Gala celebrates another year of vibrant sounds at SFJazz Center

In the middle of a tempest, winds howling and heavy rain whipping about outside of the gleaming $64 million building at Fell and Franklin streets on Wednesday, Jan. 18, the SFJazz Center celebrated its fifth gala.

Guests in designer suits and stilettos breathlessly hustled inside for the center’s annual gala — an evening featuring an all-star cast of jazz musicians, including the SFJazz Collective, saxophonists Joe Lovano and Joshua Redman, guitarist Bill Frisell, vocalist Mary Stallings, and trumpeter Terence Blanchard.

Redman, whose first gig for Kline was as a Berkeley High School sophomore in 1984; Frisell, a former SFJazz resident artistic director who paid tribute to the late vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, a founding member of the SFJazz Collective; and Stallings, a previous Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, who showed up for a sultry rendition of “Angel Eyes.”

“It’s great to have the SFJazz family here,” said Kline, who started his Jazz in the City series of concerts in 1983 and persevered through the years, bringing the SFJazz Center to fruition and standing proudly on its stage to mark the milestone anniversary.

Stefon Harris pays homage to Hutcherson on Friday, Jan. 20.; Redman organizes a Saturday, Jan. 21, event for the San Francisco tenor sax titan Joe Henderson; and Miguel Zenón is music director for the Sunday, Jan. 22, set in honor of John Handy.

Hussain and Handy closed out the party on Wednesday with a sweet, simple jam — the saxophonist turning around and beaming as the tabla master performed with lightning-speed precision and proficiency, sitting cross-legged on a rug, surrounded by half empty water bottles, his jacket and a duffel bag.