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San Francisco - May 10,
2012: SFJAZZ, the
leading non-profit jazz
organization on the West Coast,
hosted its annual SFJAZZ Spring
Gala last Friday night at San
Francisco's Bimbo 365 Club,
drawing a crowd of celebrities
and Bay Area notables and
breaking its own fundraising
records.
Hosted by Robert Mailer
Anderson, SFJAZZ Trustee and
Gala Chair, Randall Kline,
SFJAZZ Founder and Executive
Artistic Director, and Felice
Swapp, Executive Operating
Director, the gala raised more
than $1.1 million in donations
for artistic and educational
programs at SFJAZZ. The evening
honored several special guests
with awards, including the first
NAACP/SFJAZZ Humanitarian Award
to Chris Tucker
(presented by NAACP President
Benjamin Jealous),
the first-ever SFJAZZ
Photographer Laureate to
world-renowned photographer
Jim Goldberg
(presented by Robert Mailer
Anderson) and the SFJAZZ
Lifetime Achievement Award to
Ahmad Jamal
(presented by his longtime
friend, film icon Clint
Eastwood), noting a
lifetime in jazz. Willie
Brown also delivered an
official proclamation from
current San Francisco Mayor
Edwin Lee, declaring the day
"Ahmad Jamal Day in San
Francisco."
The 2012 SFJAZZ Gala "Freedom
in the Groove" drew a
star-studded crowd including:
comedian Robert Townsend;
director Philip Kaufman;
award-winning authors
Ishmael Reed (the
SFJAZZ Poet Laureate, who also
read his poem, "Sweet Pea"),
Tobias Wolff,
Amy Tan,
Michael Chabon
and Daniel Handler;
and former San Francisco mayor
and current Lieutenant Governor
of California, Gavin
Newsom, and California
State Attorney General
Kamala Harris.
The evening was marked by
standout performances by Ahmad
Jamal, master of funk
Maceo Parker, the
SFJAZZ High School All Stars and
the SFJAZZ Collective.
"Freedom in the Groove brought
out the proud eclectic face and
groundbreaking intelligence of
SFJAZZ," says SFJAZZ Trustee and
Gala Chair Robert Mailer
Anderson. "A sexy slew of folks
creating a formidable vanguard
to redefine tradition, the
future of music and culture, and
clearly unafraid of the funk. In
jazz parlance, it was killin'!"
For more information about
SFJAZZ, please visit:
www.sfjazz.org.
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