The Sammons Center for the Arts celebrates 35 years of its fall jazz series, starting with a “full circle” concert on September 4

Back in 1989, amidst dwindling opportunities for jazz artists in Dallas, celebrated multi-instrumentalist and arranger Fernando “Vicho” Vicencio and his friend, jazz enthusiast Tom Guerin, approached the Sammons Center for the Arts about hosting some jazz concerts. The center had only recently opened the year prior after renovations transformed it from the abandoned Turtle Creek Pump Station into an arts incubator and venue.

“We agreed, and we did a couple of concerts with 40 or 50 people,” Sammons Center Executive Director Joanna St. Angelo says. She recalls that around the third concert, a performance by Vicencio himself, the center had to move the performance to the building’s main hall to accommodate the growing audience. “That’s where we’ve been doing it ever since,” St. Angelo says.

Guerin would become an administrator on the jazz series and later a member of the center’s advisory board. Vicencio would become the center’s artistic director, serving in the role through 1996. He would go on to perform more than 20 times at the center as an artist as well.

Now, 35 years after its founding, the Sammons Center is kicking off the fall jazz series’ anniversary celebration with “Coming Full Circle” on September 4. The concert includes Vicencio’s return to the center with a 10-piece band followed by a set from fellow longtime Sammons Center performer, the acclaimed jazz singer Heather Paterson with her band, Straight Ahead.

Vicencio is a saxophonist and woodwindist who performs on the flute and clarinet. He details how his set will be a “mixture going through the history of jazz,” starting in the 1920s and moving through the big band and bebop eras. “Our concert is going to have samples of the older stuff, but mostly the Miles Davis, John Coltrane jazz that is the dominant idea of jazz nowadays,” Vicencio says.

For her set, Paterson will sing standards from the Great American Songbook backed by a three-piece rhythm section. “I am picking things from the repertoire of some of my favorite singers: Ella Fitzgerald, Susanna McCorkle, Chet Baker and Sarah Vaughan,” Paterson says, calling the set an “homage to those people who helped shape me as a singer.”

Following “Coming Full Circle,” the Sammons Center will continue the 35th anniversary of its fall jazz series with performances from a range of accomplished musicians each month. In addition, there will be monthly performances for the center’s 12th season of its ongoing fall cabaret series.

“I think we’re all a little surprised and really thrilled that (the jazz series) continues to this day,” St. Angelo says. Having served as the center’s executive director since its opening, St. Angelo knows the hard work that went into running the series and the center. “By the time we moved (the series) downstairs, it was starting to grow, but I’d say the first 12-14 years, we kind of struggled to find an audience,” St. Angelo says, reflecting on the struggles of running an upstart arts organization and program. She remembers setting up the tables and chairs with Guerin for the concerts, preparing food and wine to serve to attendees and managing the center’s money all at the same time. “It was very hands-on for a long time,” St. Angelo says. “It still is pretty hands-on.”

Eventually, St. Angelo says the series’ following grew through word-of-mouth. It’s since enjoyed great popularity, including sellouts for the decade leading up to the pandemic.

Currently, like many arts organizations, the center is now working to find its footing post-pandemic. St. Angelo says concerts are typically “about 70-to-80% of capacity, although occasionally we still have a sellout.” “We are real dedicated to continuing the tradition and also to our emphasis on featuring our most talented and our best artists here locally,” St. Angelo says.

On top of the jazz series, the Sammons Center now serves as the home to 16 different Dallas arts groups as well. It also hosts rehearsal, performance and administrative space for more than a hundred local arts organizations year-round.

As artists who have seen the growth and popularity of the jazz series through the years, Vicencio and Paterson praise the Sammons Center for promoting both the artform and the talented local musicians in the area. “Being one of the creators of this jazz series, I’m so grateful that we put a little seed here, and it has been growing,” Vicencio says. “Now, we have so many new friends and people who discover jazz through our jazz series.

“Starting the tradition with Vicho (Vicencio) and then on through subsequent artistic directors, it hasn’t been a venue only for the best or the top recognized names. It has given younger, newer developing musicians an opportunity to be a part of this as well,” Paterson says. “I think that has been part of the success of this. It’s opened doors for people.”

St. Angelo explains that the demand for performing in the jazz series often exceeds the spots available, which led the Sammons Center to create Dallas Jazz Appreciation Month (D’JAM) to further promote the artform and give musicians more opportunities to perform. Each April, since 2013, a consortium of different arts programs, venues and schools come together to spotlight jazz as part of the Smithsonian’s national Jazz Appreciation Month program. “We’re hoping with that effort, we can expand not only the audience for jazz but the opportunity for jazz artists here locally,” St. Angelo says.

The jazz-appreciating audience cultivated throughout the years via the Sammons Center programming is one of the highlights of performing there for artists like Vicencio and Paterson. “The audience, they’re there to listen,” Paterson says, describing how bands can often take a backseat to socializing or dining out during club dates while the Sammons Center audience is there specifically to enjoy the jazz and appreciate intricacies like the improvisational skills of the musicians. She feels that the “whole vibe” of performing at the Sammons Center “is just at a higher level.” “The amount of people that appreciate jazz, I think has grown,” Vicencio says. “I feel it.”

In return, St. Angelo praises the talent and dedication of the renowned musicians like Paterson and Vicencio who come through the Sammons Center each year for its programming as the “throughline” over the course of its history. “The quality, the dedication of the artists, that’s been a factor from day one, and that has not changed,” St. Angelo says. “That just continues to be, I think, the most glorious thing about it.”

The Sammons Center for the Arts Fall 2024 Season begins on September 4 with “Coming Full Circle” featuring Vicho Vicencio and Heather Paterson & Straight Ahead. For more information about the series, including a full list of concerts and ticket availabilities, visit https://sammonsartcenter.org/.

These interviews have been edited for clarity.