A Decade of Jazzing Up the Wasatch

“Thrilled,” “amazed,” “astounded” or even “flabbergasted” are some of the words you’d expect Fidelity Investments Park City Jazz Festival and Foundation co-founders Lew and Arlene Fine to use when describing their feelings about how the festival has grown from idea to institution in 10 short years. But, when asked, Lew says simply, “The festival has become one of the top events of its kind in the country, which is exactly what we dreamed it would be.”

Indeed. Over the years, the festival’s performance roster has grown to resemble a who’s who of the modern jazz movement. The esteemed list includes George Benson, Stanley Clark, Bela Fleck, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Gerald Albright and Natalie Cole, to name a few. Ticket sales have reflected the festival’s commitment to presenting big-name talent. Last year, attendance approached 10,000 for the three-day festival, qualifying it as one of Park City’s most popular annual summertime events. “A vital part of Park City’s evolution as a world-class destination on the level of Aspen or Vail, along with offering the best recreation, services, dining, etc., is presenting world-class cultural opportunities. The Park City Jazz Festival plays an important part in filling this role,” says Kris Severson, executive director of the Park City Jazz Festival and Foundation.

The road to becoming a Park City cultural institution has not always been easy, however. The Fines devised the notion of a summertime jazz festival in Park City in two parts: the first stemmed from their passion for this distinctly American music genre, and the second was a way to give back to a community they loved. “Some people give money. We wanted to give a gift we could play a hand in creating,” Lew says. Whether it was due to love or luck, the Fines hit a home run with their first swing. Without any previous large-scale event production experience, the pair not only booked five-star talent — including jazz legends Lou Rawls and Nancy Wilson — for the first Park City Jazz Festival in 1998, but pulled off a true sponsorship coup, to boot: convincing financial powerhouse Fidelity Investments to provide both seed money and vital ongoing support.

“A freshly inked sponsorship agreement was already on the table when I was hired in 1998,” says Charlie Lansche, senior director of public affairs for Fidelity Investments Salt Lake City regional center. In the late 1990s, with preparations for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games well underway, cultural tourism became a popular catch phrase both in Park City and throughout the state. At the same time, Fidelity was looking to expand its brand awareness in the greater Salt Lake City area. A jazz festival on the scale the Fines envisioned came at the right place and at the right time. “In the beginning, it was very exciting being part of the festival as everyone pitched in to pull this thing up by its bootstraps,” Lansche says. “We’re very proud of what the festival has become. Helping it grow from a cultural opportunity to a sustainable cultural institution aligns with many of Fidelity’s guiding principles of community support.”

After the festival’s first dazzling year, Severson acknowledges the organization treaded some pretty tenuous water. Several executive directors came and went, hampering additional sponsor relationships and opportunities, and a weak business plan left little room for a decline in ticket sales due to inevitable factors such as weather. The festival and foundation has solidified over the past three years, both financially and figuratively, which Severson attributes to the unwavering support of both Fidelity Investments and the foundation board members. “Thanks to the many people who’ve stuck through the challenging times, the foundation has grown to ensure the festival will go on in perpetuity,” Severson says.

Despite its long-term relationship with the Park City Jazz Festival, this year is Fidelity’s last as title sponsor; a move Lansche says reflects nothing but good feelings between the two organizations. “Now that the festival is on very stable financial ground, we believe it’s a good time to move on. We have accomplished our goals and believe we’ve helped the festival set the stage for an even more glorious second decade,” he says.

The festival’s glorious future, so to speak, is firmly set in the Park City Jazz Foundation, parent organization of the Park City Jazz Festival. While in the beginning, the Foundation played second chair to the festival, over the years it has grown to take on a life of its own, fulfilling one of the Fines’ goals of preserving and furthering jazz through education. Since 1998, the Foundation has introduced the art of improvisation to teachers from across the state (students who learn to improve their skills excel in both music and academic studies), and has fostered one of the top youth jazz bands in the country, which performed last year at the Netherlands’ North Sea Jazz Festival. “The year-round educational component is the biggest growth portion of our business model, and what we’ll [continue to] provide in the future,” Severson says.

The International Association of Jazz Educators [IAJE] is at the center of the Foundation’s long-term plans for growth and expansion. Jazz educators, musicians, recording professionals and presenters from around the world will converge on Park City in June 2008 for the IAJE Summer Institute, a 10-day performance and outreach event that, according to Severson, will eventually drive cultural tourism in Park City to the level of the Sundance Film Festival. “We’ve entered a 10-year partnership with IAJE, with support from big players like the Grammy Foundation,” Severson says. “We feel there is no better way to begin the next chapter of the Park City Jazz Festival and Foundation than by bringing the art of jazz to even more people through this partnership.”

Freelance writer Melissa Fields first wrote about the Park City Jazz Festival in 1997 while serving as Arts & Entertainment editor for The Park Record newspaper.

This summer’s Fidelity Investments Park City Jazz Festival, scheduled for August 24 – 26, promises to be an apt celebration of both the organization’s 10-year milestone and everything on the horizon for the future. Scheduled headlining artists include David Sanborn, Tower of Power, India.Arie and Soulbop. For more information and tickets, visit parkcityjazz.com or call 435.940.1362.