[Dixielandjazz] Sacramento Jubilee

[Steve Barbone]

Great Write Up.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


Mar 02,2007  - by David B. Goldman - Bend Oregon - Travel and Adventure
Jazz it up in Sacramento  - by David B. Goldman

If it's just Arnold Schwarzenegger and politics, lobbyists and budget
deficits, which come to mind when you think of California's capital city,
Sacramento, then think again.

By the time I drove off the freeway and dropped into the downtown section of
California's tree-lined capital for the first time on a Memorial Day
weekend, nearly a decade ago, and heard the luscious wail of a hot clarinet
coming off the street, I'd already learned my own Sacramento lesson. Which
is that if you want a hotel room in the city on Memorial Day weekend, which
this year is May 25-28, you'd best book it right away, since those days mark
America's biggest, swingingest jazz gathering, the annual Sacramento Jazz
Jubilee.

Then 3 Color Photos:

1) STRAIGHT AHEAD - If you love jazz, then you want to be part of the
Sacramento Jazz Jubilee each May. Here a Dixieland jazz band plays for the
crowd. CNS Photo courtesy of David B. Goldman. 
 
2) KAZOO YOU - Sacramento Jazz Jubilee fans chime in with their own tones
during the four-day hot music festival. CNS Photo courtesy of David B.
Goldman. 
 
3) STRUMMIN' THE OLD BANJO - The banjo is one of the most popular
instruments of the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. CNS Photo by David B. Goldman. 

Beginning 34 years ago with a handful of bands playing mostly traditional
Dixieland jazz pretty much as a party on the banks of the Sacramento River,
the four-day event, usually basking in the warm, early summer breezes coming
off the water, has grown to more than 100 bands and today draws over 100,000
visitors.

By Friday afternoon the politicians have fled the capital and we jazz
enthusiasts have taken over. We flood the city from all over the country,
arriving by car, by RV and by plane. We're wearing madras shorts, tank tops,
hats and lots of suntan lotion. We've come for the music, for a good time
and, perhaps even more, for this pure slice of Americana, to revel in
America's indigenous music, perhaps the country's major contribution to
world culture.

The musical menu has expanded over the years. Today, in addition to classic
Dixieland two-step out of New Orleans, we'll get "straight ahead" jazz
Kansas City style, big bands a la Benny Goodman, the string stylings of
small groups following the work of Gypsy jazz legend Django Reinhardt, a
smattering of gospel and blues, ragtime piano soloists, red hot mamas who
belt it out all over town, a dash of cooler trio music, some salsa and
several zydeco groups.

True, the annual weekend headliner is not necessarily a jazz icon, but more
likely an aging name with links to jazz, a name like the Ink Spots or Steve
Allen, with this year's star being the Rebirth Band of New Orleans.

For us jazz aficionados, this might just be the best place in the country in
which to enjoy our favorite music. Especially for those of us who love the
music but hate to sit for very long in a concert hall or a nightclub seat.
Sacramento hosts over 30 venues, and on this weekend jazz bursts out of
small green parks downtown and from classic old movie theaters, from the
decks of a refurbished riverboat and out of hotel ballrooms, from rumbling
caverns under the freeways, from nightclubs and from tented parking lots. If
you don't enjoy what you're hearing in one place, then all you have to do is
get up and move on, either by foot or aboard the bus shuttles continually
moving from venue to venue.

You caught the Chicago Six at the Top of the Hyatt up by the Capitol and you
loved them? You can follow the group around all weekend, catching them
several times in the same day. Although, even at a large locale like the
Firehouse Courtyard downtown in Old Sacramento, there can be a line for a
popular returning group, like the costumed musicians who call themselves
Igor's Jazz Cowboys.

Those of us who like our music "straight ahead" are marking our schedule so
we know where and when to find Tom Saunders and his Emperors Jazz Band. His
sidemen are some of the best anywhere in jazz, guys like Chuck Hedges on
clarinet, Russ Phillips on trombone, Jake Hanna on drums, Paul Keller on
bass and Johnny Varro on piano.

We'll be standing at the back of the room by the bar with a cold beer in one
hand and a dripping Italian sausage sandwich in the other, the food and
drink most likely dished out by one of the nearly 4,000 volunteers who put
the Jubilee together. That's if we haven't already filled up on barbecued
oysters, grilled pork ribs, hamburgers and corn dogs , which are seemingly
everywhere.

This year, as every year, features several bands from overseas, like Paco
Gatsby's guys from Guatemala and the jazz band from Leningrad. They'll be
joining musicians from closer to home, bands such as the High Sierra Jazz
Band from California's own Three Rivers, the Quartet from the Hot Club of
San Francisco and the Jazz Ensemble from Travis Air Force Base. The tunes
will be mostly the classics. You just can't get away from "Sweet Georgia
Brown," "Beale Street Blues" or "Avalon."

And the dancers, did I mention the dancers? Many of the music spots have
dance floors, and it's no secret that swing dancing is "in" these days.
You've got the younger couples, arriving with their dance shoes in hand,
some of them obviously fresh out of dancing class, but nearly all vigorously
into practiced routines. Fabulous to watch. They'll dance all weekend long.
Watching them is like watching the choreography from a really good
60-year-old musical.

But my own favorites are the oldsters, the white-haired couples who have
clearly been together forever, still dancing beautifully, always perfectly
in step with one another - even if they are only on the floor for the slower
numbers. They're in for a treat this year, since on Saturday night several
of the venues are going to feature Glen Miller-style rhythms.

In the background the shimmering, recently refinished Capitol dome shines in
the center of blossom-filled Capitol Park. The park is where I go to get
away from it all, to stretch out in the quiet warmth of early summer in
California's capital. Although even here you can hear music from the Hyatt
Regent Hotel across the street on a lazy, music-filled weekend in the Golden
State's capital.

Weekend passes, all four days: $100. Half or full day passes also available.
For information: Tel: 916-372-5277, www.sacjazz.com.