Jaz Sawyer's Mardi Gras Party

Mardi Gras Party Swings – A Dedication To The Funky New Orleans Music

By Dinah deSpenza, Staff Writer

Jaz Sawyer took the audience on a journey through the bayou, swamplands to Mardi Gras as jazz musicians paid tribute New Orleans at Yoshi’s San Francisco.

Sawyer started turning up the volume leading up to New Orleans’ Fat Tuesday, officially celebrated on February 21^st this year by hosting a three part Mardi Gras series of parties on, Feb. 18, Feb. 19 and Feb. 21^st. 

Although Louisiana is the only state where Mardi Gras is a legal holiday, elaborate carnival festivities draw crowds in other parts of the United States during the Mardi Gras season as well.

Dating back thousands of years, Mardi Gras, also known as Carnival, is celebrated in many countries around the world on the day before the religious season of Lent begins.

As New Orleans play host to some of the holiday’s most famous public festivities, drawing thousands of tourists and revelers every year, San Francisco joins in the festivities also.

It’s been seven years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast leaving residents to rebuild their homes. Many of those residents were musicians who had to rebuild their homes and find the creative spirit after the devastation.

Jaz Sawyer, Mike Olmos, Maya Kronfield, Eugene Warren, Danny Grewen

Sawyer creates a major link between the Bay Area and the traditional African rhythms of Congo Square in New Orleans, keeping those traditions alive. 

Sawyer has drummed for luminaries such as Abbey Lincoln, George Benson, Bobby Hutcherson, Mose Allison, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Dee Dee Bridgewater and M’lumbo.

He has also worked with New Orleans’ own, Wynton Marsalis.

Playing a mix of originals and standards, Sawyer and his gang of musicians known as “High Society,” took over the Yoshi’s restaurant for the event.

Mardi Gras would is not complete without the sound of horns, drums and jubilant voices.

            Bringing bright sunshine with them, trombonist Danny Grewen and trumpeter, Mike Olmos blew out the night with horns. 

Grewen was also the featured vocal soloist.

Olmos, is a CSU East Bay alumn graduated in 2001 with a degree in Jazz Studies under the direction of Dave Eshelman.

“I was very fortunate to be part of a great program at CSUEB,” said Olmos. 

Bassist Eugene Warren pumped out a spirited blend of the lush harmonies and boisterous blues sections interwoven with passages and sudden tempo shifts.

Maya Kronfield, pianist, poured her entire being into the keyboard bringing a wonderful depth of soulful sounds, making it impossible for the band to be the same without her.

“She completes us,” said Sawyer.

These consummate musicians are at home wherever they go.

With Sawyer, it’s always a party that includes all ages, especially his students from Oakland School for the Arts.

Fitzsimmons and Webb

Dizzy Gillespie’s “Night In Tunisia,” the one “Diz” standard got the sizzling treatment from Sawyer’s youth students who were invited onstage. 

Fitzsimmons and Olmos blow it out.

With Tracy Fitzsimmons 17, on trumpet, blowing it out in a duet with Olmos, the audience was left mesmerized at how the youth held his ground with a seasoned adult.

The cool, calm, collective, and confident 17-year-old Ayinde Webb, heated up the drums, taking the show to another level.


 





 While 14-year-old Jasim Peralas, trombonist, represented an even newer generation of young jazz musicians.

As different generations of artists create their own versions of this celebration, it chronicles of the development of music and the Mardi Gras Celebration itself.

Having that special link to the infamous jazz musicians of New Orleans, Sawyer will perform with the Crescent City All-Stars at the Playhouse in New Orleans March 24^th.