San Francisco Jazz Festival 2025

San Francisco Jazz Festival
SFJAZZ
San Francisco, CA
June 13-15, 2025

For decades now, SFJAZZ has held the San Francisco Jazz Festival as a series of concerts spread over weeks. The festivities gained a permanent home when the new building opened in January 2013. This year, new Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard decided to try something to create a distinctive experience. So, for three days, Friday through Sunday, three venues (the large Miner Auditorium, the smaller Joe Henderson Lab, and a giant vinyl tent erected on a parking lot a block away in front of a music school) presented around 30 performances—representing a diversity of musical styles and formations (brass band to duets)—from early afternoon through 8:30 in the evening. There was a lot to choose from, and it could be difficult to make choices between overlapping options.

Friday kicked off with a stellar performance by the SFJAZZ Collective featuring vocalist Kurt Elling. Vibraphonist Warren Wolf and saxophonist Warren Wolf particularly shone.

At 5 PM, it was time for Don Was and The Pan Detroit Ensemble}}, a funky aggregation of nine accomplished musicians under the tutelage of the legendary producer and Blue Note Records president. Was presented a surprisingly broad selection of pieces—ranging from Hank Williams' "I Ain't Got Nothing But Time" to Henry Threadgill's "I can't Wait Until I Get Home." which featured trombonist Vincent Chandler giving a tremendous solo. Luis Edgardo Resto, who has been closely associated with Eminem, held forth enthusiastically on keyboards and synthesizer. The audience loved gyrating vocalist Steffanie Christi'an.

Friday's standout was undoubtedly The Charles Lloyd. The 87-year-old Memphis native gave a stellar performance in the company of three gifted musicians: Pianist Jason Moran, bassist and San Francisco native Larry Grenadier (who has recorded four albums with Lloyd) and drummer Eric Harland. There was plenty of space for all to solo and stretch out. Lloyd largely stayed the course on tenor, only picking up his sonorous flute after an hour of solid playing. While musicians were soloing, Lloyd would take a seat and ponder.

While Saturday's headlining show in Miner—Stanley Clarke duetting with pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba—packed in overflow crowds, the Zig Zag Power Trio, performing in the Festival Tent, proved to be a winner as well. The group comprises musical legends guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Will Calhoun. Merging elements of funk, soul, and rock along with free jazz. Their probing, abstract, propulsive, sometimes exploratory sound put plenty of synthesizer effects to good use.

The Festival Tent's headliner for the day, The Soul Rebels, followed an hour later. Hailing from New Orleans, the members take that sound, bring it to a seven-man horn section (two saxophones, two trumpets, two trombones and a sousaphone), and combine it with two powerful percussionists and a bit of rap, producing a fierce funk sound which permitted the musicians stretch out. The band's infectious rhythms brought the audience to its feet.

Sunday, Miner Auditorium offered four stellar acts. The talented Orrin Evans played with his dynamic trio. Later pianist Sullivan Fortner and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire were introduced by Master of Ceremonies Blanchard who told us that "they set a new standard." This proved to be not hyperbolic, as the duo offered a sometimes dynamic, sometimes meditative, always intriguing set.

Next, Blanchard sung the praises of Benin-born guitarist Lionel Loueke. Selected by the team of Blanchard, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of California Los Angeles, Loueke has had a rags-to-riches career.

He has been teaming up of late with prominent bassist Dave Holland. Loueke can conjure amazing tonalities out of his Schottmueller guitar, and his unique vocal effects (aspects) are derived from the voiced consonants of South Africa's Xhosa language. His sounds were interspersed with Holland's fluent bass on tunes such as Shorter's "United," a tune Shorter first recorded with Art Blakey in 1961.

Miner Auditorium daily headliner Patrice Rushen, who had never appeared on the SFJAZZ stage before, drew a capacity crowd. "She doesn't get enough credit," Blanchard told the audience. Rushen began her career giving classical recitals at age 6, and she is a consummate performer. Her very professional, slick music brought folks to their feet.

Simultaneously performing in the cavernous Festival Tent, CIMAFUNK held forth to close the last day of the festival. "Cimafunk" refers to bandleader's Erik Iglesias Rodríguez's heritage—the "cimarrón" were African refugees from slavery—and it has a bonus meaning of "wild" or "untamed" which are defining characteristics of the band's sound and tone. "It's always been there," As Rodríguez told Rolling Stone in 2021, "The music we're dancing to here is influenced by Afro-Cuban music, and Afro-Cuban we're listening to there is influenced by music from here. That was blended in way before us, by so many people—from Marvin Gaye to Michael to James Brown to Prince, everyone has this mix, deep in there, in the seams." His tight, wildly popular ensemble of Cuban musicians includes two women on horns (Ilarivis García Despaigne on trombone and Katerine Ferrer Llerena on sax) and backup vocals, in the company of six other talents.

Earlier, back in the Miner Auditorium, Blanchard had polled the audience as to how they liked the festival and if they wanted it to come back. The response was enthusiastic, so we are likely to see a repeat in 2026.

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