JC Sanford Grows the Northfield Jazz Festival

 

This interview originally aired on The Afternoon Cruise on 07/07/25

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JC Sanford Interview WEB FInal

Mon, Jul 07, 2025 6:37PM • 8:34

SPEAKERS

Sean McPherson (Jazz88), JC Sanford

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

It’s the Afternoon Cruise, and I’m chatting with JC Sanford, the organizer of the Northfield Jazz Festival. Now, in addition to running this festival, Sanford is a first call trombone player in town, an accomplished composer, a conductor and an educator. JC, welcome back to jazz 88 so great to be back. It’s been a while. Well, you know what? We’re glad to have you, and frankly, I’m really thankful for what you’re doing with the Northfield Jazz Festival, and one thing you’re doing is tripling your workload, if not more. So last year was a one day event, the inaugural event, and now you’re back with three days of events with a lot of great stuff all happening in this bustling college town that a lot of folks haven’t visited. It’s less than an hour away from downtown Minneapolis, home of Carlton College, home of Saint olive college and more, and now the home of a really awesome Jazz Festival. Okay? Three days of events. We’re gonna start at the beginning this Friday, a grand jazz party at the grand events center with dancing encouraged. Okay, I’ll bring my dancing shoes. What else do you like about this as an event and as a band?

 

JC Sanford 

Well, this was a something that kind of came together sort of late in the process. And it really, what it is, is it’s, it’s mostly local northfielders. You know, northfielders there’s, there’s a very vibrant and enthusiastic jazz scene of people who live in Northfield. And so this is a way, I think about it is a sort of like a townie night, the same thing that we have for Jesse James days, where the first night, it’s mostly just like kind of local people get involved. And I’m just really excited about it, because it’s a really cool way to kind of get the Northfield community kind of fired up about the whole festival.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

Well, it sounds a lot cooler to call it a grand jazz party than townie night. So Yes, yep, but yeah, there is a great history of really great players being based in Northfield, and awesome that a lot of those folks are gonna be on stage on Friday night. Then on Saturday, you got some awesome workshops going down, including a Latin percussion workshop with a man I love, Dave Hagedorn, who is synonymous with the world of jazz and the Twin Cities and in Northfield. And so cool that he’s doing this workshop. Plus you got a concert from Lucia Newell and Joan Griffith, as well as a concert from Mary Louise Knutson. But then you pull out some serious, serious firepower for the main event on Saturday night, you’re bringing in the Grammy Award winning artist Miguel Zanon and Luis Perdomo. They won a Grammy for their album El arte del Bolero, Volume Two in 2024 first off, thank you for just securing a well regarded headliner like this is a really awesome thing to bring to us. I can only imagine the things you’re excited about, but what made you particularly excited about bringing this group to the show, which is happening at first United Church of Christ?

 

JC Sanford 

Well, part of it was the was the venue, is, I wanted to have a I knew once we got additional funding this year. By the way, most of the festival is funded through the southeast Minnesota Arts Council. They they gave me an individual grant last year, and that’s what started off the festival. On that on just the Sunday afternoon this year, I was able to collaborate with the Northfield arts Guild and get an organizational grant. So that’s one reason we were able to expand so much this year, is we got more than twice the amount of funding. So I wanted to bring in, you know, a national or international group. And since we were going to be in the in the chapel there, I wanted to have something that would sound good acoustically, more mainly acoustically, you know, without drums and amplifiers and things like that. And basically, the very first group, I thought of was Miguel and Luis.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

It is the Afternoon Cruise. I’m chatting with JC Sanford, who is the organizer of the Northfield Jazz Festival, in addition to being an elite trombone player, composer, conductor and educator. Now the big sort of outdoor festival vibes go down on Sunday at Way Park from one to five. You got Sophia Kickhofel, Abinnet Berhanu, with , featuring Genet Abate And Lila Ammons closing this out. So I love an outdoor Jazz Festival. I just spent the weekend at Taste of Minnesota. I was at Twin Cities Jazz Festival before. What are you excited about with seeing a lineup of artists like this out at wait way Park on Sunday?

