Four months after opening, the San Francisco Jazz Center remains committed to Latin music in its programs and events.
From May 30 to June 2, Resident Director Miguel Zenón, a renowned Puerto Rican saxophonist, will feature his woodwind orchestral project, Alma Adentro.
“Miguel has been part of the SF Jazz Collective for 10 years… a group of musicians commissioned to arrange music by well-known jazz composers,” said the center’s director of education, Rebecca Mauléon. “Resident art directors basically curate during a three or four night run, in which they collaborate with different artists and network their talents.”
From June 12 to 23 the Center will host the annual San Francisco Jazz Festival. The festival will feature Afro-Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez and the Cuban pianist and drummer Harold López-Nussa Duo, among other Latin artists and jazz musicians.
The 31-year-old event, which previously took place over multiple venues in a period of several months, will now have a single designated venue.
“It’s a challenge because we’ve never done it before. The organization is thirty years old, but we’ve never done this (new complex),” Mauléon said. “It’s a fabulous building, the space is beautiful. We love the fact that it’s another venue for artists and local artists.”
The $64 billion complex, which boasts a 700-seat music auditorium, serves as home to year-round jazz music programming and education.
“SF Jazz has always included the Latino community in its programming… One of the reasons why we worked with them was John Santos, one of the most important Latin jazz musicians,” said Carlos Disdier of La Bohemia Productions, a Mission-based organization that collaborates with the Jazz Center.
In the fall La Bohemia Productions will team up with SF Jazz to put on “Hope & Healing,” a fundraiser for the Instituto Familiar De La Raza.
“It’s a nonprofit, it’s put on by the community and it provides social services to the community as well,” said Disdier.
The SF Jazz Center is located in Hayes Valley, at 201 Franklin St. Tickets and a list of upcoming programs can be found at www.sfjazz.org.