30 Something!

Looking back on 30 years of the Syracuse M&T Jazz Fest sometimes overwhelms founder and producer Frank Malfitano. With performers Dizzy Gillespie in 1989, Ray Charles in 2000, Aretha Franklin in 2007, Return to Forever with Chick Corea, Lenny White, Stanley Clarke, Frank Gambale and Jean-Luc Ponty in 2011, and an impressive list of other notables, it’s understandable that Malfitano has to sit back and take a deep breath before he can fully wrap his head around how he feels. The festival celebrates three free decades, this year for the first time at Jamesville Beach County Park, 3992 Apulia Road, on Friday, June 22, and Saturday, June 23.

“You look back on the artists that have been here and the artists that we’ve been able to bring and it’s really kind of an amazing legacy that lives on,” Malfitano says. “It’s humbling. I really do feel blessed to be a part of it. Some of it drives me completely crazy, but it’s still a big deal, it still excites me and I’m really looking forward to this year. I’m really glad it’s still happening after 30 years, which I think is a bit of a miracle.”

The 2012 lineup is distinctive, bringing local jazz students to the stage as well as up-and-comers like vocalist Gregory Porter and soul/funk band Mingo Fishtrap, international variety from vocalist Cyrille Aimee with guitarist Diego Figueiredo, and flavorful flair from Harri Stojka’s two-day tribute to gypsy swing. Jaimoe, well-known drummer of the Allman Brothers Band, will lead his own group, Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band. Also count on a punch of big band with Billy Vera & the Beaters (featuring the Syracuse All-Star Horns, including Joe Carello, Pat Carney, Bill Palange and Joe Colombo among others), returning guests Average White Band and Kenny G, and the recently inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Donovan. 

Admittedly, the genres fall all over the musical map, but the root remains the same: jazz. It’s the quintessential American art form that eliminated the walls of limitation and encouraged improvisation and experimentation for those charmed by its possibilities. Each of the 30th-anniversary artists will bring their own style of experimentation and discovery to the Jazz Fest stage. 

The festival’s new home at Jamesville Beach, a switch from its 11-year residence at Onondaga Community College, will also define the anniversary show. “It’s big, beautiful, spacious, gorgeous,” Malfitano says of the venue. Still, the lineup lights him up most of all.

Malfitano notes he doesn’t deliberately plan the booking of artists, instead believing that things happen for a reason. He allows artists to come to him in a variety of ways, never forcing an act on the fest. For example, Mingo Fishtrap was a cold call; the band submitted music that so impressed Malfitano, he decided to seek them out. Aimee and Porter were buzz acts during the Association for Performing Arts Presenters (APAP), a New York City conference, that caused Malfitano’s jaw to drop enough to ask them on the spot, although Porter took three years of asking before he could make it to the fest. Average White Band didn’t get a fair shake at last year’s festival as Friday night rain pushed the entire evening to curfew. And Donovan came completely out of nowhere, before he was announced as a 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee. 

“I don’t know if I was Youtubing it {Donovan} that night or if ‘Sunshine Superman’ came on the radio, but I just thought, ‘I wonder if Donovan would come,’” Malfitano says. He sent an inquiry to Donovan’s manager and, miraculously, the artist known around the world for his own anthems as well as for influencing generations of young songwriters, agreed to perform.

Mad About Saffron

Donovan Leitch, a Scottish singer-songwriter, began his career in the 1960s, often finding himself compared to stateside troubadour Bob Dylan. But over more than 40 years, Donovan, 66, established his own voice and style, becoming especially well-known for his friendship with The Beatles, with whom he traveled to Rishikesh, India, in 1968. We caught up to him via phone at his studio in Spain.

“Blues and jazz are very, very strong influences on my music and many others, of course Celtic as well,” Donovan says. “But when jazz hit, that’s when popular music really gets going. When the white traditional folk music meets the African black music and Latin American music—that’s what jazz is. And this is my first performance after my induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame {held in April}. I’m going to be doing my popular songs, but I’m also going to explore a few of my influences—blues and jazz things I grew up with. I’m thrilled to be coming to Syracuse.”

