This is the first part in a four-part series of previews of upcoming jazz festivals.
The 10th annual US Bank Portland Jazz Festival (PDX), scheduled for Feb. 15-24, has added a three-performance presentation by composer, pianist, keyboardist and bandleader Wayne Horvitz.
The performance, titled “Alone Together,” is a partnership with the Creative Music Guild and will feature Horvitz in three varied environments. He will perform solo at the PDX Jazz Piano Perspective series at Classic Pianos; as a special guest of the Blue Cranes, a six-member collective from Portland; and as a guest conductor of the Creative Music Guild Collective Music Ensemble.
The Portland Jazz Festival will take place in various venues across the largest city in Oregon. The 83-year-old NEA Jazz Master Barry Harris and his trio, including Chuck Israels and Todd Streit, will get things started at Jimmy Mak’s on the first night of the celebration. The Afro Cuban All-Stars will follow closely on their heels with a simultaneous performance at the Aladdin Theater, along with debuting Cuban pianist Alfredo Rodriguez.
The festival will be the setting for the world premiere of the For Portland Only special quartet featuring NEA Jazz Master Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Matt Garrison and George Colligan; as well as the world premiere of “The Jazz Message Celebrating Art Blakey,” featuring Javon Jackson. The female trio ACS, composed of Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding, will make its first West Coast appearance.
Don Lucoff, the managing director of the festival, says that PDX is an opportunity to witness unique performances by very prominent jazz artists. “Not all of them have played together, on the same stage, at the same time, before,” he says.
For more information, visit pdxjazz.com.
