The Jazz Society of Oregon's First Jazz 2000 is shaping up to rival last year's exciting card and clearly the lineup reflects the organization's desire to start the new century off right.

Schedule

Tickets

Tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, accompanied by guitarist Dan Faehnle, bassist Phil Baker and drummer Mel Brown is the curtain raiser Saturday evening, March 3, followed by flutist Holly Hofmann and pianist Bill Cunliffe. The Saturday closer is the Loston Harris trio. (See Kyle O'Brien's profile of Harris, below).

The traditional First Jazz finale Sunday afternoon and evening, March 5, features Grammy nominee, singer Kevin Mahogany. He and his quartet will perform two sets after the dinner break on at the Mayfair Room of the Benson Hotel.

Mahogany, a rising jazz star internationally, has been a favorite among Portland fans since his appearance at Mt. Hood Jazz Festival.The line-up on Sunday will begin with noted young pianist Jed Wilson, playing solo and with a high school jazz band, followed by drummer Donny Osborne, bassist John Leitham and singer/pinaist Robert Hicks .... in a set with memories of Mel Tormé. It is not billed as a tribute, but will certainly be enjoyed as one. Both Osborne and Leitham have been long time Tormé accompanists.

Nationally heralded pianist Lynne Arriale, another Portland favorite, will appear in a trio setting with drummer Steve Davis and bass player Mike Sharfe.

The incomparable pianist/composer Dave Frishberg, accompanied by vocalist Nancy King, sax player Warren Rand and drummer Jim Goodwin will precede the dinner break.

A prelude to First Jazz Weekend occurs on Thursday, March 2, from 6-8 pm at the Heathman Hotel. This event is intended as a fundraiser for jazz scholarships.

Music by pianist Darrell Grant will open the festivities, followed by the announcement of the JSO Hall of Fame recipient for 2000.

A jazz jam will follow the announcement and presentation. Refreshments and wine will be available, as well as an open bar.

An outstanding jazz workshop has been arranged for Saturday, March 4, in Lincoln Hall at PSU from 10am to 3:30 pm. There will be four one-hour sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. In the morning, the workshops will be conducted by Donny Osborne/ John Leitham and Holly Hofmann/Bill Cunliffe. In the afternoon, Lynne Arriale and her trio and Loston Harris will handle the assignment.

Loston Harris Profile -- by Kyle O'Brien

Listen to Loston Harris' piano playing and you'll instantly hear rhythm. Piano players as a rule are part of the rhythm section in any jazz ensemble, but Harris bleeds rhythm with every touch of the key.

While listening to his album, "Comes Love," one gets the feeling that the rhythm is always in the groove and won't falter.

Melding that pulse with an inherent melodicism and a breathy-smooth voice, the Virginia musician has made a quick name for himself, leading some to call him jazz's next big thing.

Combine that with his dapper looks and engaging showmanship, and Harris is certainly putting together the right package for a trip to jazz stardom.

Harris will be the closing act Saturday, March 4, at the Benson Hotel's Mayfair Room as part of the Jazz Society of Oregon's First Jazz 2000 weekend party.

Getting the beat right comes as second nature for Harris, who began his musical career as a drummer. While a percussion major at Virginia Commonwealth University, Harris was tinkering at a piano when visiting professor Ellis Marsalis heard him.

"Ellis told me, 'You need to be playing piano.'" recalled Harris in a telephone interview from his home in Reston, Virginia.

The elder Marsalis gave Harris, at age 21, a crash course in the art of jazz piano. "He showed me all the chord progressions, all the fundamentals." On his album, Loston pays tribute to Marsalis by including Ellis' composition, "Swinging at the Haven," slickly arranged by Harris in 5/4 time.

After Harris became a proficient pianist a mere four years later, Wynton Marsalis signed him up for his quintet. It was there that Harris learned the value of listening to jazz music of the past.

"After I'd done the tour with Wynton, I went back and studied Earl Hines, Jellyroll Morton." He schooled himself in the history of jazz piano.

But the legendary artist who spoke to Harris the most was Nat King Cole. "I was blown away by how good a player he was. He was able to blend (musicality) with the entertainment side."

Cole's music opened up another world for him, one in which he discovered he could sing. So for the last three years, Harris has been honing his vocal chops.

Now Harris has joined an elite group of pianist-singers that includes Diana Krall and Harry Connick Jr. "I wish there were more of us, frankly," he says. "It's almost a lost art."

Loston thinks Connick's success has again sparked an interest in melodic jazz standards, and with the concept of a singing piano bandleader.

While he has praise for the younger generation of jazz stars, he respects those who have come before him, incorporating their sounds into his own.

When one listens to "Comes Love," Cole is evident, but so is Bobby Short, Freddie Cole, Sinatra, Tony Bennett and countless others. He really respects Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner and other "masters of economy."

Harris' rhythmically fluid and tempered piano playing is tempered by a slightly smoky-but-smooth voice. At 28 years old, Harris has made such a quick transition from drummer to singing bandleader that the maturity with which he plays and sings is fairly remarkable.

Sticking to covers and standards on "Comes Love," Harris crosses the same lines as Connick, but those classic tunes are what people like to hear.

The melodies of jazz standards, like those of Cole Porter, are timeless, according to Harris, and he hopes that by playing and recording them, he can incorporate his own compositions into his sets and establish standards of his own. "It's a lost art form to write original standards. It's a big passion of mine to create new songs to reflect those older composers. I'd like to make a transition where I'm performing...based on original songs in the style of standards."

Melody is at the forefront of Harris' sound. "That's what people hear. Without melody, you don't have much of anything. (For me) it's not about obscurity, about complexity. I want to play music people can get into, that they can tap their feet to."

So what direction is Harris going with his music?

Apparently up. Audiences up and down the East Coast are steadily attending his performances, and the West Coast is hearing his name and music with more frequency. He continues to take voice lessons and is constantly learning.

Harris would like to get to a point where everybody knows his music. He wants to create new standards. He recently went to a Billy Joel concert and was amazed by the fact that everybody was singing along with every song. "I'd like to take that popularity and translate that into jazz."

Big ambitions for a jazz artist, but Harris thinks big, even in his own humble manner. He doesn't want to be compartmentalized as just a jazz artist. He wants to be a popular artist.

Accordingly, he recently was picked to sing "It Had to Be You" as part of an ad campaign for Hanes featuring Michael Jordan. "Sometimes I'll be sitting watching TV with my friends and it will come on, and I'll be like 'Whoa, that's me.'"

The fact that Harris was the only young artist to be part of that campaign ( the others are Perry Como, Ella Fitzgerald and Muddy Waters ) shows that he has staying power.

The last time Harris was through the Pacific Northwest, he was with Wynton's quintet in 1995. This will be his first trip to the area as a solo artist, so First Jazz attendees will get a treat hearing this up-and-coming former percussionist.