To borrow a phrase from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest was filled with bright moments.
First of all, the much-heralded Alebrijes—vivid sculptures from Oaxaca, Mexico—arrived in Plaza de Cesar Chavez earlier in the week, bringing a whole new life to the park. They were perfect.
On Wednesday night before the festival, Adolfo Gomez of Mezcal Restaurant, himself Oaxacan, threw a huge party, Noche de Alebrijes, in the San Jose Museum of Art, corralling chefs and tequila purveyors from all over town. It was masterfully done. By 8:30pm, people were already slow dancing.
By the time the festival started on Friday, everyone was anticipating the full moon, which appeared early Saturday, and along with the pulverizing daytime heat, triggered me to view the festival through a lens of bright moments. There were many. I can only survey a few.
On Friday, the biggest surprise came in the form of Summer Camargo, one of the newest members of the Saturday Night Live band, who appeared at the “California Music Lounge,” a killer intimate space upstairs in the California Theatre, where former Cafe Stritch employees toiled away as stagehands. It was Camargo’s first-ever gig anywhere in the state of California. A trumpet and flugelhorn maestro with wicked chops, she played a set that included many of her own compositions.
That same night, I also caught Bilal, whose transcendental essence filled the Montgomery Theatre. Unfortunately, I was upstairs in the balcony, where the sound was terrible. The kick drum and the bass guitar obliterated the rest of the mix. The theater simply wasn’t built for massive amplification.
These might be feuding words, but every gig that happened in Montgomery Theatre should have been at Hammer Theatre instead.
A brighter moment? Bilal’s midnight gig at the Break Room, which I did not see in person, but did watch later thanks to the Break Room’s live stream archive.
On Saturday, Camargo was back, this time on the main stage with the San Jose Jazz High School All-stars, always an inspiring, hopeful gig. Camargo even led them through a tune she originally wrote when she was in high school.
To me, this gig is always an important part of the festival. Music education prevented me from going down more nefarious paths in life, so it’s personal.
Speaking of music education, a few moments later, SJSU Music Department graduate Leela Paymai and her band Zheniia played a gorgeous fusion of Persian, jazz and psych-rock that we don’t often see around here. Some of the tunings were not of this hemisphere, as they say.
Just to explain how much we’ve evolved, 30 years ago in the SJSU Music Department, there was no such thing as a Persian student blending music from her own heritage with rock and jazz, and then writing her own tunes. Now someone like Paymai can land fellowships from San Jose Jazz and then wind up at the festival herself.
The only problem? The space, like Montgomery Theatre, is not designed for massive amplification if the gig gets to that point. It’s like putting a rock band in a dentist’s office.
That’s not a complaint. Many people, myself especially, are craving a more urban festival, but we just don’t have the venues.
It made me recall moments from previous festivals: Saxophone virtuoso James Carter outside Cafe Stritch telling us stories about gigging with Sun Ra. Latin jazz pioneer Jerry González at Cafe Stritch telling me Chet Baker stories from the ’70s. Everybody from everywhere showing up at Cafe Stritch all weekend long.
But back to the present.
Other highlights included the 10-woman Mariachi Las Catrinas covering “Dancing Queen,” Delbert Anderson going native, and Stella Cole mastering the Great American Songbook. Tyreek McDole was transcendental, the Headhunters still had it, and the San Jose Jazz U19s were another ray of hope for music education. Wow. All of ’em. Just … wow.
As the festival came to a close, the full moon was just starting to wane and the normal desolation of downtown San Jose on a Sunday night re-emerged all over again, but I did not feel empty. I was full, like the moon itself. Bright moments to all!
