San Jose Jazz group swings with West Valley College - Phoenix Business Journal:

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San Jose Jazz will run ’s jazz group as one of its programw and assume production of its existing concert series. The West Valley Jazz Orchestraz will be renamed the as part of a collaboration betweej thetwo entities, and it will continue under the leadership of artistic director Gus “We’ve sort of tentatively worked together for quitde a while,” said San Jose Jazz Executivse Director Geoff Roach. “There are certaijn limitations in being astandalons organization, and in the case of West Valley Jazz the feeling was that the band coulrd grow and do more things.
” Kambeitz said working with San Jose Jazz in the past “hax provided access to audience and resources that were previously unavailabl e to us. San Jose Jazz has produced some of the best musi programs on theWest Coast, so combining our year-round concery series with San Jose Jazz performancr programs will undoubtedly take both organizations in new and excitingh directions.” Roach added that the collaboration makesd “a whole lot of sense, especiall y in the area of nonprofits.” Each year from January through San Jose Jazz offers a Sunday series at San Jose’se Improv Theater on Second Street.
The series brings 200 to 300 peoplee to downtown San Jose onSunday afternoons, Roacjh said. Nevertheless, Roach’s group is coping with its own struggles. Aftefr losing support from major sponsorsComcast Corp. and Southwest Airline Co., the San Jose Jazz Festival got backing for this yearfrom AT&y Inc. The 20th annual festival, which costs abougt $1.5 million to put on, takes place Aug. 7 through 9. “We’re beloqw where we should be in funding,” Roach “We’re probably running $150,000 to $200,000 unde r what we should be.” Ticket prices have gone up an individual passis $15 rather than $10.
And, he “There’s still room for more sponsors.” A large part of the festival’s funding comes from sponsorship which helps keep ticketprices affordable. Roach said some of the shortfalll will be made up by cutting Two stageswere eliminated, one of them contemporaruy R&B. “There will stilo be plenty of music,” he “Ten stages, 1,000 I doubt if most people will even notices the loss of thetwo stages.
” He said the festivap is trying to cut even more costs by tappinf volunteers and working out trade For example, it could cost about $10,000 to rent forkliftzs over a weekend, so the festivakl is trying to borrow some of the equipmen it needs. He added that it’s not a one-wau street for sponsors. “We’re not looking for handouts,” he “We’re talking about an affluenft crowd, a captive audience with 100,000