Port Townsend jazz festival takes off

PORT TOWNSEND — In one second of silence, the lights dim and the theater goes dusky. Then the jazz plane takes off. As it rises, the air vibrates with shared energy.

That bird is Jazz Port Townsend, with its singers, trumpeters, drummers, saxophonists and big-bassists. Like an airplane transporting multicolored travelers, the event soars with music, then touches down to whooping applause.

“The fort becomes a jazz theme park,” purred John Clayton, artistic director of this Centrum gathering. He’s talking about Fort Worden State Park, where six venues host jazz duos, trios and combos this weekend. Events today, tonight and Saturday follow Thursday’s opening night of the “Jazz in the Clubs” circuit now held at Fort Worden.

“Jazz in the Clubs” was formerly held in downtown bars, and was moved last year to the fort.

There, the Wheeler Theater, the Commons, two rooms in Building 204, the Chapel and the USO Hall welcome audiences of all ages, unlike the 21-and-older clubs of yore. Each fort venue offers food and drink all night.

Clayton, a standup bass player blessed with a fine-suede speaking voice, hosted a welcome gathering Sunday for the 200 participants in the Jazz Port Townsend workshop and the 35 musicians on the faculty.

“They are crazy good,” he said of the teachers seated behind him on the Wheeler Theater stage. Introducing themselves, they stood under wave after wave of lusty applause.

Workshop faculty members include pianist-composer George Cables, a New Yorker who’s been to 36 Jazz Port Townsends now; clarinet-saxophone sensation Anat Cohen; tap dancer-saxman Alex Dugdale; big band leader Clarence Acox and vocalists René Marie, Michael Mayo and Gillian Margot.

Also a dancer and multi-instrumentalist, Margot joined Mayo to sing “Lullaby of Birdland” on Sunday evening.

The two traded flowing lines, then turned to listen to the drum and bass solos as though they were hearing the best possible news.

Jazz Port Townsend marks the midpoint of Centrum’s summer festivals at Fort Worden. The Acoustic Blues Festival brings a July 31 dance, a free showcase at noon Aug. 2, Blues in the Clubs at the fort Aug. 2 and 3 and the Centrum Gospel Choir performance and Acoustic Blues mainstage concert Aug. 3. The Port Townsend Ukulele Festival offers the Ukulele Eruption concert Sept. 12 and the Ukulele Explosion on Sept. 13.

On Thursday, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Jazz in the Clubs at Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way, was a convergence of combos. Performers included pianist Dawn Clement, baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, clarinetist Cohen, trumpeter Marquis Hill, bassist Vicente Archer, vocalist Margot and many others in the Commons, Building 204 and the USO Hall.

Tickets are available via centrum.org and 800-746-1982. Jazz in the Clubs wristbands are $25 per night while McCurdy Pavilion concerts range from $28 to $56, with free tickets available for music lovers 18 and younger. Festival packages go from $85 to $185.

Here’s the lineup of public performances for the rest of this weekend:

Today

• 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.: The Friday Workshop Blowout, a series of free master classes and clinics with professional jazz musicians, welcomes the public to classrooms in Fort Worden’s Building 204.

Sessions include “Wrapping Your Ears around a Tune” at 9 a.m., the Bass Summit at 10:30 a.m., Matt Wilson’s combo performance and KNKX School of Jazz recording session at 1:15 p.m., “Sexual Harassment in the Jazz Community” at 1:15 p.m. and the Saxophone Summit and Piano Summit at 3 p.m.

• Noon: Clarence Acox leads the Jazz Port Townsend Big Band in a Free Friday at the Fort concert on the Commons lawn.

• 7:30 p.m.: Seven-string guitarist Marcello Gonçalves and partner Anat Cohen play the McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden; then comes Equal Time, a band featuring organist Akiko Tsurunga, guitarist Graham Dechter and drummer Jeff Hamilton.

• 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.: Jazz in the Clubs expands to six venues across Fort Worden. Performances include pianist George Cables and bassist John Clayton in the Chapel, trumpeter Terrell Stafford and band in Building 204, and vocalist René Marie and her five-piece ensemble in the Wheeler Theater.

Saturday

• 1:30 p.m.: The Brothers of Brass — Stafford, Marquis Hill, Cables, Chuck Deardorf and D’Vonne Lewis — plus Mayo Mastery, with vocalist Michael Mayo and Dechter, Archer, Geoffrey Keezer and Obed Calvaire, play McCurdy Pavilion. Topping off the afternoon are the All Star Big Band with director John Clayton and 19 Jazz Port Townsend faculty members.

• 7:30 p.m.: Vocalist Margot and pianist Keezer start the evening at McCurdy Pavilion with their set; then comes Gerald Clayton’s “Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation,” featuring singer Marie and tap dancer Alex Dugdale alongside guitarist Dan Balmer, drummer Calvaire, bassist Archer and saxophonists Joel Frahm, Gary Smulyan and Immanuel Wilkins.

• 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.: The final night of Jazz in the Clubs brings more than three dozen players to six venues at the fort.

Combos feature John Clayton, Cables, Stafford, Frahm and Lewis in the Wheeler Theater, tenor saxophonist Kareem Kandi, trumpeter Jay Thomas, bassist Deardorf and pianist Randy Halberstadt in Building 204 and drummer Jon Wikan, pianist Justin Kauflin and bassist Chris Symer in the Chapel.

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Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.