The 27th Healdsburg Jazz Festival is well under way, and if several of the 10-day event’s first offerings with pianist Kenny Barron, ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro and harpist Destiny Muhammad are any indication, the whole shebang is bound to be a big hit.
Barron and his band kicked things off downtown inside the Raven theater. There was no bad luck on Friday the 13th as the piano great, joined by bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, drummer Savannah Harris (female drummers Terri Lyne Carrington and Allison Miller are playing on a separate bill Saturday!) and young vocalist Tyreek McDole, sailed through a set that ranged from sweet and sublime to bluesy to barn-raising, referencing folks from Catherine Russell, Caetano Veloso, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk to New Orleans voodoo queen Marie Laveau. “Rain” and “For Heaven’s Sake” were particularly beautiful. It’s clear why the keyboardist has been named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.
On Sunday evening, over at the outdoor mainstage at Bacchus Landing, a complex housing several boutique wineries, Shimabukuro charmed the crowd with the greeting: “Audiences have such low expectations” when they see a ukulele. But he promptly blew everyone away with his masterful finger work and percussion on the humble instrument. The lineup ranged from his uke treasures “Blue Roses Falling” and “Orange World” to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” the George Harrison tune that put him on the map after a video of him playing it went viral. Bassist Jackson Waldhoff, a fellow Hawaiian, joined him on a bunch of rockers inspired by the Grateful Dead and Jeff Beck (the uke truly sounded like an electric guitar!) and Queen’s boisterous “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the audience singalong could have been stronger!) and “We Will Rock You.” Festival executive director Gayle Okumura Sullivan informed festivalgoers that Shimabukuro signed a uke that’s being offered in a silent auction fundraiser for the fest.
On Tuesday afternoon, overlooking the vineyard at Overshine Wine Co., “Harpist from the Hood” Muhammad and her groovin’ band, accompanied by San Francisco Poet Laureate Genny Lim, played an alternately grounded and ethereal post-lunch set. (Delicious wood-fired pizza by chef Michael Degen and Overshine wine got the audience in just the right mood for the inspirational music.) For those who haven’t sampled it, jazz harp (Muhammad calls her influences “Celtic to Coltrane”) is worth checking out, especially when the band includes top local talent like saxophonist James Mahone, trumpeter Christopher Lowell Clarke, drummer Leon Joyce Jr. and bassist Chico Lopez. Upon introducing the band, festival artistic director Marcus Shelby called Muhammad “a force in the Bay Area and movement leader,” enthusiastically comparing her vibe to “Love Jones,” the great 1997 jazz-and-poetry rom-com. Indeed, at least for several minutes, all was well with the world as Muhammad’s quintet played awesomely and poet Lim intoned, “Open the door to love; love is the flame from which we were all brought.”
The Healdsburg Jazz Festival continues through June 22, 2025. For tickets ($28-$169), more information and the full schedule, visit healdsburgjazz.org
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