Jazz fest hits high notes
About 17,000 jazz fans are expected to attend about 30 shows during the 12th annual Portland Jazz Festival, which kicked off Feb. 17, and runs through Sunday, March 1.
Designed to coincide with Black History Month, the festival features both ticketed and free performances all over town, as well as workshops, the schedules of which can be found at http://www.portlandjazzfestival.org.
Performers include Stanley Jordan, Darrell Grant, Mary Sue Tobin, Tahirah Memory and Jarrod Lawson, Vijay Ijer, Greta Matassa, Karla Harris and Mark Simon, Ron Carter and Benny Green Trio, the Devin Phillips Quartet, Ben Darwish, Dan Balmer and Caminhos Cruzados, The Blue Cranes, the Blueprints Trio with Mike Horsfall, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and Lucky Peterson.
Festival Managing Director Don Lucoff notes this is the longest festival ever. About 76 percent of the audience is from the Portland area, with the remainder coming from Seattle, California and, interestingly, New York City.
“Our audience skews older, 45 to 50-plus,” he says. “But we have one of the youngest audiences out of all the arts organizations in town.”
Feb. 27: PSU Vocal Duo: Paul Paresa & Miles Forte, 6:30 p.m. Hotel Monaco, 506 S.W. Washington St. Free.
March 1: Bassist and music academic Ron Carter has made more than 2,000 records and has played with B.B. King, Cannonball Adderley and a Tribe Called Qwest as well as jammed in the Miles Davis Quintet. You can hear him along with the Benny Green Trio, which features Green on piano, David Wong on bass, and Rodney Green on drums, at 3 p.m. in the Newmark Theatre
