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The first Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival, “A Celebration of Latin Jazz,” presented by The Jazz School (on Allston Way) is in full swing and gearing up for the weekend. With 15 stages throughout downtown for 40 events (the festival ends Sunday), including music, dance, poetry and culinary arts, festivity’s abounding. 

The festival’s focus is on Afro-Caribbean (Cuban and Puerto Rican) and Brazilian music and culture, specifically. 

“We realized ‘Latin Jazz’ is an ambiguous term. What is it?” said Susan Muscarella of The Jazz School, the festival’s director. “I originally wanted to title it ‘Una Celebracion De La Jazz Latino,’ but of course that would’ve left out the Brazilians! So we settled on ‘A Celebration of Latin Jazz,’ to avoid a clash between Spanish and Portuguese titling.”  

A advisory committee of 10 experts, including teachers, musicians and DJs, narrowed the program down to the two styles, she said. 

“It’s not just ‘Latin Jazz’ and any old thing,” Muscarella said. “We have a wonderful mix of musicians at both The Jazz School and the festival, a great pool of some of the best in the world in these styles, right here in the Bay Area. And we hope to cover all the bases.”  

“The festival is an extension of the community outreach of The Jazz School, promoting the city, especially downtown, through the arts.” she said. 

She added that Audi, the major sponsor, deserved praise for getting the festival off the ground. 

“We may be the first event of our type to embrace all of downtown, rather than just a block or so,” Muscarella said. “There are hundreds of businesses, and we involve several dozen, spread across downtown. Our goal has been to involve as many businesses as possible. We bit off a lot for our first time and we’ll be back, with a focus on a different style of Jazz. Maybe, ‘The Children of Hard Bop’?” 

Musicians will play at a wide variety of venues, including such standbys of jazz as Anna’s Jazz Island (at her new location in the Gaia Building), La Note and Downtown Restaurant, as well as Jupiter and other cafes and eateries. 

“We wanted to get bodies into businesses,” said Muscarella. “A street fair alone doesn’t get them in the door.” 

There are noontime shows at Berkeley BART, “with such players and groups as Wayne Wallace and Fourth Dimension, Marcos Silva and Intersection, John Santos—all with quite a following around the Bay,” said Jayne Sanchez, Jazz School publicist and host of “Jazz Oasis” on KCSM. 

“We’ve let the festival set the tone for August, emphasizing Latin Jazz groups before the festival’s start,” said Anna De Leon of Anna’s Jazz Island. She opened her new club, at 2120 Allston Way, 10 weeks ago. 

On her new location, near BART and the UC Campus, she said, “I’m thrilled to be downtown! It’s wonderful to be in the Gaia Building. With tropical decor, a full bar and a new Bose sound system, we can comfortably seat 88 with all focussed on the music. It’s not a recital hall or a huge cavern, but a club, a nice intimate space to hear jazz.” 

“We’re open to any correlated arts,” said Muscarella. For instance, California Poet Laureate Al Young is scheduled to read, along with other writers, at the Berkeley Library Saturday. And the Act 1 & 2 cinemas will screen Louis Malle’s 1957 first feature, Elevator to the Gallows, with Jeanne Moreau and a jazz score, improvised by Miles Davis, introduced by poet Michael Shepler. 

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