Edmonds jazzes it up

The Edmonds Jazz Connection kicks off its 10th year on Saturday, May 29, with an all-day musical buffet of more than two dozen student bands and choirs, capped by an evening performance by veteran songstress Jackie Ryan.

“It should be a good, full day of fine music for people to wander around town and take in,” says Mike Denton, chair of the jazz festival for the Edmonds Daybreakers Rotary Club, which produces the event.

As many as 15,000 people are expected to move through Edmonds over the course of the Connection.

All daytime performances are free. Tickets are still available for $35 to the evening gala, featuring all-star student groups as well as Ryan, and produced by the Edmonds Center for the Arts; call 425-329-7658.

Jazz critics often call Jackie Ryan “the real deal” – a vocalist who doesn’t just croon a pretty song, but brings the necessary emotional oomph to lyrics. The San Francisco Bay Area artist has a following in the jazz-loving Seattle area, and the Rotary counts her performance as “a real good booking for us,” Denton says.

Ryan’s most recent album, “Doozy,” was listed by Jazzweek as the No. 1 jazz CD nationwide for seven weeks and was rated four stars by industry bible Downbeat.

She has a three-and-a-half octave range. Her mother, who was Mexican, crooned Spanish folk songs to her as a child and her father, who is Irish, is a classically trained baritone who sang in several languages.

Off stage, Ryan is also known for working with young musicians, a main factor in her selection as this year’s headliner, says Jim Blossey, a Rotary member who handles the group’s promotions.

It’s the host of young musicians who draw the most followers during the Connection, with family and friends in tow.

For the second year, an all-star middle school band will play at the event.

The Edmonds-Woodway High School jazz ensemble, a regular Connection highlight, is fresh off its tour of the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival held earlier this month in New York City. The jazz ensemble was one of 15 finalists out of 96 entrants selected to compete.

“Just going back there puts you in the elite jazz students in the country,” Denton says. “We’re looking forward to hearing those kids.”

The Jazz Connection costs about $10,000 and countless volunteer hours and in-kind donations for the 50-member Daybreakers to put on. The event used to cost three times as much until the Edmonds Center for the Arts took on the evening gala event. Swedish Medical Center, which soon will manage Stevens Hospital in Edmonds, also stepped in this year as a major financial sponsor.

What money is made off the event, the Daybreakers put back into youth programs, including music scholarships and financial aid that, for example, often helps EWHS students go to Essentially Ellington.

“It’s a big, big community effort,” Denton says.

The Jazz Connection lives up to its name, Blossey says. “It connects the community, the kids and the professional music community.”

It’s not unusual for people to come to the event simply to support a family member, only to find they love jazz music. “They are just blown away because they didn’t expect to like the music, but they fall in love with it,” he says. “It’s just a lot of fun.”