Jazz In The Square 2008
26 Jun 2008
by:
FREE JAZZ FESTIVAL MORE THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS
Syracuse, NY – Held each July in historic Clinton Square and other locations across Downtown Syracuse, Jazz in the Square is this summer’s coolest destination on a hot summer night. This year’s expanded edition of the three day festival will take place July 24-27, and include Clinton and Hanover Squares as well as downtown clubs and the Jazz Central Theater. Roving musicians will complete the army of jazz artists who will combine to transform the Salt City into Music City for a long weekend of jazz in all its forms.
This year, the event becomes the performing arts anchor of the inaugural “Syracuse Artsweek”, a visual and performing arts “festival of festivals”. This will result in a signature summer program for the region, a cultural tourism attraction for Syracuse and a potent vehicle for the economic and cultural profile as the “Creative Core” of Upstate New York.
ArtsWeek was created by combining Jazz in the Square with the juried Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival into one larger event, with Connective Corridor “arts buses” serving as the link to these and other cultural venues in the area. A two-block long “arts walk” will serve as a pedestrian conduit between Columbus Circle and Clinton Square, celebrating the visual and performing arts with a focus on public art being made in front of the public’s eyes. A proven total audience of 50,000 will attend.
Now in its seventh year, Jazz in the Square was created in response to overwhelming public opinion that indicated Syracuse deserved a downtown jazz festival that would boost the Salt City’s cultural scene and economy. What sets this jazz festival apart is that it is produced by a not-for-profit regional performing arts organization, the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation (CNYJAF), at www.cnyjazz.org). By collaborating with other Downtown Syracuse supporters and destinations to serve the largest downtown footprint possible, the festival has become an anchor event for Syracuse’s cultural revival. The fun always spills into other parts of downtown, thanks to the vision of CNYJAF Executive Director Laurance Luttinger, who every year ensures that Syracuse sponsors, merchants, and vendors take part. In addition to three concert stages, Jazz in the Square boasts the Jazz Alley Restaurant Row, a Wine Court, Late Night Dance Parties at Syracuse’s chic Armory Square nightclubs such as The Ohm Lounge and Sophistications Jazz Cafe, and the Hanover Square Club Crawl, which will include acts at The Coffee Pavilion, the Bull & Bear Pub, Downtown Manhattan’s and Quigley’s.
Jazz in the Square is just one of many initiatives developed by the CNYJAF, now the second largest art music presenter in Central New York and the surrounding region. The Foundation is the region’s primary year-round producer of jazz events in concert, cabaret, scholastic, and festival settings. Its mission is to boost exposure to and participation in the jazz art form for the whole community - downtown residents and merchants, urban youth, and African-American and Latino minorities.
“Jazz in the Square is a celebration of the unique diversity and social power of America’s Music,” said Luttinger. Each year’s schedule of concert, club, and educational jazz events has been designed to provide an incredibly diverse selection of jazz styles to sample, from classic swing to symphonic jazz, big band to bebop, jam band funk to R&B and Smooth Jazz and all Latin styles, as well as scholastic groups of all kinds. The CNYJAF has been providing a winter season of events to the region since 1996, including the prize-winning Central New York Jazz Orchestra (CNYJO) Concert Series. It now programs year-round at its downtown arts center “Jazz Central”, attracting over 850 patrons each month to all types of shows in its theater. “Our year-round mission is to bring jazz in all its forms to our area,” said Luttinger. “We are bringing the same dedication to artistry, education and multicultural outreach to this great festival that we have been delivering in concert, cabaret and educational programs for years.”
The festival is primarily made possible again by Senator John A. DeFrancisco, a strong believer in jazz as an essentially urban art form with great power for social and economic improvement. They share in the knowledge that downtown Syracuse is kept vital by summer festivals, and by the hard, year-round work of performing arts organizations like the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation.
