Jazz Monthly.com Interview with john ernesto

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” John Ernesto

Smitty: Each year in March for the last 16 years, coming up on 17, Reading, Pennsylvania is transformed into a Mecca of great jazz music and tradition. It has featured the music of current as well as legendary jazz musicians in the most gorgeous settings throughout the beautiful city of Reading. Joining me to talk about this great festival is the spearhead and general manager and organizer of the Berks Jazz Festival, a great guy, one of the beloved of the jazz community; please welcome the incredible Mr. John Ernesto. John, how are you?

John Ernesto (JE): I’m doing great, Smitty. How are you?

Smitty: I’m wonderful, thank you. Wow, John, this is the 17th year and you have the privilege of being the kickoff each year as far as major festivals go, so you really set the tone for the rest of the year, and that’s really a great position to be in. How did this great stuff get started?

JE: Well, 17 years ago, the Berks Arts Council, which presents the festival, teamed up with our Visitors Center and Chamber of Commerce and a few other people and a group of hotel owners to try to create a cultural tourism event in a traditionally slow time of the year for tourism, which obviously was March. It looked like nothing was going on, so the hotels and everybody were trying to find something that would attract some new visitors to town, and it started out as a three-day event and the first artist we ever had was Wynton Marsalis, and from there we’ve had this great journey of 17 years to where we’re at today. But it started out as a very small event, trying to create tourism in an off-time here, which is why it ended up in March. Many people always ask us “Why don’t you do this in the summertime?” Well, that’s how it all started. We were trying to find something to energize our tourism business in an off period.

Smitty: Well, let me tell you, you have really energized the off period because a lot of people take note of the Berks Jazz Festival, so the Berks Arts Council there has done a magnificent job throughout the years because we all look to that festival to see who’s coming out with what, who has the great shows for the year. There’s a lot of buzz around what happens in March, so being the kickoff like that has really set a great tone for music throughout the rest of the year, so you’re in a very good position and people truly enjoy this great festival.

JE: Yes, it’s great and our goal when it started was to try to develop a positive event and we have a very simple philosophy that we maintain every year: take care of the artists, take care of the fans, and everything else will take care of itself. We have a great team of people from the Berks Arts Council. We have almost, oh gosh, close to 400 volunteers who give up their time and energy to the event each year to make it happen, so one of the things that makes us the proudest is that we get great feedback from the fans and the artists, who say it’s like an old hometown week. Everybody comes home and they feel very welcome there and very comfortable, so that’s what we like.

Smitty: Yes, and it’s a great little town. I love it. I love coming in there and you can just feel the warmth, you can feel the atmosphere of great music and the arts, and just a great community of people that come out and support it, and it’s amazing that this is not just a weekend concert. I mean, this runs, what, a couple of weeks and there is music throughout that whole period. There’s just something for everyone.

JE: It started out as three days and we slowly grew to a fourth day, then on our 10th anniversary we said “Let’s try to do something unique and different,” so we decided to try a 10-day festival to attach another whole weekend, so we did that, it was well received by everyone involved, and we have never turned back from that, so we’ve been 10 days since our 10th anniversary.

Smitty: Yeah, and you mentioned the word “unique.” One of the things that’s truly unique about this is that the festival, the music, is throughout the town. You have venues that are spread out throughout the city where everyone can really get a great mix of music everywhere and enjoy the city; I think that’s a beautiful thing. It doesn’t happen everywhere. It’s just like a community jazz festival.

JE: Yeah, we have I guess it’s close to 35 what we consider major ticketed events at different venues and then we have another around 100 plus events at clubs, restaurants, churches, community centers, so there’s music going on all the time. If someone wants to just go to a club or a restaurant and hear jazz without going to a ticketed event, they can do that as well.

Smitty: Yeah, and great music too!

JE: Well, it makes us really unique in that many festivals are a central area with one or two stages. Our event is every show’s a show unto itself where it’s the artist’s show. They’re not limited to time, they’re not limited to a hard schedule where they’re following four or five acts. Every show’s a show unto itself in a different performing art space.

Smitty: Yes, and there’s something for everyone. Even the kids get involved. There’s some educational programs for the kids.

JE: Yes, there is

Smitty: Talk a little bit about that.

