![](http://www.syracusenewtimes.com/newyork/file-177-.jpg")
Frank Malfitano admits he’s lived a blessed life. He’s produced music events for 39 years throughout the country and, as the godfather of the annual summertime Syracuse Jazz Fest, the largest free jazz festival in the Northeast, has had the opportunity to work with giants in the industry including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Smokey Robinson and Dizzy Gillespie, to name just a few.
But his experience and knowledge are only part of what make Jazz Fest, an event that draws 20,000 to 25,000 people every June, such a success year after year. Arguably, it is his intense passion that keeps the festival, the experience, alive.
However, given the current economic climate, the toughest Malfitano has ever faced, the reality that this may be the 29th and final Jazz Fest looms larger than ever.
The festival is slated to return to the scenic Onondaga Hill greenspaces at Onondaga Community College, its home since 2001, on June 24 and 25. Malfitano recently wrapped OCC’s Arts Across Campus series, which brought jazz luminaries such as the Treme Brass Band and Dr. Lonnie Smith, to the college for free concerts. The 2011-2012 edition currently has Allen Toussaint and other headliners in the mix.
Malfitano enthuses that “OCC has been a great partner for the last 11 years. It’s been a great partnership and those are difficult to come by. Collaborative partnerships sound good and make a lot of sense if you can do it, but without compromising too much on either side of the fence, so we’ve been very fortunate. We had been downtown for the previous 10 years at Clinton Square and the county park for about eight years prior to that at Long Branch Park.”
Malfitano sat down with The New Times to talk about where Jazz Fest has been and where it’s heading as he plans to announce the star-studded lineup.
Q: What was your original vision for Jazz Fest?
A: I started this one in 1981 or 1982. We were in development, with indoor mini-festivals that would feature one national act and a bunch of Central New York acts and we did a bunch of those. But the goal in the back of my mind was always to have an outdoor festival. To me, the definition of a festival is to be outdoors and to be multiple days and, if you can afford it, multiple stages.
Q: Do you see festival models changing?
A: As a guy who went to the Newport Jazz Festival, the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, Woodstock. . . when you see things at that level, that’s the model. But I think that model is becoming obsolete. I think it’s changing. The new model is more akin to South By Southwest {the annual March music event in Austin, Texas}: not a festival, more of a showcase, but it’s a showcase/festival. It’s street venues, clubs, concert halls, indoor, outdoor, really a mix. Very eclectic, very edgy, very exciting. The other behemoth festivals like Bonnaroo and Coachella, that’s gonna be all that’s left standing. I think festivals like the Syracuse Jazz Fest could become obsolete in the not-too-distant future and all that will remain are the titans. The world is changing.
Q: Why should festivals like Jazz Fest be presented?
A: Festivals are a place where people can get their spirits renewed and feed their souls and I think that’s incredibly important right now. The toxicity levels on the planet are frightening. There’s so much abuse and so much violence and so many wars. It’s great when people come together and go out and just enjoy music together in a communal fashion. It doesn’t happen that much anymore.
Q: Do you think Jazz Fest is a place where people can come together like that?
A: Jazz Fest is an institution. It’s become an experience now. It’s almost like programming is secondary. Not irrelevant, but secondary. It’s the experience that people are looking forward to. It’s not who you’re gonna bring— obviously that’s a factor—but it’s almost like there’s such a trust level because we’ve consistently brought in great people year in and year out and now the expectation is that the experience is gonna be great. That’s a nice place to be.
Q: What kind of artists do you look for to play Jazz Fest?
A: Jazz Fest celebrates our American musical heritage. We try to present artists that are historically significant and still vital. We’re not doing a has-been oldies festival. For fans that weren’t around for the 1960s and 1970s we try to present the next best thing: the artists that shaped our culture and defined us as a nation and are revered and appreciated worldwide. Why shouldn’t we share that experience with our young people? I think as educators we have an obligation to expose them to the music that we created as a nation. I feel that very, very strongly. It’s what drives me.
Q: Why those eras, the 1960s and 1970s?
A: I’m very much a child of the ’60s. For me, the ’60s were not a fad. That was the real deal. That was consciousness on the rise, the most exciting decade of the history of this nation— and I’ve been around since the 1940s. I’ve never seen anything like the ’60s and I don’t think we ever will again. So part of this is maybe a throwback to another time and another era.
Q: How did those eras affect who you are today?
A: I don’t think I realized it at the time, but I think it really shaped me. I just thought that was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I don’t think anything else could possibly come close to that. Most folks were born too late. That’s why I do Jazz Fest. I was there. I saw it.
Q: What do you think of the music industry today?
A: Music’s gotten global, but that common experience that we had as a nation back then, it’s all changed. There’s 800 channels now. We’re not watching the same three channels. The common shared experience of America— The Ed Sullivan Show, where you saw The Beatles in 1964, and the other variety shows that showcased talent—it’s gone. Now it’s so diffused. Too many options? Maybe. Where’s the greatness? Well maybe, the climate and the environment doesn’t allow for that level of greatness anymore.
Q: But there is great music out there.
A: We have kids in their 20s that are finding the music. And I think that might be the advantage of the Internet. If it’s great, people will find it.
Q: You find impressive acts for Jazz Fest. How do you plan it?
A: We never try to be a pure, one-style music festival. Jazz is obviously at the core of it and it’s the dominant musical experience and style, but I think a lot of other styles of music are represented at the festival as well. I used to be more deliberate about balancing it out, but it happens more organically now. I don’t really plan it as much as I let the music come to me and organically evolve. I spiritually let it come to me. I’m open to what comes.
Q: Being a free festival should be beneficial in many ways. Is it?
A: It’s tough to sell a hard ticket nowadays. People are strapped. The people selling hard tickets are Lady Gaga and The Eagles. But free admission doesn’t always mean great. We work really hard to make sure our programming is as great as we can make it given the amount of money we are fortunate enough to have. I don’t ever want to do something that draws just because it’s free. That’s not the point of this exercise. The point is to celebrate great American music and the artists that make it and for people who appreciate it.
Q: How do you put on a free concert of this size?
A: You get sponsorship and underwriting. But that’s changing and getting harder to come by. The National Endowment of the Arts is no longer relevant. The New York State Council of the Arts has been eviscerated. State funding isn’t there, federal funding isn’t there, so this was a very difficult year, but the fact that we survived I think says a lot. The fact that we’re still included in the county budget is significant and we’re very grateful.
Jazz man: Frank Malfitano, Jazz Fest impresario, has attracted some of the biggest names in the music business to Syracuse for two or three days in June, such as perennial visitor, bassist Will Lee (facing page), pictured in 2008. In 2010, Malfitano announced the lineup from the stage of Upstairs at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, while in 2007 he and Onondaga Community College president shared a moment from the stage at Jazz Fest.
