32ND (2013) ANNUAL SAVANNAH JAZZ FESTIVAL
September 22-28, 2013
Sponsored In Part by the City of Savannah
All Events Are Free and Open to the Public

Habersham Village Shops
61st & Habersham Street

September 22 (sponsored by Sweet Frog, Portmanâ€s Music & Stagefront Sound)
2PM Savannah Country Day School Jazz Ensemble
3PM Savannah Arts Academy Skylite Orchestra
4PM Armstrong Atlantic State University Jazz Ensemble
5PM-8PM Jam Session Kickoff Featuring Teddy Adams & Jazz Allstars

September 23 (Sponsored by Sweet Frog)
7:30-9:30PM Jazz At The Movies w/Jody Espina & Tricycle (silent film)

September 24 (Sponsored by Sweet Frog)
6:30-9PM Eric Jones Quartet

September 25 (Sponsored by Sweet Frog)
6PM Velvet Caravan
7:30PM Bob Masteller & The Jazz Corner Allstars
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Forsyth Park
Main Stage at Gwinnet & Drayton Streets
(Sponsored in part by Capitol A Sound)

September 26 Blues Night (Thursday)
6-6:45PM Savannah State University Gospel Choir
7-8PM Eric Culberson Band
8:15-9:15PM E.G. Kight (Sponsored by Seacrest Partners)
9:30-10:45PM Watermelon Slim & The Workers

September 27 (Friday)
6-6:45PM Robin Sherman Quartet
7-8PM UNF Jazz Ensemble featuring Alon Yavnai (Sponsored by Melaver Foundation)
8:15-9:15PM The Greg Lewis Trio (Sponsored by International Paper)
9:30-10:45 Jeremy Davis & The Equinox Orchestra (Sponsored by Tate Law Firm)

September 28 (Saturday)
4:30-5:30PM Charleston Latin Jazz Collective
6:45-7:45PM The Savannah/CJA Hall Of Fame
7-8PM Doug & Jean Carn Quartet
8:15-9:15PM The Joey DeFrancisco Trio (Sponsored by Magic Marc/The Magic Puppet)
9:30-10:45 Tom Scott with The Savannah Jazz Orchestra (Sponsored by Miner Family Winery)
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Late Night Jam Sessions 11PM Sept 26-28 at ROSE Public House, Broughton Street

Blowin’ Smoke’s move from MLK to Habersham Street has necessitated a different venue for the jam sessions and for the weeknight events.

ROSE Public House is the current restaurant that occupies the old City Lights Theatre space on Broughton Street. It’s a comfortable, relatively spacious room — it seems a promising spot for the latenight jams.

I don’t yet know details on how Habersham Village will be used for those weeknight shows. There are a number of pleasant spots to get food and drinks in Habersham Village, but I’m assuming the gigs will be in the parking lot. But how will that affect parking? And what will be done in terms of seating?

The shows Sunday through Wednesday in Habersham Village will be in a tent in the parking lot. I don’t know how many of those spaces the festival will take up, so it’s a little hard to say how well that will work, but I’m sure the music will be excellent.

Here’s a taste of saxophonist Tom Scott, who is performing with The Savannah Jazz Orchestra in the headline slot on Saturday night in Forsyth:

And a taste of Watermelon Slim, the headliner on Blues Night on Thursday:

But the New Orleans-style processional after the funeral service at Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension was joyous and beautiful.

And it was an amazing display of Savannah itself.

If you’re from Savannah and personally invested at all in civic life, you’re likely to recognize at least a couple of dozen people in the pics below. I’m not going to try to point out who they all are right now.

After Ben’s family and friends go through a period of mourning, we’ll begin thinking about ways to permanently honor him, which would be richly deserved.

But there was something beautiful yesterday in the procession from the church to Ellis Square, where some of the city’s best players performed in Ben’s honor just a few yards from the Johnny Mercer statue.

