Laurence Donohue-Greene at All About Jazz reviews the 2008 Portland Jazz Festival
“The Portland Jazz Festival (PDX Jazz) in its fifth year has already joined the ranks of world-class jazz festivals.”
Read the full review at allaboutjazz.com.
Audiophile Audition, a web magazine for music audio and home theater, has a review of 2008.
“The Shape of Jazz to Come came and impressed all…[the] 2008 Festival showed that Portland can now be a force in competing for both major jazz artists and as a jazz visitor’s mecca during what would otherwise be the slow season for jazz festivals.”
Read full review at audaud.com.
The 2008 Jazz Conversations are now available. Posted Conversations include: Ornette Coleman, The Bad Plus, SFJAZZ Collective, and Myra Melford.
“In five short years, the Portland Jazz Festival has miraculously jockeyed its way into the short list of American festivals worth heeding closely.”
In the nearly 50 years since the landmark recording The Shape of Jazz to Come, Ornette Coleman has literally re-shaped jazz as an improvisational art form, and has influenced several generations of artists aspiring to expand upon the artistic avant-garde. A master saxophonist, composer, and musical philosopher – pioneering such concepts as Harmolodics, Sound Grammar, and Free Jazz — Coleman recently received a 2007 Pulitzer Prize and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Shape of Jazz to Come will be this year’s Portland Jazz Festival Signature Series of events. including performances, panel discussions, lectures, workshops, and Jazz Conversations with performances featuring Ornette Coleman on opening night and revolutionary pianist Cecil Taylor in a rare solo performance closing the first festival weekend on Sunday afternoon. Since first emerging in the mid-50’s as a kindred spirit to Coleman, Cecil Taylor has become the most advanced improviser in jazz, and five decades later he remains the most radical. Other highlights will include a Jazz Conversation between Coleman and Howard Mandel, author of a new, highly acclaimed biography on both Coleman and Taylor, and a panel discussion on the impact of Coleman’s 50 years of music with journalists Mandel, Peterson, Paul DeBarros from DownBeat magazine, and Canadian jazz writer James Hale, plus artist/educators Myra Melford, Tim Berne, The Bad Plus, and Koung Vu. This same group will reconvene Saturday to explore the new wave of Shapes of Jazz to Come—2008 & Beyond.
In addition, Portland Jazz Festival will present a diverse array of international and regional jazz. The first weekend will also feature two extraordinary ensembles, Classical Jazz Quartet featuring Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Stefon Harris & Lewis Nash, and we’re happy to extend a Portland welcome to San Francisco’s SFJAZZ Collective featuring Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas, Renee Rosnes, Stefon Harris, Miguel Zenon, Eric Harland, Andrew Haywood & Matt Penman for a series of rehearsals and their 2008 premiere performance in tribute to Wayne Shorter. Classic jazz pianist Bill Charlap will be paired on a Sunday double-bill with Jillian Lebeck, an exciting young vocalist from Vancouver BC. Earlier on Sunday, the Portland duo of Rob Scheps & Glen Moore will open for the great Cecil Taylor. Saturday night will be devoted to a Latin Jazz Dance Party with the Grammy-winning Spanish Harlem Orchestra at the Crystal Ballroom. The emphasis, however, will be on younger artists, who are shaping 21st century jazz… Reprising last year’s Signature Series on ECM Records, Portland Jazz Festival is very pleased to present Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen and to welcome back old friends The Bad Plus. Last year’s Discover Concerts move into the Winningstad Theater for late night Friday and Saturday performances with artists carrying on avant-garde ‘traditions,’ Myra Melford’s Be Bread and adventurous sax man Tim Berne.
Portland Jazz Festival’s second weekend will continue the theme of The Shape of Jazz to Come with various new directions in jazz from the Swiss/Zen/Funk of Nik Bartsch’s Ronin as well as three separate performances of a once-in-a-lifetime event, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones with the Oregon Symphony. On Friday, Portland will celebrate a NW icon and her recently Grammy-nominated duo, Nancy King & Fred Hersch, and later that same evening Joshua Redman’s latest acoustic trio. An eclectic, 10-day festival deserves a really funky, Sunday night grand-finale… Who better than Maceo Parker?
In between two festival weekends, Wednesday, February 20 will mark the premiere festival performance of the Portland Jazz Orchestra, the new resident ensemble of the Portland Jazz Festival. Members of this exciting 18-piece jazz orchestra include some of the finest NW musicians. Individual orchestra members will also act as clinicians and instructors at education & outreach events throughout the festival, as well as serving as guest soloists with student groups performing at the PDX Jazz Pavilion at Pioneer Courthouse Square.
In all, Portland Jazz Festival will include over 150 separate events, including these concerts, plus dozens of free performances showcasing regional talent, the opportunity to jump between Portland’s jazz clubs, pull an all-nighter at one of the late night Jam Sessions, support student jazz performances, and experience over 50 jazz education & outreach programs.
