As summer is around the corner, so are the summer concerts that bring Santa Clarita Valley residents together — and the Summer Breeze Music Festival kicked it all off with performances of live jazz, R&B and soul at California Institute of the Arts on Saturday.
Terrell Edwards Top Entertainment hosted the event in an effort to raise funds for local nonprofits, such as the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry, Snap Fitness Santa Clarita, The Rotary Club of Santa Clarita Valley, Guardians SCV and Soroptimist of Greater Santa Clarita Valley.
Edwards, an SCV resident, sang hits ranging from Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” to a duet with singer Nia Padilla, singing Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Edwards, who channeled Motown throughout the concert, introduced jazz saxophonist Tom Scott, Tower of Power trumpeter Greg Adams and season 10 of “The Voice” winner Alisan Porter in an effort to bring “world class musicians to Santa Clarita,” according to Terrell.
Evelyn “Champagne” King made an appearance in the audience, before performing a surprise duet with Edwards of Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones.”
“Last year, we held this event at CalArts and the year before was at Bridgeport. It was a beautiful clubhouse, but we outgrew it instantly. This is entertainment for Santa Clarita, and actually, there’s a lot of people here from the San Fernando Valley as well. We brought in musicians who are award winning at this beautiful venue,” said Sharon Bronson, co-founder of the event.
Bronson, who worked with Edwards to make this event possible, reflected on the talent that was present at CalArts’ Wild Beast stage.
“[Edwards] is an incredible talent performer. This is his production. This whole thing was kind of a brainchild sitting around the kitchen table. It’s a labor of love, and we’re bringing it here to Santa Clarita,” Bronson said. “I’m looking forward to hearing Greg Adams and Tom Scott. There’s a big horn section here tonight. I’m also looking forward to starting to plan next year’s event. This is something that we will grow year after year. It’s a lot of fun.”
Edwards entertained the crowd with familiar tunes, played music trivia, admitted to hating karaoke and invited each respective musician onstage.
Among those were Scott, a three-time Grammy winner, who had recently met Edwards and was looking forward to playing music with a “marvelous singer.”
“Many of the musicians in this band are people that I’ve known and played with before, and it was just, ‘Why not come out and have a good time and play some good music,’” Scott said. “I’ve won three Grammys and have been nominated 13 times. I’ve played on over 2,000 records. I’ve been doing this for 55 years.”
Scott, 77, has spent the majority of his life working in the music business, composing for films and television.
“I got my first solo record deal at the age of 20, thanks to a wonderful jazz saxophonist, arranger named Oliver Nelson, who got me on Impulse! Records. I was very fortunate. I’ve done a bunch of composing. I wrote the theme song for ‘Starsky & Hunch,’ the theme for ‘Family Ties,’ a whole lot of background music for TV shows,” Scott said. “The last one I did was an ‘American Masters’ PBS documentary on the director Blake Edwards, who was the guy who directed all the ‘Pink Panther’ movies. I did the entire score.”
Despite Scott’s accolades and impact on music, he is still trying to figure out his calling, although he knows it is music-related. He encourages other aspiring musicians to do the same.
“I’m still trying to figure it out. I know it’s something to do with music, but I’m not sure what I want to do when I grow up. If musicians love music like I did, [they should] pursue it. Pursue it as a pet, be passionate about it. If you have a driving passion and think you have the talent to make it, I say, ‘Go for it,’” Scott said. “I wish for these young people that there’s something, if it’s music, great, that provides them with the same amount of passion that I felt for 65 years about music. I wish that on for them.”
