Jumping The Season

The major fall festivals — Chicago, Guelph, San Francisco — are not on my agenda this year, so why not look ahead with anticipation to 2009?

My friends in the Ottawa area will be interested to note that the SFJAZZ Ensemble is listed on Pollstar as playing the cozy Library & Archives Canada Auditorium on March 1. The collective's site doesn't project beyond the current season yet, but sources on the West Coast tell me that the band will undergo some significant changes for 2009. No word yet, either, on which jazz composer the group will be interpreting next year.

Jazz Chronicles regulars may recall that I was less than enthusiastic about the SFJAZZ Ensemble's debut 2008 performance in Portland last February, when they were interpreting the music of Wayne Shorter. I wish I'd had the chance to catch them again after hearing many good reports from the road. (And, hey, I'll be the first to admit that my reflections on that Portland show were likely coloured by the brilliant set I heard immediately after by Myra Melford's Be Bread Quartet — a show that is still near the top of my list of best concerts of '08.)