...FESTIVAL DIARY CONTINUED
As the gates open to the festival grounds at 6 pm on Friday, the audience will enter to the fun of Foster Campbell and Friends. Throughout the festival, music will be heard on the Golden West Casino Stage near the entrance and in the vendor area after each group finishes on the main stage.

Starting at 7 pm on the main stage, the festival features the extraordinary heart and groove of saxophonist Darren Gholston who joined Ronnie Laws on stage at an earlier festival and has a new CD that features a Grammy-nominated Doc Powell production. Following Gholston will be Kyle Eastwood who grew up in the home of movie icon Clint Eastwood, a home filled with jazz from his earliest memories.  Dad taught him to play left hand bass on the piano, and the bass in all its shapes became his life’s focus.  Kyle’s second album became #1 on the French Jazz charts and his next album, NOW has captured the European Underground jazz scene.  In addition, Kyle composed music for the Academy Award winning films, “Mystic River” and “Million Dollar Baby” as well as Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima.”  The evening concludes with the unveiling of Grammy winner Bob Mintzer’s new west coast big band in its premier performance.  Mintzer has been a leading composer of big band jazz for over 25 years, nominated for multiple Grammy awards and with music performed by literally every school and pro jazz band all over the world.  Up to this year, he has been an east coast musician with an extraordinary east coast band.  For this festival, we close the first night with the introduction of the first west coast version of the Bob Mintzer Big Band.  The best jazz players from San Diego to San Francisco are lining up to join this legendary big band composer and gifted saxophonist with the Yellowjackets for this performance. With the Bob Mintzer Big Band the first night of the festival is assured a memorable and exciting close.

The music begins at 1 pm on Saturday with the music of Ezekiel Victor playing on the entrance stage when the festival gates open. Later in the day, Mento Buru will keep the party cookin’ on the stage near our vendor area. For those that are new to the Jazz Festival, there are a variety of food vendors serving everything from hamburgers and hot dogs to deep-pit barbeque and Cajun delights.  There will be plenty to satisfy your sweet tooth as well.  Beer and wine are available at the festival, but stand warned--Alcohol Beverage Control forbids the bringing of alcohol into a licensed site.  However, many will bring their coolers with food and soft drinks onto the festival grounds and spread their blankets and lay claim to their turf for a day of jazz on the green.  Did I mention sunscreen? Who can predict the weather, but be prepared.  Also, know that all children under 12 are free, and the kids seem to love the wide-open (but fenced) spaces.  Check out the jewelry, painting, ceramics, and photography in the artists pavilion area.  Remember all proceeds from this event go toward student scholarships.  Last year over $32,000 was awarded to 54 deserving students in eight academic disciplines in addition to music, and over the years the festival has created a scholarship endowment of over $80,000 from the proceeds.  So enjoy yourself, check out the pavilion area, and know you are helping the cause.

Besides the fun and food, how about the music?  Saturday begins on the main stage at 2 pm with the Kern County Honor Jazz Band, which contains the best high school players from our area.  These young musicians were selected by audition and have been diligently rehearsing for their festival performance.  Next will be the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop Orchestra featuring many of the best in Bakersfield and all supporting the wonderful educational initiative of Steve Eisen, the Workshop founder. Then the CSUB Jazz Singers under the direction of Peggy Sears will provide the rich harmonies and fun of the best in vocal jazz. The afternoon should heat up to a fever pitch with the talents of The Australian drummer/composer Tim Davies and his big band.  Davies arrived in 2000 and has worked on hundreds of projects from arranging music for Jamie Cullum and the LA Philharmonic to orchestrating, arranging and conducting scores for video games God of War 2 and G I Joe, TV’s “Pushing Daisies,” and albums for Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and Michael Buble.  All quite impressive, but with his big band, Tim Davies creating a blend of traditional big band and contemporary elements that simply demands your attention as it traverses a wide spectrum of today’s music.

As always at the festival, what’s next is often a musically new world and the start of Saturday evening will be no exception.  We move from big band to bluegrass and the banjo of Alison Brown.  Her jazz-hued acoustic music never abandons its bluegrass roots.  Alison Brown appeared on the national scene with Alison Krauss and Union Station in 1989.  As a teenager, she traveled the country with fiddler Stuart Duncan playing festivals and contests, winning the Canadian National Banjo Championship and landing a gig at the Grand Ole Opry while in high school.  After Grammy-winning years with Alison Krauss, she won the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Banjo Player of the Year.  Her first album to feature her jazz-tinged compositions and improvisation earned a Grammy nomination, and she has continued to raise the “art of banjo playing to a higher calling.”
 
Brian Bromberg takes the stage next, the gifted bassist who joined Stan Getz on tour when he was only 19 and who has played with hundreds of jazz greats since.  Bromberg’s compositions as well as his unbelievable technical gifts led to his first #l record in 1998, “You Know That Feeling.”  This CD was on the charts for 17 consecutive months and in the top 5 for 6 months.  Recently, he co-wrote and produced Jeff Kashiwa’s “Hyde Park” which remained #1 on the charts for 8 weeks.  Bromberg’s all-star group is certain to astound and please the festival audience and will lead to the spectacular close-proximity fireworks. 

With the audience slightly aghast with the pryrotechnics, the festival stage will explode with the energy of Cecilia Noel and the Wild Clams.  A child star on Peruvian television, she studied music at top schools in Argentina and Germany before returning to Peru to sing with a big band.  Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz encouraged her to move to New York and she found herself on tour as a dancer for Menudo and singing in the Rainbow Room.  On moving to LA, Noel formed the 14-piece band Wild Clams and brought it all together.  The high voltage performance of the Queen of Soul Salsa is sure to bring the audience to their feet to close the festival. This group is hot, hot, hot. Spring has come to Bakersfield, and the jazz festival knows it’s time to celebrate.

Friday advance tickets are $23 for students and $32 for general admission.  Saturday advance tickets are $25 for students and $35 for general admission. Tickets are available at all Vallitix outlets, Stockdale Music, California Keyboards, Russo's at the Marketplace, and Front Porch Music.  Save when you buy two-day festival tickets, which are $35 for students and $55 for general admission.  For reserved tables of 6, sold only for both days of the festival, you should call 322-5200. The tables have servers to bring you beverages plus free snacks both days of the festival.  For general information also call 322-5200. Go and enjoy this community celebration on May 8th and 9th.