Sarasota Jazz Festival gets back in the groove

If you love jazz in all of its forms, Sarasota is a good place to live and visit. 

During season, you can see jazz twice a week — on Friday afternoon at Unitarian Universalists and on Monday night at Florida Studio Theatre’s Court Cabaret. 

All year round, you can hear different types of jazz monthly on the Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza at the contemporary Sarasota Art Museum. 

But if you’re a true jazz aficionado, the best time of year to be here is during the annual Sarasota Jazz Festival, which takes place this year from March 17-23. 

All of these jazz-related events are brought to you by the Jazz Club of Sarasota. You don’t have to be a member of the Jazz Club to enjoy their events, but you do get advance notice and a discount on some tickets. Sometimes you can bring a guest to a concert for free.

Google must-see jazz festivals and you’ll find lists with storied names like Montreux, Newport and Montreal. You’ll even see Clearwater, our neighbor to the north. 

From the internet’s point of view, the Sarasota Jazz Festival isn’t yet in the top tier of jazz fests. But there’s no question it’s gaining momentum and bouncing back after Covid.

You know how Orioles fans flock to Ed Smith Stadium each March for spring training games? The same thing happens in the world of jazz. What’s great for fans of both baseball and jazz is that there’s overlap between the two Sarasota runs.

For many cultural groups and venues in Sarasota, the high watermark in membership and attendance came in 2019, the year before Covid hit. Not so with the Sarasota Jazz Club, whose numbers reached an all-time high back in the 1990s.

At its peak, the jazz club had 3,000 members, says Ed Linehan, past president and board member of the Jazz Club of Sarasota. When Linehan came on board eight years ago, the club that was founded in 1980 by former Benny Goodman publicist Hal Davis had dwindled to less than 500 members.

Under Linehan’s stewardship, membership has climbed to about 1,500.

Last year’s Sarasota Jazz Festival had about 2,700 attendees, he says. That’s up from 1,500 when Linehan took over as president.

A good sign for the future health of the Sarasota Jazz Club s that it’s attracting younger members.One reason for that is that it’s “broadened the tent,” says board member Lousie Coogan. “We haven’t walked away from traditional jazz, but we don’t mind blues-y, bop, a little jazz fusion and experimental.”

Some of the headliners at this year’s festival, which was programmed by Terell Stafford, reflect the jazz club’s broader reach. A professional trumpet player, Stafford is the director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University in Philadelphia.

The Grace Kelly-Wycliffe Gordon concert on March 21 at the Municipal Auditorium is sure to bring out some younger faces. In addition to performing in public, Kelly will teach a workshop at Booker Booker High School Visual and Performing Arts Center on March 22 that is exclusively for students in the magnet school.

A musical prodigy, Kelly is a singer/songwriter who plays the saxophone, composes songs and is band leader. At age 16, she performed at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. According to her official bio, Kelly has recorded 14 albums and performed numerous sold-out concerts.

Coogan, who sits on the Jazz Club’s scholarship committee, says she received a call from a middle schooler who is going to see Wycliffe Gordon. “We’re hearing from kids,” says Coogan, who has been involved in the club’s campaign to expose students to jazz.

Courtesy image

Gordon, whose nickname is “Pinecone,” is a trombonist, arranger, composer and band leader who also plays the didgeridoo, a wind instrument used by Australia’s indigenous people, not to mention the trumpet, soprano trombone, tuba and piano. 

Stafford will appear on opening night of the jazz fest along with legendary vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. In addition to being a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, Bridgewater was host of an NPR radio show for 23 years. She won a Tony Award for her performance as Glinda in “The Wiz,” in 1975.

This year, the Sarasota Jazz Festival is returning to the Municipal Auditorium for the first time since Covid forced it to pull the plug on its 2020 edition. When the festival resumed live performances in 2022, the decision was made to hold performances outdoors, but “not everyone wants to be outside at night,” notes LInehan.

This year’s festival has something for everyone — from Municipal Auditorium concerts to a Jazz Trolley/public crawl ride, a documentary at Burns Court Cinema to free, late-night jam sessions that local musicians are invited to participate in. 

In terms of community participation, Linehan says the festival is still recruiting volunteers, particularly people who are experienced in retail sales and comfortable working with technology. 

There’s a good crew of ushers in place, he says.

“Our idea of a festival is for people to come early, have a drink, buy a poster and maybe some artist merchandise,” he says.

During a Zoom call with Coogan and a reporter, Linehan takes a moment to survey the realm of jazz in Sarasota. Things are on an upswing, he says, thanks to surging population growth in the area and a new generation of jazz fans. 

“It’s amazing it (the jazz club) has lasted for more than 30 years,” says Linehan. “Let’s make sure it lasts until it’s 50.”