I ended up with a lot of photos that are nearly identical, and I literally ended up with well over 100 that I wanted to post, but that’s a little excessive . . . But I found it too hard to whittle it down much

It will also be interesting to see, given the number of photographers and other folks with cameras around, how many photos get publicly posted. Mangue Banzima has some great shots up at his Qui Style blog. I’ve seen a few great isolated shots posted by media outlets and one beautiful album shared semi-privately by a photographer on Facebook, but I’m hoping we’ll see more.

I just checked the satellite radar and there are only a couple of dots on it — one of them is drenching downtown Savannah.

It seems almost fitting.

Ben Tucker was laid to rest today in Savannah (if you don’t know who he was, check out my post from last week), with a series of events. The funeral service was at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension on Wright Square at 11. Outside, dozens of us waited for the service to end and then joined a New Orleans-style processional down State Street and then up Barnard to Ellis Square.

As the marching band stopped its singing and playing, the band on stage got rolling.

The crowd thinned out relatively fast — it was a hot day and a work day for many — but the music was beautiful. I stayed long enough to catch up with some old friends and to hear a beautiful rendition of Ben’s classic song “Comin’ Home Baby.”

I took a bunch of photos — as a zillion others did — but I’m not going to edit all of those until tomorrow sometime. I’ll also wait till then to weigh in again on some of the issues surrounding the horrible accident that ended his life.

I like these two, though. That’s

Best to all.

My condolences to Ben’s wife Gloria, as well as the rest of Ben’s family and friends.

Ben’s passing is no doubt a huge loss for those closest to him, and it’s also a huge loss for the entire city.

From the Savannah Morning News:

A local jazz legend died Tuesday on Hutchinson Island when the golf cart he was in was struck by a car coming off the islandâ€s former racetrack.

Savannah-Chatham police confirmed Tuesday afternoon 82-year-old Ben Tucker was the driver of the golf cart struck by a dark blue Dodge sedan on Resort Drive, an approach to Grand Prize of America Avenue on Hutchinson Island.

A 52-year old man from Texas has reportedly been charged with racing, vehicular homicide, and reckless driving. I’m sure there will be many more details in coming days, but I’ll just throw this out there now: if you build a racetrack and leave it open as a public road that goes nowhere, don’t be surprised if people use it for racing. It’s also worth saying that Chatham County has a pretty sorry record when it comes to prosecuting drivers of cars that strike pedestrians, cyclists, etc.

Obviously, we’ll find out more details in the coming days.

From Ben’s profile at All About Jazz:

By the early 1960’s, he was regularly performing and recording with such greats as Herbie Mann, Billy Taylor, Dexter Gordon, Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones, Marian McPartland, and Mel Torme. A prodigious composer (many of his songs are jazz standards) of over 300 titles, Tucker’s “Comin’ Home Baby” was a blockbuster hit for Herbie Mann, “Devilette” and “The Message,” both recorded by Dexter Gordon and “ Right Here, Right Now” by Billy Taylor are just a few of the many title songs that Ben has written and published.

“Comin’ Home Baby” has been covered a lot over the years. Here’s Mel Torme:

I especially like the last couple of answers in this Savannah Morning News interview in 1999:

Q. What is the most interesting trip you’ve been on? What made it a standout?

“I made five trips to Japan to give concerts and they’re so appreciative of the American culture. I went to Bogota, Colombia, to do concerts and that was a great experience. I was playing for people in the poverty level and I got to see a country trying to make it on barely anything, yet they had a lot of pride in their family affairs. I saw kids leaving out of shacks and they were clean and beautiful. That was a great experience I witnessed. And all through South America, through Rio De Janeiro, I was there with (jazz pianist) Dave Brubeck, (jazz flutist) Herbie Mann and (female jazz singer) Chris Conner. The people down there again were very appreciative of our creative jazz music from America. I saw kids in Rio making music out of bed springs, pots and pans, bottles and anything they could get their hands on that could make a sound. They have a lot of feeling for rhythm, Latin rhythm.”

