the ivories while H20 lyrically danced the night away.

Randy Brecker sat alone on a folding
chair back stage during Mendes’ performance, gazing at the star in a
way that seemed, simply, sad. Undoubtedly, Brecker is still in mourning
over the loss of his brother, Michael, the great jazz saxophonist to
whom this year’s JGB Syracuse Jazz Fest was also dedicated, and the
legend’s survivor needed some alone time. After Mendes’ performance,
Malfitano took the stage to thank the Latin legend for finally making a
Central New York appearance.

The Steelheads, a student percussion
group from Michigan that featured steel drums, marimbas and xylophones
as its musical engine, kicked off Saturday’s slate. Perhaps as an omen
that things wouldn’t go smoothly later on, the group was plagued by
annoying sound problems. Wind that brought in dark clouds and a
subsequent rain shower had the unfortunate side effect of blasting
microphones on stage, hence invoking a whirring sound that drowned out
the group’s island jazz sound. It also seemed as if someone entirely
forgot the bassist was in the mix, as he was barely audible. However,
those who were able decipher notes from noise were treated to a reprise
of Mendes’ “Mas Que Nada,” and other ethnically influenced songs,
performed in sometimes dynamic and sometimes unison jazz lines.

By the time the Parisian group, the
Moutin Reunion Quartet, took the stage, it seemed that sound problems
had been resolved, and the much higher energy level of the group
trimmed down the wind’s noise. The group consists of brothers Francois
and Louis Moutin, as well as Pierre de Bethmann on piano and Rick
Margitza on saxophone, a combination that helped to steal the show at
this year’s Jazz Fest.

While it was difficult to discern tunes
inside of the Moutin brothers’ set, it was clear that the group was
experimenting with unison breaks, as the quartet flawlessly jumped
between amorphous segments of improvisation and impeccable spot-on runs
through unison lines. Bassist Francois Moutin maniacally slammed on his
upright, dizzyingly commanding the complex rhythms of the group. While
the quartet’s set came across as undeniably jazz, the brothers glommed
rock and funk polyrhythms into a set that simply had to be seen to be
understood.

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As the Moutin brothers smirked out of
self-satisfaction while walking off stage, they were succeeded by the
dull songwriting of the Bill Evans Soulgrass group. An obvious take on
Bela Fleck’s jazz-meets-bluegrass visage, saxophonist Evans commanded
his group of banjo-playing, grass-chewing jazzers toward a blase end. 

Evans’ emphasis seems to be on even more
mainstream grooves than those of Fleck, including the aggravating
pop-influenced tune “The Other Side of Something.” Evans later gave his
supporters a run for their money in “How the West Was Won,” an
everybody-gets-a-turn jam session that was in desperate need of some
focus. Of course, for the tie-dyed jam band fans in the audience,
Evans’ lack of proper definition perhaps fulfilled a desire for
endless, mindless jamming.

As impressive for his teachable moments
at the festival, let alone for his set, contemporary guitarist Mike
Stern performed during another all-star match-up that included Randy
Brecker, New York City bassist Chris Minh Doky and drummer Dave Weckl.
Stern had prefaced his performance with a guitar clinic earlier that
day, one of many of the surrounding educational facets of the festival.
In the cafeteria of the Gordon Student Center, Stern assured jazz
aspirants, “You never really learn how to play jazz. There’s just too
many chords and scales!”

Stern later divulged information about
his musical past, although he excluded information about his
drug-fueled stint with famed jazz bassist Jaco Pastorious, a gig with
Miles Davis in the early 1980s (which ultimately led Davis to tell
Stern, “Come back when you cool out,” according to a 1999 interview
with Culturekiosque.com), as well as more healthy artistic
relationships with the Brecker brothers.

Responding to guitarists in the audience
who seemed to want to voice frustration over the difficulty of learning
to play jazz guitar, Stern replied, “I was ready to throw away my
guitar a bunch of times. Fortunately, I lived in a basement!” Stern
then encouraged musicians to continue to play regardless of their
frustrations: “At least you keep {music} alive, and just that much is a
beautiful thing to have in your life.”

The guitarist performed insanely suave
licks for “K.T.” a funky jazz-meets-rock tune that is perhaps a
reference to the boundary over which geologists gush, while also
letting Randy Brecker, Weckl and Doky to take moments in the spotlight.
The group then employed Evans on stage for “Skunk Funk,” an upbeat
tribute to Michael Brecker. 

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The momentum that Stern and company had
produced during their mind-bending performance, however, crashed into
the wall of silence that was Chaka Khan’s soundcheck. While it’s
understandable that Khan’s immense ensemble required more precious
minutes for testing microphones and tuning guitar strings, Khan’s stage
assistants took more setup time than an inexperienced garage band at a
sock hop.

And when Khan launched into Prince’s “I
Feel For You,” it was evident that she was in a pissy mood. It didn’t
help that a spotlight shined on her face and was clearly blinding her,
as she put her hand up to shield the wattage. So Khan pouted in typical
diva fashion, even threatening to end “Ain’t Nobody” in mid-song.

To appease the diva-gone-wild, someone
finally woke up and switched to a red spotlight to provide a gentler
beam. But the negative vibes had already done their damage, especially
to the most hardcore jazz fans who had just prior been treated to a
legendary match-up. Even the Moutin brothers, who had been visibly
enthralled by Stern’s group while watching from offstage, lost their
smiles during Khan’s set.

Prior to performing music off her newest album, Funk This
(Burgundy/Sony BMG), Khan recalled some darker times amid her
songwriting experience. “I don’t really remember writing it. I must
have been high,” Khan explained. “I had a moment in my self-medication
of clarity, and I saw myself as God sees me, not as I saw me.”

Yet when the audience responded to “Tell
Me Something Good,” one of the more recognizable songs in Khan’s
repertoire, she shouted out an exasperated “Thank you!” after noticing
the crowd had finally figured out what to make of the artist’s strange
stage antics. She also won plaudits for a genuinely touching cover of
Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Of course, Khan couldn’t leave the
stage without warbling her vastly overplayed, Mona Lisa-like tune “I’m
Every Woman,” much to the chagrin of Oprah Winfrey fans.

Although the festival itself was an
overall success, minus moments of ego tripping and sound engineering
dilemmas, the question as to the mere possibility of a 27th Jazz Fest
hinges upon sponsorship. Jay Bernhardt, owner of JGB Enterprises, Inc.,
the naming sponsor of this year’s festival, strongly suggested that his
company won’t be able to support another year. And Onondaga County
Executive Joanie Mahoney furthered that sentiment prior to Mendes’
performance on Friday: “It is no hyperbole that we truly wouldn’t be
here if JGB hadn’t stepped up.”

With a little luck and perhaps some
crossed fingers, however, an enduring supporter will step up to the
financial plate to help Malfitano perpetuate his dream, one that he’s
shared with Syracuse music fans far too long to let it down easy. 

If you missed them, go back to the beginning of the story for two slideshows.