Sedona Serves Jazz on the Rocks

RED ROCK Jazz Fest SEDONA'S MUSICAL VORTEX

They haven't forgotten the moment. They haven't forgotten the music. And they'll never forget the singer. Sedona, Arizona. September, 1987. Late on a Saturday afternoon. Dusk approaches. Ominous clouds swirl above. A jazz-saturated crowd of 2,700 grows restless, apprehensive. Some have begun to leave. And then: "Please give our warmest Jazz on the Rocks welcome to Columbia recording artist Nancy Wilson." Applause. She floats on stage, pretty face beaming. Already radiating soft, cool vibes. Wearing a killer red dress. And begins to sing: "Darn that dream I dream each night; You say you love me, and you hold me tight . . . ."

The sun bursts through the black clouds and bathes her in a soft yellow glow. The stage, her trio, even the red rocks seem to fade into the background. God himself is shining a spotlight on Nancy Wilson.

Like most fans of Sedona's Jazz on the Rocks, Patricia Myers (PREVIOUS PANEL, PAGES 4 AND 5) expresses an exuberance inspired by more than just great music. Between sets by such performers as vocalist Nancy Wilson (ABOVE) and keyboardist Larry Fuller (RIGHT), audiences savor the visual harmony of the spectacular setting (LEFT) among the red rocks.

"Darn that dream and bless it, too; Without that dream, I never would have you . . . ." She has an aura that wraps around her audience and pulls them in. They fall silent. Enchanted. Helplessly in love with her. Years later Wilson tells a friend, "Sedona is the most beautiful place I've ever performed. The setting for Jazz on the Rocks is awesome. It reaffirms your belief in a higher power." Hearing that, a Jazz on the Rocks devotee says, "Nancy Wilson reaffirms your belief in a higher power." Jazz on the Rocks is like that. Jazzfest turned lovefest. Perhaps it's the vortexes, the much-ballyhooed forces of geomagnetic energy said to emanate from Sedona's stunning red rock formations.

Whatever it is, singer Doug MacLeod felt it. With his dirty, lowdown, gutbucket, down-home blues, MacLeod is, by acclamation, the most popular artist ever to perform at Jazz on the Rocks. He has appeared six consecutive years at a festival where featured performers seldom repeat. And he calls Sedona "my favorite place." Looking back, MacLeod has a vivid recollection of his first Jazz on the Rocks gig in 1985. "I remember standing on the stage," he says, "red rocks off to my left, red rocks off to my right. And a thought hit me: It's impossible to do a bad show in this place." He never has.

Sedona's celebration of America's unique contribution to global culture began inauspiciously in 1982. The first two festivals featured Arizona talent, small crowds, and an alarming buildup of debt, $11,000 by the end of 1983. But 1984 saw the formation of a not-for-profit corporation and a new board of directors under the leadership of Verne Smith, a financial-services consultant. Smith recalls that cash flow was so dicey during 1984 that he and other board members frequently advanced money out of their own pockets to pay suppliers. By the end of the year, however, the board had run a successful festival featuring the jazzfest's first big name, pianist Les McCann.

Celebrating its first decade, the jazzfest attracts top talents, including trumpeter Betty O'Hara (ABOVE), who performs with Ann Patterson's Maiden Voyage, and festival favorite Doug MacLeod (RIGHT). Audience enthusiasm (FAR RIGHT) is just one reason the musicians rave about Sedona.

They also had paid off the debt and had the grand sum of $250.02 in the treasury.

Jazz on the Rocks took off from there, thanks in large measure to the talent-booking moxie of Marion Herrman. Before "retiring" to Sedona in 1982, the Herrmans, Marion and Al, owned Tuxedo Junction, a jazz/big band club on Long Island.

Her booking philosophy is simple and set in, well, red rock. "I refuse to be seduced by what's in," she declares. "You have to know the difference between what's popular and what's good."

Herrman knows what's good. And, fortunately for Jazz on the Rocks, she has an almost omniscient knack for spotting it just before the rest of the world gets hip.

Which is no easy feat in the "remote" hamlet of Sedona. It's difficult in Arizona, she'll tell you, to be exposed to what's hot in jazz. "Records aren't available here. You don't get it on radio. You hardly get any of it on television. You have to read a lot."

