As jazz festivals — along with clubs, concert halls, lounges, and virtually every other venue for live jazz in the U.S. — are facing dwindling numbers and outright closures, our favorite non-jazz jazz musician, Kenny G, continues to rack up record concert ticket sales.
At the grand finale of last weekend's Syracuse Jazz Festival in New York, for instance, the G-man's appearance drew a crowd that festival producers estimated at 50,000 people. That's more than the number of people (40K) who caught R&B legend Aretha Franklin's appearance in 2007.
Yikes.
What's even more amazing (and somewhat sad) is that the festival almost didn't take place at all. According to a news article in the local Syracuse paper, for the second year in a row, the festival was a bit scaled back from three days to two as the planning committee received fewer donations and grants than in previous years.
"The fact that we were able to keep it going in a bad economy is a credit to this community," the Syracuse Post-Standard quoted festival producer Frank Malfitano. "I didn't think we were going to be able to pull it off."
Not that smooth jazz is a guaranteed sell-out, either. Friday's headlining act, Spyro Gyra, only drew 15,000 listeners.
Still, reported Mafitano, "it was incredible." According to reports and reviews, the night ended with a jam session with an all-star jam tribute to the late jazz guitarist Hiram Bullock, a bit of Miles Davis, and some Jimi Hendrix. The evening's capper? An audience sing-a-long to a handful of Michael Jackson songs.
How apropos...
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