Highlights of Jazz Fests Past

Q: What does this all mean to you?

A: The message it sends to me is nobody’s safe. If school music programs are being cut and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra can’t survive, then everyone is facing some serious challenges. It’s tough out there, yes. It’s a difficult climate. But we just keep going.

Things have to get better. We can’t afford to let the dominoes topple in the wake of the SSO collapse. The community can’t afford to lose another crown jewel like Jazz Fest. If that ever happened it would send a very bad message to the community and to the field about this market’s ability to retain major attractions and selling points.

Q: You’ve worked all around the country. What brought you back to Syracuse?

A: I’m happy to be back in my hometown. I always came back to produce Jazz Fest in Syracuse. I was in New York City in the mid-1980s.

I was in Washington, D.C., in the late 1980s. I always came back to produce Jazz Fest and I always tried to bring artists back to Syracuse that I had seen and experienced out there. It’s been wonderful. I hope it continues. Not knowing if it’s going to continue makes you a little crazy sometimes. You feel like you’ve earned the right to continue, but the world’s not fair and times and tastes change. Trends change. We try to prevent becoming obsolete in a changing world, but you don’t know what’s around the corner so you do your best.

Q: What do you think of the Syracuse music scene?

A: I think there are so many great musicians here. I just happened to be at a place the other day where the resident group was playing—The Billionaires—and I thought they were great. And there are a couple soul outfits in town that just blow me away: After FX and the Blacklites, Los Blancos, Pete McMahon, Jimmy Cox. There are tons of cats in this town. Jimmy is one bad dude, man.

Q: Do you think they’re recognized enough?

A: I think there are a lot of cats that don’t get any recognition and that’s unfortunate. Sometimes it’s political and those are arbitrary, unilateral decisions that have to do with personal tastes and whatever. I think the key is to be objective about that. There have always been great bands in this town whether they were funk, soul, horn outfits or country bands, blues bands, there have always been great, great bands here.

Q: What could be done to change that?

A: The politics of the marketplace, who the presenters are and who they present, the styles of music that will draw people in and sell product. I mean, that’s another story and that drives a lot of the programmatic decision making. I have a solution for that but, again, it would take objectivity. The musicians need to take control of their own destiny and they need to have their own venues. In a market like this there are a lot of people that want to see music but the hour that music starts is a little bit late. I think they need to get an earlier start, maybe more happy hour stuff after work.

Q: What’s a standout moment in your Jazz Fest career?

A: Wow! There have been so many. That’s a really hard question. A couple of years ago a friend of ours had died, one of the great, great guitarists in the history of music: Hiram Bullock. And all the bands that played that night were all guys that had played with Hiram. At the end of the night all four bands came on stage and we had like 25 people: cats from Randy Brecker’s band, from Spyro Gyra, five guitars, Tom Petty’s drummer, Steve Ferrone, who also drums with Eric Clapton, and Rodney Holmes, Santana’s drummer. It was that kinda night. It was one of these all-star deals and Michael Jackson had also died the night before.

So they did a three-tune set at the end of the festival’s opening night after the four bands had all played. And it’s approaching the midnight hour. And they did Miles Davis’ “All Blues,” followed by Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” followed by {Jackson’s} “Human Nature” and the audience was singing “Human Nature.” And Randy was doing the Miles Davis muted trumpet part. That was it. That was the musical experience for me that transcended everything and every individual performance. That was the moment. Nothing could potentially ever eclipse that for me.

But, the fans—that was there for them. It got posted on the Internet. It’s been all over the world. All the musicians that were on the stage that night, it belongs to all of us. People needed to express their love for Michael and Hiram and that’s what happened. It was very special. You can’t script that, create it, force it. All you can do is create an atmosphere where something like that can happen. And it doesn’t happen that often.

Q: What are the fan demographics of Jazz Fest?

A: I’ve studied it for 29 years and it’s fascinating. It’s infants, families, male, female, young, middle-aged, elderly, seniors, it’s everybody. The whole town comes out to celebrate. I think it brings a lot of people together who wouldn’t ordinarily collectively gather. You go to different events and you see homogenized groups. You’ll see all of one kind of demographic attending something. I think the great thing about Jazz Fest is everybody comes out and everybody gets along and interacts in a wonderful way. The vibe is tremendous. It’s incident-free.

Q: Have you seen that in other cities?

A: I worked for seven years presenting the Detroit International Jazz Festival. Detroit is and remains the most segregated large, metropolitan city in America. The city is 99 percent African American and the suburbs are 99 percent Caucasian. The festival demographic was 50 percent African American and 50 percent Caucasian.

Q: Why?

A: ‘Cause it was cool because of the music, because of the programming. We used the music in a positive way to smash all the “isms” that exist. We live in a homophobic, sexist, racially polarized, segregated universe. That doesn’t exist at Jazz Fest. That’s fantastic. That’s a dream come true for me. What other common experiences do we have that can bring us together? Music is ultimately the greatest common experience.

Q: What is it about music that makes it so common for everyone?

A: Music is part of our DNA. It’s with us from birth to death and it’s such an essential part of everybody’s life throughout their life. People need it. They need it like oxygen. It’s, for me, the air I breathe.

Q: Why else should people come to Jazz Fest?

A: I think in the 2000s there has been a ton of mediocrity. In film, music, art, in things that I care about and I see everywhere. It’s pervasive and it’s permeating the whole culture. It has me concerned. But there are going to be virtuosos at Jazz Fest. I feel an even greater sense of urgency and responsibility than ever before to present something great. Come to Jazz Fest because the music there is still great. That’s the deal.

Headliners from 2007 to 2010: In order, they are Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Kenny G and Natalie Cole. While Malfitano often has to answer criticism that the musicians at Jazz Fest aren’t the jazziest, there’s no doubt that they are popular and carry strong appeal to the masses. And who can argue with that?