July 8, 2004, San Francisco, CA—SFJAZZ, the largest non-profit jazz presenter on the west coast, announces an explosive artist line-up for its 22nd annual San Francisco Jazz Festival, including; Caetano Veloso, Ruth Brown in a Fats Waller Celebration, Dianne Reeves, Etta James, Don Byron, Jason Moran, Mariza, and Rokia Traoré. The 2004 Festival will run from October 15 through November 7—one of the longest Festival’s in SFJAZZ history—and will feature legendary vocalists, an array of international talent, tributes to Lester Young and Fats Waller, as well as a new Jazz+Art series to be held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Kicking off the venerable Festival at Grace Cathedral will be saxophone virtuoso and 11-time Grammy-winner Michael Brecker with pioneering soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom. This will be the first of two concerts to be held in this mystical venue, the second will be the remarkable classical violinist from Britain, Tasmin Little, who will play Bach and Bartók at Grace on November 5.

For Billy Holiday and Sarah Vaughn fans, the San Francisco Jazz Festival offers four contemporary women jazz vocalists this fall. Three-time Grammy Award-winner Dianne Reeves, pianist and chanteuse Dena DeRose, the Queen of R&B Etta James, and San Francisco’s beloved Mary Stallings—a onetime protégé of Count Basie, Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie—will ignite on stage giving audiences a glimpse into the great tradition of women jazz vocalists.

The Festival continues its own great tradition in 2004 by bringing the most acclaimed established and emerging musicians from the international jazz scene to the Festival. SFJAZZ has included a prodigious amount of international flavor to this year’s line-up. Artists from all corners of the world will contribute to the Festival’s diversity, range and profound depth—long-standing hallmark characteristics of the Festival. The line-up includes; the highly eclectic Brazilian superstar Caetano Veloso, Portugal’s brightest new fado star, Mariza, supernova Latin pianists Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Michel Camilo, the new musical sensation from Mali, Rokia Traoré, Norway’s winner of the BBC’s Jazz Album of the Year, Jaga Jazzist, and the explosive pianist from Japan, Yosuke Yamashita, whose past collaborators include Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Bill Laswell, and the Japanese percussion group Kodo.

Another Festival tradition continuing in 2004 is the great tribute concert, an event intended to honor some of the legendary masters who have helped shape and define the jazz idiom. This year the Festival will pay tribute to two remarkable jazz musicians: the fabulous saxophonist Lester Young, and the unforgettable Fats Waller. The Lester Young Tribute features one of the most gifted clarinetists on the scene, Don Byron, with piano sensation Jason Moran and the eminent drummer Jack DeJohnette paying homage to Lester Young’s legendary ensemble of the ’40s with Nat “King” Cole and Buddy Rich. The Fats Waller 100th Birthday Celebration will pay honor to Thomas “Fats” Waller, the fun-loving composer and singer of Jazz Age gems like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose” who was known for his timing, touch and magical, musical imagination. In Fats’ centennial year, SFJAZZ has produced an unforgettable musical salute that will feature an all-star line-up including: R&B vocal icon and Grammy and Tony award-winner Ruth Brown; piano living legend Jay McShann, one of the bastions of Kansas City blues and jazz; modern-day stride master Dick Hyman, guitarist/singer Marty Grosz, pianist Mike Lipskin. The event will also include a screening of rare Fats footage and a re-creation of classic Waller duets on Davies’ colossal pipe organ.

In an effort to expand the breadth of the Festival and create new traditions, SFJAZZ is introducing “Jazz+Art,” a new series to be held Thursday evenings at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through the run of the Festival. Launching this series is drummer Scott Amendola, one of the prime movers in San Francisco’s eclectic and innovative jazz scene and a veteran of collaborations with the likes of guitarists Charlie Hunter and Bill Frisell. The Jazz+Art series will also feature living legend of the San Francisco jazz scene, drummer and band leader Eddie Marshall and Sex Mob, an outrageous, virtuoso quartet with an irreverent musical mix, including New Orleans-style party music, classic waltzes, and James Bond movie themes.

A few special jazz events will pepper the three week, four weekend Festival, including a multi-media Halloween event featuring the madly talented Jazz Passengers playing a live soundtrack for a 3-D version of Creature From the Black Lagoon; a cruise on the Bay with the ever-popular “Queen of Swing,” singer Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet-Lickers, and the SFJAZZ Beacon Award concert honoring Bay Area jazz treasure Allen Smith.

With more than 30 concerts featuring a glowing combination of world jazz, legendary masters and today’s up and coming artists, the San Francisco Jazz Festival is a timeless, contemporary, global and local, cultural event not to be missed.

Tickets ON SALE Sunday, July 18 for San Francisco Jazz Festival 2004!

Tickets: $15 to $80 available in person (without service charge) at the SFJAZZ Store, 3 Embarcadero Center, Lobby Level; on SFJAZZ's web site, www.sfjazz.org (service charge applied); by phone (service charge applied) at 415/776-1999 (outside CA 800/225-2277). Tickets for Herbst Theatre concerts only are available by calling City Box Office at 415/392-4400. Tickets can only be purchased at Masonic and Palace of Fine Arts Theater night of show.

Information: 415/788-7353 (outside CA 800/850-7353) or www.sfjazz.org