SYRACUSE — Last staged five years ago at Onondaga Community College, the Syracuse Jazz Festival is back in 2022, and it will return to downtown Syracuse, June 23, 24 and 25. As usual, admission will be free.
“Jazz Fest is moving back downtown to Clinton Square Friday and Saturday and at area night spots on Thursday,” said founder and artistic director Frank Malfitano, one of Central NY’s most prominent impresarios. This year will mark the festival’s first time back downtown after 20 years at other venues.
Malfitano is especially proud of this year’s jazz-centric programming.
“In order to grow festival audiences to attract sponsors, many jazz festivals have been forced to veer away from programming jazz, the music they’re supposed to be representing,” he said. “But this year Syracuse Jazz Fest has returned to its jazz roots in a big way with 28 of our 30 acts, artists and groups being 100 percent jazz.”
When Clinton Square hosted the Syracuse Jazz Fest in the 1990s, it drew thousands of people each year. That scenario is likely to be repeated as the main-stage headliners feature saxophonist David Sanborn’s Electric Band, pioneering bebop vocalist Sheila Jordan and the Scottish funk septet the Average White Band on Friday. And on Saturday, Louisiana’s Zydeco Cha-Chas take the stage before Massachusetts saxophonist Boney James followed by former 5th Dimension singers Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.
The festival was last staged at Clinton Square in 2000, when headliners Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, Pete Fountain and Diana Krall drew an overflow crowd estimated at more than 35,000.
New York State 127th District Assemblyman Al Stirpe was among them.
“The best thing I can remember from years ago when I used to come to Jazz Fest downtown was how many people would be here visiting after the shows,” Stirpe said April 19 as Malfitano announced this year’s headliners.
“They’d go to the bars and restaurants,” Stirpe said. “There’d be more music there. Everybody stayed downtown for a long time, spent a lot of money and I think that’s really the best thing we can do right now.”
Onondaga County and the city of Syracuse have each pledged $125,000 to support this year’s 36th ever festival, and Malfitano also secured another $150,000 for a new presenting sponsor, Amazon.com.
“We couldn’t possibly be more grateful to New York state, Onondaga County, the City of Syracuse, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Amazon for bringing Syracuse Jazz Fest back to downtown Syracuse this June,” Malfitano said. “We’re all thrilled to see this longtime Syracuse summertime tradition coming back, and that would simply not have been possible without Amazon’s support.”
2022 Syracuse Jazz Fest schedule
On the first day of the festival, Thursday, June 23, nearly two dozen of CNY’s most talented combos will be showcased at various downtown venues such as Funk ’n Waffles, Fitz’s, The Gilded Club, the Press Room Pub and the Landmark Theatre mezzanine (see below).
And here’s the schedule for Friday, June 24 on the Clinton Square Main Stage:
4 p.m. Salt City Jazz Collective
5:45 p.m. Sheila Jordan Trio
7:30 p.m. David Sanborn Electric Band
9:15 p.m. Average White Band
Here’s the schedule for Saturday, June 25, on the Clinton Square Main Stage:
4 p.m. Nathan Williams and the Zydeco Cha Cha’s
5:45 p.m. The Urban Knights
7:30 p.m. Boney James
9:15 p.m. Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Jr.
For more info, visit syracusejazzfest.com.
Downtown venues will be hoppin’ on opening night
More than 100 local musicians and groups including national recording artists Nancy Kelly, Ronnie Leigh and Bob Holz & A Vision Forward will perform on opening night as part of this year’s Syracuse Jazz Fest on Thursday, June 23, in downtown Syracuse.
Twenty CNY-based jazz groups will be showcased at 20 different venues that day to kick off this year’s festival.
“The Syracuse jazz scene has so much incredible talent, we wanted to do everything we could to showcase our homegrown stars at Jazz Fest 36 for all of the out-of-town visitors and guests who will be coming in from all over the U.S. and Canada,” said Malfitano. “Syracuse has had so many great jazz musicians and artists over the years, and they all deserve to be seen and heard by a wider audience. With more than 100 Syracuse jazz artists appearing on our stages and thousands of visitors expected to attend, this year’s programming may prove to be our finest ever.”
Participating opening-night venues include the Press Room Pub, Pastabilities, The Fitz, Mulrooney’s, Benjamin’s on Franklin, Clinton Street Pub, Saltine Warrior, Tasting Room at Epicuse, Modern Malt, The Gilded Club, Kitty Hoyne’s, Funk’n’Waffles, Wunderbar, The Weighlock Lounge, Bar and Board, Redfield’s, King of Clubs, The Corner Bar, Kasai and the grand mezzanine of the Landmark Theatre; syracusejazzfest.com.
Eagle Newspapers entertainment writer Russ Tarby recommends:
- 4 p.m. Joe Davoli’s Hot Club of Syracuse at Kitty Hoyne’s
- 5 p.m. The DiCosimo-Pagan Latin Jazz at Wunderbar
- 6 p.m. The Carol Bryant Quartet at The Gilded Club.
- 7 p.m. E.S.P. at The Corner Bar
- 8 p.m. Jeff Stockham’s Jazz Horn Legacy Sextet at the Press Room Pub
- 9 p.m. The Jazz Mafia at King of Clubs
Bird’s songbird
Bebop vocalist Sheila Jordan sings here June 24
When Sheila Dawson dropped a nickel in the jukebox of a Detroit diner in the late 1940s and listened to “Now’s the Time” by Charlie Parker’s Reboppers, she was instantly hooked — and so began her 70-plus-years jazz journey.
Working primarily with Black musicians, she met with disapproval from the white community but persisted with her career. She was a member of a vocal trio, Skeeter, Mitch and Jean (she was Jean), who sang versions of Parker’s solos in a manner akin to that of the vocalese trio, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross.
After moving from Detroit to New York in the early 1950s, Dawson married Parker’s pianist, Duke Jordan, and studied with improvising pianist Lennie Tristano, but it was not until the early 1960s that she made her first recordings. One of these was under her own name; the other was “The Outer View” with George Russell, which featured her famous 10-minute version of “You Are My Sunshine.”
Over the years, Jordan has become well-known for her sultry, elastic voice, innovative sudden pitch changes and creative flourishes.
Later in her career, in 1993, she collaborated with Fulton-born bebop singer Mark Murphy on an album titled “One for Junior.”
Now 93, her voice remains strong and she remains active. On May 14 and 15, she was slated to appear at NYC’s landmark nightclub Birdland with the Royal Bopsters.
When she appears at the Syracuse Jazz Festival’s main stage in Clinton Square at 5:45 p.m. Friday, June 24, she’ll be accompanied by Westchester bassist Harvie S and Israeli jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur.
Veteran jazz critic Scott Yanow considers Jordan a one-of-a-kind singer.
“She is one of the few vocalists who can improvise logical lyrics which often rhyme,” Yanow wrote. “She is a superb scat singer and is also an emotional interpreter of ballads.”
