Remembering Carl Jefferson, Enthusiast and Visionary

Carl Jefferson, the founder of the Concord Jazz Festival and Concord Jazz Records who died of liver cancer on March 29 at the age of 75, was more than an entrepreneur. He was a lifelong jazz enthusiast.

Jefferson made his fortune selling cars and investing in real estate, but really made a name for himself with Concord Jazz, which he started after guitarists Joe Pass and Herb Ellis suggested he record them. That initial release ultimately turned into a catalogue of 600 albums by major players.

Though mostly an advocate of swing-oriented artists, in recent years Jefferson branched out, recording more modern musicians such as saxophonists Jesse Davis and Chris Potter, and the co-op band Native Colours, with Ralph Moore and Renee Rosnes. He also documented more than 40 pianists at the Maybeck Recital Hall in Berkeley, making solo records by such notables as Kenny Barron, Hank Jones, Marian McPartland and others.

Concord Jazz Records was sold to New York-based Alliance Entertainment Corp. last December, but Jefferson continued to run the company until his death. According to Concord Jazz spokesperson Nick Phillips, “The company is going forward as Mr. Jefferson wanted it. With Glen Barros, an executive of Alliance Entertainment, as president, Concord Jazz will continue to follow Mr. Jefferson’s vision and creative philosophy.”

*

On the Road Again: “I thought I was through with these one-nighters,” said trumpeter Harry (Sweets) Edison, grumbling with mock sincerity from his hotel in Tucson. He’s traveling with the Newport Jazz Festival on Tour, which makes stops Saturday at 8 p.m. at UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater, (310) 825-2101, and on Sunday, 4 p.m., at the Irvine Barclay Theatre in Irvine, (714) 854-4646. Edison, who turns 80 in October, says that while some of the bus rides are not much fun, the music and the musicians with the Newport band definitely are.

“We have some very promising young guys like drummer Lewis Nash, bassist Peter Washington and pianist Mike LeDonne and some terrific older guys, too,” says the spry Edison, who has played with such giants as Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Lester Young.

Rounding out the ensemble are saxophonists Lew Tabackin, Red Holloway and Bill Easley, trumpeters Jon Faddis (the group’s musical director) and Warren Vache, guitarist Howard Alden and trombonist Urbie Green. The men play music from all eras of jazz, from a tribute to Louis Armstrong to numbers by Thelonious Monk.

The tour, which on this leg is covering three weeks, celebrates the Newport Jazz Festival, which was first held on the grass tennis courts at the Newport Casino in 1954, and ultimately moved to New York City in 1971. To commemorate the festival, the tour includes displays set up in theater lobbies of photographs from Newport festivals and ongoing screenings of the Bert Stern documentary “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,” shot at the 1958 event and featuring Monk, Anita O’Day and many others.

*

On the Mend: Pianist-singer Les McCann, who suffered a minor stroke in Celle, Germany, on Jan. 21, is recuperating at the home of a friend in Scottsdale, Ariz. “I’m feeling pretty good,” McCann, 59, said recently. “I’m starting again slowly.”

McCann was at the end of a six-concert German tour when the stroke hit. “I got up from a pre-concert nap and I couldn’t walk, so I fell, hurting my right elbow and hand,” said McCann. “Then, later at the concert, I couldn’t make my right hand stay on the piano.”

McCann arrived in Scottsdale in late February after a five-week hospitalization. He says he can’t play anything yet, “but that should just be a matter of time. I’m doing therapy five times a week. I’ve lost 30 pounds, eating right, doing the things I have to do to get back.”

*

Datebook: Sizzling saxophonist Doug Webb holds forth Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m., at I Cugini, 1501 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 451-4595, where a new jazz policy is in place. Upcoming performers with Webb, who has performed with Freddie Hubbard and Billy Childs, include organist Bill Heid, bassist Art Davis, pianist Dave Ferris and guitarist Frank Potenza.

Ace San Francisco Bay area guitarist Bruce Forman arrives tonight and Saturday at the Club Brasserie in the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood, with drummer Tootie Heath, (310) 854-1111.

Fellow guitarist John Abercrombie lights up the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, (310) 271-9039, from Tuesday through Thursday, with Dan Wall on Hammond organ and Adam Nussbaum on drums.