OCC JAZZ FESTIVAL TUNES UP

One of the main functions of the annual Orange Coast College Jazz Festival, which opens Thursday on the Costa Mesa campus, is to give young musicians a chance to learn directly from top jazz performers.

But considering how the festival has struggled with a financial crisis almost every year since it began in 1969, one non-musical lesson jazz students learn is that jazz and financial security rarely go hand in hand.

Said guitarist Joe Pass, who performs Friday in the second of the festival’s three night concerts, “I always tell my students who say they want to be jazz musicians that if you love to play and you love music, then do it. But if you think you’re going to make a lot of money, you’d better find another area of music.”

Yet the most inspiring lesson of the three-day festival may be the unflagging devotion of OCC jazz director Charles (Doc) Rutherford, who more than anyone is responsible for keeping the festival alive for 17 years.

“It’s shaping up pretty well, “ Rutherford said of the 1985 festival, echoing comments he has made prior to each of the previous 16 festivals. “I’m not sure if we’re going to sell out this year, but I think this is going to be a great show.”

Second only to Disneyland’s summer jazz series in importance to the county’s jazz scene, the three-day festival costs approximately $30,000 to stage. Since 1981, it has been sponsored by the Coast Jazz Society, an organization of local jazz fans that took over funding responsibilities when college district funds were eliminated as a result of post-Proposition 13 cutbacks. This year, Long Beach non-commercial jazz and blues station KLON (88.1 FM) is co-sponsoring the festival with the Costa Mesa-based Coast Jazz Society.

Heading this year’s lineup are percussionist Poncho Sanchez, guitarist Joe Pass, trumpeter-fluegelhornist Freddie Hubbard, vocalist Sue Raney, trombone virtuoso Bill Watrous and big band leader Bob Florence.

Sanchez will perform Thursday at 8 p.m. followed by the OCC Big Band and guest artists Watrous, bassist Bob Bowman and saxophonist Charles McPherson. Friday’s bill features Joe Pass and trumpeter-bandleader Gerald Wilson. Saturday’s final concert will have performances by Raney, the Bob Florence Trio and the Freddie Hubbard Quintet. (Tickets are $8 for Thursday’s concert, $12 each for Friday and Saturday concerts, or $27 for all three nights. For additional information, call 432-5527).

The biggest difference in this year’s lineup is that although guest artists are all well-respected musicians, they don’t have the widespread public name recognition of past festival headliners such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Buddy Rich or Woody Herman.

“When we have a Count Basie, a Buddy Rich or a Woody Herman, we always sell out,” Rutherford said. “That is always the big concern. But Basie has done the festival about 12 times, Herman has been here 10 or 12 times and we were ready for a change. You can’t have the same people time after time.”

The concerts, however, are but the culmination of each day’s full schedule of performances by junior high, high school and college jazz bands from six Western states. Student ensembles will be evaluated by a panel of jazz experts and will also be able to participate in numerous jazz clinics.

In addition to sessions led by Watrous and Bowman, clinics will be offered by woodwind player Kim Richmond, bassist Paul Merar, drummer Bob Leatherbarrow, keyboardist Rich Ruttenburg, saxophonist Matt Catingub and trumpeter Bobby Shew.

Richmond and Catingub will be joined by arranger Alf Clausen and veteran jazz radio personality and festival emcee Jimmy Lyons on the panel of professionals that will evaluate and offer comments and constructive criticism to each student group.

“There was nothing like this when I started playing,” said Joe Pass. “Now, schools have jazz in the educational system, where students can hear players in a concert setting, play in front of professionals and work with them in clinics. Students learn more quickly about technique, theory and harmony. (Compared to jazz musicians of the past) the crop of players coming out of college today have far superior skills.”

Though most educators and jazz professionals connected with the festival offered nothing but praise for the student musicians, they expressed a need for increased public awareness of jazz.

Rutherford attempts to promote jazz in Orange County not just through the annual festival but with a series of public performances by the OCC big bands throughout the year. In addition, this summer he hopes to arrange an all-day festival, sponsored by the Coast Jazz Society, with big name jazz acts at the Pacific Amphitheatre.

Unworried that the Playboy, Long Beach, Kool and other jazz festivals will overshadow an Orange County festival, Rutherford said: “I think they will just help our cause. We need to get people into the habit of hearing jazz.”