Park City Jazz Foundation closes its doors; annual festival to end

PARK CITY — Every summer since 1997, a three-day event featuring the best of international and local jazz musicians has rocked Deer Valley Resort with music born deep in the roots of American culture.

But this past month, the nonprofit Park City International Jazz Foundation filed for dissolution.

Having lost title sponsor Fidelity Investments, the group has been in the red two years in a row, said former executive director Don Croce.

It also struggled in 2005, when rumors of canceling the festival spurred just enough community support to keep it going. This summer, the festival was canceled.

The foundation has paid all of the musicians that have played during the festival, but it owes money to festival vendors and the resort.

However, the foundation has almost no assets.

"Personally, I certainly enjoyed it, and I went every year," said nine-year Park City Mayor Dana Williams. "It seems to me that the majority of the problem was not the caliber of the music as much as it was to find people to donate money."

The foundation has had to compete with more than 130 other nonprofits in the area, including ones promoting health care for the uninsured and refuge for battered women.

"It's just another casualty of this bloody economy," said Jones Waldo attorney Jeffrey Weston Shields, the senior bankruptcy lawyer who's representing the foundation. "I'm personally a big fan of jazz music, so I think it's sad."

The board voted to dissolve on Aug. 11 and sent letters to its creditors Aug. 20. The process will work through the courts in a way similar to a bankruptcy, Shields said.

During its 13-year history, the annual festival featured outstanding teen musicians such as the Crescent Super Band, based in Utah County. Professional acts have included Esperanza Spalding, Poncho Sanchez and Al Jarreau, bassist Brian Bromberg and saxophonist Frank Catalano.

Jazz in Utah is not only about basketball, said Croce, whose son is a university jazz musician. Rather, the music itself and the education system propping it up are some of Utah's best-kept secrets.

Jazz fans may have heard the final dissonant and syncopated notes of the summer festival, but Park City has had a phenomenal summer for live music, Williams said. Croce agreed and said there will continue to be venues for the great American art form in his small city.

"You don't know how much you like it until you're missing it," he said. "Maybe someone will get fired up and bring something back."

e-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com