Despite its seemingly ripe potential as an entertainment destination, Santa Barbara has a surprisingly slender history of jazz festival action, including a several-year effort on the beach in the late ’80s/early ’90s and a brave-but-brief Solvang Jazz Festival, led by Crusaders drummer Stix Hooper. Meanwhile, though, the entity known as the Dos Pueblos High School Jazz Festival has quietly and steadily amassed an impressive half century of duty, and iteases into its 51st annual event — dubbed “Jazz in Paradise” — this Saturday on the Dos Pueblos campus, in the comfortable confines of the Elings Performing Arts Center.
Jazz in Paradise has long adhered to the academic competitive model, as a magnet for high school and university big bands showcasing and vying for prizes. But its recent history has been upwardly mobile, appealing to the general jazz fan population along with the built-in contingent of students’ family and friends in the house.
In recent years, the daylong event has hosted well-known artists, including saxist Tom Scott and drummer Gregg Bissonette, who give workshops by day and perform with featured bands in the evening concert. This year’s featured big bands are the DPHS band and SBCC’s powerful “Lunch Break” group, directed by Jim Mooy. And the big news: This year’s celebrity guest is especially notable — famed drummer Dave Weckl, as well as the horn players (Chris Bullock, Jay Jennings, Mike Maher, and Justin Stanton) from the popular jazz-funk-party band Snarky Puppy.