A show honoring the 75^th anniversary of John Coltrane's birth opened the 2001 San Francisco Jazz Festival. Despite the venue being the cavernous Masonic Auditorium, this concert had the atmosphere of an intimate club.

Tommy Flanagan at his best.

Pianist Tommy Flanagan's trio was up first, with Peter Washington on bass and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums. Flanagan was on Coltrane's legendary Giant Steps recording, and this trio played several compositions from that date. Flanagan's straight-ahead playing was lovely, while Heath was remarkable for his controlled and precise exuberance.

McCoy Tyner performed a solo piano set, featuring pieces he recorded while part of Coltrane's famous quartet, and one he wrote recently in Coltrane's honor. Tyner would play a simple melody, then transform it in a dozen different directions. The piano is an instrument which does well in solo performance, and Tyner showed he is one of the living masters.

The evening concluded with a set by the quartet of Pharoah Sanders, the saxophonist who had the greatest affinity with Coltrane.

Don Byron and Milton Cardona

Don Byron's sextet held a special Sunday afternoon performance at Herbst Hall intended for families with children. Byron is a natural comedian and had the kids in stiches as he explained how each of the instruments worked. On clarinet Byron is an inventive player, and he is an imaginative bandleader. He featured Milton Cardona on congas, who also sang in Yoruba. Cardona, who sang coro with the great Conjunto Clásico, has also recorded as a leader with a Santería chorus. Towards the end of the set Byron had the audience clap in clave rhythm throughout a jazz tune, creating an altogether wonderful crossover.

Charlie Haden and Ignacio Barroa

Crossover was the name of the game in the Halloween Night performance of Charlie Haden's Nocturne, with Haden on bass, Gonzalo Rubalcaba on piano, Ignacio Berroa on drums, Federico Britos Ruiz on violin and Downbeat's Musician of the Year Joe Lovano on tenor sax. This is a top-notch band. Their project is conceptually amazing. Vintage boleros from Cuba and Mexico make up their material, and it is played with tremendous spontaneous creativity. The solos were excellent, and the accompaniment the band laid down for the soloists was brilliant. Their work is an achievement on the level of the mid-sixties Stan Getz/Joao Gilberto collaboration and will hopefully be just as influential.

Lichi Fuentes and Jesus Diaz

Friday and Saturday night November 2 and 3 were the dates for the Latin Dance segment of the Festival, held at Bimbo's 365 Club. The opening act was Jesús Díaz y Su QBA, a top Bay Area band. QBA has all the elements that make Timba great: hyped up montunos on piano, hyped up, punchy horns and a percussion section that includes a busy trap set along with timbales and congas, making for a very full drum sound. Diaz led on vocals and campana, and the coro included the beautiful voice of Lichi Fuentes. The group is now releasing their second album, which should be terrific.

Manolín, front and center.

On the headline act, Manolín, "El Médico de la Salsa," let's get the word from local Timba expert Kevin Moore: "Northern California got a deeply satisfying and long overdue dose of Timba as Manolín and his monstrous band tore it up in back-to-back sellout concerts at Bimbo's 365 Club. Of the over two dozen Timba shows scheduled in the Bay Area since Spring, only five have actually taken place, these two included.

"Manolîn's highly-publicized defection to the U.S. last year reunited him with his original band, which had been in Miami since the summer of '99. A strong case could be made that this is Manolín's best band ever. It combines several young new stars with a battle-tested nucleus of musicians who've played together for over seven years in Cuba and around the world for crowds of up to 90,000.

"The percussion section has been reduced to only two people, unheard of in Timba. In Cuba, Manolín used drums, timbales, congas and bongo. The current group has only congas and drums, but the two players are so overwhelmingly great that nothing else is necessary. The newest member is guitarist Ahmed Barroso, who arrived from Cuba six years ago. Barroso has a very compact, funky style that works very well and he played a great solo on a powerful Latin Jazz arrangement that the band played each night.

Manolín 'El Medico de la Salsa'

"Manolín omitted several newer songs which he had played in Miami this summer. This material, while strong pop, stopped short of the hard-driving Timba of his other material. Perhaps he felt the Bay Area would be more receptive to the pure Timba approach, in contrast to Miami, which at least on the surface leans towards a much more homogenized style of Latin pop."

This year's Jazz Festival, compared to the years 1998-2000, showed significantly less Latin music, but what there was, was superb. Here's to next year!

Photos © 2001 by Peter Maiden

Back