It hardly seems like 27 years since Monterey's other jazz festival got its start on the historic waterfront adjacent to Portola Plaza. Once known primarily as Dixieland Monterey, the nonprofit festival's board members have turned the tide, so to speak, with the decision to add the subtitle "Jazz Bash by the Bay" to what they now refer to as the business-only name, Dixieland Monterey.
"For the most part, the name Dixieland conjures up Shakey's Pizza, striped vests and straw hats that in and of itself isn't necessarily such an awful thing," said festival board president and band committee chairperson April DeShields.
"For some reason it has the mental image of being rather hokey. And so with the name 'Jazz Bash by the Bay,' we've also opened ourselves up because, as we have for years, we've hired swing bands, blues bands and bands that aren't traditional Dixieland, but are still jazz bands.
"By introducing that name, what we're doing is putting it out there that we encompass a lot of classic jazz, and some other elements that are related to jazz such as blues and country swing.
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While there are numerous instances where other festivals of this nature have had to pare down or fold up and go away, that's certainly not the case here. The festival is enjoying great popularity and continued growth, but there is an increased interest to draw a wider demographic to discover the pleasures of early, classic jazz combos, as well as swing, blues, gospel, and big band swing music. It's the same deal with the Monterey Jazz Festival, set to celebrate its 50th year as a presenter of all things jazz, where the original fan base is shrinking and a new audience is actively being courted and cultivated.
People of all ages do come for the three-day event held in venues throughout the Portola Plaza Hotel and the Monterey Conference Center, and at several other locations nearby, including Gilbert's on the Wharf restaurant and the grand Golden State Theatre.
Although many of the bands tend to be repeat favorites that come year after year, there are opportunities to experience fresh new faces with the youth bands booked for the weekend and with Saturday's high school jazz band adjudication event. Several professional all-star bands provide the opportunity for top players to interact in ways that are unique to the event.
"You're looking at people who are each bandleaders in their own right," said DeShields, who is responsible for booking the festival's artists with input from the talent committee. "The all-stars have no rehearsal time whatsoever. So we have to know their strengths and weaknesses.
Can they blend in with certain people? What tunes they have in common is an important element. And have the players ever worked together?
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Organized bands that reflect the diversity present in the lineup include headlining blues band Yve Evans Co., Western Swing and gospel group Igor's Jazz Cowboys, ragtime and classic jazz duo Ivory and Gold, and boogie-woogie piano group The Carl Sonny Leyland Trio. A favorite local group booked this year, heard at venues such as Kuumbwa Jazz Center and its annual co-benefit event Jazz at the Aquarium, is The Jazz Birds.
The all-woman vocal/instrumental group focuses its repertoire on Boswell Sisters and Andrew Sisters tunes. Like a number of bands at this colorful event, they dress in period outfits and entertain not only with their music, but also with outgoing personalities, humor and insight.
Every year since the passing in 1991 of 10-year festival volunteer and five-year board chairman Dr.
Jake Jacobson, the festival has bestowed a Musician of the Year award to "honor members of the jazz community in life rather than memorialize them in death." While the criteria for choosing the recipient isn't exactly transparent, often times the players chosen are surprised to hear they are being honored, such as this year's lucky guy, clarinetist Bob Draga.
"All I can say is, I'm absolutely thrilled to be whatever they have decided I am for the year," Draga said on the phone from his home in Largo, Fla.
"I just can't understand how they can pass over some of the guys that I think are better. And I hope this doesn't mean that I'm getting so old..
.," his voice trailing off with laughter.
No, Bob.
It's because you are one of the guys who are better and the band you're in, the Titan Hot Seven, is one of the hottest bands in the country for traditional jazz and a whole lot more. The fact is, he's been a regular at the festival for what seems the entire time to him. But, he actually started playing here just 10 years ago.
"This band isn't afraid to do anything," he said about the Titan Hot Seven. "We do traditional jazz, Chicago-style jazz, big band swing. Sometimes we'll take a country tune and make it jazz.
And we like to do pretty ballads. All the guys are good; a real mixed band. We can do everything.
A lot of the guys are from Nashville and have recording backgrounds. It's a really diversified band."
Draga, who was born in Indianapolis, moved to Florida when he was "a little kid in 1954, when there were still pink flamingos," he said.
"Dad decided I was going to be a clarinet player before I was born. I didn't have a choice. At 11, he took me in, and I tried out the trombone.
And I really like the trombone. Thought it was the coolest instrument I'd ever seen. But pop decided that wouldn't happen.
He just loved the clarinet. He loved Artie Shaw and Pete Fountain, and he liked some Benny Goodman. I grew up listening mostly to Artie Shaw and Pete Fountain.
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Seems he's come to terms with his fate, as playing the clarinet has turned out to be quite enjoyable for him. Self-taught after the money for lessons ran out after six months, he continued to play music into adulthood as an avocation, with a day job as a heating and air conditioning mechanic.
"I'm a lot better at fixing air conditioners and boilers than I am playing clarinet," he said modestly.
"What happened about 1984, the career just sort of took off and it's never stopped growing musically. It's reached the point now that the music is more full-time than the other work."
The band has at least 10 CDs out; the most recent is titled "At Home with the Titans," released about eight months ago.
It's available on the band's Web site, , but he said "the bulk of our sales are at jazz festivals and jazz cruises."
At 59, Draga has no reason to be concerned about being old, even though he said he's not going there gracefully. What will see him through is his love of playing music.
"If you love what you're doing, you don't care if there's five in the audience or 500, although you want to have 500 so you get paid and keep doing it.
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