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'Happy music' fills Jazz fest Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Stan Mark of Sin Sity Suitz belts out a solo Friday at Vogel Park during the opening of Medford's 13th annual Jazz Jubilee. Medford's music-filled weekend brings together fans near and far, in search of good times and good sounds By BILL VARBLE Rubbernecking drivers on Main Street slow to a crawl as Stan Mark and his Sin Sity Suitz launch into a chorus of Jim Croce's "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown." The Las Vegas band is kicking off the 13th Medford Jazz Jubilee Friday at Vogel Park next to the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater. The Suitz combines guitars, horns and Sinatraesque vocals, sending tunes ranging from the Blue Brothers ("I need you, you, you") to Louis Prima ("Just a gigolo, just a gigolo") wafting over busy noontime traffic on Central Avenue. People in office clothes, shorts and jogging suits mix with people in silver lam� jackets, straw hats and feather boas. Medford's annual party for itself, continuing through Sunday, promises more than 150 performances this year at eight locations around town, with a baker's dozen of visiting bands plus four Rogue Valley groups playing more than 100 hours of jazz. That lineup was enough to draw Evelyn Freese and Millie Caples from Redding, Calif., for the weekend. "It just looked good," Freese says. Most of the bands are from California and Nevada, although they come from as far as Florida (The Titan Hot Seven). Southern Oregon Bands in the Jubilee are Leslie Kendall and the Jump Daddies, the Dixie Fat Cats, Gabriel and the Technicians and Larry Bernard and the Journey's End Jazz Band. The Oregon Coast Lab Band is from North Bend. Freese and Caples say it's their first time at the Medford event, although they've seen some of the bands playing here, such as High Sierra and Pieces of Eight, at jazz festivals in Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Monterey and elsewhere. They say there's no secret to the music's appeal. "It's happy music," Freese says. "The people are happy." "It's too bad you don't see more young people," Caples says. Freese says she doesn't come just for the Dixieland. "I like big band," she says. "Even rock 'n' roll. But not hard rock or hip-hop." Around the corner at the Red Lion, vendors hawk jubilee accoutrements: white suspenders, trumpet neckties, red, orange and mauve cummerbunds. Grace Perine, of Sacramento, is selling CDs, tapes, even vinyl LPs. It's her first time in Medford, although she's a veteran of bigger festivals in Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif. "This is nice here," she says. "People are nice. Low-key." Three days' worth of performances are slated for the Red Lion (both upstairs and down), Studio C, the Reston Hotel, the Elks Lodge, the Craterian Theater and That Italian Place (no shows Sunday at That Italian Place). Outdoor shows are planned for 9:30 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon Saturday at Vogel Park. A free youth venue is planned in Middleford Alley from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. RVTD is providing shuttle service, with buses scheduled to run every 20 minutes. For a complete schedule, see the Friday Mail Tribune's Tempo. For more, visit www.medfordjazz.org. A special package called Saturday Night Times Four enables jazz fans to see four shows, each featuring two bands, starting at 7:30 p.m. A zydeco and blues show at 9 p.m. at the Red Lion Ballroom stars Pieces of Eight and Gator Beat. Oregon Coast Lab and Sin Sity Suitz do a salute to swing starting at 7:30 at Studio C. Also at 7:30, at the Craterian, the Boilermaker Jazz Band and Clint Baker do a Dixieland show. A big band show at 9 at the Reston Hotel stars Chicago Six and Blue Street. Finales are set for 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Red Lion Ballroom and the Reston Hotel. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.