About this Artist
An all-star ensemble comprising eight of the finest performer/composers at work in jazz today, the SFJAZZ Collective’s mission is to perform fresh arrangements of works by a modern master and newly commissioned pieces by each SFJAZZ Collective member. Through this pioneering approach, simultaneously honoring music’s greatest figures while championing jazz’s up-to-the-minute directions, the SFJAZZ Collective embodies SFJAZZ’s commitment to jazz as a living, ever-relevant art form. Over their fourteen-year existence, the SFJAZZ Collective has honored the music of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, Stevie Wonder, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, and has created over 100 new arrangements and original compositions.
For the Spring 2019 tour, the SFJAZZ Collective presents innovative new arrangements of the work of pioneering Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim and freshly minted compositions by Collective members. A pioneering figure and primary creator of the bossa nova style, Jobim merged Brazilian popular song with jazz to form a new and wildly popular hybrid that captivated listeners from its inception in the 1960s to today. Starting with the genre-defining 1963 Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto collaboration Getz/Gilberto, Jobim contributed a vast number of compositions now considered jazz and pop standards. The Collective highlights the pianist and composer’s immense diversity of expression, interpreting epochal work from Jobim’s timeless songbook.
Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ in San Francisco, SFJAZZ Collective has become one of the most exciting and acclaimed groups on the jazz scene. The award-winning SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco is the Collective’s home base.
The current octet is an international ensemble comprising alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, tenor saxophonist David Sánchez, trumpeter Etienne Charles, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, trombonist Marshall Gilkes, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Brewer, and drummer Obed Calvaire.
As soloists, composers, educators, and bandleaders, the SFJAZZ Collective is a leaderless group representing what’s happening now in jazz and mirrors the explosion of jazz talent around the globe. The Collective has gone though numerous lineup changes over the years and has featured members Bobby Hutcherson, Eric Harland, Mark Turner, Matt Penman, Avishai Cohen, Sean Jones, Andre Hayward, Stefon Harris, Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Josh Roseman, Renee Rosnes, Robin Eubanks, Robert Hurst, Brian Blade and others.
The current eight members embody jazz traditions while simultaneously embracing musical innovations. This is the essence of the SFJAZZ Collective. These exceptional artists come together in the name of jazz as a constantly evolving, quintessentially modern music.
The idea for the Collective arose from discussions between SFJAZZ’s founder and executive artistic director Randall Kline and saxophonist and founding Collective member Joshua Redman. While deeply respectful of jazz’s origins and early traditions, SFJAZZ was concerned that the modern side of jazz, from roughly the mid-20th-century to the present day, was often overlooked in the public eye in comparison with the music of jazz’s so-called “Golden Age.” Both Kline and Redman were eager to showcase, in a manner that would resonate with jazz aficionados and newcomers alike, the artistic continuum from modern masters to today’s new generation of players. Much like chamber music, the music is designed for a small group of instruments to be performed in intimate settings and atmospheres including performing arts centers, concert halls and salons.
SFJAZZ Collective members are also foundation faculty and resident artists at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Roots, Jazz, and American Music Program where they mentor young artists through a unique curriculum towards a pre-professional college degree.