Jazz Connection Magazine

An enthusiastic jazzer says it all with her outfit and sign at the 32nd

Annual Sacramento Jazz Jubilee over Memorial Day weekend. Aficionados

from all over the world gathered in the Golden State's Capital for fun,

laughter, and some great jazz!

For us jazz aficionados who attended the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee over Memorial Day weekend, it was more like experiencing a spiritual awakening than just going to a jazz festival. Some components of spiritual enlightenment include a connection with a Higher Power, serenity, smiles, laughter, good vibes, and even a little bit of fanaticism. All these and more, were found during the 32nd annual four-day gala, billed as the largest jazz festival in the world. This year's Jubilee offered 1,219 performances by 151 groups, which included musical genres such as zydeco, Western swing, contemporary jazz, blues and salsa, in addition to an abundant variety of traditional Dixieland jazz to satisfy any jazz disciples' tastes. In the words of jazz great Woody Herman and the Rev. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., respectively, "listening to good jazz is always a great escape," and when that happens, "we have been to the mountain top and have seen the Promised Land!"

Ritual, of course, also plays an important part in any spiritual discipline. One of the most endearing rituals presented each year at the Jazz Jubilee is the Jubilee Parade, which officially kicks off the musical weekend.

The fun began at 11:45 a.m., on Friday, May 27, as paraders came thundering down the streets of Old Sacramento. This festive parade, resembling Mardi Gras in New Orleans, was graced with marching jazz bands, international jazz bands, youth jazz bands, strutters, cakewalkers, a twirling parasol brigade, vintage fire trucks, clowns, and truckloads of zany madness.

Two groups that epitomize such zany madness are the Ophir Prison Band from Ophir, CA, and the Balloon Platoon from Pleasanton Presbyterian Church , Pleasanton, CA. (See photos below) The Ophir Prison Band, dressed as inmates while wearing funny hats (some with propellers!), marched down the street playing their theme song, Beer. Other band props included a rubber chicken, a 25-foot-long-tuba and a plunger that was prominently twirled by John Clevenger, the band's Keeper, as he led his large group of misfits to embarrassment. Putting high jinks aside, the musicians in the Ophir Prison Band are a talented bunch and being one of the more popular bands at the Jubilee, played to packed audiences throughout the weekend.

The Balloon Platoon's part in this year's Jubilee was purely that of quiet "mop up," if you will. Regaled in white Navy uniforms with larger-than-life waist lines and armed with mops over their shoulders, these McHale's Navy rejects performed close-order drills with their "tools of ignorance" while failing to produce a single musical sound.

Presiding ceremoniously over this year's festivities as Jubilee Emperor XXXII was soprano saxophonist Jim Galloway, who has been a mainstay in past Jubilees playing with the Tommy Saunders Midwest All-Stars. Galloway, a native of Scotland and a Toronto resident for almost 40 years, has recorded extensively with Doc Cheatham, Wild Bill Davison, and many others. His musical travels have taken him to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and major jazz festivals throughout the USA. Galloway, who plays more than 200 dates a year, was honored by France, conferring on him that country's Chevalier Order of Arts and Letters. He is the artistic director of the Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, leads the 17-piece Wee Big Band, and also writes a jazz column for Whole Note Magazine.

Soprano saxophonist Jim Galloway, above, waves to the happy crowd along the streets of Old Sacramento as he

rides in the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Parade. Galloway was crowned Emperor of the 32nd annual jazz fest.

Seventeen youth bands - one hailing from British Columbia, two from Colorado, one from Washington, and one from Oregon, with the remainders from throughout California - once again graced this year's Jubilee giving evidence that music is alive and well in our schools and that the fate of jazz is in good hands! These legends in the making performed with some tight ensemble work and featured some outstanding soloists.

One of the more impressive groups that I heard with their "big band" sound are the J Street Jazz Cats from nearby Davis, CA, under the direction of Celia Cottle. This 20-piece aggregation with a "smooth" saxophone sound, played some exciting arrangements from the Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Billy May books, that actually got people up and dancing during their stint at the close-quartered Round Table Pizza.

Another one of Ms. Cottle's great-sounding groups is the 16-piece Sax By Popular Demand where the reed section - sopranos, altos, tenors and baritone saxes - are the featured entity.

The crew from Sheldon High School in nearby Elk Grove that comprise the nine-piece band, Diversely Dixie, under the direction of Jim Mazzaferro, also turned a lot of heads during their Jubilee stay.

The exciting sounds of the Blue Street Jazz Band from Fresno kept everyone in happy spirits. Not only does this eight-piece outfit play with thunderous excitement, but their original compositions and unique arrangements holds their listeners' attentions. The band's popular following has to do in part, with its young reed player, Nate Ketner. The twenty-five-year-old Ketner was blowing grandiose line-after-line from his curved soprano sax. His passion on the instrument reflects an abiding reverence for Sidney Bechet. We can only hope that Dave Ruffner, Blue Street's leader, is able to keep this young lion. His presence definitely raises the bar on this already well-established band.

