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Complacency has set in, as regards the
Topeka Jazz Festival.
Perhaps longtime fans
of the Memorial Day weekend event can be
forgiven for expecting nothing less than
top-notch jazz players performing simply
sublime sets strung out over some 30 hours
in three days-this year it's May 25-27-at
the comfortable and historic Topeka
Performing Arts Center. Now in its fifth
year, the festival has delivered the goods
every time, and we expect no less this
time around.
Headliners at the
upcoming festival include the Clayton
Brothers Quintet, a star-studded ensemble
consisting of bassist John Clayton,
saxophonist Jeff Clayton, trumpeter Terell
Stafford, pianist Bill Cunliffe and
drummer Jeff Hamilton. Hamilton also will
lead his trio, alongside pianist Tamir
Hendelman and bassist Christoph Luty. Most
have played the festival
before.
The big new name on the
bill this year is pianist Bill Charlap, a
young virtuoso who of late has been
traveling as accompanist with no less an
icon than Tony Bennett. With a new Blue
Note tribute to composer Hoagy Carmichael
entitled Stardust, Charlap will surely
demonstrate his extraordinary ability to
interpret the standards of the jazz
repertoire, with help from bassist Peter
Washington and drummer Kenny
Washington.
Other new additions to
the playbill include trombonist Wycliffe
Gordon, trumpeter Mike Bennett, pianist
Ted Rosenthal, bassist Jennifer Leitham
(formerly known as John Leitham), drummer
Tom Morgan and vocalist Lynn
Roberts.
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Among the growing list
of world-class players who are returning
from previous festivals are guitarist
Bucky Pizzarelli, trombonist Dan Barrett,
saxophonists Ken Peplowski and Bob
Kindred, bassist Jay Leonhart, drummer Joe
Ascione and vocalist Rebecca Parris. Of
course, the festival also will feature
returnees from among Kansas City's
finest-pianists Joe Cartwright and Russ
Long, bassists Bob Bowman and Gerald
Spaits, drummers Tommy Ruskin and Todd
Strait and guitarist Rod Fleeman. Again,
young piano wunderkind Eldar Djangirov
will lead a trio and put to shame at least
some of his elders.
With so many of the
same artists returning year after year,
the five-year-old festival has acquired a
collegial quality among musicians, almost
as if they were gathering for a family
reunion. By creating that familiarity,
festival organizers also risk losing the
edge the event had when musicians who were
strangers to each other were thrown
together in unlikely
combinations.
They also risk losing
members of the audience who yearn for
something different, something a little
more challenging, something a little less
orchestrated, less predictable. That is
not to say that these first-rank musicians
are not capable of rising to the occasion
and delivering something truly unique
every time, but you know what they say
about variety being the spice.
That being said, I
faithfully remain among those listeners
who expect nothing less than another
series of brilliant performances by
brilliant musicians. After all, it's the
Topeka Jazz Festival.
For more information on
the festival, visit the performing arts
center website: www.tpactix.org
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