Big Band Jazz

The Eleventh Annual Prescott Jazz Summit concluded on August 28, 2011 and was a huge success.

This was the second year of not only presenting our festival weekend, but summer long concert series as well.  Three monthly concerts were held at the Highlands Center for Natural History, in their outdoor (but covered) amphitheater.  The series is called "Howlin' at the Highlands" and features great vocalists as well as seasoned jazz musicians.

Dennis Rowland from the Count Basie Orchestra entertained at the first concert in June.  There was a close to capacity crowd and Dennis worked in complete harmony with the backup band that consisted of Jack Petersen – Guitar, Ted Sistrunk – Bass, Cleve Huff – Drums and Mike Vax – trumpet and flugelhorn.  The audience was completely captivated by Mr. Rowland's way with a song and relaxed performance.  He is a true professional that "knows how to work the audience." The July Concert featured two of the most popular female vocalists in the southwest.  Margo Reed and Delphine Cortez were accompanied by Joel Robin on Keyboards and Keyboard Bass, Cleve Huff on Drums, and Tony Vacca on Tenor Saxophone and flute.  The evening was filled with the sounds of jazz standards, Broadway show tunes and the blues.  The weather didn't cooperate and one of the summer monsoons hit both before and during the performance.  The Prescott jazz audience didn't care about the weather and not only was the concert completely sold out, but 40 cars had to be turned away.  A record for the Highlands Center.

Our August concert was presided over by the multi-talented Renee' Patrick.  When your father was one of the Ink Spots and your mother was a studio singer for the Motown Record Label, your future is pre-destined.   Renee' is a consummate performer, whether singing blues, jazz or popular music, all of which she included in her sterling evening of song styling.  The quintet behind her included Mike Vax on Trumpet and Flugelhorn, Tony Vacca on Saxophone and Flute, Wes Anderson on Drums, Ted Sistrunk on Bass and … on guitar.  It was another complete sell out performance for the Prescott Jazz Summit and the Highlands Center.

The City of Prescott presents Jazz on the Courthouse Plaza every Tuesday evening during the summer months and for the two weeks prior to the Jazz Summit, our director Mike Vax presented two very different groups.  On August 16th the Mike Vax Sextet performed straight ahead jazz, swing and latin music for the listening and dancing enjoyment of the large crowd that filled the square.  The following week, on August 23rd, the Swing Shift Big Band kicked off festival week for the Prescott Jazz Summit.  The largest crowd of the summer enjoyed big band swing with tunes from the 1930's to today.  These two concerts were real highlights for the many people who frequent Courthouse Plaza for the Tuesday evening concert series.

Friday

The festival weekend opened with yet another free concert at Courthouse Plaza at noon on Friday, August 26th.  This concert is a favorite of the downtown merchants, as it is a welcome to our jazz fans from out of town as well as our locals, and many visit the shops on the square after the performance.  It only rained a little this year, as opposed to last year, when we had a full scale monsoon right in the middle of the concert.  (Summertime in Prescott can be very unpredictable!) A good sized crowd heard many of the out of town musicians performing jazz standards and quite a few tickets were sold at the concert for the upcoming weekend events.

Friday evening brought our "Meet the Musicians" reception at Monk's Restaurant with good food and good companionship.  Our paron badge holders got to meet the musicians one on one and learn about their backgrounds and hear many great "road stories."  Right after the reception, we all adjourned to the Elks Opera House for the first concert of the weekend.  The Elks has been recently remodeled and brought back to the splendor that it knew 100 years ago.  It is a terrific venue to hear music.  The concert was opened by the "Yongbloods Quintet."  This is a group made up of graduates from Prescott High School who are all now going to prestigious music schools on the East Coast.  It was a fitting way to open our first concert, considering the commitment the Jazz Summit has to music education.  Our two mistresses of ceremonies – Blaise Lantana from KJZZ in Phoenix and Sandy Moss from KPPV in Prescott welcomed the audience and gave a history of the Jazz Summit.  Our own mayor Marlin Keykendall, also welcomed the audience and told of how important the Jazz Summit is to the City of Prescott and the Quad – City area of Arizona.

It would get a bit redundant to list all the musicians that played at every concert, since all of our out of town musicians that come into Prescott to perform and most of our local Arizona musicians, play at pretty much every venue.  There were many highlights for this evening.  We had vocalists galore, as well as many configurations of musicians.  Since our festival is really more like a "jazz party," director Mike Vax assigns different people to play short sets together and choose their own material to perform.  At the end of the evening, there were two "mega-moments" when all the singers got up on stage to perform a tune together, followed by all the horn players.  Needless to say the Elks Opera House was rockin' by the end of the evening.  

Saturday

Saturday brought two very different events.  In the afternoon, we had a dance/concert at the Hotel St. Michael on Whiskey Row in the historic part of downtown Prescott.  We had many Lindy Hop dancers attend and the dancing was something to behold.  There were even some dance lessons being given.  Our musicians and singers catered to these dancers with great music aimed at keeping them on the dance floor.  Everything worked!  It was a packed house with still enough room on the dance floor for the dancers to show off their steps.

