At 5 p.m. Friday, the first notes of the 33rd edition of the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest will depart from the instruments from the students that make up the city of Syracuse's Park & Rec All-Star Band and roll out over the campus of Onondaga Community College.
For the next two days, tens of thousands of music lovers will meet and mingle, dance and dine.
Fest founder and executive director Frank Malfitano has been planning and fine-tuning to the end. This year, more space was added for more food trucks. In the last month, the Price Chopper Fireworks were moved from Saturday to Friday, before the last set, so now the lineup goes Park & Rec at 5, AppleJazz at 6, Buckwheat Zydeco at 7:45, Fireworks at 9, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at 9:30 on Friday and Notified at 5, the Upstate Burners at 6, Lake Street Dive at 7:45 and Aretha Franklin at 9:30 at Saturday. Admission is still free, but the parking fee will rise from $5 to $10 after 6 p.m., Malfitano says, to encourage both early arrivals and car-pooling because of the large attendance expected for the big-name headliners.
Yes, Malfitano brought in very big names this year, hoping as always to bring big batches of people to his fest, the campus he attended, and his hometown. He took a moment during the final stages of readiness to field my queries. Let's call it eight questions for an eight-band fest.
Q: You've rolled the dice on this fest as the first of a three-year agreement, stacking the lineup with monster-huge headliners. How do you feel as the two days at OCC approach?
A: Well probably just like I always feel and have always felt each and every year before the festival for the past 33 years running ... a combination of excited and anxious. I'm mostly anxious about the weather, which we can't do anything about, but I think everything else is well under control. I'm really excited about the new features, this year's artists and headliners, and the regional and local artists as well. I think it's a terrific lineup this year, and I know we've addressed some food court things we needed to improve on, so I think this year's festival goers are in store for a very special weekend."
Q: What sort of comments have been coming in to you at World Headquarters about landing Aretha and Wynton's orchestra?
A: There's a huge buzz. Musical royalty does that. The Queen of Soul, The King of Zydeco and the Prince of Jazz. It's mega.
Q: Please tell me how you felt when Aretha took the stage here last time, and when you saw how the crowd reacted to her.
A: I've worked with her and presented her 13 times previously and have seen her perform countless other occasions and my reaction is always the same. She's astounding. But the crowd's reaction to her M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest performance in 2008 was unlike anything I've ever seen. I was beaming from ear to ear and dancing non stop. It was heaven.
Q: The same for Wynton and his incredible big band, please.
A: My relationship with Wynton dates back 30 years, to the first time I presented him in 1985. Over the years I've become close to the family Marsalis, and have spent a lot of time with Wynton in Manhattan, Detroit, New Orleans and Syracuse, and it's always been a very special relationship. Bar none, Jazz At Lincoln Center is the best Big Band in all of jazz. They headlined our first festival at OCC back in 2001, so it's been awhile since Wynton's been at the Fest, but I know the wait will have been worth it when he takes the Jazz Fest stage on Friday night after Buckwheat. It's going to be an amazing night of great Louisiana music from two cultural giants of the music.
Q: What do you want to take home this time from the sets of Aretha and Wynton?
A: I just want everyone to have a great time ... The artists who make this incredible music and the fans that dig it, and of course the sponsors who pick up the tab.
Q: Please tell me what you love best about Buckwheat Zydeco, and how he's lit things up at the fest in the past.
A: I haven't worked with 'Wheat since '98, so I can't wait to see him again, but he's always magical, and his sets are consistently electrifying. They're also a history lesson as far as Louisisana music goes, with everything from Fats Domino to Allen Toussaint and everything that's great about Zydeco and Louisiana music. Very special.
Q: People may not have heard about Lake Street Dive yet. What do you think the band will turn heads and ears with the most?
A: We saw them in Ithaca fairly recently, just before Rolling Stone named them the No. 1 best new band in America. They're astonishing. The best ... and maybe the best new Jazz Pop group to come along in the past 20 years. They're way past great, and everything about them is stellar ... their musicianship, their harmonies, their compositions, their arrangements and of course their lead vocalist, Rachael Price, who's a powerhouse.
Q: The Central New York component is sizzling this year with the Syracuse Parks and Recreaction Band, AppleJazz, Notified, and Upstate Burners. Why is it important to you to keep the scholastic and local pros involved with the fest?
A: They're the future of the music and the mainstays of the local jazz scene. A festival without them included simply wouldn't do justice to that special thing that keeps jazz going year round and night in and night out in Syracuse.