Upstate Jazz Festival: a swinging dress rehearsal
by Jack Garner, Democrat and Chronicle, August 14, 1977
The Upstate Jazz Festival, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs last weekend, was a compact but diverse “dress rehearsal” for the debut next year of the Newport Festival at Saratoga.
The music ranged from the traditional mainstream jazz of Oscar Peterson to the premier modernist McCoy Tyner, from the jazz-rock of Herbie Mann and Roy Ayers to the third stream neo-classicism of Chick Corea and Gary Burton.
The 4th annual festival, from Aug. 5 through last Monday night, was hampered by damp, rainy weather, but at least two nights had good crowds. It was easy to visualize the lovely Saratoga Center grounds as a locale for the all-day, all-night outdoor carnival atmosphere of a Newport-styled jazz festival, scheduled for next Aug. 3, 4, 5 and 6.
George Wein, impresario of the Newport Festival, in Newport and in recent years in New York, announced last month that the festival, the granddaddy of all such events, would be held next year at Saratoga. While in Newport for two decades, the festival developed a relaxed, laid-back style, with events on the lawn, musicians’ workshops, and widely varying concerts.
The wilder crowds which came when the festival opened up to blues and jazz-rock performers, however, forced Wein to move his festival to the more controllable environment of New York City. Wein feels the time is right again, however, to return to an outdoor, on-the-lawn format.
The move actually will mean the birth of a new festival because Wein said he plans to continue the New York concerts as well, under a new name.
Saratoga facilities include large parking lots and grounds to accommodate good-sized crowds of up to 20,000. The main Performing Arts Center has covered seating for 5,000, but is open on three sides. Acts can be seen from the large lawn, which slopes up from the covered seats.
The only things that could hurt the Newport Festival next year (other than poor programming, which I don’t foresee), would be a repeat of the lousy weather and the fact that Saratoga is jammed in August because of the racing season.
Motel rooms in Saratoga usually are booked months in advance for August, and prices for $14 to $20 rooms are jacked up to $45 to $60 a night in August.
Herbert A. Chesbrough, manager of the center, who also will help coordinate the Newport event with Wein, said they carefully weighed the pros and cons of holding the jazz festival during the racing season and decided the positive aspect of having a ready-made audience in town outweighed the crowded room problem.
Chesbrough added that the Saratoga Performing Arts Center has a service bureau which is designed to help visitors get rooms “to fit any price range or need.” He also suggested that people may want to find rooms in neighboring communities like Glens Falls and Albany.
My experience with high prices and crowded streets near the racetrack this year makes the idea of a room 30 to 40 minutes away quite attractive.
THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL featured solo and duo performances by pianist Chick Corea and vibraharpist Gary Burton on opening night. The next night’s double-billing of Oscar Peterson on solo piano and the McCoy Tyner sextet was easily the highlight of the festival. The third night featured two guitarists, Joe Pass and Charlie Byrd, and the final night starred flutist Herbie Mann and vibraharpist Roy Ayers.
The first two nights had the biggest crowds (2,300 and 2,600 respectively) compared with the last two (1,111 and 1,469). The first two nights also were the two I saw.
Vibraharpist Burton, runner-up to Milt Jackson in the current Down Beat critics poll, opened the festival with a 50-minute solo set of beauty and grace. Burton is second only to Keith Jarrett as a star in the German-based ECM Records stable of performers.
ECM artists are at the forefront of a type of jazz today known as neo-classicism. The music is firmly rooted in European tradition and features lyrical improvisations and crisp, clean, horizontal melody lines. Some jazz traditionalists would argue that such music doesn’t “swing,” but its foundation in improvisation more than qualifies it as jazz.
Burton played a set of tunes by people like Jarrett, bassist Steve Swallow, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Burton is a leading exponent of the four-mallet technique, which lends itself to interesting harmonic treatments.