Saturday evening is labeled as the "Gala Concert," and that it was.  For the third year in a row, we presented the Jazz Summit All Star Big Band.  This is a 19 piece big band made up of both our guest musicians and local musicians who perform in the Swing Shift Big Band.  This evening is always one of the high lights of the whole festival.  It is held at the Ruth Street Theater at Prescott High School, and the award winning Prescott High School Jazz Ensemble always opens the show.  They were in rare form, performing some great standards from the big band repertoire, as well as new material.  The Jazz Summit big band featured different leaders all evening.  Fred Radke started the evening out with the music of the Harry James Orchestra, then Rusty Higgins performed arrangements by the great Tom Kubis, one of them featuring both Rusty and Jack Petersen on a very soulful guitar.  The first half closed with Dennis Rowland doing a tribute to the late, great Sammy Davis, Jr.  He thrilled the audience with both vocal power and finesse, as well as a great sense of humor.  

Intermission always finds the Prescott High School Band Parents having wonderful refreshments for sale to help the music department as well as a table run by our wonderful volunteers for sales of CD's from all of our artists. The second half of the concert opened with Mike Vax performing a brand new arrangement of the theme from the TV Show "Chico and the Man," arranged by Victor Lopez.  This is a wonderful tune and the audience really seemed to enjoy the change of pace.  Jack Petersen then performed a haunting version of "Django," a piece written in honor of the late Django Reinhart – one of the early jazz guitar heros.  It was time for more vocalization and Scott Whitfield and Ginger Berglund took to the stage to entertain.  Ginger did an amazing arrangement of "No More Stars" with the trombone section backing her up.  It was a special moment.  Then Scott and Ginger sang together.  They are a true extension of the vocal jazz idiom, coming from the great Jackie and Roy of years ago.  

At this point, Mike Vax did his "Carol Burnet" routine and actually let the audience ask some questions about big band and jazz music.  This seems to be a good way to keep the audience relaxed and yet feeling very involved with the music of the evening.  After the question and answer period, Mike led the band in two of the great arrangements written for the Stan Kenton Orchestra – "Here's That Rainy Day," arranged by Dee Barton, and "Stompin' at the Savoy," arranged by Bill Holman.  The finale came with Dennis Rowland singing "Birth of the Blues" from a recording of Sammy Davis, Jr. and the Buddy Rich Big Band.  The audience was clamoring for more, so Dennis sang the blues as only he can do and invited a bunch of the students from Prescott High School to come up to solo with the band.  The energy was probably felt 100 miles away down in Phoenix!  This was a terrific evening of great big band performance!

Sunday

Sunday's events were held at the Historic Hassayampa Inn.  Our jazz brunch sold out as it does every year.  It is a wonderful morning and early afternoon of jazz music and great food.  The buffet line was full of both breakfast and lunch goodies, including an amazing omelet bar, where the chef cooked literally dozens and dozens of very creative dishes, designed individually for each individual.   The music was just as exciting and high caliber as the rest of the weekend.  The audience is right on top of the stage and the energy and excitement flowed between the performers and the audience.  There were requests and much banter between everyone in the room and the musicians.  This is one of the wonderful things about the Jazz Summit.  The musicians are accessible and love getting to know the people in the audience.  The jazz fans attending these events also feel very comfortable sitting with and getting to know the musicians.  We have always prided ourselves in the fact that this is a weekend of closeness and mingling, rather than what happens at some larger festivals, where the musicians are pretty much kept back stage and away from the audience.  There were many hilarious moments, with the musicians telling stories and little known information about the music they played, as well as the beauty of the music itself.

Sunday afternoon is presented in the same Marina Ballroom where the brunch is served.  We have the audience leave for a short while for a big of a changeover of the room, then resume the music without the food.  Again, it is a relaxed atmosphere with good music and good fun.  We also get an even bigger audience, with some theater seating added to the tables from the brunch for the people who only want to come to the afternoon performance.  Again there were outstanding performances from all the musicians and singers, as well as the culmination of a weekend long raffle held to give away a beautiful jazz quilt hand made by our volunteer Sandy Merrill.  The funds from this raffle go into our educational outreach fund.

Sunday evening is always a popular event.  We have our final jam session at 129 ½ An American Jazz Grill.  It was completely packed for dinner and music and proprietor Barry Barbe and his staff were amazing, serving wonderful food to the sold out restaurant.  The musicians were in rare form and things heated up very fast and stayed at a "fever pitch" all evening.  Peggy Vax at one point even led a conga line all through the crowded restaurant and even out into the kitchen area.  This was a fitting end to a wonderful weekend of jazz music, good food, great friendship, new acquaintances, excitement and an overall feeling that jazz music is alive and well in Arizona.