New major sponsors have added their support to this year’s festival, led by National Grid, M&T Bank Foundation, TV One, Ernst & Young, Coors, Fetzer, Syracuse Teachers Union, Ra-Lin and Arcadis. They are joined by returning sponsors The Downtown Committee, City of Syracuse, WAER, News 10 Now, Time Warner Cable, Alan Byer Volvo, Eastwood Litho, Lockheed Martin Employees’ Federated Fund, J.W. Burns Investment Counsel, the Post-Standard, Jeanneret Associates, Inalign, Washington Street Partners, ADWORKS, WFBL, Sunny 102, Total Care, The Ohm Lounge, Sophistications Jazz Café, Downtown Manhattan’s, Bull and Bear Pub, The Coffee Pavilion, Syrasoul, Hollerback Productions, 40 Below Public Art and other individual and business sponsors and vendors to make this long weekend of jazz, food and fun happen for Syracuse. Said Luttinger, “I am so pleased with the way the community has responded to our plans to expand the festival. It shows real concern for nurturing our urban economy and culture by many corporations and individuals. I’m especially excited about our new relationship with TV One, a new national cable and satellite network featuring a wide variety of lifestyle and entertainment oriented programming targeted primarily to African-American adults. They are not only our video screen sponsors, but are underwriting selected main stage performers.
Said Senator John DeFrancisco, “I have had the pleasure of watching this wonderful event grow and I am pleased that I was once again able to secure a substantial amount of funding for Jazz in the Square. “This year I am excited that Central New Yorkers will have the opportunity to hear so many talented artists and bands, including Randy Brecker and the NEA Jazzmaster Curtis Fuller’s Superband. I commend Larry Luttinger and the Central New York Jazz Arts foundation for keeping jazz alive in downtown Syracuse and enriching our lives.”
Onondaga County understands the cultural and economic value of this event as well. Onondaga County Communications Director, John Heisler III, speaking for Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney, said, "Jazz in the Square is a great event for everyone. It is an opportunity to meet friends for a relaxing, enjoyable evening. Larry Luttinger, Executive Director of the Central New York Jazz Arts Foundation, is to be commended for putting together a dynamic line-up, year after year. I'm confident Jazz in the Square will be another huge success this year."
Syracuse Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Youth Programs, Patrick Driscoll said, “I commend the organizers of Jazz in the Square and the Syracuse Arts and Crafts Festival for combining their efforts and creating Syracuse Artsweek. Each of these events is outstanding in its own right. However, the new coordinated event ushers in a new era providing art and jazz lovers with a truly memorable menu of attractions.”
The event’s success at attracting new listeners last year will again be utilized, according to Luttinger. “Our Hanover Square Stage Club Crawl continues to be a big success at attracting young audiences to our festival to experience jazz. We will again be joining forces with Hollerback Productions and 40 Below to co-market this part of our festival to appeal to the young “creative class” that we need to remain in Central New York to work and live. We will continue to present great, danceable funk music there all weekend, with bands that will play in surrounding clubs until every night. With the help of sponsorships by The Ohm Lounge, Sophistications Jazz Cafe and the Downtown Committee, we will do this throughout downtown as well, creating as large a footprint for our event as possible.”
Event Schedule
Thursday July 24th
This year’s festival lineup represents a “best of” list in virtually every style of jazz.
The performance schedule begins Thursday, July 24th at with a happy hour set by Seaflight, the sophisticated jazz quartet featuring saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown and the compositions of Jason Kessler. Then the 60-piece Syracuse Symphony appears at for a night of symphonic swing led by conductor Grant Cooper. Standouts Ronnie Leigh and Nancy Kelly will reprise numbers culled from their recent SSO Pops “Big Band Bash Two”. The evening in Clinton Square ends with another set by Seaflight, lasting until .
According to Larry Luttinger, organizer of the festival, “Savvy festival goers will come down for the kickoff Happy Hour to catch a great meal and be in place in time for our unique symphonic jazz concert with jazz bookends. Aficionados can stay for the after-concert session. On Friday and Saturday nights, they can hit the jam at Jazz Central until the wee hours and still get to the clubs featuring festival entertainers. This evening’s schedule sets the pattern for the rest of the weekend. And, they can now visit the acclaimed Arts & Crafts festival all day Saturday. Each great day will start and finish the same way. Out-of-towners and even serious local fans will want to turn this experience into a total getaway by staying nearby and shuttling to the site each day.”
Friday July 25th
Friday’s “Sunny 102” Happy Hour commences at with the high energy jazz of the State Street Band, celebrating the release of their debut CD, “Life Is Like A Song”.
The National Grid Main Stage schedule kicks off at with the best in blues, an opening set by original Blues Brother Tom “Bones” Malone and the Briefcase Full Of Blues, in a set of tunes directly from the SNL skits and the Blues Brothers movies. Tom is also an original and current member of David Letterman’s CBS Orchestra. This nine-piece blues band tours internationally with Malone, and will feature local legends Mark Hoffmann and Gary Branch in a power packed show. On at is the award-winning CNY Jazz Orchestra, playing from their debut 2-disc set “Then, Now & Again”, the first release from this region in recent memory now charting strongly across the country and the world. The album is getting strong airplay from Oakland through Europe to South Africa. The world’s largest online jazz magazine, allaboutjazz.com, has said about the effort, “Containing excellent charts, world-class soloists and an orchestra of first-rate musicians, it doesn't get any better than this.”