JE: Well, we’re very proud of that. We have a great education committee. We work hand in hand with the Reading Musical Foundation in town, with the Arts Council, and the artists. We reach out to schools, we have artists go into the classrooms and do master classes. We’re always trying to have some kind of interaction between the festival and education, and every year we pick a Berks High School All-Star Jazz Band that performs twice during the festival. It’s a big band and we bring in a guest conductor. This year Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band from L.A. is coming in and Gordon’s gonna actually be the guest conductor of our High School All-Star Band. And so we’re always trying to do educational stuff. We think it’s important. We’re blessed in our community. We have 19 school districts and every one of them have music programs and many of them have jazz programs. In fact, Reading High School, or the big school district in town, they have three jazz bands at different levels.

Smitty: Wow! That’s outstanding!

JE: So it’s pretty amazing and we have a great educational community for music and we really try to enhance it during the festival.

Smitty: What a beautiful thing. The Berks Jazz Festival set the tone in so many ways throughout the country for so many because of what you do and the unique style that you do it. Before I go any further, I just want to extend our thanks to the entire Berks Arts Council, all the volunteers, the Visitors Center, the Chamber of Commerce, the Hotel owners, the entire city of Reading, for doing such a magnificent job and for allowing us to come in every year and just have such a great time with you great people out there.

JE: Oh, that’s good. That’s good to hear and that’s what we want. We want people to feel comfortable to want to come back and enjoy themselves. We want everyone to have a good time.

Smitty: Yes. Success is on your side, my friend.

JE: It’s a fun event.

Smitty: It really is and I enjoy the great food out there too. (Both laugh.) Oh yeah. One of the great classes or involvement of the young musicians that I really enjoy is Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp. I think that’s a highlight and I think people really look forward to that every year. I know the kids do. And it’s a great program, it’s a great fun camp for not just kids, but there are some adults in there as well.

JE: Oh, absolutely, yeah.

Smitty: (Laughs.)

JE: We started that relationship with Gerald several years ago. He started his Bass Boot Camp and he was looking for a venue to hold it and Gerald and I were talking and I said “Why don’t you hold it during the first week of the festival?” And he started that and it’s worked out and it’s become an event within the event, and Gerald does a three-day camp for bass players that come from all over the country, of all ages, from teenagers to people in their sixties and seventies come to take part in this incredible three-day camp for bass players.

Smitty: Very cool.

JE: And, in fact, this year we’re working with Chuck Loeb. We’re gonna do a one-day guitar camp the second weekend.

Smitty: Oh wow.

JE: With Chuck and Pat Martino and some other guitar players we’re working on. Details on that are just being finalized, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself here, but it’s coming together. It’s gonna be called Chuck Loeb’s String Training.

Smitty: String Training. I love it! (Laughs.)

JE: Yeah.

Smitty: That’s a great name.

JE: Yeah.

Smitty: And, now, you couldn’t have picked a better guitarist for that. I mean, he’s a great guy and a great teacher.

JE: Yeah, he’s just a great person. I love working with Chuck.

Smitty: Yeah, well, that’s wonderful, just so many great things coming out of there. Now let’s talk about this year events because every year you feature some of the primo, the best artists in the business, from straight-ahead jazz to smooth jazz, contemporary jazz…always a magnificent lineup. Talk about some of the highlights of this coming year.

JE: Wow, yeah, we are excited about the lineup this year. We’ve spent a lot of time on it. We try every year to present something that’s fresh, hopefully something that has some new elements to it, and I think we’ve accomplished that this year. The test is if people come and enjoy themselves, but we feel pretty confident we have a very strong lineup this year and we’re really honored to have the kickoff concert with Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Smitty: Whew! That’s kickin’ it off right.

JE: I mean, that to me is something I’ve been wanting to do and we’re fortunate to work it out with his schedule and he’s gonna be the opening act for the festival. And then from there we go to events like the program called Downright Upright All-Stars featuring Randy Brecker, Jeff Lorber, Gary Meek, and Dave Weckl. They did this show in Japan and they have never really done it in this country, so we got it to come to the festival and we’re doing a lot of stuff throughout the week. There are two special programs we’re working on celebrating the life and music of Luther Vandross. Jason Miles is coordinating that along with Nat Adderley Jr. The show is gonna feature Luther’s original band, all his band members, back-up singers, and we have Dionne Warwick coming in to sing, we have Kirk Whalum on the bill, Walter Beasley, Cissy Houston, Doc Powell…I mean, it’s gonna be an amazing show, and there’s a few other things we’re working on that may be announced later for that show too. And Rick Braun’s doing a special show this year. Its called Rick Braun & Friends and he’s bringing in Jonathan Butler, Richard Elliot, Jackiem Joyner, and Rayford Griffin with him.

