Billy Hart © Andrea Canter

Every June, the Healdsburg Jazz Festival combines the talents of the Bay Area with the finest of international touring artists to create two weeks of memorable music in the heart of California’s Sonoma wine country. For 2006, Artistic Director Jessica Felix pulled off perhaps her most ambitious program yet, bringing in Louie Bellson, the Heath Brothers, Mark Murphy, Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, the Billy Hart Trio, and the grand finale, the McCoy Tyner Trio. With the latter two ensembles performing before a near sell-out crowd on a breezy afternoon on the grounds of the Rodney Strong Winery, jazz fans from the Bay Area and beyond were treated to a doubleheader meshing distinguished veterans and young titans.

Julian Lage © Andrea Canter

Billy Hart Trio With Julian Lage and Santi Debriano.

Over the eight years of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Billy Hart has become the “house” percussion agent, filling timekeeper duties with many of the scheduled performers as well as providing at least one set under his own leadership. Hart may be an unsung hero in the larger world of jazz despite his appearance on over 600 recordings from Miles Davis to Stan Getz. Yet he is indeed the “Hart” of Healdsburg. This year, Hart sat in the drivers’ seat with two virtuosos of diverse backgrounds and generations, popular Bay Area guitar wunderkind Julian Lage and Panamanian bassist Santi Debriano. Lage has been a part of the festival since he was barely past puberty and enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and now at the ripe old age of 18 has been touring with Gary Burton’s New Generations band. Transplanted from Panama to New York with some time in Paris, 50-year-old Debriano’s world roots inform his music, as did his father, an Afro-Cuban pianist. He’s performed with Hank Jones, Larry Coryell, Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard, Sam Rivers, Chico Freeman, Kenny Werner and Cecil Taylor and has 8 recordings as leader.

Hart opened the early set at Rodney Strong by dedicating “I Hear a Rhapsody” to festival director Jessica Felix. An original work by Lage followed, with virtuoso soloing from Debriano, pizzicato and arco. Lage and Debriano joined compositional chops on another original featuring the duo in melodic solos and engaging harmonies, while Hart offered a master class in the judicious application of mallets and brushes. A delightful run through “How Deep is the Ocean?” found Lage carrying the melody while Debriano offered a counter melody, Hart again filling in with subtle support on cymbals and bass drum. The final two unannounced pieces further allowed Lage and Debriano to alternate in the spotlight, Lage demonstrating his ability to both fill and stretch space with his richly textured lines while Debriano was particularly effective in arco passages; Hart ripped several rattling solos himself while deftly playing off his talented cohorts.

McCoy Tyner With Charnett Moffett and Eric Kamau Gravatt

McCoy Tyner has been in the limelight for so long that it seems he should be much older than 68. The last surviving member of the original John Coltrane Quartet, his credentials are legion, his resume an uninterrupted list documenting nearly 50 years atop a mountain of exemplary jazz pianists and composers. The Bay Area holds a special charm for Tyner, who spends two weeks each January in residency at Yoshi’s in Oakland. To Healdsburg, Tyner brought regular members of his working trio, bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer and long-time associate Eric Kamau Gravatt.

Charnett Moffett

With white cap and a slight limp in his walk, Tyner quickly assured the audience that any suggestion that he was slowing down was mere superficial illusion. Halfway through the opening original, “Trane-Like,” my brother leaned over and whispered, “I know his secret—he really has three hands!” The sonic illusion of a mythical beast with three hands persisted throughout the hour-long set as Tyner generated his trademark symphonic metaphors, those powerful chord combinations that mesh with running arpeggios and ever-shifting dynamics. His partners this afternoon were equally adept at creating multiple voices, such that these three musicians channeled the sound and energy of a big band.

Moffett impressed me a year ago in a performance at the Dakota in Minneapolis that included an eight-minute solo, perhaps the only time I have witnessed such rapt attention to the bass. Again, he was riveting as he used every conceivable (and several inconceivable) means of coaxing sound from the big box, from fluttering right-handed figures to left-handed pizzicato, from a bouncing bow to back-handed slaps, all within single solos (e.g., “Angelina”). Gravatt similarly drew upon a wide palette of percussion ploys, his solo on “In a Mellow Tone” setting the tune on its galactic course while also engaging in a feverish conversation with Tyner.

Eric Kamau Gravatt &copy Andrea Canter

While the trio was volcanic throughout, Tyner was perhaps most enchanting with his solo turn on “I Should Care,” with his strong left-hand bass pulse, ferocious right-hand lines, skipping runs, and stride-like vamp; alternately he was balladic and orchestral, switching dominance from one hand to the other. If the trio is a symphony, Tyner alone is a at least a chamber ensemble.

An unannounced encore, with equal parts hymn, blues, and swing, brought the audience to its feet, and the 8^th Annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival to a magnificent close.