Library Jazz Shows Will Go On After All

Thanks to a surge of board and community support, the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library’s threatened jazz and ethnic performance series will finish its current season after all, and it appears that at least a “bare-bones” version of the series may be offered next year.

The San Juan Capistrano Multicultural Performance and Visual Arts Series of Saturday night concerts and readings had been scheduled for elimination as part of the county’s budget cutting. Librarian Jose Aponte said last week that unless another source of funding could be found, the final concert would take place Aug. 7.

But at an emergency meeting Tuesday, Friends of the Library board members voted to commit $4,000 to carry the current season through Nov. 20 as originally planned. The board also voted to commit an additional $4,000 toward the 1994 season. That money, anticipated to be left over after this year’s nine remaining concerts, normally would have been spent on various library needs, Aponte said.

About $8,000 is needed for a “bare-bones” series next year, Aponte continued. In addition to the $4,000 pledged by the board, Aponte said he has collected $2,730 in private donations (some of which came when he passed the hat at last Saturday’s concert). He hopes to raise the rest through a direct-mail campaign.

“Bare bones” would mean “less dance, less theater, less poetry and more of what pays the bills, which is music,” Aponte said. Among the acts scheduled for this season are the Andean new age jazz group Huayucaltia on Aug. 7, Brazilian jazz guitarist Ricardo Silviera on Aug. 28 and Grammy-nominated saxophonist Justo Almario of Colombia on Oct. 16. The concerts are $3 and given in the library courtyard.