Q. What is your favorite way to spend the evening alone?

“I don’t. I hate it. I hate being alone. I don’t ever like being alone. I don’t like to eat alone, go on trips alone, sleep alone, play music alone, play golf alone. That’s the most boring thing to me, being alone. Nothing happens when you’re alone. I’m a real Sagittarius. I love to touch and feel. I just love to love. I demand being with people, communication. I don’t give a damn if it’s a fight or a fuss or a laugh.”

An interview with Ben uploaded to YouTube in 2009:

Click here for a nice piece in the SMN previewing the Savannah Music Festival’s 2010 concert honoring Tucker’s 80th birthday.

I simply loved watching Ben play — there was such an economy of movement and such a placid expression, but as you got closer, you could see the nimble fingers and sharp eyes. There seemed to be an easy elegance to just about everything he did.

I saw Ben perform briefly just a couple of weeks ago at Connect Savannah’s Best Of party at the Morris Center. He looked great and sounded great. I was going to stop by the table where he and Gloria were seated, but they seemed to be having such a nice time in conversation with friends that I didn’t want to disturb them.

Here are a few photos I took of Ben at the 2012 Savannah Jazz Festival during an afternoon gig in Forsyth Park. He’s playing with vibraphonist Warren Chiasson and several other standouts of the Savannah jazz scene:

The event moved at a pleasantly quick pace, with each combo playing just a handful of songs before quickly turning the space over to another group. A few of the Swing Central clinicians sat in with various groups. I know one of the trombonists you’ll see in these shots is the great Wycliffe Gordon, and I think the other two are Ron Westray and Paul McKee.

The sessions started at 3:30 but I didn’t make it to Reynolds Square until sometime after 4:30. So I certainly didn’t get shots of all the combos, but — for the record — here are the schools that participated in the impressive Swing Central Jazz this year: Skylite Jazz Band from the Savannah Arts Academy; Agoura High School Studio Jazz Band from Agoura Hills, Calif.; the Charleston School of the Arts Jazz, Charleston, S.C.; the Camden Creative Arts Jazz Band from the Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy, Camden, N.J.; the Denver School of the Arts Jazz Workshop Orchestra, Denver; the Downers Grove South High School Jazz Ensemble, Downers Grove, Ill.; the Grissom High School A Jazz Band, Huntsville, Ala.; the Lower Moreland High School Jazz Ensemble, Huntingdon Valley, Penn.; the Overton High School Blue Jazz Ensemble, Memphis, Tenn.; the Tarpon Springs High School Jazz Ensemble I, Tarpon Springs, Fla.; and the Lovett School Jazz Ensemble, Atlanta.

I know a few of the photos here are of groups from Agoura High School, but I was having such a nice time listening to the jazz and basking in the warm spring weather that I didn’t write down names of the combos as they were introduced. I’ll try to get it sorted out, though, and I’ll be posting an even larger gallery of shots to the Savannah Unplugged Facebook page — “likes” are welcome!

It was great to see the youthful talent and energy on display, not to mention the obvious diversity that jazz attracts. A lot of kids are forming great memories of Savannah through Swing Central Jazz.

So, the lighting: the sun was bright and setting as I was shooting, so some combos and some individuals were hit by bright sunlight, while others remained in shade almost exclusively. Tricky conditions, but — as you can see — some lovely effects.

The Savannah Children’s Choir recorded backup vocals to the song “Black Gold” by Esperanza Spalding, whose album Radio Music Society won this year’s Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Spalding is a former Artist-in-Residence with the Savannah Children’s Choir.

From the SCC’s website, for those unfamiliar with the young but amazingly accomplished organization:

The Savannah Childrenâ€s Choir is an auditioned, community choir with a mission of uniting Savannahâ€s children through the power of song.

