Carved out of San Jose Jazz’s downtown workplace in the course of the top of the pandemic, the SJZ Break Room has turn into a proving floor for artists desperate to share new music.
With final month’s shuttering of neighboring venue Mama Kin, the intimate 100-seat area helps fill a gaping void within the South Bay jazz scene whereas increasing Sam Jose Jazz’s programming far past the nonprofit’s flagship summer season and winter festivals.
No program higher exemplifies the group’s impression than the New Works Fest, which kicks off this weekend with two premieres. On Friday, electrical bassist and composer Leela Paymai debuts her new challenge Zheniia, a physique of labor that mixes jazz with classical and common Persian tunes. And on Saturday bassist Ryan Trujillo presents his New Beginnings Quartet.
The collection grew out of SJZ’s Jazz Assist Fund commissioning challenge, a response to the decimation of labor for musicians that has funded 20 artists to put in writing new music yearly since 2021. The New Works Fest selects a number of of the grant recipients to current fee work within the Break Room.
“This is one of the most rewarding projects we do, allowing people to explore something new,” stated SJZ director of promoting Massimo Chisessi. “It’s been so great to see how artists have made use of the opportunity.”
Within the case of Paymai, it’s meant delving into her cultural roots in a completely new method. A graduate of San José State’s jazz program, Paymai is finest referred to as the chief of the R&B-steeped band Miss Hits (which simply launched its first EP). She’s by no means earlier than written music influenced by her Iranian heritage.
Her dad and mom left Tehran across the time of the Islamic revolution and he or she grew up close to San Diego earlier than her household relocated to Brussels when she was 12. Paymai took Farsi courses and heard classical Persian music round the home. She studied classical trombone earlier than shifting to the South Bay in 2018 to check music at San José State.
With the Jazz Assist Fund fee she set about researching the music she heard rising up and ended up writing for a quintet that includes rhythm part and violinist Allison Irvine and Chili Corder on guitar and oud. Earlier than she knew it Zheniia became one thing of a household challenge.
“My brother is a composer in London, and he sent me some resources,” she stated. “My mom did, too, and I realized a lot of the stuff I’m thinking about is very internalized already.”
The collection doesn’t solely characteristic rising artists. Pianist Jon Dryden, a longtime San José State school member who mentored Paymai, presents new music for his quartet on the Break Room March 7. And veteran bassist Kai Eckhardt, who’s toured and recorded with guitar legend John McLaughlin and drummer Billy Cobham, performs March 8.
However when it comes to impression, it’s exhausting to overstate how a lot SJZ’s help can imply to aspiring artists. Cupertino-raised keyboardist/vocalist Dana Salzman, who performs the Break Room March 1 for the New Works Fest, has actually paid her dues.
She moved east across the flip of the century to check jazz on the New College and spent a few decade on the New York scene. Primarily based in Oakland since shifting again to the Bay Space, Salzman is a hustling musician who not often will get the possibility to current a full band.
The quintet she brings to the Break Room options bassist Chico Lopez, her shut collaborator for twenty years, drummer Maurice Miles, saxophonist Ashley Jemison, and vocalist Rhonda Sauce. She’d been attempting to land a gig on the venue for a number of years and had virtually given up when she received the decision.
“I was so surprised, I thought it might be a mistake,” she stated. “The most important thing in my whole life, aside from my kids, is creating my original music and arrangements for bands to play. I felt so validated that they feel what I have to say is meaningful.”
Made potential with a grant from the Knight Basis, the Break Room was initially conceived within the early months of the pandemic as an area for recording and livestreaming with prime quality sound and video. It wasn’t till April 2021 that SJZ hosted an viewers there, and reside programming got here on faucet slowly.
SJZ’s Chisessi sees the Break Room as an ongoing experiment. “We tried assigned seating but it was hard to make that workable so we’ve gone with a GA concept and used different set ups for different kinds of artists,” he stated. However it’s been selecting up momentum since final fall, with high-profile artists like harpist Brandee Youthful and trumpeter Rachel Therien coming in March.
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
SAN JOSE JAZZ NEW WORKS FEST
When & the place: Feb. 21 by March at SJZ Break Room, 310 South First St., San Jose
Tickets: $15 per live performance; sanjosejazz.org
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