Alaska has of course been much in the news lately. But until recently, none of that news had anything to do with jazz.
That has changed. While the rest of the country was focusing on the state’s maverick governor and criminal-defendant senator, Alaska Airlines made itself a player in the jazz world by virtue of a surprising act of heroism: pledging $50,000, this year and next, to keep the Portland (Oregon) Jazz Festival going. In early September, just a few weeks before the airline stepped in to save the day, the festival had announced that it was “ceasing operations, ending a five-year span of presenting a world-class jazz festival each February in Portland.”
Now it’s back to business as usual for the Portland Jazz Festival, which has just announced its 2009 lineup. And next year the festival, to run from Feb. 13-22, will have not just a sponsor (more than one, actually: the event’s new full name is the cumbersome “Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air Portland Jazz Festival Presented by The Oregonian A&E”) but an enticing theme as well — Blue Note Records, which will be celebrating its 70th anniversary.
Indeed, the schedule announced on Nov. 6 is pretty much all Blue Note, all the time — a mixture of artists currently on the legendary label’s roster, notably Terence Blanchard, who will perform his orchestral work “A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina),” and past contributors to the Blue Note catalogue like McCoy Tyner, Bobby Hutcherson and Lou Donaldson. This is one of many planned celebrations of Blue Note’s anniversary, and probably the most ambitious. The festival also promises Blue Note-themed panel discussions and film screenings (no details are available yet), as well as some non-Blue Note events, including free performances by local musicians.
The Portland Jazz Festival is one of the youngest and most promising in the country — it has presented the likes of Ornette Coleman and Chick Corea since it began in 2004 — so when it was announced in September that there would not be a 2009 edition because of a decline in sponsorship support, it seemed like a great blow not just to jazz in the Pacific Northwest but to jazz in general. Alaska Airlines’ rescue, followed closely by the announcement of next year’s strong lineup, is heartening evidence that, even in these tough times, jazz will survive — and that help may come from the unlikeliest places.
