JazzVille

A tip for attending the Healdsburg Jazz Festival: Don’t bother looking for the big main tent. There isn’t one.

Healdburg serves jazz in smaller but no less potent doses, bringing top talent to play in every corner of town — a cafe, a couple of bistros, a winery or two, the town plaza, a local park and even the venerable Raven Theater, a landmark now used for concerts and plays.

“This is a remarkable community anyway, so this (the festival) is a heightened sense of that,” said general manager Lukka Feldman of Healdsburg’s Barndiva restaurant, one of the festival’s venues. “To have all of this amazing talent here for 10 days, being part of the community, is just remarkable.”

Founded in 1999 by jazz maven Jessica Felix, the festival has woven its way into the very fabric of its hometown. In that same decade, some of the jazz world’s stars have become part of Healdsburg and Sonoma County.

“People see the names that the Healdsburg Jazz Festival brings in here and that gives the theater credibility,” said Tom Brand, executive director of the Raven. “Then other artists see the facility, and it works as a magnet that way, too.”

When the festival opens its 10th anniversary celebration May 30, it’ll be a homecoming for many of the stars. Saxophonist Charles Lloyd and pianist Marc Carey each have played there several times.

Even star saxophonist Joshua Redman, Bay Area-based but a first-timer at the festival, evidently expects to feel at home in Wine Country. He’s bringing his wife and their toddler along. Even grandma’s coming. And he’s not the only festival star bringing the family.

Some of the musicians will play just a few nights, but still plan to hang around Healdsburg for a week or 10 days. Pianist Kenny Barron intends to let the festival serve as his 65th birthday party, Felix said.

“They fall in love with the area,” she explained. “Most festivals say, ‘Come in, play and leave, because we need your hotel room.’ Our musicians stay in beautiful places. We give them good food. We give them a welcome bag with wine and a hat. We treat them with high respect.”

Locals love the musicians. Like several of her friends and neighbors, Bieke Burwell opens the guest house at her West Dry Creek Road home to musicians during the festival, and welcomes them back between festivals.

“I sometimes go to the Downtown Bakery in the morning to get coffee and there are three of us that host musicians,” Burwell said. “Everybody finds it one of the most pleasant things they do all year.”

After playing the festival one year, jazz and classical flutist James Newton returned to Burwell’s home two months later for a break from performing. Each morning, he perched on a nearby hillside and played the flute.

“The sound went back and forth between him and the birds,” Burwell recalled. “It was almost like the birds answered him. By the fifth day, my whole neighborhood was listening.”

For Feldman at Barndiva, participating in the festival means much more than just booking a few acts in the restaurant’s backyard patio. He drove down to San Francisco last year to pick up one of his favorites, singer Patricia Barber, at the airport. And he served another vocalist espresso backstage at Barndiva before her show. To him, the payoff is in the performances.

“The jazz experience is magical in these smaller venues,” he said. “You have one of those moments in time when everything is right — the weather, the breeze, the music, the small intimate crowd, soft lights, dulcet tones. It’s just absolutely incredible.”

Even though Felix has started booking some of the festival’s concerts into Sonoma Country Day School’s Jackson Theater in Santa Rosa, she doesn’t see Healdsburg’s lack of a huge hall or colossal amphiteater as a problem.

“Audiences get tired of sitting in 5,000-seat or 3,500-seat tents and stadiums,” Felix said “They like the concept of enjoying the music in the Wine Country, with the food.”

During its run, the festival usually draws about 5,000, with more expected this year because of the lineup, from Latin jazz master Eddie Palmieri to legendary pianist Cedar Walton.

Burwell credits Felix, who brought her experience working with Bay Area jazz clubs to Healdsburg, for making the town a destination for jazz fans nationwide. “To have Jessica in this community is our big plus for this festival,” Burwell said.

“You need that one person who works all year to get other people motivated, and to keep it alive,” she added. “Jessica is a hard-core jazz aficionado, and she knows everybody.”

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.