The Jazz Scene: Courageous Fred Hersch, local legend Slide Hampton, and more

Some 20 years ago, Michael Ricci, founder of all allaboutjazz.com and sister website jazznearyou.com, began creating essential resources for jazz news, views, reviews, and everything else that has to do with jazz. Though these sites literally cover the jazz world, Ricci’s tireless commitment to the Philadelphia jazz scene has been a major part of his focus since the beginning, and on Thursday, September 13, he’ll present an event to — in his words — “formally bring together the leaders, innovators and stakeholders in jazz with the goal of developing infrastructure and improving the jazz economy.”

He’s calling it “Jazz Industry Day” — the first such confab in the city — and it will be presented from 11am to 6:30pm at Temple University’s Performing Arts Center, with an after-party set for South Jazz Kitchen on North Broad Street. Ricci’s mission with Industry Day is, he says, “to bring the entire jazz community together in one place to help expand professional networks, learn from experts and develop professional skill sets, foster business collaborations, all with the continued goal of building a more cohesive jazz community that's beneficial to all.” Tickets are available online.

Jazz’s biggest comeback

Pianist, composer, and educator Fred Hersch is courageous both as a jazz improviser and as a human being. In 1993, Hersch announced publicly that he was gay and that he had been treated for HIV since 1984. He fell into a coma in 2008 for two months, and when he regained consciousness, he had lost all muscular function as a result of his long inactivity, and could not play the piano. After rehabilitation, he was able to play again. And “play again” is an understatement.

Though the years, he’s been nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, has recorded dozens of albums and written several books, and has been proclaimed “the most arrestingly innovative pianist in jazz over the last decade” by Vanity Fair and “a living legend” by the New Yorker. On Friday, September 28, at 8pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (19 S. 10th Street), Hersch will kick off a new program, The Future of Jazz Piano, first in a series of solo jazz piano concerts that will be presented throughout the coming months. Proceeds from the concert benefit the inaugural season of arts programming at St. Stephen’s.

Mike Stern and Slide Hampton

All-star, high-energy jazz fusion will be very much in evidence at the Ardmore Music Hall on Thursday, September 13, at 7:30pm, as the band of guitarist Mike Stern will perform. Stern’s onstage cohorts will be drummer Dennis Chambers (considered one of the finest all-around percussionists working today), reedman Bob Franceschini, and bassist Tom Kennedy.

Those of a certain age may remember veteran broadcaster Sid Mark’s popular radio program of the 1960s, called The Mark of Jazz. One of Sidney’s nightly musical theme songs was a now-legendary composition performed by the Maynard Ferguson big band called “Frame for the Blues.” The composer and arranger of that famed opus, trombonist Slide Hampton (a longtime Philadelphia favorite), still swinging at the age of 86, will appear with his innovative Trombone Jazz Choir at Chris’ Jazz Café on Saturday, September 15, for shows at 8pm and 10pm.