Local legend Dave Brubeck, stellar bassist-composer Charlie Haden, “free” jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor and award-winning songwriter Randy Newman are among the top acts set to perform at the 2008 San Francisco Jazz Festival.

Tickets for SFJAZZ’s 26th annual fall classic, which runs Oct. 3 through Nov. 9 at several venues in San Francisco, go on sale July 13 through 866-920-JAZZ and www.sfjazz.org.

This year’s lineup is impressively diverse. The cast includes young stars like Eldar and Sophie Milman; local players such as Dave Ellis and Mitch Marcus, and acclaimed vets like Archie Shepp and Jimmy Scott. Collectively, these performers will touch upon numerous jazz styles, spanning everything from straight-ahead to avant-garde and from New Orleans-bred boogie to Cuban dance music.
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New on sales from Ticketmaster:

Thursday June 19, 2008 10:00 AM

Yesterday - Beatles Tribute
Friday June 27, 2008 to Friday August 29, 2008
Horizon Casino Resort, Stateline
$29.65

Friday June 20, 2008 10:00 AM

The Magic of Motown
Sunday July 6, 2008 7:30 PM
Chukchansi Gold Resort And Casino, Coarsegold
$35.00-$25.00
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(Here are a some interesting new shows, courtesy of the friendly folks at Another Planet. For more information, visit www.apeconcerts.com.)

On-Sale This Sunday!
SIGUR ROS

*******
THE GREEK THEATRE
at UC Berkeley

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

*******
Tickets available at Ticketmaster and APEConcerts.com
Outlets: Ritmo Latino, and select FYE stores
Phone: 510.444.TIXS, 415.421.TIXS, 408.998.TIXS, 209.485.TIXS, and 707.528.TIXS

Tickets also available for purchase at The Independent [$1 service charge] ( 628 Divisadero Street , SF)

Tickets: General Admission
Prices: $42.50
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Just the other day, I told a friend that I was going to stop referring to R.E.M. as a Georgia band and start claiming the group as California property, since two of its three members (Mike Mills and Peter Buck) actually hail from the Golden State.

Likewise, I’m now calling the Brad Mehldau Trio a Bay Area band, given that bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard are from, respectively, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. So what if the band leader was born in Florida and was raised in Connecticut? Details, details.

Last week, I had the opportunity to catch Mehldau’s Bay Area band at the lovely Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. The concert, part of the tail end of yet another successful SFJAZZ spring season session, was quite enjoyable. Still, it left me with the feeling that I haven’t seen a truly great Brad Mehldau Trio performance since drummer Jorge Rossy left the band a few years back _ and, yes, I’ve attended quite a few BMT gigs in recent years.
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Kanye West, June 6.
Having rocked the house back in April, Kanye West finds his way once again to San Jose for a repeat performance. The rapper is promoting his latest Grammy-winning effort, “Graduation,” and he’s touring with a great cast of characters, including Rihanna and Lupe Fiasco. 7 p.m. HP Pavilion, 525 W. Santa Clara St., San Jose, $39.50-$75, 510-625-TIXS, 925-685-TIXS or 415-421-TIXS, www.ticketmaster.com.

Brad Mehldau, June 6.
Brad Mehldau will make you reconsider what you think you already know about jazz piano. As the leader of the acclaimed Brad Mehldau Trio, this immensely talented pianist moves from exploring jazz standards to reinventing contemporary pop pieces. As far as the latter goes, Mehldau’s version of Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a Film)” is particularly satisfying. 8 p.m., Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., $25-$58, 866-920-5299, www.sfjazz.org.
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Wayne Shorter’s show last month at the Nob Hill Masonic served as a wonderful reminder of the saxophonist/composer’s contribution to American music. I sometimes forget to include him when I talk about the greatest living jazz musicians (guys like Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins), but he certainly deserves to be in that discussion.

