G Funk with Frank

So sayeth Jazz Fest executive director Frank Malfitano, man, who announced to The New Times on Nov. 26 that headliner Kenny G
(aka Kenny Gorelick) will serve as the main attraction. Easy-listening
jazz fans have long connected with G’s ultra-mellow holiday albums, a
fact that Malfitano hopes will appeal to new corporate sponsors. The
52-year-old soprano saxophonist also held the 1997 Guinness Book of
World Records’ citation for longest saxophone note (clocking in at 45
minutes), which is still a lotta blow.

Sponsorship, however, is always the name
of the game when it comes to free summer music festivals. After M&T
Bank opted not to continue its financial commitment following the 2007
Jazz Fest (M&T and Malf were together since 1991), the local hose
manufacturing company JGB Enterprises picked up the torch, and most of the tab, for last year’s fest, which had a $350,000 operating budget. However, company owner Jay Bernhardt clarified to the media at the time that his financial contribution was a one-shot deal.

Sax symbol: The late Hiram Bullock (pictured here at the 2007 Syracuse Jazz Fest) will be honored during next June’s festival atop the Onondaga Community College campus.

So Malfitano and the festival’s
executive board have come up with a method for bringing in the bucks,
while making it easier to contribute during the recent economic
downturn. Malfitano will spread 10 tents in a horseshoe shape around
OCC’s hilly campus; those tents may be purchased for $20,000 each in
order to host private, corporate parties. 

“It’s a two-day, two-stage model right
now,” Malfitano explains. “Right now, I’ve got about $200,000
committed, so we’re about $150,000 short of a two-day festival, or
we’re $250,000 short of a three-day festival. 

“It’s a new model for long-term
sustainability, but it’s contingent on people participating. All I can
do is bait the hook. I can’t make them jump in the boat,” Malfitano
says, using the same angler metaphors that punctuated The Post-Standard
music blogger’s Nov. 27 Page 1 story on the Kenny G announcement. “But
if people come on board and have a great time and a great experience,
our hope is that will create a new group of corporate contributors and
stakeholders, and we need new corporate givers because we’ve had some
of the same ones for a decade or more.”

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Divvying up the budget gap will take the
onus off of a title sponsor, although Malfitano certainly hopes a
corporate entity will come through on the $100,000 price tag.
Additionally, a main stage sponsor may clock in at $60,000 and a
scholastic stage sponsor at $40,000.  

The Onondaga County Legislature has also
already played a hand in securing funds. “We got a bump from the
Legislature and the County Executive {Joanie Mahoney} this year, and
not in that order. The county executive took the lead on that and the
Legislature supported it, and we got an additional $35,000,” Malfitano
says. “And that was a shot of vitamin B12 for me, man!” 

Business aside, Malfitano won’t say much
about who will join Kenny G on stage during the 2009 fest. “I let
things come to me organically, from a programming standpoint,” he says
about his programming procedures. “I wait for the news to strike. I
don’t say, ‘I’m going to do this.’ It’s a little like jazz in
the sense that it has to be spontaneous, it has to have a connection,
it has to be meaningful. It can’t just come out of the ethers, but you
can’t force it.”

Malfitano did reveal that he would dedicate Jazz Fest 2009 to guitarist Hiram Bullock, the former Late Show with David Letterman
band member who passed away in July; Bullock performed at the 2007 Jazz
Fest. Bullock left a void in the world of jazz, and lots of grieving
New York City pals who, according to Malfitano, are ready to pay homage
to the artist. 

“He was a dear friend,” Malfitano notes.
“I worked with him here and in New York and Detroit, and my
relationship went back with him for decades. He had a real connection
with the festival and the fans here, and when he passed away I knew
immediately that we were going to do this.”

—Matt Mumau