Overshadowed USC Fest Deserves a Closer Look

The jazz festival at USC is not one of the Southland’s high-profile musical events. And it’s a bit hard to understand why it hasn’t received more attention, or better attendance over the course of its eight annual events. This year’s program, LA Jazz 2001, offers a set of programs that deserves far more careful consideration.

The festival begins Monday with an unusually intriguing offering: alto saxophonist Charles McPherson with the USC Thornton Jazz Strings, conducted by Shelly Berg, performing music from the classic Charlie Parker recordings with strings. It would be hard to find an alto saxophonist more thoroughly tapped into the bebop style than McPherson, who has developed the bop method in a direction that suggests where Parker may have gone, had he lived beyond the mid-’50s. It will be fascinating to hear his take on items that have become part of the essential bop legacy.

On Tuesday, singer Nnenna Freelon performs with her quartet. The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, with a guest appearance by Australian James Morrison, an amazing multi-instrumentalist, appears on Wednesday. Thursday’s bill opens with the gifted South African bassist/singer Richard Bona, followed by contemporary jazz saxophonist Eric Marienthal’s group. Another contemporary/crossover-style ensemble, Steps Ahead, arrives Friday, and the festival concludes Saturday with the “Cannonball Adderley Suite,” featuring Cecil Bridgewater, Vanessa Rubin and James Williams.

That schedule alone should draw crowds to Bovard Auditorium, but LA Jazz 2001 has even more to offer. Noon concerts will be offered Monday through Saturday in Alumni Park showcasing students from the highly regarded USC jazz studies program with such guest artists as Justo Almario, Bill Watrous, Brian Bromberg and Alan Pasqua.

“One of the things we’ve tried to do with the festival is bring our student ensembles together with first-rate professional talent and see how each affects the other,” says Craig Springer, LA Jazz 2001 executive producer. “We think this is something that adds a special quality to our programs, something that isn’t often found in other jazz festivals.”

Further enhancing that approach, the Saturday-afternoon program will feature in Alumni Park as many as 10 big-band jazz ensembles from area high schools. At the end of the afternoon, one of the ensembles will be chosen by Berg, USC jazz studies program director, to open the Saturday-night concert.

* LA Jazz 2001 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, April 16-21, noon and 7 p.m. Alumni Park programs are free. Evening concerts are $15, general public; $10, seniors. Three-day passes: $35; four-day passes: $45; six-day passes: $70. Information from Spectrum Student Affairs Office, (213) 740-2167, or on the Web at https://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/spectrum.

Festival Track: It’s a big step from the relatively low visibility of USC’s LA Jazz 2001 to the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival, now celebrating its 44th installment. The festival, Sept. 21-23, has just announced its lineup for this year’s program. And although there’s always a lot of jazz from which to pick over the event’s three nights, two days and seven stages of entertainment, the schedule is a winner, even by Monterey’s high standards.

Among the many showcase presentations:

* “Directions in Music,” a celebration of the 75th birthdays of Miles Davis and John Coltrane (the two jazz icons were born four months apart in 1926), featuring Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove; the debut of Gunther Schuller’s “Birth of the Cool,” a rearrangement of the classic 1949 small group sessions, performed by the Joe Lovano Nonet; a joint appearance by Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner, his trio and Branford Marsalis.

* Marsalis will be present throughout the festival as this year’s “Showcase Monterey” artist. In addition to the Tyner performance, he appears in a duo with pianist Billy Childs and with his own quartet.

* The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, performing throughout the weekend as the festival’s artists-in-residence.

* Bassist-bandleader Dave Holland, who has been granted the festival’s annual commission to write a new work, will premiere his piece with the Dave Holland Big Band.

* The blues voltage traditionally associated with the Saturday-afternoon Monterey program will spark even more than usual this year with appearances by Taj Mahal and Jimmy Smith & the Dot-Com Blues Band.

* Sunday afternoon’s program should match the Saturday voltage in a far different but equally energetic fashion with the performance of Brazilian singing and dancing star Daniela Mercury, a hit at the Hollywood Bowl last summer.

Beyond the obvious highlights, there will be performances by, among numerous others, Chris Potter, Jane Monheit, the Kenny Barron/Regina Carter Duo, a baritone saxophone summit honoring Cecil Payne, the Russell Malone Quartet, Claudia Acuna, Rachel Z, David Sanchez, Ann Dyer and Danilo Perez & the Motherland Project.

Arena tickets for the major events sell out quickly, and even the grounds passes (which allow access everywhere except in the arena) can go quickly. Equally important for travelers to Monterey, hotel space can close up months before the festival. So jazz fans would be well advised to make their plans early for this unusually appealing program. Information: (925) 275-9255 or at the festival’s Web site: https://www.montereyjazzfestival.org.

Riffs: Speaking of major jazz programs, the Founders Hall Jazz Club in the Orange County Performing Arts Center has announced a stellar lineup for its 2001-02 season. The schedule kicks off Sept.13-15 with an appearance by Dave Brubeck, followed by performances from the all-star trio of Benny Green, Russell Malone and Christian McBride (Oct. 5-6), the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (Nov. 24), Diana Krall (Dec. 8), Kevin Mahogany (Dec. 21-22), the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra (April 5-6) and Paquito D’Rivera (May 3-4). Information: (714) 556-2787 or on the Web at https://www.ocpac.org. . . .

* The growing presence of jazz at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex on the Cal State L.A. campus continues with the arrival of the first event in a free-to-the-public “Latin Jazz on the Street of the Arts” on Wednesday. The featured artists are the Latin jazz band Rhubumba with guest-artist trumpeter Bobby Shew. The concert takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the elegant outdoor court in front of the Luckman Theatre. Similar programs will continue on a regular basis into the fall. The Luckman Fine Arts Complex is at 5151 State University Drive. Information: (323) 343-6600. . . .

* Charlie Shoemake has been described by jazz legend Artie Shaw as one of the “few great players on the vibraphone.” The veteran of the George Shearing Quintet has been living in Cambria for the past decade with his wife, singer Sandi Shoemake, teaching, performing and presenting jazz events at the Hamlet restaurant. Shoemake’s appearances in the Los Angeles area have been rare since he moved to the Central Coast, but he starts a weeklong run at four Southland locations tonight in support of his new album, “Lands End.” With guitarist Bruce Forman as a guest, the Shoemake Quartet appears tonight and Saturday at the Vanilla Cafe in Orange, Wednesday at the Jazz Lobby in the L.A. Westin Airport Hotel, Thursday at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach and April 20 at the Jazz Spot in Los Feliz.

Passings: John Lewis has been justifiably praised in the obituaries that reported his death last week. He was universally acknowledged for his capacity to bring dignity, structure and coherence to jazz without sacrificing any of its visceral energies. And that was all true, of course. His lengthy career touched the music in every imaginable way, from his recordings with Charlie Parker, his participation in the Miles Davis “Birth of the Cool” sessions and his seminal role in the growth of the Modern Jazz Quartet, to his extensive legacy of craftsman-like jazz compositions.

But Lewis had another accomplishment, one known primarily to the many students who benefited from his wisdom and musical direction during his teaching stints at the City University of New York and the School of Jazz in Lenox, Mass. As one who was fortunate enough to have received his teaching guidance, I will always retain a fond memory of his direct, to-the-point insistence upon improvisational clarity and harmonic and rhythmic accuracy. And an equally fond recollection of the gentle, supportive manner in which that insistence was expressed. John Lewis was truly one of a kind.