He was followed by Corea, whose recent work in the leading jazz-rock band, Return To Forever, was no doubt responsible for the primarily young, blue-jeaned crowd. That night, however, Corea stuck to the acoustic grand piano and played original solo compositions of a highly romantic, lyrical nature. Highlights of the set included material from his “My Spanish Heart” album and an interesting free-form on-the-spot improvised portrait of the audience.
AFTER INTERMISSION, the two returned for an even more stimulating duo set, based largely on material the two recorded four years ago for ECM. The tunes included that album’s title song, “Crystal Silence,” a romping Spanish-flavored piece called “Senor Mouse,” an impressionistic “Desert Air,” and a warm, medium-tempo ballad called “I’m Your Pal.”
The two musicians work marvelously together, especially when you know that they only get together in performance about every six months and haven’t rehearsed together recently. Their equally romantic and impressionistic styles blend superbly.
The second night’s mixture of traditionalist Peterson with modernist Tyner was a fascinating thing to see and hear – at least for the primarily younger fans of pianist Tyner. Older, long-time followers of Peterson apparently weren’t as happy, for many left when Tyner’s sextet followed Peterson to the stage.
Tyner, by the way, was voted top pianist in the current Down Beat critics poll. Peterson is sixth in the poll. Tyner’s sextet was voted the top combo as well.
PETERSON PLAYED a solo set, a concept that is perfect for his full-sounding, multi-fingered style. He romped through several uptempo standards at incredible speeds and then abruptly slowed for interpretations of lovely ballads like “Here’s That Rainy Day” and “Misty.”
The highlight of the set – and one of the most magnificent displays of musicianship I’ve ever witnessed – was a 20-minute medley of Duke Ellington tunes, including “Take the ‘A’ Train,” “Caravan,” “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” and “Satin Doll.”
Tyner’s group concluded the evening with an explosive and exciting display of modern jazz that blended avant-garde stylings from Tyner’s apprenticeship under the late John Coltrane with Third World and Latin music elements.
The group features leader Tyner on piano, sax players Ron Bridgewater and Joe Ford (the latter’s from Buffalo), bassist Charles Fambrough, drummer Eric Gravatt, and the inventive and exciting percussionist, Guilherme Franco. Franco was named number two percussionist in the critics’ poll.
The highlight of Tyner’s set was a long and powerful Latin-flavored piece titled “Sama Layuca”. It featured a superb Tyner solo in his trademark percussive and modal style, along with strong solo work from the horns and bass. Franco was constantly reaching for new and original percussion instruments from the dozens on stage to add fresh sounds to the piece.
Tyner’s sextet also played an interesting medium-tempo version of the ballad, “Say It (Over and Over Again),” which Tyner first played with John Coltrane on the latter’s famous “Ballads” album in the early sixties.
The sextet returned for a long encore performance of “The Greeting”, a Tyner original from his latest “Supertrios” album.
HEARING COREA, PETERSON AND TYNER within 24 hours was a major display of the far-ranging piano styles found in jazz today.
Only the avant-garde playing of Cecil Taylor and the eclectic master Keith Jarrett could have made the display more expansive.
It’s such ear-opening variety that makes the festival concept far more valuable for listeners than catching jazz artists in one-shot concert appearances. And that’s why I hope the Newport-at-Saratoga format is a success.
THE FESTIVAL CONCEPT also is being tried next month at Artpark, in Lewiston, north of Niagara Falls. The First Artpark Jazz Festival runs Sept. 7 through the 11.
Urbie Green, Zoot Sims and Clark Terry will open the festival at 8 p.m. Sept. 7. Lionel Hampton is scheduled for 8 p.m. Sept. 8, followed by Kenny Burrell and Chris Woods at 8 p.m. Sept. 9. The Manhattan School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble is to perform at 2 p.m. on Sept 10, followed at 8 that night by Stanley Turrentine and Emil Palame. Ramsey Lewis is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 11 along with Rochester’s Spider Martin.
The festival will close at 8 that night with a performance by the Artpark Allstars, a group of leading players who have worked in the Western New York area.
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