‘Every saxophonist’s dream’

King Ghidorah, the golden, winged monster of “Godzilla” fame, comes at you with three fire-breathing heads.

This year’s Summer Solstice Jazz Festival features a Ghidorah of a gig, a “saxophone summit” that unleashes three of the nation’s top players.

The three heads belong to Diego Rivera, familiar to local fans as a longtime stalwart of MSU’s jazz studies program and now jazz studies director at the University of Texas at Austin; Gregory Tardy, a New Orleans-born saxophone titan who cut his teeth playing with iconic drummer Elvin Jones and has made many classic recordings; and Chicago-based Sharel (stress on the second syllable) Cassity, one of jazz’s ascendant saxophone stars and a teacher at DePaul University.

Festival artistic director Randy Napoleon diplomatically calls it the State of the Saxophone, but it’s OK to call it a saxophone battle.

Rivera admitted that there’s “an element of competition,” but it’s “the best kind.”

“Playing with Greg and Sharel is every saxophonist’s dream,” he said. “In order to compete with somebody, you’re first forced to acknowledge that person’s greatness, their skill and level of musicianship.”

Every true-blue jazz fan cherishes classic horn-battle albums like Johnny Griffin’s “A Blowing Session,” where the tenor great tussles with fellow saxophonists John Coltrane and Hank Mobley, and the two-headed “Tough Tenors” sessions matching Griffin with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis.

Photo by Jeff Dunn Sharel Cassity at the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2014.

Picasa

Napoleon kept these classic clashes in mind when he planned Friday’s summit.

“We have so many powerful voices on saxophone in the world of jazz today, and I picked three of my favorites,” Napoleon said. “All three of them are masters and bring a different concept, different sounds, but they’re all exciting virtuosos, the kind of players you can really feel.”

“It was Randy’s brainchild,” Rivera acknowledged. “He just called me up and asked me if I would come back and play. I’m excited to do it, so I won’t question his methods.”

The trio will be backed by a crackling rhythm section of Michael Reed on drums, George DeLancey on bass and Will Hill on piano.

Rivera has known Cassity for over a decade, since they played together in MSU trombonist Michael Dease’s big band. Cassity has also played in the Jimmy Heath Big Band and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars.

“I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time,” Rivera said. “She’s a consummate musician. You can hear the depth of the tradition, Charlie Parker and Johnny Hodges and Sonny Stitt, but you also hear things that are uniquely her.”

Napoleon called Cassity a “no-nonsense bebop alto player.”

“She draws some of that wisdom from her mentors, like Jimmy Heath and James Moody, but she also has elements that speak to our generation,” Napoleon said. “I’ve heard her play really great on funk tunes. She really has it all.”

Napoleon grew up listening to Tardy’s albums on Impulse Records, along with those of Tardy’s illustrious labelmate, John Coltrane.

“They both have a spiritual seriousness,” Napoleon said of Tardy and Coltrane. “Greg is a very profound person and musician. But he can really burn, too.”

Courtesy photo Gregory Tardy at the Jerusalem Jazz Festival in 2017.

For local jazz lovers, the sax summit is also a chance to catch up with an old friend who’s cutting a big swath in the jazz world.

“Diego can play the whole history of the music,” Napoleon said. “There’s no mood he cannot evoke. He brings a lot of intensity and fire.”

In 2022, after 20 years at MSU jazz studies, Rivera left Michigan to become director of jazz studies at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music, where he’s maintained a superhuman schedule of teaching, performing, recording and touring.

This year, Rivera took the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra to Japan for a whirlwind tour of eight performances in 11 days.

“It was transformative for the students,” he said. “Some of the students had never left the state of Texas. For some of them, it was their first time on a plane.”

He was delighted to see the band cohere into a distinctive, high-level ensemble with its own unique sound.

“Now they know there’s a community abroad, a different level of appreciation for the music,” he said. “They all can’t wait to go back.”

After a busy academic year, Rivera isn’t exactly kicking back.

“Knowing I’m going to play on stage with Sharel and Greg is certainly going to make me practice more between now and then,” he said. “My creativity, my voice, my soulfulness and my clarity all need to be on point if I’m playing next to Sharel. My sound, my integrity, my confidence and my depth all need to be on point if I’m playing with Greg. You just try to enjoy it, and hopefully they’ll have a good time, too.”