The great saxophonist Pete Christlieb - who performed at the Festival on Sunday, August 15 - answers to our five questions and tells us some memories he lived during his musical career that he could never forget .

"San Jose Jazz (SJJ): Tell us who you are.

Bruce Labadie, Festival Director, tells you more about the Festival stages: what to expect, their different vibes, the food... what you will experience besides the music.

            "Its difficult, when planning a festival of this size, to figure out how to position it in relation to other festivals. We've been lucky to year to have found some outstanding artists on each of our ten stages, and without a doubt have the best line-up of any previous year on our main stage.

            Each of the stages has its own personality: the Main Stage is more of a hang, with over 25 food booths, business and craft vendors and a wide expanse of lawn; the Blues Stage has some of the best barbeque available anywhere, and a corner lawn for the comfort of the audience; the Salsa Stage is non-stop dancing, craft vendors and plenty of Corona; the Latin Jazz Stage is the soul of the festival nestled on one of the historic streets of San Jose; at night the Latin Jazz Stage turns into Jazz Beyond, featuring electronica, hip hop and jazz for younger audiences; the Smith Dobson Stage at the Fairmont Hotel's Club Regent has straight-ahead artists from the Bay Area and Southern California; the Jazz At The Rep Stage is the site of national straight- ahead artists; the 48-Hour Jazz Club has a wide variety of emerging artists spread over the weekend; the Future of Jazz Stage includes youth bands from throughout Northern California. Finally, the Club Crawl features free performances in 15 clubs and venues on Friday and Saturday night from 8 until 2 a.m. 

Come, listen, enjoy."  

"I have been remarkably fortunate in life.  Growing up in a suburban middle class family, I got a great education in public schools and graduated from a state university with a valuable engineering degree.  I have been employed at good companies, run a successful consulting business, and co-founded a very successful ventured-funded startup.  A long while ago, I began to think about how I could pay back some of this good fortune I have had.