The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the University of Pittsburgh are doing their best to keep jazz at a top level in the area.
With barely a pause, the guild, at its North Side site, will be the home for concerts ranging from a big band examining rhythm and blues to a vocal group looking at Christmas music.
In the meantime, Pitt will have its annual Jazz Seminar and Concert, culminating with a show Nov. 1 at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland. It will feature stars such as saxophonists Joe Lovano and Tia Fuller, bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding and trombonist Clifton Anderson.
The guild will bring in its collection of stars. Between opening the season with Patti Austin (Sept. 27) and closing the year with the New York Voices' Christmas show (Dec. 12), the guild will be the site of eight shows.
Those performers will include the Bob Mintzer Big Band (Oct. 10) and singer Jane Monheit (Nov. 22).
But the biggest show at the guild probably will be the opener of the spring series when saxophonist Branford Marsalis (Feb. 6) appears.
Meanwhile, Mike Tomaro, director of jazz studies at Duquesne University, will stay busy with school groups and the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, which he co-founded. The Duquesne Jazz Orchestra will do a “Tribute to Henry Mancini” (Oct. 29) and the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra will do a new look at its “Great American Songbook Revisited” (Nov. 10). Both will be at the Power Center Auditorium, Uptown.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust works hard at keeping the heart of jazz alive, too. Along with its Tuesday Happy Hour performances at the Backstage Bar, Downtown, it also will bring in stars such as Trombone Shorty (Nov. 6), who will play at the nearby Byham Theater.
Mensah Wali, founder and head of the Kente Arts Alliance, also pays attention to the variety in jazz. This year, he will top his two concerts with a visit by Kenny Garrett (Dec. 12) at the New Hazlett Theater on the North Side.
Bob Karlovits is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at bkarlovits@tribweb.com or 412-320-7852.
