Savannah Music Festival hosts eclectic shows this spring

• Cameron Carpenter. March 25, Lucas Theatre for the Arts

• Ricky Skaggs, Ry Cooder and Sharon White. March 30, Lucas Theatre for the Arts

• Dwight Yoakam. March 31, Johnny Mercer Theater

• ‘Within Our Gates.’ April 1, Lucas Theatre for the Arts

• Del McCoury and David Grisman. April 3, Lucas Theatre for the Arts

Underneath the blue sky ceiling inside the Fox Theatre sits a big man with a golden horn. He’s wailing.

His name is Wycliffe Gordon, and he is playing solo plunger-muted trombone to an almost empty theater. Hidden in the lecherous glissando, altissimo squeaks and rude guttural pedal tones pouring out of his heart is a melody. Only after about 32 bars does it become apparent that Gordon is playing the official state song of his homeland, the noble “Georgia On My Mind.”

As he stands close by and listens to the frankly emotional performance, Rob Gibson, executive and artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival, just shakes his head and smiles.

"That is Georgia," says Gibson. Gordon, a Waynesboro native and former protege of reigning jazz lion Wynton Marsalis, is now a leader in his own right, a composer, performer, educator and a steady presence at the Savannah fest, much to Gibson's delight, because Gordon brings the native flavor that every good festival must have.

Gordon has traveled the world and played in every continent, and all those experiences are in his sound, “without losing the sound of Georgia,” says Gibson. “That soulful sound that comes out of this state.”

Gibson and Gordon are at the Fox taping a short interview (and Gordon’s performance) at the behest of the Georgia Council for the Arts, which will contribute it to a greater project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts looking at the arts in all 50 states.

As far as the arts in Georgia are concerned, performers like Gordon and festivals like Savannah’s are key. Over a double IPA at the tavern next door to the Fox, Gibson and Gordon talk more informally about how the festival, which begins March 24, acts as a kind of incubator of creative projects for the state.

One of those projects is a 75-minute composition for jazz orchestra that will accompany the 1919 Oscar Micheaux silent film “Within Our Gates.” It’s the oldest movie made by an African American, and it tackles some difficult issues, including white racism, lynchings, black racism and “complex relations within the African-American community,” said Gordon.

The silent movie will be screened at this year’s Savannah fest, with a live 19-piece orchestra providing the soundtrack. It will be only the second time the piece has been performed, and it will require nine rehearsals to get the music right. “Wycliffe is kind of a perfectionist about these things,” says Gibson.

After that, who knows? How often do you see silent films screened with a live orchestra providing original music for the soundtrack? (And we’re not talking about Star Trek here.)

In other words, it’s a big undertaking for a one-of-a-kind performance event that has only a small chance of being monetized. But this sort of handmade unique occasion is what sets Savannah’s festival apart.

From March 24-April 9 Savannah will present 17 days of jazz, classical, bluegrass, international and American roots music, with an emphasis on interesting combinations and the occasional bespoke show.

This year’s smorgasbord offers blue chip classical fare (the complete Beethoven piano trios will be played over two days), all-star country (Dwight Yoakam), roots Americana (Ricky Skaggs and Ry Cooder with vocalist Sharon White), international music (a Balkan brass band blowout) and bluegrass and New Grass (Del McCoury and David Grisman).

There are not too many concessions to pop accessibility. Gibson likes to talk about Savannah’s music in the context of nourishing meals. “Savannah is a farm-to-table mentality,” he says, touting the free-range tunes and grass-fed traditions served in the city by the sea.

Can the festival grow to the size of Charleston’s Spoleto U.S.A., which takes place May 27-June 12?

This will be Spoleto’s 40th festival. With a budget of $6.5 million, the Charleston festival attracts 70,000 visitors. Savannah’s fest is in its 27th year; the budget is $3.6 million; attendance is about 35,000.

Gibson doesn’t discount that possibility. But he underplays it.

“Sometimes just surviving from year to year is success,” he says wryly. “But if your budget is up, and your ticket sales are up, and the quality is high, then you’re doing well.”

How ever they want to measure their festival’s success, Savannah’s event still has an intangible plus, say both Gibson and Gordon, a little lagniappe that keeps the party successful, even if it can’t boast Charleston-sized numbers.

Gordon noticed it this way. He had been working in New York and touring, and he came back to Georgia recently and was walking down the street in Savannah when a stranger walking in the other direction said hello.

Just that. And Gordon realized how much he had been missing those cordial greetings.

“‘Hello’ brought up so much for me,” said Gordon. “That’s how I grew up. It’s like coming home and meeting up with old friends and musicians and jamming with them.”

And that’s why he likes coming back. “The food, the people, the music, the hang. I don’t do that party scene much, but here I look forward to doing that. I kind of need it.”