She admits that when she booked trumpeter Jon Faddis in 1985, "Most of the audience had never heard of him."

Talk about pleasant surprises!

When Faddis raised his horn to his lips and began to blow "Night in Tunisia," a hush fell over the crowd, broken only by a standing, whistling ovation.

Faddis remembers it well. "There's a lot of energy there," he says. "I tried to tap into that energy and something happened." The vortex thing again?

Perhaps Herrman is most proud of her coup with vocalist Diane Reeves, largely unknown that summer of 1986. Someone had given Herrman a demonstration tape Reeves had recorded in a San Francisco nightclub. "When I heard her, I just flipped," she recalls. So did those at Jazz on the Rocks.

Shortly thereafter, Reeves' career took off.

Then, of course, there was MacLeod. He was first introduced to Herrman via a tape, too. She liked what she heard and signed him to open the 1985 festival at the unholy hour of 9:30 A.M. Those who straggled in late spent the rest of the day being regaled with tales of what they had missed. MacLeod has appeared at everyJazz on the Rocks since, moving up in the billing each time. And while he still is not a familiar name in the United States, MacLeod has made a stellar impression in Europe. In 1988 he was the hit of the Belgium Rhythm and Blues Festival, and he's won numerous blues awards.

"The amazing thing about this music," he explains, "is that you get to tell somebody how bad you feel for 4 1/2 minutes. When you're finished, they give you a big round of applause."

MacLeod is one of a growing number ofJazz on the Rocks artists who treat Sedona as something special. He regularly brings his wife and children there from Los Angeles.

In 1989 he rushed off the stage amid wild applause and cries of "More! More!" He headed straight for Evelyn Grgurich, then president ofJazz on the Rocks. "Evelyn, how did I do? I was so nervous."

Nonplussed, she responded, "Nervous? You've got to be kidding." "No," he said, "my mom and dad are out there. Was I okay?"

The still-shrieking, chanting crowd provided the answer. Singer Carmen McRae was right when she said, "You can't lose when you play the blues."

Frank Foster, who leads the Count Basie Orchestra, arrived in Sedona on a Thursday afternoon in 1988. He stood in one spot, hands on hips, pivoted 360 degrees, and said, “I can't believe this.” At sunup the next day, Frank and Cecelia Foster had a real estate agent in tow, looking for property to build a home.

Grgurich, a trust administrator, thinks Sedona may represent “the demilitarized zone” for many of the musicians. “They have the rig-ors of travel and performance,” she explains. “And what they want most from a home is sanctuary. A place that makes them feel good inside. Here they get to be people again.” Bopping toward its 10th anniversary on the 28th of this month, Jazz on the Rocks is solidly established with jazz fans throughout the United States, has a firm financial base, and has become part of the cultural and economic fabric of Sedona.

Jazz on the Rocks is much more than a jazz festival in a grassy amphitheater among spectacular red rocks. It's an annual poster-art competition. It's a jazz-photos exhibition at the Sedona Arts Center. And, most of all, it's wall-to-wall jazz all over town all weekend.

West 89th Street nightclub, Los Abrigados hotel, and Poco Diablo Resort book the biggest festival names on Friday and Saturday evenings. And impromptu jam sessions are commonplace.

For many years, the place to go after the festival, the place to sit in and blow a little, was the lounge at the venerable Oak Creek Owl Restaurant. The Owl is owned by the equally venerable Troy Williams, one of those whose unflagging support has been most responsible for elevating Jazz on the Rocks.

Vocalist Diane Schuur came to the restaurant for dinner and stayed all evening. Singer Joe Williams showed up. But the one Troy Williams likes to tell about most is who else? Nancy Wilson.

Seems she approached him at the President's Party the evening before the festival. She had heard about the sessions at the Owl, she told him. Could she come? She'd only stay a few minutes, she said, but she wanted to be supportive.

Well, Williams recalls, she came, she stayed until the Owl closed, and she sang with everybody who played. “She was a sweetheart.” The Owl no longer has a lounge, but Herrman says the “spontaneous” gathering after the festival likely will happen at another spot, and word is sure to get out.

Hotels in the vicinity of Sedona are booked solid months in advance of the festival. Some Jazz on the Rocks attendees stay as far away as Flagstaff, and commute.

An economic-impact study conducted by the College of Business Administration at Northern Arizona University estimates that $1.2 million flows into Sedona over the jazz weekend.

