Jazz Iz Forever Hangs Tough in Tough Times : Music: Despite a drop-off in funding, the fifth annual festival is featuring a top-notch lineup Saturday, including Najee.

SAN DIEGO —  In the neighborhoods just east of downtown, Jazz Iz Forever is the cultural event of the year. The outdoor festival at Dennis V. Allen Park on Market Street marks the only time top local and national bands perform in this part of the city.

Last year, with political jazz rapper Gil Scott-Heron on hand, attendance at Jazz Iz Forever swelled to a record 15,000, a powerful show of civic pride and a sign of the event’s growing appeal to music fans throughout the county and even the state.

This year, despite some recessionary financial setbacks, Jazz Iz Forever has assembled a solid roster of talent for its fifth annual event, to be held Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the park in the Gateway Business Center.

Headlining the program is Najee, the pop-jazz saxophone and flute player whose new recording, “Just an Illusion,” his fourth, came out June 30 and is already a staple of light-jazz stations such as KIFM (98.1) in San Diego. He will be joined by a solid mixture of regional and national acts, including Joyfull Noize, a gospel-rooted a cappella sextet from the San Francisco Bay Area; violinist Papa John Creach with the Bernie Pearl Blues Band; reggae with Roughneck Posse; B Natural, the San Diego jazz group; Aubrey Fay; the X Revolution Jazz Band, and Reel to Real--the only group to appear at every Jazz Iz Forever so far.

More than 100 booths will be installed for the event, offering arts and crafts items, information from a variety of community organizations and a cross-cultural selection of food--from African to Mexican to old-fashioned hot dogs.

These days, Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, the event’s founder and producer, is keeping her chin up through the 20-hour workdays required to shepherd the event successfully through a recessionary year.

The budget for this year’s festival is about $50,000, and the recession has taken its toll on incoming funds: A large potential sponsor dropped out in May and corporate sponsorship is down by about two-thirds since last year, which caused Thompson to revamp her financial plans and instigate a $5 admission charge. This is the first year the event is not free, but she is hoping the attendance level of last year will not drop.

“Five dollars is not a lot for what we offer,” she said. “The majority of people calling are saying, ‘Is it really only $5? Is Najee really going to be there?’ Najee was here a couple months ago, at KIFM’s anniversary party, and it was $20. We’re bringing in a major headliner and people can see him for $5. We hope people understand that with our program and other projects, we take them into mind. People who support Jazz Iz Forever invest in this community. Those who attend are as important as any corporate donor.”

Two and a half years ago, Thompson founded 21 Harlem, of which she is executive director, to produce Jazz Iz Forever and to organize other community projects, such as a San Diego Symphony concert that brought 2,000 listeners to Dennis V. Allen Park and featured guest artists that included conductor Guadalupe Flores from Guadalajara, Mexico.

In addition to revenue from ticket sales, Thompson relies on backing from area businesses to produce Jazz Iz Forever.

Some of them make contributions of services and goods, such as Baldwin Green Inc., a textile manufacturer based in the Gateway Center that donated five huge Jazz Iz Forever banners. Baldwin Green also made a cash contribution, as have several other businesses, including the Price Co., which gave $1,000.

Jazz Iz Forever’s largest single financial backer is the California Lottery, which gave more than $10,000.

Thompson is hoping the event’s steady growth in attendance and popularity, which would be reaffirmed by a solid turnout this Saturday, will eventually bring in major donations from corporations.

Besides the admission charge, the most tangible effect of the recession is the smaller list of performers, down to eight from 12 last year. Ironically, for an event that uses the word jazz in its name, there is a glaring shortage of genuine jazz this time around.

Jazz Iz Forever began in 1988 as a tribute to San Diego jazz-blues singer Ella Ruth Piggee, who died that year, and has in past years featured top jazz musicians including Scott-Heron, Charles McPherson, Cecil Lytle, Jeannie and Jimmy Cheatham, Hollis Gentry and Jimmy Noone.

“We had to cut down the number of artists, and some ended up being straight-ahead players that people love,” Thompson said. “We didn’t want to do it, but we hope they’ll be back next year.”

A trade-off is that the lineup may actually please a more diverse audience with a range of blues, jazz, pop-jazz and reggae.

Najee has serious jazz roots. He has played in big bands led by George Russell and Jaki Byard and toured with Hiroshima and Michael Franks. Early in his career, Najee built a solid foundation of funk, blues and R&B; during stints with Ben E. King, the Main Ingredient, Chaka Khan and Freddie Jackson.

His smooth, melodic recordings have brought him mass acclaim. Each of his first three albums went gold, and his star-studded new fourth release appears to have a golden aura.

“Just an Illusion” features guest spots by prominent jazz players such as Marcus Miller and George Duke, plus vocalists Jackson, Jeffrey Osborne and Will Downing.

Najee wrote about half of the 13 tunes, and many are designed to showcase the vocalists. The range of music should enhance Najee’s commercial appeal by attracting both pop-jazz and R&B; audiences.

Najee and his band are scheduled to perform from 5 to 7 p.m., following Joyfull Noize, an unsigned band that Arsenio Hall liked enough to invite on his show last year. Joyfull Noize, which considers Earth Wind & Fire, Manhattan Transfer and Sarah Vaughan to be essential role models, has been compared with the highly successful a cappella group Take 6.

“We’re not Take 6,” said vocalist-composer Epheann Lloyd, who also manages the six-member group, which plans to release a self-produced CD in January. “Our music is very different, our sound is more eclectic. We have music that sounds like traditional gospel, and some that is very contemporary and jazzy.”

With its perpetually strong lineups and enthusiastic crowds, Thompson believes, Jazz Iz Forever will soon grow into a two-day affair. If it’s a hit this year, she said, she may hunt for a new location where a two-day festival would not be an imposition for parking and installation equipment, as it has been to businesses located in the Gateway Business Center. That doesn’t mean, however, that the neighborhood around the Gateway Center would be neglected.

“We would replace Jazz Iz Forever with other community festivals that can grow,” Thompson said.

The Facts on Jazz Iz Forever

* To get to the Gateway Business Center, take Interstate 15 to Market Street, go east to the 3700 block. The center is on the northern side of the street. From coastal areas, take Interstate 5 south to California 94 east. Exit at Euclid Avenue, head south to Market, go right, and watch for the 3700 block. Parking is limited and public transportation is recommended: two Market Street San Diego Trolley stops are close to the event, 47th Street and Euclid Avenue.

* Jazz Iz Forever opens at 8 a.m. with ethnic dance and drumming troupes for kids. Music begins at 10:45 a.m. Seating is on the grass. Lawn chairs, blankets and picnic lunches are welcome.

Following is the music schedule.

10:45 a.m.: X Revolution Jazz Band

11:30 a.m.: B Natural with Peggy Dobson

12:15 p.m.: Aubrey Faye

1:15 p.m.: Reel to Real

2:30 p.m.: Papa John Creach & the Bernie Pearl Blues Band

3:45 p.m.: Joyfull Noize

5 p.m.: Najee

7:30 p.m.: Roughneck Posse