The choir accomplishes its mission through four broad areas, which includes an annual Summer Camp (which also serves as the only audition into the choir), a fall-to-spring Rehearsal and Performance season, an annual Artist-in-Residence program and annual travel opportunities.

The Savannah Childrenâ€s Choir is one of the few community organizations where children from a broad range of conditions have a chance to positively interact and develop new understanding and friendships.

The SCC is a 501-c-3 not for profit organization with a volunteer Board of Trustees and professional staff of directors.

Kevin Rose at Elevated Basement did some tracking for the album.

Here’s the official video, which includes a little didacticism about African history. Spalding, btw, is the bassist here.

The sprinkling rain made photography a bit tricky late, and as usual I was distracted by myriad things. I’ve never been thrilled with the quality of my zoom lens, but it does OK.

All in all, it was a tremendous Saturday in Forsyth Park, with great performers, ideal sound from Capital A, and a big, enthusiastic crowd.

The pics here include Huxsie Scott, Ben Tucker, Warren Chiasson (on the vibraphone), Teddy Adams, Howard Paul, Skip Jennings, Delbert Felix, Andreas Varady, and Tony Monaco. If you’re not sure who’s who, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments. (And if someone lets me know whose names I’m missing, I’d appreciate it.)

Click to supersize.

Produced by the Coastal Jazz Association, the festival then moves to Forsyth Park as usual for blues night on Thursday 9/27 and stays in the park through the weekend.

Here’s the full lineup from the SJF website:

31ST SAVANNAH JAZZ FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 23RD THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30TH

SUNDAY 9/23

Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd
5PM Teddy Adams†Opening Night Jam Session

Sponsored by: Portmanâ€s Music Super Store

MONDAY 9/24

Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd
8PM Jazz Festival Film: “In Good Time: The Piano Jazz of Marian McPartland”
Special Appearance by film Producer & Director James “Huey” Coleman Jr.

Sponsored by: Psychotronic Film Society of Savannah

TUESDAY 9/25

Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd
7PM The Jody Espina Quartet with Special Guest Claire Fraiser
featuring Howard Paul, Delbert Felix and Billy Hoffman

WEDNESDAY 9/26

Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd
7PM Bob Mastellar & The Jazz Corner All Stars
8:30PM Swing â€42 (Gypsy Jazz from Columbia SC)

THURSDAY 9/27

Blues Night at Forsyth Park

6:30PM Amburgey & Hanson
7:10PM SSU Gospel Choir
8:15PM Eric Culberson Band
9:30PM Liâ€l Ed and the Blues Imperials
11PM Late night jam at Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd

FRIDAY 9/28

Forsyth Park
7PM Doc Handy Band
8:15PM Jay Stewart Band
9:30PM University of North Florida Jazz Ensemble #1 w/vibraphone legend Warren Chiasson
11PM Late night jam at Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd

SATURDAY 9/29

Forsyth Park

4PM US Navy Band Southeast Dixieland Band “TGIF”
5:45PM Jazz Hall Of Fame w/Ben Tucker, Teddy Adams, Huxie Scott, and Howard Paul. Guest Artists: Warren Chiasson & Quentin Baxter
7PM Andreas Varady Quartet w/Scott Gidden, Delbert Felix and Pete Miles – Sponsored by Miner Wines & Benedetto Guitars
8:15PM Tony Monaco B3 Trio – Sponsored by Miner Wines & Benedetto Guitars
9:30PM Savannah Jazz Orchestra featuring sax greats Ed Calle & Sam Skelton – Sponsored by Jody Jazz Mouthpieces
11PM Late night jam at Blowin†Smoke, 514 MLK Jr. Blvd

SUNDAY 9/30

Childrenâ€s Jazz Fest at Forsyth Park – Sponsored by Magic Marc Dunston and Portmanâ€s Music Super Store

4PM Savannah Arts Academy Skylite Orchestra
5PM Savannah County Day School Jazz Band
6Pm CJA All Stars

Here’s almost 10 minutes of Tony Monaco, who will be performing on Saturday: