Ode to Joy: St. Michael’s Jazz Fest Features a Variety of Bands

Now in its third year, St. Michael’s Jazz Fest promises to offer ear candy for just about every aural taste. This year’s event, scheduled from 10:30am to dusk on September 26, will feature 14 bands covering the gamut of jazz and related genres as well. The outdoor festival takes place on the campus of St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, 2775 Carlsbad Blvd. Carlsbad Boulevard is the name of the coastal highway as it passes through the city. And it’s free.

“It keeps getting better. We’re going in the right direction,” the festival’s artistic director, Ron Bocian, said of the celebration.

Bocian is leader of the Euphoria Brass Band, a seven-piece New Orleans-inspired ensemble. Euphoria is scheduled as the next to last band to appear on the festival lineup ahead of headliner, Monette Marino Keita. The Keita band is an explosive Afro-beat outfit specializing in fiery rhythms fueled by Marino’s expertise on congas and African hand drums.

“They’re just fantastic,” Bocian said. “They blow my mind every time. They play together so well.”

In organizing the extravaganza, Bocian collaborates with St. Michael’s rector, Father Doran Stambaugh.

The Jazz Fest, Stambaugh said, is the offshoot of the annual Carlsbad Music Festival, a community institution until it shut down during the Covid-19 era. That earlier festival was notable for featuring an eclectic palette of genres staged at numerous venues around town. St. Michael’s was a prominent participant, with many of the performances occurring on campus grounds.

Seeking to fill what he felt was a void, Stambaugh, with the support of St. Michael’s parishioners, launched Jazz Evensong in which a quintet of stellar musicians perform from 4-5:30pm. at the church on most Sundays throughout the year.

In keeping with the Evensong tradition, Father Doran follows a half-hour of music with prayers accompanied by the band and interspersed with instrumental selections. The Jazz Evensong Quintet, featuring saxophonist Keith Bishop, pianist Leonard Thompson, guitarist Joey Carano, bassist Gunnar Biggs, and drummer Bob Weller, is scheduled to be the sixth band to take the stage in the St. Michael’s Jazz Fest lineup Sept. 26.

Even after launching Evensong, Stambaugh felt compelled to pursue something along the lines of a weekend community-wide gathering in the aftermath of the defunct festival.

“The Carlsbad Music Festival was a really beloved event and left a little bit of a hole,” he said. “I thought, ‘What if we just created a little bit of a rebirth of the event, so to speak?’”

His reference to “rebirth” is apt because the internationally renowned Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans headlined the first two St. Michael’s festivals.

Having played in brass bands in New Orleans for many years, Bocian knows Rebirth and its members well. Yet, it was his own band, Euphoria, that kindled an affection in Stambaugh for the idiom.

“My introduction to brass band music was Euphoria Brass Band at that Carlsbad Music Festival,” he said. “I remember the first time I experienced it; it did something to me. I just describe it as catnip. It’s my catnip. I can’t get enough of it.”

Most poignant was what he felt during Euphoria’s gig in the last Carlsbad Music Festival when the band did its traditional street march. Stambaugh said it brought tears to his eyes.

“Something overcame me, but it was your brass band,” Stambaugh said to Bocian during a recent interview for the Troubadour. “I remember marching down the boulevard feeling like embarrassed because, ‘Why am I crying in the street?’ But it was joy. And your band lives up to your name in my opinion.”

“I know the feeling,” Bocian said. “I got weepy through the course of all that too. … The troubles of the world just get washed away with the music.”

That experience, more than anything, was the inspiration for Stambaugh and Bocian to get together and bring elation back to the community at least one day a year.

“We didn’t think too hard about: Let’s do this,” Stambaugh said. ”I place all my faith and trust in God and Ron. He programs beautifully. Each year, it’s been a little bit of an experiment and we’re sort of tweaking and dialing it in and refining. And it’s pure joy.”

