The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: Arts and Entertainment

Media Credit: courtesy of beantownjazz.org Large crowds gather on Columbus for the BeanTown Jazz Festival.

Last year, the 8th annual BeanTown Jazz Festival drew an estimated crowd of 70,000 people, with students, families and music lovers of all ages flocking to Columbus and Mass avenues to take part in a diverse and educational celebration of music, culture and the arts.

This year, the festival looks to continue its tradition of providing the city with an alternative and exciting collection of performances that will undoubtedly dazzle a crowd of aspiring musicians, college students, and neighborhood jazz fanatics.

This year’s highlight comes on Friday, Sept. 26, when a powerful lineup of drummers will take the stage at the Berklee Performance Center. The Drum Summit will showcase the talents of Cindy Black and Terri Lyne Carrington, two Berklee alumnae who have rocked the foundation of jazz music for decades and have collaborated with the likes of Herbie Hancock and Lenny Kravitz.

Carrington, an incredibly prolific musician whose talents were featured on both stage and silver screen, performing on the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’s VIBE, is a newcomer to the scene this year, expressed quite a bit of excitement for the show, particularly for the festival’s knack for drawing in people from all backgrounds.

“Musicians want to play for their peers,” Carrington said in an interview with The Beacon. “Music is one of the biggest ways for diverse people to collaborate, [and] an important component really is education.”

As far as education goes, the BeanTown Jazz Festival will feature the aptly titled Instrument Petting Zoo, a collection of instruments for people to examine, hold and familiarize themselves with. The booth will likely draw a plethora of eager young music aficionados looking to get up close and personal with the instruments they themselves might master and showcase at future festivals.  The petting zoo is just one of more than 60 vendors  that will spill onto the sidewalks of Columbus Avenue, where the heart of the gathering will take place.

“This festival has got to be one of the largest and most diverse public events that takes place in our community,” said director Larry Simpson. “We want people to come and have fun and enjoy very good music.” Those not keen on jazz will be happy to know that the genre, despite being the centerpiece of the festival, is not the only style on display.

 “You’ll hear not just jazz but Latin music and all kinds…[It’s] a big celebration, and diversity is a big part of it,” Simpson said.

Indeed, traditional jazz music is what brings these musicians and attendees together year after year, but the festival also touts some of the more creative jazz acts working today. Gold Sounds, for example, is a quartet that specializes in covering Pavement songs. The rough sounds of Stephen Malkmus seem rather difficult to reproduce with saxophones, basses and pianos, but the transition is astonishingly smooth. The band’s MySpace page features an instrumental piano cover of Pavement’s “Trigger Cut” and a soulful rendition of “My First Mine” that can only be described as an inspired combination.

Admission to the festival on Saturday is primarily free and is located on Columbus Avenue. Tickets for the Warm-Up Party on Thursday and the Drum Summit on Friday are at-the-door sales and reserved seating, respectively.

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