Smitty: You’re getting me excited, John.

JE: So we’re always trying to do some things different and try to present something that maybe you can’t see every place else.

Smitty: Yes, and I especially like the Berks All-Star Jazz Jam too. There’s some great cats in there with that group.

JE: Yeah, that’s Thursday night at ten o’clock at the Sheraton, and this year Rick’s gonna be on it, Chuck Loeb, Gerald Veasley, Richard Elliot, Nick Colionne, Warren Hill, Joe McBride, and a few other people yet to be announced, but we always have a full stage of characters for that show.

Smitty: Yes you do, that a true jam.

JE: What makes it really nice is it’s a jam session but yet it’s an organized jam where it’s just not the same player just playing every tune. Some people leave the stage and we do different things. I mean, last year Chuck Loeb and Kurt Elling did this incredible thing on “Bye Bye Blackbird,” just vocal and guitar, and just brought the house down.

Smitty: (Laughs.) Yes, they did! And you know it’s always fun when Nick Colionne is in the house.

JE: Yeah, and Nick’s gonna be here a bunch this year. He’s coming in on Thursday, he’s also doing a show Saturday afternoon with Warren Hill, so he’s gonna be around, so he may end up being involved in that guitar thing too, so we’re not sure yet.

Smitty: Yeah, and then you’ve got the Trumpet Summit. Wow.

JE: Yeah, that fellow Dave Stahl is a guy from our area, great musician, bandleader, composer, and he does a lot of stuff and he has a great big band, and we’ve done some of these shows before where he brings in outstanding trumpet players from New York in the area and he does this show with these guest trumpeters and his big band, and we’re looking forward to that. That’s gonna be a hot show.

Smitty: Yes.

JE: And he has Brian Lynch coming in with that.

Smitty: Yeah, man, that’s gonna be some serious sounds there.

JE: Yeah, yeah. We did it one time before and actually Wynton Marsalis was in town and ended up sitting in on the deal.

Smitty: Oh wow.

JE: Yeah, it was amazing.

Smitty: You’ve got so many fond memories of this great festival because you’ve had the best of the best there so many years in a row and that speaks volumes for the commitment that you and everyone there at the Berks Arts Council have. Everyone’s commitment to this is just a great tradition that you’ve created.

JE: Well, we work hard at it. We try to make sure that we present something for everyone. We make sure the lineup’s diverse and we also try to keep it fresh so that the fans see something unique that there maybe in some cases this is the only place you’ll ever see it.

Smitty: Yes, and your fans love it.

JE: And like the show for Luther Vandross, that’s gonna be a one-time deal. They’re gonna do this show and that’s it.

Smitty: That’s special.

JE: That makes it special, so if you want to see that, you gotta come to the Berks Jazz Festival.

Smitty: Yes, great incentive to be there, and you’ve got one of my great friends in this business, Ms. Joyce Cooling coming in, and I will tell you, I just recently saw her live performance and you’re in for a treat if you can make that show. She’s just an incredible musician and a great person too.

JE: Good. Yeah, I like working with Joyce. She’s played the festival several times and every time she gives a great performance. She’s playing Sunday, March 18th. We’re doing something unique this year again. We’re teaming up with two smooth jazz stations in our market, one from the Harrisburg area, in Pennsylvania, and we’re creating Fan Appreciation Day Concerts on Sunday afternoon, March 18th, and that show is for Smooth Jazz 92.7 out of Harrisburg, Lancaster and York area. It’s gonna feature Nelson Rangell and Philippe Saisse and Joyce Cooling.

Smitty: Yes, great selections.

JE: We put a low ticket price, like 25 bucks, on it.

Smitty: Oh wow, very nice.

JE: We want to say thanks to the fans for supporting the festival and having a great afternoon of music. And the following Sunday we’re doing the WJJZ 97.5 Fan Appreciation Concert and that’s gonna feature Chuck Loeb with the Berks Jazz Fest Horns plus the WJJZ All-Stars, which are gonna be Jeff Kashiwa, Kim Waters and Steve Cole, and Gerald Veasley, so again it’s gonna be a party in the afternoon just to say thanks to the fans with a real affordable ticket price of 25 bucks. Can’t beat that.