 

JC Sanford 

Yeah, it is really a neat vibe. Like you said, outdoor festival, and people just gathering in their chairs and their blankets, and we’re gonna have food trucks. And you know, it is really a neat vibe doing it last year. I mean, last year, I went from fear, fearing it was going to be rained out, to it actually be 95 and humid that that day, we still had so many people come. And even though people were not happy about how hot it was, they still really were appreciative of it happening. It’s just, there’s just, there’s just something about that, you know, bringing the community together in an outdoor situation like that, it’s just so cool. And, you know, the we have a great sound guy, and this is the sound is really good. It’s really clear. And then just hearing these groups back to back like this, and especially those groups who are going to be so different from each other. So you really get, it’s a really great opportunity to just kind of hear these kind of different groups, and in this, in this great community environment.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

I tip my hat to you for the lineup. The lineup really does cover a lot of ground. You got a lot of the great players coming in, of course, some firepower at the international level as well. So well done. But you aren’t even done with your immensely Busy, busy weekend. There’s a jam session going down that night with the Blue Ox trio imminent brewing. Now you can obviously just go to a jam session, enjoy it, but we’re talking on jazz 88 a lot of young players, a lot of players of all ages. Listen to this station. If folks actually want to get involved in jamming, what should they know about this jam session?

 

JC Sanford 

Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s, you know, it’s really important that that’s an inclusive event to me. So I really want people of all ages to really feel like they can be involved. You know, last year it worked out really well. There was a combination of some of these local Norfolk musicians that normally have a jam session on Sunday afternoons, actually there and they came, and then some of the artists that were playing on the festival that they were playing, and so it was just a super mix, you know. And it’s, you know, when there’s a lot of people there, we can kind of group people with the right kind of, you know, the supporting cast, so to speak, you know, and more advanced players might play with more advanced players, but it’s, it’s really nobody should be scared that they’re not going to be ready or not. You know anybody who has any experience improvising at all in jazz? I want them to feel like they can join us and we’ll find a space for them.

 

JC Sanford 

I’ve been chatting with JC Sanford, who’s getting ready for the Northfield Jazz Festival, which is now a full weekend affair, starting off on Friday, wrapping up on Sunday night. We’ve tried to cover a lot of ground, but you are done a lot with this festival. JC, anything you want to add about the festival, just anything that we didn’t cover. Yeah, it was, it’s, it’s been quite the ordeal to kind of, like, kind of triple my efforts. But I’ve had a lot of great support, especially from the Northfield arts Guild and again. C Mac, southeast Minnesota Arts Council in, you know, just the state of Minnesota. I just can’t, I just can’t emphasize enough how lucky I feel to be here at this moment in time of all times that with a with a cultural heritage and legacy grants that support all these things. And it just, it’s, I just feel really lucky that, and feel like lucky that I was in an opportunity, in a right kind of environment that could support this, and then the state that this kind of thing really matters to.

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

Now, there’s a lot of folks who have maybe never been to Northfield. I am not one of those people. I’ve spent a lot of time in Northfield, but for folks who just, you know, are in the Twin Cities and haven’t made their way down to Northfield, what do you love about this scene? What do you love about the city?

 

JC Sanford 

I mean, we do really love living there. My, you know, it’s a great place to raise a kid. My daughter’s here with me today. She likes it a lot. It’s just a really picturesque little town. This the Cannon River that runs right through. You can walk along the Cannon River. There’s all these really neat little shops and in small little, great local restaurants and things. And, you know, it is commonly on those, like, top 10 lists of, you know, most beautiful towns, small towns in Minnesota and all this stuff. So it is a great place. Just to get you want to get out of the city and go to a really neat little town. It’s really nice. A

 

Sean McPherson (Jazz88) 

And you said, if we did this interview, you’d be covering my sandwich expenses at Hogan brothers throughout the weekend, right? Just say I’m with JC, and they’ll give me all the turkey provolones I need.

 

JC Sanford 

Well, as I told you, if you’re gonna go, I do recommend that’s one of my favorite places to eat, but be ready to stand in line there this weekend. I know. JC, JC, thank you for visiting. Thank you for bringing your daughter, and thank you for putting on this event. It gets started on Friday over in Northfield. And I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I plan to be there on Sunday again, enjoying a sandwich and some jazz at Way Park. And, uh, congratulations on year two, man. I know it’s an uphill battle. We appreciate you.

 

JC Sanford 

All right. Thanks so much for having me, and thanks for the support.

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