It’s hard to imagine anyone being more excited about SFJazz announcing its first season of live programming in more than a year than the organization’s founder, Randall Kline.
“We all need it,” he said last week, calling from southern Italy, where he was on a summer trip with his family. “Music is the balm of life. We couldn’t ask for a more impactful time.”
His enthusiasm doesn’t stop there. On July 22, SFJazz revealed the lineup for its 2021-22 season, with more than 300 full-capacity concerts scheduled to take place at the center’s Miner Auditorium and Joe Henderson Lab halls, as well as at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and Paramount Theatre in Oakland, from Sept. 23 to May 29, 2022.
Pianist Kris Bowers, the Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition winner and “Bridgerton” score composer, will open the season at the SFJazz Center, followed by a weekend of performances from Zakir Hussain (Sept. 24), Christian Sands (Sept. 25) and Pat Metheny (Sept. 25-26).
“The feeling of watching something that isn’t digitized in a room with other people — it’s unbelievable,” said Kline, who is also SFJazz’s executive artistic director.
The season’s resident artistic directors are Ambrose Akinmusire, Terri Lyne Carrington, Anat Cohen, Soweto Kinch and Chris Potter. The 2022 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert will be held once again at the Center on March 31, honoring Stanley Clarke, Billy Hart, Cassandra Wilson and Donald Harrison Jr.
The 2022 SFJazz Gala will honor Wynton Marsalis with a Lifetime Achievement Award in January, followed by performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
The season will also include quite a few shows postponed from their original 2020 dates.
“Our main priority was trying to reschedule what we had canceled and try to get all those people back in,” Kline said.
The SFJazz Center sat dark longer than many other Bay Area venues despite the city’s move to allow more in-person events because the venue operates seasonally rather than single bookings, Kline said.
But he added that one of the silver linings of the pandemic was expanding its member base with robust online programming, which offered everything from weekly “Fridays at Five” broadcasts featuring archive performances to monthly live sets broadcast from the 700-seat Miner Auditorium.
“We got a good jump on it, and it gave us a chance to connect with new people around the world,” he said.
Last month, the organization staged the San Francisco Jazz Festival virtually for the second year in a row with two dozen broadcasts of archival festival performances.
Now, Kline is cautiously eyeing the September date, keeping in mind the possibility that the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus that is currently driving up COVID-19 cases in the Bay Area could disrupt those plans.
“Two weeks ago, we thought bringing vaccinated people with no masks on was going to feel normal,” he said. “But now it’s not so normal.”
If all goes according to plan, the season will also see performances by Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Bill Frisell, the SFJazz Collective, Snarky Puppy, Ravi Coltrane, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Pink Martini, Jacqui Naylor, Maceo Parker, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Rosanne Cash, Keb’ Mo’, Kronos Quartet and many others.
SFJazz organizers are keeping an eye on other venues — those on Broadway in New York, in particular — to see how they are managing outbreaks, anti-maskers and other obstacles the pandemic has brought to the live entertainment industry.
“Right now, it looks like the absolute worst-case scenario is everyone coming into the room has to wear a mask,” Kline said. “But I’m feeling optimistic. Won’t it be great to just sit there with other people in a room and absorb something that will make you feel a little better?”
San Francisco Chronicle calendar producer Anne Schrager contributed to this report.