Stanford Jazz Festival

Awaiting an awesome line up, as always the SJWS is stellar in scope and musical scale. The best and the brightest teach and perform. Yet another treasure of living in the Bay Area..

Updating after I attended four concerts this season:

* Luciana Souza and Romero Lubambo
* Victor Wooten, Ndugu Chancler, Geoffrey Keezer
* Akira Tana and his Secret Agent Band
* Le Jazz Hot

If you're interested in attending the SJF in the future, but don't know where to start, I recommend just reviewing the calendar, seeing what sounds good to you, and checking it out. Or heck, just pin the schedule to your wall, toss a dart at it, and vow to attend the concert you hit. Either way, you won't be disappointed.

Sound quality is good in both places they've held the concerts (Dinkelspiel and Campbell). It's not Yoshi's, but it's solid.

A few critiques:

* At a couple of the shows, I ended up sitting near some students who were  talking through a lot of the music. I don't mind a comment here or there -- it's expected -- and I know they need to come and go due to their training times, but talking through whole songs, even if about their camp stuff, is not cool for the others around them who also paid for their tickets. SJW folks, if you are reading this, perhaps you can address it with the students?

* They had assigned sections in Campbell Recital Hall and it was kind of confusing. Ushers were on hand to help, but it was still not easy to tell where reserved was, where the students were supposed to sit, and where the great unwashed GA folks (i.e. me) could sit. My recommendation is to just not have premium seating in there, and rope off (rather than put tape on) the rows intended for students.

But please, don't let the above dissuade you from attending. Just some feedback on an otherwise extremely worthwhile festival! Check it out when you can! And thanks to See's, Yelp, KCSM, and other sponsors who keep EXCELLENT JAZZ alive in the south bay!

Last night I was fortunate enough to be taken to the Stanford Jazz Festival where we heard the AMAZING Taylor Eigsti (jazz pianist extraordinaire and Menlo Park native).  My friend sees him annually when he comes to town to perform as well as teach at the Stanford Jazz Workshop (where he was once a student).

In addition to Eigsti, the sextet was comprised of the following incredible and independently successful musicians:

Gretchen Parlato, vocals
Becca Stevens, vocals
Gerald Clayton, keyboards and piano
Harish Raghavan, bass
Aaron McLendon, drums
(Julian Lage, guitar - guest performer)

Though this group has not played together long, their beautiful music melded together in ways that gave me chills.  Each was handpicked by Eigsti as they make up a collection of his favorite musicians; how cool is that?  Taylor is adorable, humble, gracious, and always deferring to his peers.  Honestly, he has more talent in his hands than 99.9% of us will ever see manifested collectively in our lifetime.  Also, he is 85% deaf in one ear.  Unbelievable!!  He is so talented and I've downloaded much of his Grammy nominated material onto my mp3.

I want to mention that Dinkelspiel Auditorium was a great venue for this show! Incredibly comfortable seating and the volunteers were very gracious.  I look forward to going back for more great jazz.