As with Jazz Evensong, St. Michael’s Jazz Fest is entirely dependent upon contributions from individuals and businesses in the community.

“My charter with the church, and I’m grateful for them and our board, is if we can’t raise it, we can’t spend it,” Stambaugh said. “And also for me, it’s just really important that it’s free. … So we have to right-size what we can bring in against what we can spend.”

This year as a matter of budget and scheduling, the festival won’t feature a big-name worldwide headliner like Rebirth.

“It was absolutely, honestly a dream come true to have Rebirth Brass Band on the lawn at St. Michael’s two years in a row,” he said. “I pinch myself that that happened. But we’re going to pinch ourselves this year, too.”

The entire lineup consists of San Diego-area groups, many of whom are acclaimed regionally, nationally, and internationally.

“We’re drenched in talent in this town, no doubt about it,” Bocian said. “Having been part of the music scene for so long and seeing the musicians here over the course of 15 years—the development and just the great albums that have been recorded—there’s no deficit.”

Bocian’s goal is to offer a swath of musical styles.

“I’m trying to cover from country blues, right up the Mississippi, to the leading edge of fusion jazz and contemporary jazz,” he said. “And then, we have to include the local Latin influences around here, early jazz, swing, brass band of course, and straight ahead.”

Though the focus is on jazz, the roster includes some alternative sounds such as Mariachi Victoria de San Diego. The Atkinson Warrior Band features student musicians from the Army and Navy Academy, a seventh through 12th grade private school that is a block away from St. Michael’s.

The New Orleans theme will be reinforced with the ward-winning Mission Bay Preservationists of Mission Bay High School, whose leader, Jean-Paul Balmat also is a member of Euphoria. Women musicians will be prominent in this year’s potpourri of acts, starting with aforementioned Monette Marino Keita.

“It just happened that way, but not intentially for social points, but just because they’re excellent,” Stambaugh said. “

Euphoria features trombonist April West, who wowed the audience last year played a funky blues solo while lying on her back and manipulating her instrument’s slide with her toes. The Matt Smith Neu Jazz Trio will showcase outstanding Orange County vocalist Teryn Re. Mercedes Moore will bring swing vocals and dancing to the forefront.

Tap dancer and percussionist Claudia Gomez leads the Hot Club of Bird Park, a high-energy act that accentuates Django Reinhardt-style acoustic swing. The Soto Six led by Oceanside saxophonist and keyboardist Dylan Soto features dynamic drummer Joannah Sy, a crowd pleaser at every show.

Dina Maeva Madagascar is commanded by vocalist and instrumentalist Dina Maeva, who incorporates her roots from Madagascar into a unique musical conception.

While situated on the grassy grounds of St. Michael’s by-the-Sea a couple of blocks from Carlsbad coastal bluffs, the festival is not religious in orientation. Stambaugh observed, “It’s not a church event as such. It’s at a church, it’s hosted by a church, but it’s not a religious event.”

Said Bocian: “We’re trying to make this an annual nugget for everyone. We’re not giving up on joy.”

Festival lineup from 10:30am to dusk.
Atkinson Warrior Band (from the Army and Navy Academy)
Robin Henkel Band (blues and jazz)
Dina Maeva Madagascar (Madagascar-tinged songs)
The Mission Bay Preservationists (Mission Bay High School students playing New Orleans-style)
Ben Powell (deep blues)
Jazz Evensong Quintet (progressive jazz)
The Soto Six (progressive jazz)
First Marine Division Band
The Hot Club of Bird Park (Django Rhinehart-inspired swing)
Mercedes Moore Swing (swing vocals and dancing)
Mariachi Victoria de San Diego (Music from Mexico’s mariachi tradition)
Matt Smith New Jazz Trio featuring Teryn Re (progressive jazz)
Euphoria Brass Band (New Orleans-inspired brass band music)
Monette Marino Keita (Afro-beat and Afro-Latino jazz)