Bringing energy and high-voltage excitement to the Jazz Jubilee for the second year in a row was the retro-swing group, Steve Lucky and The Rhumba Bums with Miss Carmen Getit, from the Emeryville area. This six-piece dynamo band knocked everybody's socks off with their infectious jump, jive and wail approach to music. Lucky is a wiz on the keyboards while Miss Getit is a monster on the guitar and her vocals incorporate the best of the female African-American blues queens. Stalwart sax man Scotty "Edog" Petersen also adds punch to these heavy-weight contenders.

The Jazz Jubilee wouldn't be the Jazz Jubilee without its share of specialty street performers. One such group that seemed to attract a lot of curious on-lookers on the streets of Old Sac was the percussive sounds of Petting Zoo, a three-man unit that whangs away on milk cartons, garbage cans, packing crates, and other seemingly useless material in order to create some infectious and body-moving rhythmic sounds. Adam Litke, Shane Robbins and Jack Walker make up Petting Zoo.

Petting Zoo, above, attracted a large crowd along the streets of Old Sac including some musicians who stopped by to

jam with the young percussionists: Adam Litke, left, Jack Walker, middle, and Shane Robbins, far right.

For this writer's taste, the spiritual experience at the Jubilee reached it's zenith when I entered the "holy of holies" to take in the fabulous sounds of Howard Alden's East All-Stars. A popular draw at the Sac jazz fest for many years, superlatives do this pulsating septet no real justice. You just have to hear them to believe.. and to be moved. And when you do, you will be immediately transported up to the "seventh Heaven."

Alden, Jubilee XXXI Emperor, is one of the finest guitarists in the world. He's a prolific recorder as leader, co-leader, and sideman on the Concord Jazz label who displays consistency, virtuosity and originality in his craft. Rounding out these fabulous East Coast All-Stars are Harry Allen, tenor sax; Johnny Varro, piano, the Jubilee Emperor in 2003; Dave Stone, bass; Randy Reinhart, cornet; John Allred, trombone; Jake Hanna, drums, the 2002 Jubilee Emperor; and Terrie Richards Alden, Howard's wife, as featured vocalist.

Whenever this group plays, they swing, and swing hard with impeccable taste. They have been such a cohesive unit during the past four Jubilees that they finally came together to record an album. (See Howard Alden's East Coast All-Stars CD) The Cd includes a wide variety of songs the group enjoys playing, from Jelly Roll Morton to Chet Baker. Thanks go to the Santa Fe Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping musicians in need and to financially support college jazz programs and other jazz organizations throughout the country, which made this recording happen. Recorded at the end of March in New York, the album was mixed and put together in less than a two-month period so that it could be sold at the Jubilee. So far, initial sales response toward the new CD seemed favorable, as many patrons flocked to the sales tables after the group's set was over to "take the band home" with them in recorded form.

Howard Alden's East Coast All-Stars, above, have been a popular draw at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee in recent years, and this current manifestation of

the group, is without a doubt, the finest. The All-Stars are (l-r): Johnny Varro, piano; Howard Alden, guitar; Harry Allen, tenor sax; Dave Stone, bass;

Randy Reinhart, trumpet; Jack Hanna, drums; and John Allred, trombone. The group recently recorded a CD together, It's De-Lovely.

Throughout the weekend, The All-Stars played a number of selections from their new album. The ensemble sound was tight, the individual soloists nothing less than stunning. Johnny Varro is master at the piano, always swinging, and always making "tickling the ivories" seem so effortless. But since I'm stuck on sax players, I think the addition of Harry Allen to the All-Stars four years ago just quadrupled the value of Alden's stock. Bringing Allen to the fold provided just the right ingredient to give the East Coast All-Stars a more robust sound and swinging drive. That is not to take anything away from clarinet great Allan Vache, who, for many years had been part of Alden's aggregation at the Jubilee. Vache has performed the past four years at the jazz fest as a featured guest star with songstress Terry Blaine and pianist Mark Shane.

Jazz critic Gene Lees once wrote, "Stan Getz was once asked his idea of the perfect tenor saxophone soloist. His answer was, 'My technique, Al Cohn's ideas, and Zoot's time.' The fulfillment of that ideal may well be embodied in...Harry Allen." That's high praise, to be sure, and praise that rightly describes Allen. His lyrical ideas flow like fine wine in simplistic and traditional straight-ahead fashion and is void of any undo pretense. His tone is light, yet well-rounded, embodied with a fluency and fertility of imagination. The bottom line is this cat swings and swings hard no matter what the tempo. As a leader in his own right, Allen has recorded over 30 CDs. (His current album is Jazz For The Soul, an all-ballads project on the BMG label.) JAZZ CONNECTION will be featuring Allen in a future issue.

After any spiritual experience, the recipient goes out and shares what he/she witnessed in the hopes that others may benefit from similar enlightenment. That has been my humble attempt here. I hope that I have witnessed well. I can only encourage that you plan now to attend for next year's spiritual retreat, the 33rd Annual Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, set for May 26-29, 2006. That definitely sounds like fun! For more info, log on to www.sacjazz.com

Sac Traditional Jazz Society Band Ophir Prison Band Ophir Prison Band Ophir Prison Band Balloon Platoon