Some of the most influential music of the baby boom generation came out of the British Invasion and was created by people born in the post-World War II boom of the mid-1940s. “I grew up after World War II and it looked like mankind was bent on destroying itself,” Donovan explains. “But as a young man, I grew up wanting to help. Why is humankind suffering so much when we’re supposed to be the most intelligent species on the planet? That’s when we {himself and the Beatles} started reading the books of the great American mythologists and then, one day, we’d read the books of Buddhism and Eastern yoga in the books of the East.”

Donovan and Beatles members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison set out on a mission to find the fourth level of consciousness. According to the Eastern yoga tradition, there are three levels which mankind lives in: waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. But their goal was the elusive fourth level—transcendental super-consciousness—without the aid of drugs.

“We tried drugs,” Donovan reports frankly. “Drugs are very, very powerful ways to enter this fourth level of consciousness, but it’s only temporary. We realized meditation would have to be preserved and promoted. The Beatles and I came back from India with a thing called transcendental meditation and that’s why we got involved. Our songs would be filled with giving our generation the tools of self-change.”

As Donovan looks back on his life and especially his start in music, it’s clear he didn’t realize what he and the Fab Four would become in the great spectrum of music and popular culture. “We knew we were writing songs for ourselves, of course, but we just enjoyed making music and we were making songs for our audiences.” 

Now, as a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the name “Donovan” carries more significant weight than ever in songwriter circles and among music-loving fans who appreciate well-crafted songs and a finger-picking folk style that the Beatles latched onto. A notorious example is “Dear Prudence” on The Beatles (The White Album; Apple). One story goes that while the moptops and Donovan were studying with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India, actress Mia Farrow’s 20-year-old sister, Prudence (both of whom were studying with them), was so intent on getting cosmic first, that she locked herself in her room for nearly two weeks. Lennon put the situation to music in “Dear Prudence,” using the finger-picking style Donovan taught him. 

The singer, currently represented by the double-dip CD flashback collection The Essential Donovan from Sony’s Epic-Legacy label, is also compiling materials for an archive of “hidden treasures and lost tapes,” as he calls it, and continues writing and recording at his studio in Spain. He still finds encouragement in realizing that young musicians find his work inspiring. “That’s a great thing to be able to encourage other artists, especially the young ones that every two or three years are turned onto that album {Sunshine Superman, Epic}.”

Although widely known as a folk artist, Donovan sees no obstacles in looking at his music, or the M&T Jazz Festival, with an open mind. “Jazz festivals are not just jazz,” he says. “It spreads its wings and encourages many other styles of music. But 30 years of a jazz festival is important because jazz is improvisational. If you’re into hip-hop or dance beats or indie or folk music, you must always get yourself a good training in the early classic jazz artists—vocalists and players. Learn the styles of blues and jazz because it really is the root of popular song. Keep it simple: three chords, no more, maybe four. But make the fourth chord a minor. 

“Be the simplest you can be is my advice,” Donovan concludes. “And if you really want to learn how to construct songs—study Donovan.” 

Donovan will perform on Saturday, June 23, 8 p.m. For more information, visit syracusejazzfest.com.

Jazz Fest Schedule

Gates open at 2 p.m. both days.

Louis H. Everding Main Stage 

(All performance times are tentative, subject to change)

Friday, June 22

2:30-3 p.m.: Syracuse Parks and Recreation Stan Colella All-Star Band, under the direction of Joe Carello

3:30-4:30 p.m.: Harri Stojka’s Tribute To Gypsy Swing (Part 1)

5-6 p.m.: Cyrille Aimee and Diego Figueiredo

6:30-7:30 p.m.: Mingo Fishtrap

8-9 p.m.: Gregory Porter

9:30 p.m.: Kenny G.

Saturday, June 23

2:30-3 p.m.: All-County High School All-Star Jazz Band, under the direction of Steve Frank

3:30-4:30 p.m.: Harri Stojka’s Tribute To Gypsy Swing (Part 2)

5-6 p.m.: Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band

6:30-7:30 p.m.: Billy Vera and The Beaters and his 17-piece Big Band featuring the Syracuse All Star Horns (Joe Carello, Mike Dubaniewicz, John Rohde, Frank Grosso, Pat Carney, Dave Champouillion, Rob Robson, Paul Merrill, Bill Palange, Joe Colombo, Angelo Candela and Mark Anderson)

8-9:15 p.m.: Donovan

9:30-11 p.m.: Average White Band

11 p.m.: Fireworks