Frank Malfitano

At 80, the creator and founder of the Syracuse International Jazz Fest is still hitting all the right notes

By Mary Beth Roach

 

“I’m a music junkie!” This is how Frank Malfitano described himself.

But this depiction might be somewhat of an understatement, considering that the founder and executive director of the Syracuse International Jazz Fest, now 80, has presented 40 jazz festivals, as well as countless performances over the years here in Syracuse and at venues across the country.

He has been immersed in music since an early age, ever since his beloved mother, Mary, decided that her son needed to play an instrument.

He played clarinet; participated in various bands as a youth; took part in the former Eastwood High School marching band; crisscrossed the country to see some of music’s greatest legends and to present shows; and has worked on publications devoted to music. He served as director of the Syracuse Landmark Theatre in the 1990s; helped create the Syracuse Walk of Fame, located in front of the Landmark; and established the SAMMY’s, which promotes home-grown musical talent.

In the early 1980s, he founded the Syracuse Jazz Fest and since then, he has brought some of the industry’s top stars and up-and-coming artists of various genres to Central New York audiences for free.

 

His start in music

Born in 1945 in the Eastwood neighborhood of Syracuse, Malfitano’s musical instruction started at the former Nichols School and as a student at Eastwood High School, he was in the marching band.

He joked that, while the bands will often spell out their school’s name on a football field, his was such a small group, they barely had enough members to put together the “E” for Eastwood.

Having skipped the fourth and sixth grades, Malfitano ended up attending SUNY Fredonia while still in his mid-teens, but he admitted he was too young to take on college at that point. He would ultimately graduate from Syracuse University in 1972.

And while he did not take on college in the ‘60s, he did take on more music.

“I really had a tremendous advantage. I was born right after the war in ’45. The big band era, the dance era was still going on, so I got to live that. Then I got to live country and western music, then rockabilly, then rock and roll, then rock, then the British invasion,” he said.

And to live that music, he traveled far and wide.

For example, he saw The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965; went to Woodstock in 1969; and went out to San Francisco to see what he said was supposed to be the West Coast version of Woodstock at Golden Gate Park. While that event didn’t come off, he stayed in town, visited the famed Fillmore West rock and roll venue numerous times and became inspired by the triple bills that well-known concert promoter Bill Graham put together.

But the late ‘60s, too, also marked a sad time. In 1967, his father, also named Frank, died from pancreatic cancer, which left the younger Malfitano perhaps searching for himself, he said.

“I followed the music. That was my calling. That’s what I loved. Apparently, that’s what God put me on earth to do. So, I’ve tried to do it,” he said. He had no plan, but he had the ability to relocate, which allowed him to take advantage of many opportunities that came his way.

For example, he presented shows here in Syracuse; he did project work in New York City; he was involved in several jazz publications; and he spent time in Washington, D.C. He was the marketing director for the one-time Cultural Resources Council and was able to do some jazz events there. He served as executive director of the Syracuse Landmark Theater from 1900 to 1996 and then the director of the Detroit International Jazz Festival from 2000 to 2006. He returned to Syracuse, was a presenting manager for the Stanley Theatre in Utica in 2007 and 2008 and helped care for his mother, who passed in 2010 at the age of 90.

 

The beginnings of Jazz Fest

The first Syracuse Jazz Fest was in 1982 at Oliver’s Night Club, which was on Erie Boulevard at Bridge Street. This year’s, at Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards in LaFayette and Syracuse University, will be the 40th edition.

Over the past four decades, the event has had several homes, including Longbranch Park in Liverpool; Song Mountain in Tully; Jamesville Beach; Onondaga Community College; and Clinton, Hanover and Armory squares in downtown Syracuse.

Of the move to LaFayette this year, Malfitano said, “There’s a need to reinvent yourself. Venues have shelf lives. Festivals have shelf lives. If you don’t change it up, it becomes the same thing every year,” he explained.

