Encountering greatness

When rock fans first meet jazz and classical

Earlier this winter, I was able to attend the San Diego Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

While San Diego doesn’t get much love as a music hotbed nationally — generally overlooked in favor of locales like Austin, Minneapolis, or Seattle — we’ve actually got a tremendous community of musicians and their supporters here.

Or, rather, communities.

Because, as with most towns, the music coalesces around styles. And so we have a blues community, a singer-songwriter community, a punk community, metal, hip-hop, etc.

The 2023 class of the Hall included, among other worthy notables, jazz pianist Mike Wofford and classical guitarist Fred Benedetti.

The living honorees are invited to perform, and most do — including, this year, Wofford and Benedetti.

The other honorees — the superb folk-rocker and producer extraordinaire Jeff Berkley, violinist Jamie Shadowlight, Latin percussionist Monette Marino, and the late singer-songwriter Mary Dolan — drew the larger audience shares, particularly Berkley, Shadowlight and Marino.

Just before intermission at the induction ceremony, legendary local jazz drummer Jim Plank introduced Wofford, and then Wofford came up and played a Cole Porter tune on solo piano.