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IT’S ONLY FITTING that this year’s San Diego Jazz Party—a three-day music festival in Del Mar featuring classic jazz—honors the memory of Barney Kessel. Kessel, who lived in San Diego and died last May at 80, was one of the most revered and imitated guitarists in jazz history. He played with everyone from Art Tatum to Charlie Parker to Oscar Peterson. During his studio heyday, he recorded with music legends Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys.
“When they called me last summer, shortly after Barney’s death, and asked me if it would be okay if they dedicated the jazz party this year to Barney, I just said, ‘Yes, absolutely,’ ” says Kessel’s widow, Phyllis, a San Diego journalist who met her husband in Seattle in 1987 at a jazz festival she was covering. “Barney was the greatest jazz guitarist who ever lived. People aren’t even aware how broad his influence really was.”
For years, Barney Kessel was a significant presence with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and in 1973, Kessel, Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd formed the acclaimed group Great Guitars. To celebrate Kessel’s life and music, the San Diego Jazz Party this year includes a special set on the final day featuring the guitar trio of Mundell Lowe, Howard Alden and Bucky Pizzarelli—considered by many the three greatest jazz guitarists in the world. Lowe, also a San Diego resident, worked with Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Benny Goodman and many more.
Other renowned jazz artists performing in the party’s intimate ballroom setting include tenor sax great Harry Allen, who’s played with Rosemary Clooney and recorded with Tony Bennett; and drummer Jake Hanna, who played with Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Maynard Ferguson and was in Merv Griffin’s television band.
“This one’s for Barney, who was a great musician and an absolutely terrific person,” says San Diego Jazz Party organizer Dave Cooper, a former journalist and a lifelong jazz fan. “Jazz musicians and jazz lovers from all over the country are coming out for this. We get an older demographic, but we’re working to market this music to younger people, as well.”
With the saturation of so-called “smooth jazz” events in San Diego County these days, the San Diego Jazz Party is a rare and golden opportunity for everyone to hear some genuine jazz, played by some of the finest musicians in the world. (February 25-27 at the Del Mar Hilton; 858-453-0846; dcooper4@ hotmail.com.)
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