The success of Jazz on the Rocks is further reflected in the festival's move last year to a larger home on the campus of Verde Valley School. It seats 4,000 quite comfortably.

“It fits like a glove,” says Ken Fisher, an insurance adjuster and current president of Jazz on the Rocks. His group carved an amphitheater out of a hillside surrounded by the sienna cliffsfor which Sedona is famous: Cathedral Rock, Seven Warriors, Monkey Face, The Snail, and Napoleon.

It's the type of setting that moved drummer Louis Bellson to look around and (speaking of his late wife entertainer Pearl Bailey) say, “If Pearlie could see this, she'd say 'God lives here.” Does the move to a more spacious home signal aspirations to make Jazz on the Rocks a megafestival? You can bet your Billie Holiday collection the answer is a resounding no.

“I don't think the horde mentality will ever prevail,” Fisher declares. “Our festival is almost an intimate thing. You can see the artists' faces without opera glasses.” And Marion Herrman adds, “There's a mellowness here because it isn't too huge. Once a year, we have this lovely festival, and we don't want it to destroy the rest of the community.” A long time ago, a lady asked legendary piano player Fats Waller, “Can you define jazz for me?” Waller studied her for a moment, then shook his head, and replied, “Lady, if you have to define it, don't mess with it.” Waller's admonition notwithstanding, it seems almost every group or performer who appears at Jazz on the Rocks gives new definition to this kaleidoscopic, wonderfully inscrutable type of music.

Perhaps none with more precision and greater clarity than Supersax, the group which closed the 1990 event.

The day of the festival, longtime board member Nell Bright wore a button that said, “Bird lives!” And few have done as much as the members of Supersax to keep sax-player extraordinaire Charlie “Yardbird” Parker “alive.” The Grammy-winning group was formed in 1972 specifically to play Parker's music.

The saxophone quintet features the group's originator and driving force Med Flory, along with Lanny Morgan, Ray Reed, Jay Migliori, and Jack Nimitz. Count Basie, the incomparable jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer, called them “the best sax section I ever heard.” In Sedona they were joined by trumpeter Conte Candoli, pianist Lou Levy, bassist Monte Budwig, and drummer John Dentz.

Their music sweeps listeners back across 50 years on a cascade of riffs and tempos and exquisitely close harmonies. These wonderful guys, with their crisp, clear tones, were the finest sidemen in the finest big bands of all time: Woody Herman, Charlie Barnet, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Claude Thornhill. And at Jazz on the Rocks, they electrified the crowd with their blazing energy and precise execution.

Grgurich stood in awe, shaking her head. “Anybody who can squeeze those sounds out of an inanimate object has a special connection to God,” she said.

By the time they were halfway through “Body and Soul,” they had many in the spellbound audience dabbing at their eyes.

And that, Mr. Waller would agree, was definition enough.

Travel Guide: For information about Sedona, we recommend Scenic Sedona, an Arizona Highways publication that explores the scenery, culture, history, and people of this popular getaway among the red rocks and looks at dramatic Oak Creek Canyon, historic Verde Valley, and Jerome, one of the state's liveliest “ghost towns.” To inquire or place an order, telephone Arizona Highways at 1 (800) 543-5432. In the Phoenix area, call 258-1000.

Arizona Jazz Festival Schedule

Jazz on the Rocks (10th anniversary retrospective), September 28, 1991, amphitheater at Verde Valley School, Village of Oak Creek. Contact: Ann Briggs, (602) 282-1985.

Scottsdale Dixieland Jazz Festival, November 8, 9 & 10, 1991, Sunburst Resort Hotel & Conference Center. Contact: Paul Lenart, festival director, (602) 569-9084.

Dixieland at the London Bridge, January 17, 18 & 19, 1992, Ramada London Bridge Resort, Lake Havasu City. Contact: Susie Owens, (800) 624-7939.

Primavera Jazz Fest, March 7, 1992, location to be announced, Tucson. Contact: Jazz Hotline, (602) 743-3399.

Valley Bank Scottsdale Jazz Festival, April 30 & May 1, 2 & 3, 1992, Contact: Recorded information, (602) 631-0471.

Jazz Sundae, May 3, 1992, Reid Park, Tucson. Contact: Jazz Hotline, (602) 743-3399.