If attendees of the 35th annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest were like Goldilocks, they would have found the Bay Area consortium to be not too large, not too small. The festival, sprawling around the Tech Capitol’s historic Plaza de César Chavez and outlying areas, presented a balance of large and smaller stages, outdoors and indoors. Strategically spread around the outdoor stages were eight spellbinding alebrijes — a public two-month installation from Oaxaca, Mexico, towering 20 to 22 feet tall and out of the reach of concertgoers. The mythical and vividly painted dragon-like structures, which lit up at night, exhibited the richness of Mexican heritage through bold design and masterful craftsmanship.
Astonishingly, if probably not intentionally, concertgoers could either see nothing but jazz, or avoid jazz entirely, due to the diverse programming that also incorporated Americana, electronica, blues, swing, R&B and homegrown music. The 2025 lineup was loaded with an invigorating mix of veteran artists and forthcoming sensations, perhaps destined to be luminaries.
The biggest draw among non-jazz performers was the Grammy and Academy Award–winning rapper and actor Common, with a hard-hitting band that included Elena Pinderhughes on flute and vocals. Mavis Staples, 86, the soul/gospel/rock Hall of Famer and civil rights activist, was tireless. With guitarist and music director Rick Holmstrom, she tantalized festival attendees with Staple Singers songs “I’m Just Another Soldier,” “Freedom Highway” and their best-known hit “Respect Yourself.”
Veterans
In the jazz veteran category, the group Something Else! featured alto saxophonist and bandleader Vincent Herring with tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, guitarist Paul Bollenback, pianist Dave Kikoski, bassist Essiet Essiet and drummer Lewis Nash. Their hard bop-oriented set resounded with Freddie Hubbard’s “Destiny’s Children” and a powerfully grooving version of John Coltrane’s “Naima.”
Contrarily, 85-years-young Mary Stallings, the Queen of San Francisco Bay Area jazz vocalists, was ultra velvety. Her jazz pedigree includes work with Count Basie, Dizzy Gilespie, Cal Tjader, Wes Montgomery and Geri Allen. Sidemen for the gig were pianist and musical director David Udolf, bassist Ron Belcher and drummer Gerald Greene. Stallings gave a clinic on how to sing with grace and stylish swing on songs including “It’s Just The Gypsy in My Soul,” as well as vocalese versions of “Monk’s Dream” and Oliver Nelson’s “Stolen Moments.”
Masterful singer/guitarist John Pizzarelli held court, with Mike Karn on bass and Isaiah J. Thompson on piano, in his humorous and easygoing style. His trio highlighted songs from the Nat “King” Cole canon such as “True Love,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” “Sweet Lorraine,” “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” and of course “Route 66,” with Thompson and Pizzarelli jamming away to delight the audience.
Drummer Carl Allen’s trio, with Ralph Moore on reeds and Reginald Veal on bass, waved their pure jazz flag high while the leader showcased his comedic timing (and noted that it was Jack DeJohnette’s birthday). They showcased tunes from Allen’s latest recording Tippin’ — a jubilant rendition of Pat Metheny’s “James,” the thematic “Roy’s Joy” in memory of Roy Hargrove, and “A Morning Story” by Christian McBride (bassist on the recording).
Celebrating the roots of jazz was the predominantly acoustic Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the fabled septet led by sousaphone/bassist/vocalist Ben Jaffe, which ignited the crowds’ partying passions and served up classic repertory.
Saxophonist, EWI player, arranger and composer Tom Scott, very much a veteran, revisited his successful crossover band The L.A. Express at the festival, aided by guitarist Grant Geissman, keyboardist Ruslan Sirota, bassist Chris Colangelo and drummer Gary Novak.
They played percolating jazz/blues numbers including “Sneaking in The Back,” “I Want to Get Closer” (for Grover Washington) and a contemporary funk arrangement of the mid-’60s country/pop hit “Ode To Billy Joe.” Closing the set was “Feels so Good” an homage to the recently departed Chuck Mangione. Geissman, a San Jose native, played the memorable guitar solo on that top-selling record (and reunited with him in 2000 for the album Everything For Love).
