Once upon a time, jazz and Pittsburgh were mentioned in the same breath. Between the Hill District and East Liberty, the city was responsible for a disproportionate share of jazz's top players and composers.
Pittsburgh wasn't Kansas City and has never had the impact on the music's development that New Orleans rightfully claims for itself. But historically, clubs along Wylie Avenue were an important proving ground on jazz's long and winding road. Sometimes, the road to New York's Blue Note ran directly through the Crawford Grill.
When the Kool Jazz Festival debuted in Pittsburgh in 1982 under the sponsorship of George Wein, this city was no longer an important incubator for jazz's mercurial talents. Still, there was plenty of enthusiasm for the music in Pittsburgh's vital network of clubs and performance spaces.
There had been local festivals prior to the Kool Jazz Festival rolling into town, but there had never been such a concerted effort to build an audience big enough to sustain one annually. The Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, founded in 1964, had been more modest in comparison.
When Ella Fitzgerald headlined the first Kool Jazz Festival in June 1982, an estimated 90,000 people crowded Point State Park to listen to the Queen of Jazz in amazement. Alas, things would go down from that point.
When Mellon Bank took over sponsorship of the event in 1986, there was a conscientious attempt to build on the success of previous festivals. There were many high points over the years. Giants like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, George Benson, Wynton Marsalis, Ahmad Jamal, Joe Lovano, Ray Brown, John Zorn and Stanley Turrentine graced Mellon Jazz Festival stages. But for every historic headliner, there were far more lackluster lineups. Consequently, the Mellon Jazz Festival never became the indispensable event it could have become. The deaths of so many great aging performers aggravated the problem.
After declining attendance and a festival that shrank from two weeks at its heyday to a handful of days last year, Mellon Financial Corp. decided to drop the festival entirely last week. Mellon says that it will invest in year-round jazz programs instead.
The smaller clubs and venues that profited most from the festival will be hurt by this decision, but in a sense it is a mercy killing. The Mellon Jazz Festival had become a shadow of itself in recent years and was short on inspiration and fresh ideas.
This might be a good time for other cultural or financial institutions to step up to the plate. WDUQ's Tony Mowod, who is also director of the Pittsburgh Jazz Society, and Marty Ashby of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild seem natural collaborators in any plan to reinvent the week-long festival. Last year, the Andy Warhol Museum sponsored a sold-out performance by the Sun Ra Arkestra at the Hazlett Theater. Pittsburgh's other new cultural mandarins, including the Cultural Trust, might also be able to resurrect this event, drawing on the smaller clubs where jazz began and continues to be played. If they cannot, last week's announcement will be a prolonged sour note for the city's cultural life.
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