Jazz branches out at river

<p>All that jazz, or better yet all that is jazz today, was on display Saturday at Jazz on the River in Guerneville.</p><p>A crowd that organizers estimated at 3,000 people basked in the aura of an art form that is far more than just yesterday's golden era when jazz earned its badge as the most American of idioms, an undefinable genre that claims Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Jack Kerouac's "bop prosody" and Kenny G as strange fruit on the same family tree.</p><p>Saturday was jazz bikinis. Jazz water cannons. Jazz by Ledisi, the Oakland diva who's not afraid to yell: "Get Outta My Kitchen!" It was Latin jazz flowing through the palms and knuckles of conguero Poncho Sanchez. Jazz or not jazz from Chaka Khan.</p><p>You could look at it as just another wine-swilling festival in a region overflowing with festivals every weekend. Or, as an excuse, if only for a fleeting moment on Johnson's Beach, to ask the question: What is jazz today?</p><p>Here are a few of the answers:</p><p>"It's climbing, but it's not as open as it should be . . . it would be nice to see more new artists come out and kick butt. If we keep reissuing the same thing, recycling and not upgrading, we'll never get the new audience. We need to keep it fresh."</p><p>-- Ledisi, Oakland jazz and R&amp;B singer</p><p>"Jazz is all over the map. It's gone into the mainstream finally. I think we got young people listening to it, looking for something different in music, and they've discovered jazz."</p><p>-- Maria Isola, Walnut Creek</p><p>"It's appealing to the young people so I see that we've gotten progressive and we've infused more Latin and Afro-Cuban music into jazz today."</p><p>-- Yaqui Lara, Healdsburg</p><p>"It's always important to get the upcoming young audience involved in jazz, but don't forget about us old folks, the old-timers who are old and in the way now."</p><p>-- Poncho Sanchez, Grammy Award-winning Latin jazz bandleader/conga player</p><p>"I think it's starting to grow again. I noticed there are young people here and that's a good sign. I'd like to see more, so that we can be assured that it stays around. It's a rare art form for the United States."</p><p>-- Clarice Roberts, Fairfield</p><p>"It's beginning to come out more. There's more young people into jazz than there used to be . . . there's more people taking the time to understand it today."</p><p>-- John Marshall, Oakland</p><p>Staff Writer John Beck can be reached at john.beck@press democrat.com.</p>