New Artists
Among the younger up-and-coming stars were three very different artists. Summer Camargo, a 23-year-old trumpeter, is currently the youngest member of the famed Saturday Night Live (SNL) house band and a Jerome Greene Fellowship recipient at Juilliard. Leading her own band with Sterling Cozzo on piano, Rodrigo Martinez on bass and Miles Turk on drums, the trumpeter spotlighted her originals “JP Shuffle” (for her father) and the Latin-styled “Girl in a Jeep” for her younger sister.
Changing gears, Camargo impressed the crowd with her knowledge of Louis Armstrong and trad jazz, partnering with Cozzo for an extraordinary rendition of “Weather Bird,” which Armstrong recorded as duet with pianist Earl Hines in 1928. With the full band, she performed the immortal Armstrong-associated “When It’s Sleepy Time Down South.”
Vocalist and songwriter Stella Cole is a TikTok and YouTube phenomenon with nearly 20 million views. The 27-year-old’s adaptations of the American Songbook, aided by Grammy-winning arranger Alan Broadbent (not at the show), thrilled festival listeners. Solid, uncluttered accompaniment came from pianist Brandon Goldberg, bassist Mikey Migliore and drummer Henry-Allen Barfield.
Another standout performance was 29-year-old, Mumbai-born, hard-thumping electric bassist and vocalist Mohini Dey, a mindblowing and super high-energy experience. Dey is strongly influenced by bass icons Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten, with traces of Larry Graham and Tal Wilkenfeld. With keyboardist Daniel Szebenyi and drummer Marco Cirigliano, the virtuoso blazed a wide path through her mostly food-oriented original compositions, such as “Meat Eater,” “First Food Then You,” “In-N-Out” and “Introverted Soul,” alternating between fusion and prog-rock.
Alto saxophonist and composer David Binney’s Action Trio, with bassist Pera Krstajic and drummer Louis Cole, was in its own orbit. The trio’s sound was a stimulating melding of electronica, fusion, funk and free jazz, with some prog-rock elements. It definitely was not for listeners looking for a mellow hang. Featured compositions were Ralph Towner’s “Night Fall” and the trio’s own “For My Friends” and “Birth.”
Somewhat difficult to categorize, vocalist Sachal Vasandani, who acknowledges being influenced by Betty Carter and Shirley Horn, has impressive technical skill while conveying a range of emotions. He and Bay Area natives Dayna Stephens (sax and percussion) and Charles Altura (guitar) showcased songs from his latest project Best Life Now. Among his highly evocative new songs were “Too Easy” and the poetic “Sometimes I Miss (The Way).”
The birth year of José James, the singer dubbed “the jazz artist for the hip-hop generation,” is 1978, also the focus of his latest album 1978: Revenge of the Dragon. [Ed.: Read our recent feature on James here.] That year signified a period when R&B, funk, rock, disco, jazz, reggae and African music were freely intermixed on the airwaves and hip-hop was emerging. With bassist Ben Williams, drummer Jharis Yokley and keyboardist BigYuki, the bandleader showcased Emily King’s “Come to My Door,” “Trouble” and the Gil Scott-Heron-inspired “Park Bench People.”
The Latin Stage
Latin music was well represented at SJJSF with a whole dedicated stage. Three acts in particular stood out, all vastly different. The 11-member Malo, originally led by vocalist Arcelio Garcia with Carlos Santana’s guitar-playing brother Jorge, thrived during the turbulent early 1970s and were once the Bay Area’s prime Latin fusion group. Remarkably, they’ve survived since then and took the crowd down memory lane with “Pano,” “Offerings” and their biggest hit, oldies-style “Suavecito.”
The Latin Grammy–winning, 19-member Pacific Mambo Orchestra was powerful, dense and seductive. The audience danced tantalizingly and freely to the large ensemble’s engaging mix of Afro-Caribbean rhythms, mambo, salsa, R&B and contemporary jazz. Ricardo Lemvo and his Makina Loca (Crazy Machine) nonet, meanwhile, put an African spin on Latin music. Congo-born and -raised, with strong influences from bordering Angola, the bandleader, who sings in 10 languages, kept the audience reveling with an infectious blend of rumba, merengue, salsa and Angolan semba and kizomba, reminding the festival crowd of the source of it all. JT