Cape May Jazz Festival producers Carol K. Stone and Woody Woodland create Philly Jazz Fest

AFTER PUTTING on 33 jazz festivals spanning 16 and a half years in the seaside town of Cape May, N.J., one might think Carol K. Stone and her producing partner, Woody Woodland, would just want to sit back and enjoy their retirement years. She's 83, after all, and he's 81.

"But friends started pushing us to putting on a jazz festival in Philadelphia," said Stone. "It's been years since the heydays of the Mellon Jazz Festival and PECO Jazz Fest here. We're in good health. We still love the music. So we thought, 'Why not?' "

Come Saturday, the fruits of their labor will be in evidence all afternoon and evening at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel, 17th and Race streets, where Stone and Woodland are staging the first of what they hope to be many a Philly Jazz Fest.

In part to bring home the message of our town's historic wealth of musical talent and in part "because we're operating on a shoestring budget this first year," the producers are kicking off with a locally focused lineup, from 15-year-old sax sensation Immanuel Wilkins to seasoned belter Frank Bey.

In between, there'll be a nonstop all-star afternoon jam session, an early evening set by vocalist Denise King with tenor player Bootsie Barnes and trumpeter Duane Eubanks and a prime-time themed tribute by Pieces of a Dream called "Remembering Grover," which will honor the headliners' mentor, Grover Washington Jr.

"We've got many of the same support team working on this festival that volunteered in Cape May," said Stone. "We've got the same great sound company, Bader, that does all the jazz festivals in the area - Reading, Wilmington - and that used to work with us in Cape May." That was a very long run that finally ended in 2010 "after our board of directors was counseled by a national funder that they should have a change in leadership. Two festivals later, they called it quits," she grumbled.

Clearly, this gang runs a tight ship. There's a "fixed backline" of instruments and amplifiers, plus a second rhythm section waiting in the wings during the 2-5 p.m. jam session, so the music never stops when musicians go on break.

There'll be bars all over. "Hey, you can't have a nightclub atmosphere jazz festival without alcohol," said Stone, plus multiple places (formal and informal) to grab a meal.

Hotel management has also been accommodating with reduced-priced parking ($15) and rooms ($139) for festival goers who want to stay over.

Now, all the production team needs are the listeners to fill the chairs of the Sheraton's Liberty Ballroom. Local corporate and foundation backers who could and should have put out the good word about Philly Jazz Fest "are waiting out this first year, to make sure we can really do it," said Stone.

WRTI and Jazz Times are helping promote the festival, "and they tell us that most jazz fans in Philly will buy their tickets at the door, even though they have to pay in cash and the prices are a little higher," shared the producer. A $45 ticket covers the afternoon of music, and $65 gets you the evening shindigs with one alcoholic beverage "on the house." An all-festival ticket can be had for $85.

Boasting "everybody in jazz that you could think of" (Hugh Masekela, Pieces of a Dream, Maynard Ferguson, the Count Basie Orchestra, Little Jimmy Scott, Oscar Brown Jr.), the Cape May jazz festivals pulled tourist crowds as large as 8,000 people. Jazz buffs are "mostly 40-plus, well educated, racially mixed, always a very nice crowd," said Stone. And to prime the pump for the future, the promoters have always introduced some very young talents in opening slots like Wilkins, and they "comp" (allow in for free) "young bona fide musicians to listen, soak up the vibes and network."

Now a ripe old 15 and an Upper Darby High School sophomore, Wilkins first started playing for "Miss Carol in Cape May when I was 9," a year after he took up the sax, he related the other night after supper. "She spotted me in a youth group playing the festival, liked my work and invited me to come back the next year with my own band," he said.

While spoon-fed on John Coltrane and Charlie Parker by his jazz-loving dad, Wilkins is likewise hip to "new guys like Robert Glasper and the Jaspects who fuse jazz with hip-hop and electronica."

And if you ever get to hear this young turk wail - even just the national anthem that he's done before Eagles and 76ers games (check it out on YouTube) or with recurring gigs at Chris' Jazz Cafe - it's clear that jazz is alive and well and living in Philadelphia.

"I feel jazz in general has gotten a bad rap or bad reputation," Wilkins ruminated. "When people think of jazz, they think of smooth jazz, Kenny G, basically. I feel like that stuff is a misrepresentation of the music, because it doesn't make you think. Jazz is built on improvisation, on personal expression. It's music that makes you think, same as old-school hip-hop. It's like the light at the end of your personal tunnel."

Upper Darby High "has a great big band," enthused Wilkins, who also works his chops every Saturday at the Clef Club and "every Sunday after church" with the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble. That's where he met his equally talented Project quartet collaborators - keyboardist Jordan Williams (17), bassist Mike Saah (15) and drummer Nazir Ebo (12).