The group is usually an octet of changing members & repertoires, which each year undertakes a new project from its Headquarters at the SFJAZZ Center. On this occasion it is ‘SFJAZZ Collective: New Works Reflecting the Moment’, under the musical direction of Chris Potter.
‘SFJAZZ Collective’ was founded by artistic director Randall Kline & saxophonist Joshua Redman, and each year it is made up of a selection of musicians chosen among the best performers and composers of contemporary jazz. In order to obtain its own personality and a distinctive sound, each season SFJAZZ convenes a meeting of several weeks at its headquarters and during this period the group works on a new repertoire and interacts with the Bay Area community through educational programmes aimed at adults and the elderly, to later undertake staging a series of concerts on a national & international tour. This approach has turned SFJAZZ Collective into one of the most dynamic and renowned groups of current jazz. Not only this, but since its creation twelve years ago, its mission is to perform fresh arrangements of works by a determined modern master and newly commissioned pieces by each new member of the octet. In this time SFJAZZ Collective has rescued the works of some great jazz, and not just jazz, artists, like Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Michael Jackson & Miles Davis.
This modern approach to classic repertoires through top-quality training and an excellent artistic proposal, has been unanimously praised and recognized by world critics, as well as being worthy recipients of multiple awards worldwide, as much for the innovative approach of their repertoire as for their excellent stage performance.
Line-Up:
Chris Potter: musical director, tenor & soprano sax, clarinet & flute*
David Sánchez: tenor sax
Etienne Charles: trumpet
Warren Wolf: vibraphone
Edward Simon: piano
Matt Brewer: bass
Kendrick Scott: drums
Gretchen Parlato: vocals
Martin Luther McCoy: vocals
*(only in the concert in Gran Canaria)