The main stage schedule finishes at with the “best of” Latin Jazz to be had in the world. This all-star lineup is led by Arturo O’Farrill, leader of the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, formerly the Lincoln Center Afro-Cuban JO, now an independent group. His Latin Jazz All-Stars includes the finest international figures in Latin Jazz, including Claudio Roditi, the Brazilian trumpet sensation and leader in his own right, a man at the top of his field.
The second stage will feature the funkiest band on the New York City jazz-and-dance scene, The Element. This nine piece horn band includes young bassist Spencer Murphy, native Syracusan and veteran of CNY Jazz scholastic programs.
The 5pm Hanover Square Stage features an incredibly funky five hour triple bill starting at 5pm featuring Funk Gotham, Turnip Stampede and Sophistafunk, who will perform after the outdoor stages shut down until 2am in Hanover Square clubs Manhattan’s, the Bull & Bear and the Coffee Pavilion.
Late night club date locations will also include Armory Square’s chic Ohm Lounge, hosting perennial festival favorite Alex Torres y su orquesta from to for a salsa dance party that always packs that house to overflowing. The jam session at Jazz Central will host main stage artists in a free-for-all that always lasts until close to dawn.
Saturday July 26th
Saturday of Jazz in the Square always highlights the talents of Central New York’s finest students in its Scholastic Festival, starting at on the National Grid main stage in Clinton Square. In keeping with the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation’s deep commitment to jazz education, this event takes on an “open classroom” environment, giving audiences a valuable “inside look” at the creative process at work. Each group gets a chance to play with this year’s Main Stage clinician, Yamaha performing artist and CNYJO Music Director Bret Zvacek, who will solo with each group. Then the groups remain on stage to receive comments, demonstrate or replay their repertoire in a master class setting with Zvacek. This year’s performers are the Stan Colella Parks and Recreation All-Stars, the Fayetteville-Manlius Combo, The Rome YMCA Center for the Creative Arts Jazz Band, and the Liverpool Combo.
Saturday evening’s program kicks off with another Sunny 102 Happy Hour with Dinosaur Barbeque blues regulars The Fabulous Ripcords, followed by another main stage triple bill starting at . The National Youth Jazz Sextet opens the show, led by prize-winning pianist and composer Noah Kellman, prize-winning product of CNY Jazz scholastic programs. The group is comprised of the country’s finest young improvisers, selected from the prestigious Berklee School of Music summer jazz program, as well as the Dave Brubeck program.
Then at , TV One presents saxophonist Pamela Williams, “The Saxtress”, protégée of the great Gerald Albright, native of Philadelphia, in a knockdown set of smooth jazz originals backed by her four piece group. The Main Stage closes with a set by the ninth NEA Jazzmaster that the organizers have presented in their twelve year history, the esteemed legend of the bebop trombone Curtis Fuller and his Superband, another A-list lineup featuring trumpeter Randy Brecker and drummer Jason Marsalis.
The second stage in Clinton Square will shudder under the weight of the thirteen- piece Alex Torres y su Orquesta, fresh from their Friday night Ohm Lounge appearance, while The Element moves to the brand new Sophistications Jazz Café at 441 South Salina Street for a dance party that will go until 2am.
Once again, the Hanover Square triple bill lineup starts at 5pm with Jeff Bujak, followed by jam band sextet Dark Hollow and Syracuse favorite On The Sly playing until 10pm, followed by Hanover establishment club dates. The final Jazz Central jam will commence shortly after at Jazz Central once again, featuring main stage stars of every stripe to close the festival.
Throughout the festival, Montgomery Street locations along the Visual Art Corridor linking Jazz in the Square with the Arts & Crafts festival in Columbus Circle will be stops for roving street musicians. ###
A Note Regarding Our Look
The marvelous, hip and classy look and overall direction of this year’s festival print and web based graphic art is provided by ADWorks of Skaneateles. Our new web services provider, InAlign, is responsible for the completely redesigned festival web site at www.jazzinthesquare.org. These efforts bring an international level of visual quality to this event that equals its musical artistry. Many thanks to our new partners for their dedication, belief in our mission and total expertise.