All-star tribute to the late saxophonist James Moody highlights SDTJ Jazz fest

When the life and music of legendary saxophonist James Moody were celebrated with a concert in New York City earlier this year, Moody’s widow Linda felt that a similar tribute needed to take place in San Diego.

After all, it’s the city where the late jazz legend – he died in 2010 at 85 – lived the last 20 years of his life.

So Linda Moody reached out to Daniel Atkinson, the executive director of the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival (SDTJ Jazz) to let him know that she felt a celebration of Moody, who would have been 100 years old this year, was in order.

“I absolutely, 100% agreed with her,” Atkinson told Times of San Diego.

So this weekend’s annual SDTJ Jazz event features a Moody tribute band called Moody @ 100, featuring the musicians David Sánchez, John Clayton, Gerald Clayton, Lewis Nash, Holly Hofmann and Gilbert Castellanos.

“This band is truly an all-star, one-time-only ever experience, to see these six musicians together on stage, devoted to honoring a legacy of this wonderful San Diego musician,” Atkinson said. “That is a must-see, without question.”

The performance is set for Saturday during the middle day of the second annual International Jazz Festival, which opens Thursday in San Diego’s East Village, then continues Saturday in Escondido and Sunday in Tijuana.

The cross-border aspect makes it a one-of-a-kind event among the region’s concerts and music events.

“I don’t know of other jazz festivals anywhere that are actually doing this. To actually be in two major cities sitting next to one another across a border like this and communicating and cooperating on a cultural event in jazz, this is pretty unique,” Atkinson said.

In addition to Moody @ 100, other artists scheduled to perform across the three days include Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Ensemble, Latin-American jazz singer Lucia, the Ivan Trujillo Ensemble, the Irving Flores Afro-Cuban Jazz Sextet and vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, an Escondido native.

O’Farrill and his ensemble are coming in from New York City to perform in conjunction with the Tijuana-based group Fandango Fronterizo Colectivo on Saturday at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido and Sunday in downtown Tijuana.

According to Atkinson, the festival’s mix of local, regional and international talent is by design.

“While we’re bringing artists in to our region from outside (San Diego and Baja California), we’re also featuring some special projects by people who are what I think of as an essential personality in the (regional) music community,” Atkinson said.

He specifically mentioned the pianist Irving Flores, who’s originally from Mexico, but now resides north of the U.S./Mexico border. Flores, who just released a new album of Afro-Cuban jazz called Armando Mi Conga in late August, will celebrate the album’s release with performances in San Diego on Thursday and Tijuana on Sunday.

Other regional acts slated to perform during the festival are a band from Tijuana called The Less Likely. In addition, the Ivan Trujillo Ensemble is from Ensenada.

“Ivan has been a key musician and a key adviser to the festival. He’ll be leading us off on Saturday,” Atkinson said.

Something that’s been a key piece for the SDTJ Jazz program both last year and this year is the Binational Youth Ensemble, a unique band made up of high school-level music students from afterschool jazz programs in both San Diego and Ensenada.

“They’re playing together,” Atkinson explained. “It’s an eight-piece band with four (members) from one side (of the border) and four from the other.”

As for why this year’s festival takes place on Thursday, then skips a day before resuming Saturday and Sunday, Atkinson said it wasn’t a purposeful decision.

“It was a snafu with scheduling in relation to the venue (the Quartyard on Market Street). We ended up getting Thursday rather than Friday because of that,” he explained. “In a way – at least from the organizers’ standpoint – this is working out nicely, because we have Friday to take a deep breath and then launch into the longer programs on both Saturday and Sunday.”

For tickets to Saturday’s show and additional information, visit SDTJ Jazz.