For the last 10 years, the Tucson Jazz Festival has featured and promoted the importance of live jazz music.
From Friday, Jan. 12, to Saturday, Jan. 20, the “Join the Party”-themed festival will celebrate its anniversary with jam sessions, a fiesta and performances.
Festival executive director Khris Dodge said the festival is meant for people with varying levels of interest in jazz, from casual listeners to aficionados.
“Whether you’re a fan of jazz or not, it doesn’t matter. If you’re a fan of live music, you should come to something at the festival. There’s going to be something for everybody,” Dodge said.
Dodge said that the festival has offerings for different generations and tastes.
“Jazz has grown in interest with younger age groups,” Dodge said. “I purposely programmed the festival to find artists and different offerings that will appeal to a specific younger crowd or to folks of all ages. And sometimes, they are geared towards an older crowd as well. We do specifically program things to reach all different ages. You see younger people — and by younger I mean 20 to 30 year olds — really gravitating to jazz. I see that growing not just locally but nationally,” Dodge said.
This year during the festival, local restaurants will have special jazz-themed dishes and cocktails along with live jazz music.
“It creates a nice vibe in the restaurant,” Dodge said.
“Whenever I go to a restaurant, and there’s live music going on, it changes the feel of the entire space.”
Festival events will take place around Tucson, including the Century Room at Hotel Congress, the Lounge at the Temple of Music and Art, the Rialto Theatre, the Hotel Congress Plaza Stage, the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 191 Toole, Centennial Hall and the Fox Tucson Theatre.
Dodge said the festival has grown with the addition of restaurants and new spaces getting involved.
“We have more offerings,” Dodge said.
“We have more venues. The addition last year of the Century Room, which is a legitimate jazz club in Downtown Tucson, has helped with the expansion of the festival. We’re incorporating more partnerships with local venues, with restaurants as well, where we infuse local musicians playing in restaurants with different food items, as well as multiple offerings on the same day. On the weekends, we compact a lot of things over several days. To me, when you do that, it feels like it’s a festival. There’s always something going on. There’s always something to do in Downtown Tucson.”
This year, 10-time Grammy Award-winning Latin jazz trumpet player and pianist Arturo Sandoval will perform at the Rialto Theatre on Friday, Jan. 12.
Up-and-coming saxophone players Grace Kelly and Leo P of 2Saxy will hit 191 Toole on Saturday, Jan. 13. They are bringing a film crew to record the event.
On Monday, Jan. 15 at Corbett’s, the free Downtown Jazz Fiesta will offer music on two stages, as well as food trucks. The lineup will include local and regional artists, including TJF Artist in Residence Ken Peplowski and the University of Arizona Studio Jazz Ensemble.
The Mariachi Rayos del Sol de Tucson High mariachi group will open the fiesta.
Festivalgoers can see Navajo artwork and experience Diné-inspired jazz from the Delbert Anderson Trio at Bahti Indian Arts on Tuesday, Jan. 16. There will also be Native American-inspired appetizers at the event.
At 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, the Fox Tucson Theatre will host a special Blue Note Records 85th anniversary party featuring the Blue Note Quartet. The group will be led by six-time Grammy-nominated pianist and musical director Gerald Clayton.
Acclaimed trombone player Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue will also visit the Fox Tucson Theatre on Jan. 20, but at 8 p.m.
The festival will also feature the local indie rock group Calexico, bossa nova/jazz artist Diego Figueiredo, Phoenix-based drummer Lewis Nash and the Soul Jazz All-Stars along with the Emmet Cohen Trio, trumpet player Benny Benack III, the 10-piece swing band Lizzy and the Triggermen, drummer and Century Room director Arthur Vint and his quartet, the jazz/pop/Brazilian inspired Bill Cantos Trio, rising star pianist Isaiah J. Thompson with his trio, jazz pianist Sean Mason with his quartet, saxophone player Miguel Zenón with his quartet, South African jazz singer Melanie Scholtz and Kenyan pianist Aaron Rimbui, bassist Linda May Han Oh and her quintet, native Tucson saxophonist Brice Winston and trumpet player Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah.
Along with performances, fans can attend nighttime jams at the Century Room designed to bring jazz artists and fans together.
“You never know who’s going to be in the room,” Dodge said.
“Somebody who was playing a concert earlier, they will show up at the jam session and come up and sit in on a song or two. It leads to amazing nights. Music is one of the few things out in the world that brings people together. It’s a good lifeblood for us to bring people together in restaurants, clubs and theaters, bringing different musicians together.”
One key component of the festival is educating young people about jazz. Grace Kelly and Leo P of 2Saxy and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah will perform and/or speak at local schools.
A youth jazz orchestra from the Tucson Jazz Institute will open for Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah on Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Fox Tucson Theatre.
A week after the festival, around a thousand students will gather at the Fox Tucson Theatre to watch a multicultural “Timbalooloo Live” concert, which is led by clarinetist Oran Etkin and his quartet.
“We help to support some of those schools through our sponsorships, where we’ll pay for them to be able to come and experience the festival,” Dodge said.
Tucson Jazz Festival
WHEN: Various times Friday, Jan. 12, to Saturday, Jan. 20
WHERE: Various locations in Tucson
COST: Some events are free, others start at $20
INFO: www.tucsonjazzfestival.org
