Latin jazz legend Arturo Sandoval has performed in the South Bay just a handful of times, including a 2011 appearance on the San Jose Jazz Festival’s Main Stage. Now he’s returning for a very different affair, performing high atop the Santa Cruz Mountains with classical musicians.
The concert, held Sept. 14 at the Mountain Winery, is Symphony San Jose’s inaugural “Symphony Under the Stars” program.
Collaborations with symphony orchestras are not unusual for Sandoval, an exceptionally versatile performer who has won 10 Grammy Awards. His half-century career, which began in Cuba, has featured him playing trumpet and several other instruments, leading big bands, and composing.
“The best-sounding music is for orchestra,” Sandoval says, commenting on the upcoming show. “Nothing can beat all the colors you get with real instruments.”
Ventures outside of classical music aren’t unusual for symphony members, either. They’ve been known to freelance as backup musicians, even at local rock concerts. That’s common in the music business.
What’s different about this one is the way it came about. Symphony San Jose’s young general artistic director, Robert Massey, wanted his orchestra to play non-classical music at a venue such as the Mountain Winery, a jewel box in the hills above Saratoga.
“I wanted to create a new symphonic vehicle,” Massey explains, “a program that was more a ‘popular’ one that would include a ‘headliner’ and utilize our great weather by taking the Symphony outdoors.”
But where? Building a pop-up stage would have been unsuitable and too expensive, Massey found.
“So, I did a search of our local outdoor venues. I really liked Mountain Winery, and they were super friendly to work with. So I rented the venue.”
Sandoval had been high on his wish list, but Massey was surprised he was available. And that was before he realized Sandoval is among the honorees this fall for the 47th Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
Sandoval is big-time. He already has received a Presidential Medal of Freedom, not to mention the 10 Grammys and dozens of other honors.
What put Sandoval high on Massey’s list, though, were the “good symphonic charts” Massey had heard during Sandoval’s symphonic collaborations elsewhere. They’re “really complex and beautiful.”
The complexity matters, Massey says. Orchestra members crave challenges.
Sandoval’s career has been all about craving challenge. He became a star in his twenties in Cuba, where his mates in the legendary band Irakere included Paquito D’Rivera and Chucho Valdés. They strove to be jazz innovators with strong Cuban roots, but it was clear the Castro government was imposing something far tamer.
By the 1980s, Sandoval was an international figure championed by legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, whose influence led to Sandoval’s defection from Cuba in 1990. That process was detailed meticulously in the 2001 HBO film For Love or Country, starring Andy Garcia.
Thus unshackled, Sandoval has amassed an astonishing résumé. Trumpet is his specialty, but he plays other instruments, especially piano, and he has always done his share of the singing. His classical side includes his composition of a trumpet concerto.
Sandoval lights up in a discussion of classical music. “My favorite composer is Sergei Rachmaninoff, and I love all three piano concertos. I admire the No. 3, but I love the No. 2 more, because of the melodies.”
But the Mountain Winery event is a jazz concert that will include a separate set for Sandoval’s band, as well as seven numbers involving the Symphony.
Sandoval names all seven off the top of his head: “Someone to Watch over Me,” “Dear Diz, Every Day I think of You,” “Groovin’ High,” “A Mis Abuelos,” “A Night in Tunisia,” “Smile” and “Virgen de la Macarena.”
He’s a bandleader, too, but Bay Area conductor Brad Hogarth, who has experience with Sandoval’s charts, will be keeping everyone on Sandoval’s frequency.
The local orchestra, which became a part-time operation in 2003 after the demise of the San Jose Symphony, is three years past a two-year pandemic-induced hibernation. It seems to have lost many longtime supporters. Stodginess is to be avoided, so there’s a preponderance of pop in programming. “We’re building a completely new audience,” Massey says.
Thus, he hopes the Sandoval event won’t be a one-off. “If it’s successful,” Massey muses, “I’d love to see it become a two- or three-concert summer series.”
Arturo Sandoval performs with Symphony San Jose at 7:30pm on Sep 14 at the Mountain Winery, Saratoga. Tickets are $63.13–$151.39. mountainwinery.com