If you missed that Masonic show, or if you want another dose of the legend’s music, think about attending the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars concert on June 1 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. This “audition-only” ensemble, featuring some of the Bay Area’s brightest young talents, will be performing arrangements of Shorter compositions and will be joined by SFJAZZ Collective alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon.

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Call it the season of soundtracks by the Bay.

It kicked off earlier this month when Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder performed a trio of local shows, which drew heavily from his Golden Globe Award-winning score for the movie “Into the Wild.” Fans also got to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova _ the duo responsible for “Falling Slowly,” the track from the film “Once” that won the Oscar for Best Original Song _ on Saturday (April 26) at the Paramount in Oakland. And then there was Kimya Dawson, the main voice of the “Juno” soundtrack, who visited the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on Friday night (April 25).

Of those three acts, Dawson has definitely made the biggest splash with her cinematic offering. The “Juno” record, featuring eight Dawson performed/penned tracks, is one of the most successful soundtracks in years. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard album charts back in January, becoming the first soundtrack from an Academy Award best picture nominee to reach the peak since “Titanic” in 1998.

The overwhelming and immediate success of the “Juno” soundtrack has transformed Dawson, previously a little-known indie-folk cult figure, into a star. Her fan base has multiplied at least a hundredfold and she’s moved up from playing small clubs to filling major theaters.

This kind of overnight success, even when it happens to someone who, like Dawson, has been performing regularly since 2002, can be a little hard to handle. The 35-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist was still trying to get a grasp on her situation when she played for the packed house at the Herbst.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to the crowd, while trying to calm her nerves. “It’s just that I’ve never played a show in the Bay Area that cost more than $5. And this all feels like some type of twisted joke.”

The concert’s punch line, however, was that Dawson proved worthy of all this success. She came across as a strikingly original artist, blessed with a charmingly disarming voice, and displayed a songwriting approach that was deeply deceptive in its simplicity.

The latter is a direct result of two things _ her minimalist approach on guitar, which is most often little more than rhythmic strumming of a few chords, and a penchant for lyrics that seem to mimic nursery rhymes. That combo has led some listeners, who aren’t really listening, to believe they could write songs that are as good as Dawson’s.

Yet, very few songwriters have been able to mix curious, telling observations and heartfelt messages with tiny jokes and catchy choruses like Dawson has done during both her own solo career and, previously, as a member of the duo, the Moldy Peaches.

In San Francisco, she mined her back catalog for such diversely appealing winners as the politically conscious “12/26” and the sweet fairytale “I Like Giants,” although the crowd, as expected, reacted most strongly to the “Juno” material. She didn’t play all the songs from the soundtrack _ the most notable omission was the Moldy Peaches tune “Anyone Else But You,” which is the number that actors Ellen Page and Michael Cera sing in the film’s last scene. Still, what she did sing was enough to make us realize that Kimya Dawson will be around long after the “Juno” craze has past.

Believe it or not, jazz music and popular music were once the same thing. That must have been a great time to be alive. Of course, having to deal with all those dinosaurs roaming around the still-flat planet must have been a distinct drawback.

Those days are over, but jazz cats still draw from the pop music world for inspiration and, more specifically, melodies. The most famous example, perhaps, is John Coltrane taking the show tune “My Favorite Things” and turning it into a jazz standard.

These days, first-class jazzers such as Brad Mehldau and Dave Douglas are mining the songbooks of a whole new batch of pop musicians and coming up with gold. They’ve embraced the works of Rufus Wainwright, Radiohead, Roxy Music and, in particular, Bjork.
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Warm, fuzzy and literate modern rock _ call it “indie cute’’ _ is all the rage these days, thanks in large part to the unexpected success of the “Juno’’ soundtrack.

The Magnetic Fields are a strange fit for this current musical trend. The Boston band certainly has the literate part down _ ringleader Stephin Merritt has replaced Conor “Bright Eyes” Oberst and the Decemberists’ Colin Meloy as the poster boy for literary-minded lyricists in the indie world.

