After four decades in jazz’s big leagues, Randall Kline is going down swinging.
As the founder and guiding spirit of the organization that started in 1983 as Jazz In the City, attained international stature the following decade as the San Francisco Jazz Festival, and made history in 2013 as SFJAZZ by building the country’s first stand-alone center dedicated to the quintessential American art form, Kline announced last March that he’d be stepping down by the end of 2023.
His farewell season kicks off this week with a four-night run of concerts that encapsulate a significant swath of his imposing legacy, starting tonight Jan. 12 with a tribute to the late piano legend McCoy Tyner led by saxophonist Joe Lovano. A Jan. 13 concert celebrates of the music of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever with a quartet led by bassist Stanley Clarke, who anchored the hugely popular fusion band. Tyner and Corea were both on hand to help inaugurate the SFJAZZ Center on its January 2013 opening weekend.
“What’s nice about it is the round numbers part,” Kline said, referring to organization’s 40th anniversary and the SFJAZZ Center’s 10th season. “It’s amazing how much has happened. I rarely have time to reflect on things so this is particularly sweet. There’s a lot of emotion thinking about this little baby that’s grown up to be, well, maybe not an adult yet, but certainly a strapping adolescent.”
The Jan. 14-15 shows highlight some of the enduring relationships forged by SFJAZZ via the resident artistic director program, which showcases performers in a variety of settings over four-night engagements. These two-year residencies have often led to unique encounters, though the weekend concerts amplify the whoa, Nelly! factor. The Jan. 14 confab brings together guitar star Bill Frisell, drummer and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington, San Francisco bass stalwart Marcus Shelby, violinist/performance artist Laurie Anderson, and pianist and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran.
The RAD program has played a central role in distinguishing SFJAZZ from other presenters, establishing deep new relationships with leading artists while building on existing ties, like with Moran, who also performs Jan. 15. One of the music’s most celebrated and conceptually ambitious figures, Moran is a vaunted presenter himself as the Kennedy Center’s artistic director for jazz.
He’s come a long, long way since the San Francisco Jazz Festival gave him his very first commission in 2000 at the age of 25.
“He reminded me of that when I approached him about the RAD position,” Kline said, noting the was the youngest musician ever commissioned by the festival.
Moran served in the first class of five resident artistic directors in 2013-14, and he returns to the SFJAZZ Center next week to essentially reprise his RAD tenure with a solo recital (Jan. 19), a duo encounter with bassist and singer Meshell Ndegeocello (Jan. 20), and a presentation of his multimedia meditation on the pioneering Black bandleader “James Reese Europe and the Absence of Ruin” with his trio The Band Wagon and a 10-piece orchestra (Jan. 21). Moran closes the run with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, aka The Band Wagon, his foundational trio for the past two decades (Jan. 22).
For the Jan. 15 RAD concert, Moran joins a disparate cast of stars, including three Bay Area maestros, vocalist Mary Stallings, percussionist John Santos, and bassist Marcus Shelby. The lineup also includes two current RADs, saxophonists Chris Potter and Soweto Kinch, and SFJAZZ Collective and RAD alumni Eric Harland and Miguel Zenón (who’s the music director for a May 4 SFJAZZ Gala honoring Kline).
The roster exemplifies “this whole idea of varied and multiple voices,” Kline said. “It’s one of the things I’m most proud of, to see the scope of all the work over 10 years, having a chance to encourage people to stretch. The longer it goes on people will understand they’re seeing work that you can’t see anywhere else.”
The Jan. 12 concert celebrating McCoy Tyner is a perfect case in point, bringing together a stellar cast of players for a singular tribute. Tyner, who died March 6, 2020, at the age of 81, is often associated with Yoshi’s, where his annual two-week residencies yielded the 2006 live album “Quartet” with Lovano and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts. But the pianist was also a pillar of SFJAZZ programing over the decades. His 2007 SFJAZZ concert at Herbst Theatre became the final album released during his life, “Solo: Live from San Francisco.”
For the tribute, Lovano has recruited two storied horn players, saxophonist Gary Bartz and trumpeter Eddie Henderson, backed by a sensational rhythm section with piano legend Kenny Barron, drummer “Tain” Watts and bassist Gerald Cannon, “who was in McCoy’s last group,” Lovano said.
“Gerald and I played with McCoy a lot together, and having Tain was really important. Tain really called the spirits during my time with McCoy’s quartet with Christian McBride. It’s going to be different. Everybody’s going to have a chance to represent their feelings about McCoy. He was a force of nature, an inspiration who elevated the music to another place.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at [email protected].
SFJAZZ CENTER AT 10
The venue celebrates its 10th anniversary by hosting these shows
McCoy Tyner Tribute: Feature Joe Lovano and others; 7:30 p.m. Jan. 12; $30-$95
Stanley Clarke N 4EVER: 7 and 9:30 p.m. Jan. 13; $30-$95
SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Reunion Concerts: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14 and 7 p.m. Jan. 15; $25-$105
Tickets and more information: www.sfjazz.org
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