SFJazz, San Francisco’s world-renowned performing arts organization that recently opened its own headquarters building and performance space at Franklin and Fell streets, will hold its 31st Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival this month, June 12–23.
The lineup of artists is both imaginative and eclectic as jazz fans have come to expect from the programming of Randall Kline, SFJazz founder and executive artistic director. Performances will take place in the 700-seat arena or the smaller Joe Henderson Lab in the new SFJazz Center, in Davies Symphony Hall, or in the Church of the Advent of Christ the King on Fell Street directly across from the SFJazz Center.
Performance themes include popular Italian artists direct from Italy (in support of the 2013 celebration of the Year of Italian Culture), Latin Jazz, Harmonica Heavyweights, Jazz Legends and Rising Stars, Micro Concerts, Sacred Space (concerts in the Church of the Advent of Christ), and a roof-raising gospel brunch in the SFJazz Center.
Highlights include: jazz piano legend Ahmad Jamal Thursday, June 13, 8:30 p.m., Davies Symphony Hall; the Pacific Mambo Orchestra, Saturday, June 15, 8 p.m., SFJazz Center; guitarist John Scofield and his Uberjam Band, Saturday, June 22, 8 p.m., SFJazz Center; and the Gerald Clayton Trio and Kendrick Scott Oracle, featuring pianist Taylor Eigsti, Sunday, June 23, 8 p.m., SFJazz Center.
31st annual San Francisco Jazz Festival: 201 Franklin Street (at Fell), 866-920-5299, sfjazz.org; ticket prices vary for each performance
— E. Beyl