The band members also showed they can play the parts of pop darlings during the Magnetic Fields’ gig on Thursday night at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. The enjoyable concert _ the first half of two-night stand at the venue _ was filled with precocious, curious, random and endearing statements that could have served as the script for a new TV show titled, “Indie-Pop Stars Say the Darnedest Things.”

The thing is, however, Merritt isn’t all that cuddly. His extreme dislike of performing live, which stems partially from a condition in his left ear that makes some sounds _ especially applause _ quite painful, has been well documented. He also performs songs about necrophilia and other decidedly non-warm-and-fuzzy subjects.

On the other hand, pianist-vocalist-emcee Claudia Gonson is an extremely personable and friendly entertainer. She does most of the talking while the band is onstage, with Merritt adding an occasional bit of dry observational sarcasm. Together, the two translate as the indie-pop world’s version of Edith and Archie Bunker.

The band came to town to perform as part of the 16th annual Noise Pop festival, which continues through Sunday at various venues in SF, and to support its latest album, “Distortion.” Those who came to the show to hear a feedback-drenched evening of music, one that would sound similar to “Distortion,” got something else entirely.

Due to Merritt’s ear condition, the band members use acoustic instruments when they tour. They also favor sparse, hushed arrangements that put a stronger emphasis on the lyrics and allow for more intimacy. All of that is in keeping with the “Juno”-led trend.

The evening began with a story from Gonson, one that dealt with eating oatmeal and a theft at a local Laundromat, and that casual vibe continued through the rest of the two-set performance. The feel was not unlike what one would expect to find in Merritt’s living room _ just five friends getting together to play tunes and swap stories, none of which carried a sense of urgency.

The group, featuring Merritt on bouzouki and at the microphone for roughly half the songs, performed tunes from throughout its eight-album catalog and from the songwriter’s other projects. The musicians did a particularly nice job translating the feedback-rich “Distortion” tunes into acoustic numbers. Highlights from that album included “Three-Way,” “Courtesans,” “California Girls” and (the necrophilia number) “Zombie Boy.”

Merritt is a very versatile songwriter, but he arguably does his best work with the humorous ditties. The funniest offering of the night was “California Girls,” a sing-along slap against “the faux folk sans derrieres” who have “affairs with each passing rock star.” It was directed at Paris Hilton-type blonde Beverly Hills babes and, I probably don’t need to add, went over quite well with this hipster crowd.

The band was joined onstage for part of the show by the richest man in the building _ Lemony Snicket author, Daniel Handler. Merritt has formed a partnership of sorts with Handler, who played accordion at the Herbst and on “Distortion,” and having the children’s author along for the ride certainly added to the evening’s cuteness ratio.

Indeed _ dare I say it? _ Handler helped make the Magnetic Fields even more attractive.

For more information on the Noise Pop festival, visit www.noisepop.com.

It was a monumental year for jazz by the Bay.

Notably, we celebrated milestone anniversaries for both the Monterey (50) and San Francisco (25) jazz festivals. We also marked the opening of the new Yoshi’s in San Francisco, which fills a major gap in that city’s arts scene.

I was fortunate to attend many of this year’s biggest jazz events , as well as some of the smaller, though equally enjoyable, concerts. The following is a look back at the year in live jazz in the Bay Area, courtesy of my own personal Top 10 list.

Top 10 jazz concerts of 2007
1. Ornette Coleman
(Oct. 28, Masonic Auditorium, San Francisco)
The saxophone hero could have begun resting on his laurels about 1959, the year his groundbreaking “The Shape of Jazz to Come’’ was released. Instead, he went the other way and fashioned a lengthy and lasting legacy that is simply beyond compare. This Masonic show _ as exciting a night of jazz as I’ve experienced in years _ showed that Coleman isn’t finished writing his own legend. We’re clearly in the midst of a prime era for this gifted musician, who won both a Lifetime Achievement Grammy and a Pulitizer Prize in 2007.