Smitty: No, you can’t, that’s very cool. Well, that’s a nice gesture and a nice way to show some appreciation for what the fans have done over the years supporting the great music there. What better way to do that than with a great ticket price and some great music.

JE: Yeah, well, you gotta say thanks to the fans because every year they come out and support us and our goal always is to keep our ticket prices affordable so that the fans can come to town and buy multiple tickets and stay for a few days. Our highest ticket price for this event is $46.

Smitty: Oh man, that’s wonderful.

JE: In today’s marketplace that’s a pretty fair price.

Smitty: Yes it is. I’m really excited about the Pre-Jam Concert with Mindi Abair. She’s very special and she can rock! That will be a great show.

JE: Yes, Mindi Abair is a great performer and we are so happy to have her for the Pre-Jam Concert at The Abraham Lincoln Ballroom on Thursday March 22nd at 7:30pm.

Smitty: We can’t leave out one of my favorites all-time who will be there on March 23rd, the close-out Friday night, the man himself, Mr. David Sanborn.

JE: Yep, and David’s gonna be here Friday night at 10:30 at the Sheraton Reading Hotel Ballroom and we always like working with David. I mean, he’s the best. He always puts on a great show. And that’s a big night because we start that night with Pat Martino Quartet in Gerald Veasley’s Jazz Base, then we have at the Abraham Lincoln downtown we have Ann Hampton Callaway, and at the Scottish Rite Cathedral performance space we have the Keb’ Mo’ band, we have Rick Braun & Friends at the Sovereign Center, then we have David Sanborn at 10:30, so there’s a lot going on that night.

Smitty: Yes indeed. That’s a jam packed night there.

JE: Yeah.

Smitty: Wow. And then you close out the show with, oh my goodness, Gerald Albright, Tim Bowman, Jeff Golub, Kirk Whalum.

JE: Yep, Guitars & Saxes. We close the festival on the 25th with Guitars & Saxes at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, so by that time we’re all good and tired, but that’s a great way to end it, on a great high energy, upbeat, positive show, great guys to work with, so I think it’s gonna be a fitting finale to our 10 days of music.

Smitty: Yes indeed. That’s a lot of great music, wonderful artists, and what better place to have that than Reading, Pennsylvania? You’ve got so much to offer there and there’s great hotel accommodations throughout the community, there’s great food as I mentioned before, and all this great music. It’s a beautiful time to have this festival and it’s just a great time to just celebrate the music and have a great time.

JE: Well, we appreciate that, Smitty. We appreciate everything. It’s nice when everyone involved with the genre of music pulls together to make things happen because that’s what it takes.

Smitty: Oh yes.

JE: It’s a lot of people working together to keep the music going. It’s not easy in today’s music marketplace, but if you stay committed to it, you can be successful.

Smitty: Yes, and everyone in Reading are great examples of that and I just want to congratulate all of you once again on your 17th year and we look forward to another 17. (Laughs.)

JE: Well, we take it one year at a time, but we’re hoping to be around a long time.

Smitty: Yes indeed. John, it’s been great talking with you about this great festival, the wonderful tradition that you’ve created, and for another great year of beautiful music, and I will certainly be there, my friend.

JE: Well, we look forward to seeing you in March and hopefully will have another successful event where everyone goes home with a smile on their face.

Smitty: Yes, and all of this information can be found on your Web site, right?

JE: Yep. www.berksjazzfest.com. Everything’s on there: the schedules, the artist bios, ticket information, you can print out a pdf of the current brochure, so anything you would need is on there and it’s all updated and ready to go. We officially announce the lineup this weekend and tickets go on sale Saturday, December 2, at 10:00 a.m.

Smitty: Absolutely, man, great. Well, I’m certainly looking forward to it and I know the fans are, and let’s have another great year of wonderful jazz, my friend.

JE: Well, we’re gonna try our best.

Smitty: All right. We’ve been talking with the great general manager and spearhead of this wonderful jazz festival in Reading, Pennsylvania, the Berks Jazz Festival, Mr. John Ernesto. John, thanks again, congratulations to all of you there in Reading, and we look forward to seeing you in March, my friend.

JE: Well, we look forward to seeing you and thanks for the support and look forward to March.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.berksjazzfest.com