Malfitano has built up a stellar network of contacts over the years and he has brought many of them to the Jazz Fest stage.

But have there been any stars that, after Malfitano was able to book them, made him think, “Wow!?”

Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin were among them.

When he brought Dizzy Gillespie to the 1989 Jazz Fest at Longbranch, Malfitano said it was a “breakthrough moment.”

“He was larger than life, created bebop along with Charlie Parker,” Malfitano said. He got to know Gillespie while working in Washington, D.C., and he was friends with Gillespie’s manager, Charlie Fishman. Malfitano said that he would frequently attend Friday night seders at Fishman’s home and Gillespie, along with other luminaires, would often show up.

In 2000, Malfitano put together a star-studded Jazz Fest in Clinton Square with Ray Charles, Diana Krall, who was just starting to break out, Dave Brubeck, Pete Fountain and David Sanborn. He brought the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, to OCC in 2007 and 2015, with the latter show causing traffic to be backed up for miles.

That he has been able to have known and been associated with such legends is not something that Malfitano takes for granted.

He is looking forward to this year’s lineup, bringing some international artists to Central New York and giving a shoutout to Louisiana, which he called the birthplace of jazz.

The British band, Hejira, will make its North American debut with a celebration of the jazz of Joni Mitchell; and Sweden’s Queen of Swing Gunhild Carling, along with the Carling Family Band, will offer a tribute to Louis Armstrong, featuring the Syracuse Horns.

From Louisiana, the festival will welcome Dumpstaphunk, featuring Ian and Ivan Neville, the son and nephew, respectively, of Aaron Neville; Nathan Williams Sr. & the Zydeco Cha Chas; and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

 

The future of Jazz Fest

This will also mark a transitional year for the event.

Malfitano was sidelined in 2024 after suffering a heart attack. He had gone to St. Joseph’s Hospital for a painful kidney stone and was informed he was having a heart attack. During his recovery, which he described as long and slow, he had plenty of time for thought and reflection and he began to develop a succession plan for Jazz Fest.

Earlier this year, he announced a new administrative team to the festival. While he said he is still actively involved with most of the day-to-day tasks, he’s receiving a lot of “fresh and exciting new ideas from our newer administrative team members whenever possible.”

He called the restructuring as a work in progress. While the festival has a new venues and new dates, there are still a lot of traditions, partnerships, sponsors and vendors that are continuing with the event, so Malfitano said it’s “a blending and a combination of new and old that requires our team sharing responsibility for things as much as possible.”

And with his extensive five-decade relationship with artists, agents, booking agencies and artists’ managements, Malfitano expects that he will continue as “something of an artistic director and someone involved with talent buying and programming.”

“Now I see myself as a bit of a preservationist of American heritage music and as a presenter. I do hopefully get to educate people outside the classroom about their music, great American music.”

But Malfitano is not content to just provide music. He continues to be involved in various other areas of the Syracuse community.

 

Giving back

“To be able to give back to a city that gave me everything, gave me music lessons, gave me a life, gave me a wife, gave me children,” he said. He is married to former Y94 radio personality, Kathy Rowe, and together they have a blended family of six children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

One of those projects was the six-story mural at 333 E. Onondaga St., titled “Legendary Syracuse Firsts,” which he worked for about 18 months to bring about. The piece, completed in 2022, honors four great basketball stars with ties to Central New York — Manny Breland, Dolph Schayes, Earl Lloyd Jr. and Breanna Stewart — who have distinguished themselves on and off the court. Lloyd, for example, played on the 1955 championship Syracuse Nationals professional basketball team, but before that, in 1950, while with the now-defunct Washington Capitols, Lloyd became the first African-American to play in the NBA.

Whether it’s music or community projects, Malfitano remains on the go.

“I’ve got to have something that challenges me and I’ve got to have something that motivates me that I think is going to make the community a little better or make people happy or bring people together,” he said.