Jazz aficionado's baby is growing up

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Abe Weinstein, the Jazz Festival's founding father, rehearses for next month's shows with Dana Fujikake, piano, and John Kolivas, bass. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

Abe Weinstein is one of the latter.

His Hawaii International Jazz Festival celebrates its 10th birthday next month with four all-star concerts (two each on O'ahu and Maui) and a handful of gratis ancillary events stuffed with well-known local and critically praised off-island musicians. More importantly, though, the festival coasts into its second decade with more tender loving care from its founding father than a Charlie Parker note.

"This festival has become my creative child," said Weinstein, 54. "I don't have children. This is my baby. And the same way that you would put money aside to send your kid to college, I put money into keeping this festival alive and growing up."

And like a parent to a child, Weinstein rarely has the jazz fest far from his mind. Over the full year that Weinstein and his all-volunteer committee plan and put together the event are sleepless nights spent sweating every imaginable detail — airline flights and pickups, insurance, backstage catering, apropos backstage booze for a particular musician. Weinstein has also learned to become a one-man sales and marketing team, throughout the year searching out and maintaining the non-profit festival's critical financial sponsorships and grants.

"This isn't the kind of stuff they teach you in music school," said Weinstein, smiling. "I've had to learn all this business stuff the hard way. I've learned to do budgets, balance budgets, negotiate contracts and spend money for promotions and advertising. When you make a big mistake, you just don't do it again."

A career musician since his teenage years (he plays clarinet, sax, bass clarinet and flute), Weinstein performs part time with the Honolulu Symphony and runs a booking business for musicians hoping to play cruise lines. He performs and teaches on Princess Cruises worldwide eight weeks out of the year. Weinstein doesn't take a salary for his jazz fest services, and neither does his staff.

"We're committed to the jazz festival not as a moneymaker per se, but as a cultural entity that deserves to live in Hawai'i," said Weinstein.

Educational classes and clinics for the public, and especially, college scholarships for talented local high-school musicians have been important jazz fest components for Weinstein since the event's 1994 debut. Up to six scholarships (some worth up to $100,000) are awarded to student musicians participating in the festival each year, from institutions such as USC. In nine years, the jazz fest has handed out more than $1 million in scholarships.

"I had scholarships, but I also had to take out a lot of student loans," said Weinstein, who has a master's degree in music from the University of Michigan. "And I became encumbered for years and years after my education with trying to pay off those bills. I didn't want that to happen to other kids.

"Some people say it builds character. Well, there are other ways to build character than starving, you know?"

Weinstein credits much of the festival's survival to 10 years of developing a tight business model and even-tighter budget plan for it. And save for its debut outing — when Weinstein, seeking to make a splashy debut, went a bit overboard financially, hiring Buddy Guy, Doc Severinsen and the entire Tonight Show Orchestra, among others — the festival has turned a profit every year.

"It's a million-dollar festival that we cut down to $300,000," said Weinstein, proudly.

The creative methods Weinstein employs to maximize his budget include big things like hiring equally talented local musicians to back up big-name artists in lieu of flying in their bands, and small things like keeping post-concert parties simple.

"We have it at somebody's home ... and have them donate their barbecue and some ribs or something like that," said Weinstein, cracking up.

After 10 years, the jazz fest founder said, he still gets a kick out of watching students awarded their scholarships and musicians getting thunderous rounds of applause. His favorite moments, however, are a bit closer to his musician's soul.

"When I get to play, there's nothing like it," said Weinstein. "At my most basic self, I'm a player."

10th annual Hawaii International Jazz Festival

On O'ahu, at Blaisdell Concert Hall

• 7 p.m., July 18:
• "Guitar Magic & Vocal Jazz," with Larry Coryell, Tierney Sutton & the USC Thornton Jazz Orchestra, the Honolulu Jazz Quartet with Keahi Conjugacion.
  
  
• 7 p.m., July 19:
• "International Jazz," with Nestor Torres, Tiger Okoshi, Makoto Ozone, Jake Shimabukuro, Gypsy Pacific.
• $20-$40

On Maui, at the Wailea Marriott Aulani Ballroom

• 7 p.m., July 25:
• "International Jazz," with Larry Coryell, Tiger Okoshi, the San Diego University Big Band, the Honolulu Jazz Quartet with Keahi Conjugacion and more.
  
  
• 7 p.m., July 26:
• "Hawaiian Jazz," with Gabe Baltazar, Jimmy Borges, Keahi Conjugacion, Gypsy Pacific, Ukulele Madness.
  
  
• $30 & $45
• For more information: 941-9974 or www.hawaiijazz.com.
• For O'ahu tickets, call 591-2211 or 526-4400. Tickets available at Blaisdell box office, Ticketmaster outlests and Foodland stores.
• Also: Free classes and clinics with festival musicians. On Oahu: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 18 and 19; Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, Building B, ground floor. On Maui: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., July 25 and 26, Wailea Marriott. Jam sessions follow Maui concerts in the Wailea Marriott's Lokelani Ballroom.