2. Monterey Jazz Festival
(Sept. 21-23, Monterey County Fairgrounds)
The 50th anniversary of the world’s most prestigious jazz festival proved to be everything a fan could’ve hoped. We saw great sets by the East Bay’s own Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins and _ yes, him again _ Ornette Coleman. With due respect to Oscar Peterson and a handful of others, one could make a very convincing case that Brubeck, Rollins and especially Coleman are the three greatest living jazz artists. Throw in my gal _ Diana Krall _ and you’ve got an anniversary occasion to remember for the next 50 years.

3. The Christian McBride Situation
(July 27, Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, Oakland)
At the start of the show, the bass wizard instructed fans to “strap up _ we will reach our cruising altitude of infinity shortly.’’ The combo _ featuring East Bay saxophonist Dave Ellis, DJ Jahi Sundance and keyboardist Patrice Rushen _ proceeded to perform one of the most impressive evenings of wholly improvised music that I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. That, dear friends, was jazz.

4. Josh Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, Brian Blade
(May 4, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco)
For this SFJAZZ concert, saxophonist Redman, pianist Mehldau, bassist McBride and drummer Blade _ a quartet that worked together for two years in the ‘90s _ reunited to honor the great Thelonious Monk. The band used the opportunity to perform sensational covers/reinterpretations of songs found on the acclaimed “Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall’’ record.

5. E.S.T.
( May 22, Yoshi’s at Jack London Square)
The Esbjorn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.) is a Swedish outfit that plays “America’s music’’ better than just about anyone. That’s the good news. The better news is that the band _ featuring pianist Svensson, bassist Dan Berglund and drummer Magnus Ostrom _ accomplishes that feat in startingly new and refreshing ways. Plus, it’s equally good on record and in concert.

6. Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood
(Sept. 20, Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga)
MMW _ keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin and bassist Chris Wood _ is already so great in concert that the thought of adding champion guitarist John Scofield to the mix seems totally unfair to all the other working jazz combos. Thankfully, life isn’t always fair _ and the fans at Montalvo received a gluton’s share of jazz riches on this evening.

7. Ravi Coltrane
( July 25, Yoshi’s at Jack London Square)
I’ve been lucky to catch John C’s son on numerous occasions _ including in performance with his mother, Alice Coltrane, at the Masonic in 2006 and as part of an all-star band at the grand opening of Yoshi’s San Francisco last month. That Masonic gig was a magical evening, one that ranked as my pick for best jazz concert of 2006, but the finest saxophone work that I’ve heard Ravi deliver came at this Yoshi’s show.

8. Chick Corea, Gary Burton
(Feb. 17, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley)
Pianist Corea and vibraphonist Burton share a undeniable musical bond, one that manifested to the greatest extent on 1972’s masterful “Crystal Silence.’’ On this evening, the pair celebrated the 35th anniversary that landmark album with an evening of duets that made one wonder why on earth do these two players ever perform separately?

9. Branford Marsalis
(Feb. 12, Yoshi’s at Jack London Square)
Wynton’s sax-blowing brother was in exceptionally fine form on this night, which featured a mix of original tunes composed by Branford and his band mates (drummer Jeff “Tain’’ Watts, bassist Eric Revis and pianist Joey Calderazzo). The best of the lot was Marsalis’ own “Sir Roderick, the Aloof,’’ which included a spiraling soprano sax solo that sent shivers down fans’ spines.

10. Chris Botti
(Feb. 16, Paramount Theatre, Oakland)
I won’t make the Jazz Police happy by including Botti on this list. The self-appointed guardians of “real jazz’’ don’t like this trumpeter because he has the nerve to sell large numbers of records. Their reasoning goes something like this: If the general public likes it then it can’t be worthwhile jazz. If, however, you’d rather enjoy an evening of beautifully performed instrumental ballads than stay at home and worry about your “cool’’ credentials, I highly recommend catching Botti in concert.