Wielding a skull-topped scepter and decked out in demented makeup, Brian Miller looks very much the part. The ringleader of a gang of killer clowns, he has schooled his motley crew in the art of lurking. They hide behind bushes and around blind corners—waiting for an opportunity to set upon a young victim.

Springing into action, a member of Miller’s posse breaks into a sprint, cackling devilishly, before falling to his knees and skidding several feet on plastic-capped kneepads. A girl screams and runs for cover from the menacing marauder.

Welcome to Jester Town—one of three new “Scare Zones” at Great America’s 10th annual Halloween Haunt. Wedged between the Flight Deck and Patriot roller coasters, the town is populated by a multitude of sinister harlequins, all hell-bent on coaxing a cry from park patrons.

Mentoring young jump-scare artists is just part of what Miller oversees in his role as entertainment production coordinator at Great America. He is also active in the local performing arts community. A theater major with a background in sound design, Miller helped put together creepy audio clips for this year’s Haunt; he has also worked for the San Jose Stage Company, serving as a production manager during the theater organization’s 2015-16 season and as company manager during the 2016-17 season.

His background is typical for many who work on this spooky seasonal event, which park representatives estimate employs upwards of 700 additional workers during late September and all of October. Sean Lee, entertainment manager for Great America, says the park brings on about 400-500 monster actors and 250 behind-the-scenes contractors for the Haunt. This includes local artists, carpenters, sound designers, makeup professionals and, of course, legions of young men and women just itching to jump out at visitors from dark corners and yell “boo.”

Witchy Warning
It’s approaching 7pm on Friday evening, Sept. 22—the Haunt’s opening night—and a hoard of teenagers gathers around the large reflecting pool at Great America. Though the amusement park is not yet open, ticket-takers have let the kids in early so they can catch the commencement ceremony.

As the hour turns, a witch appears on the upper level of the Carousel Columbia. With a couple monkeys in tow, Wizard of Oz style, she explains what the park’s got in store for visitors this year. Her shrill, prerecorded voice plays over the PA system as the actor in the costume pantomimes along.

The witch hypes new visual effects that have been added to The Demon roller coaster and the overhauled Scare Zones—which include Underworld Alley and Feary Tales, in addition to Jester Town. In a surreal moment, the witch makes a veiled reference to Donald Trump: “Confused by the current political climate?” She promises it’s nothing compared with the new, disorienting maze called Chaos House.

Then the demon makes his entrance. Lumbering down a catwalk extending into the pool, he stops and begins his speech. He conjures flames from the water before him—a pretty cool trick—and fire spouts up in hot columns around the edge of the pool. He issues a guttural, ghoulish laugh and the kids are set loose.

Brian Miller gets into character with the help of makeup artist Jenn Majdi. Photo by Greg Ramar.

The Backwoods
It’s midafternoon, a little more than a week before the witch and her demon open the Haunt. Instead of the whoosh of roller coasters, the air above Great America is filled with the clattering of hammers, the buzzing of saws and the various squeals and ominous, eerie tones emanating from the park’s newest, and as-yet-unfinished haunted maze.

The entrance is located behind the Gold Striker roller coaster, and the maze’s façade resembles an Appalachian front porch. It’s the kind of setting that would make for a nice, relaxing evening of sipping bourbon in Adirondack chairs, surveying the sweep of the Great Smoky Mountains. Or, it could portend something far more sinister—a la Deliverance. Dubbed the Backwoods, the maze is billed as a “bayou hunting resort and spa” where “people have been disappearing and creatures are lurking in the shadows.”

Upon entering, guests are greeted by a jump-scare concierge and a litany of increasingly creepy clues that something is not right on the bayou. Progressing through a warren of interconnected, swampy cabins, it becomes clearer that werewolves are mixed up in this mess. In each room, different soundtracks help tell the story. And, of course, the cast of actors keep visitors on their toes. On opening night, guests are preoccupied with sniffing out the next boogeyman—as they should be, distracted from the fact that every single element in Backwoods had to be designed and built.

From the front porch, to the individualized soundtracks of each space, down to the strands of yarn and newspaper clippings that crisscross the wall of the conspiracy theory cabin, entertainment manager Lee estimates that nearly two months of full-time work went into creating Backwoods.

The haunted maze has been constructed inside what used to be an IMAX movie theater. Plastic basins have been installed beneath the boardwalks connecting the cabins, so water can be pumped in Pirates of the Caribbean-style. Catherine Lucas, operations supervisor of productions and props for the Halloween Haunt, ticks off the list of things most guests don’t consider, like the time it takes to fabricate all the props, build walls or paint rooms. “The small details of everything,” she says. “Where things go. How it’s secured down. How many people it actually takes to put it together.”

On opening night, the line for Backwoods is quite long and it’s not immediately clear if guests are listening intently to what the DJ is saying in between the contemporary country hits that play over the loudspeakers.

Those who tune their ears to the DJ will hear him dropping hints here and there that he was bitten by something earlier in the day and that he is starting to feel strangely drawn to the moon. All of this comes courtesy of Evan Fitch and his team—which includes Miller, the part-time jester, who provided the vocal performance for the pre-recorded faux radio spots.

Fitch, supervisor of entertainment and tech services for the Halloween Haunt, explains that Miller’s on-air character helps drive the story of Backwoods. “Once you get into the first cabin, you progress to the next part of the story where he transforms, he goes and he eats the intern and he runs free,” he says.

Creative Creeps
While the build team works to construct the physical spaces guests will move through, and the lighting and sound teams get the atmosphere right, visual artist and longtime Great America contractor Lacey Bryant works to make the mazes feel as though they have been lived in.

Bryant uses stencils to create wallpaper patterns, paints the floors to look like tile or old wooden planks and produces unsettling family portraits. Those plugged in to the local art scene know Bryant well. Late last year Empire Seven Studios in San Jose’s Japantown hosted her solo show “Homeward.” She’s also exhibited in spaces in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Working the Haunt is an ideal job for Bryant, who has helped out with special Halloween events and the park’s annual holiday fair for more than a decade. While many working artists tend bar or wait tables in order to make rent, Bryant counts herself fortunate for the Great America gig.

“This is what I do to pay the bills,” she says. But it’s more than that. In the time she’s spent working the Haunt, Bryant has honed her skills as an artist. “Everything I learn here, I can put into my work.”

That includes time management. Bryant has many of her duties down to a science. She can produce a large creepy painting in about 20 minutes, which is essential with the park’s demanding deadlines.

Perhaps no one on the Halloween Haunt team is as acutely aware of deadline pressures as Jenn Majdi, operations supervisor for makeup. Majdi, who works year-round at the park, says that the demand for makeup is most intense during the fall festival, when she and her team of 32 apply face paint, affix wigs and glue prosthetic latex masks to around 300 actors every night of the event. (Shows run Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights through the end of October.)

The makeup team moves through the entire queue of monsters, freaks, deranged clowns and other ghastly creatures in about three and a half hours. They are able to achieve this level of efficiency each night through practice and a well-defined game plan.

“The artists know and they practice to get their looks down to 20 minutes each,” Majdi says. “And all the artists are given specific assigned characters. And they do those exact same characters at the exact same time every night, so that they can perfect that time frame.”

Jesse Anderson plays one of the monsters on this year’s zombie roster. Speaking with him, it becomes clear that dressing up as a reanimated corpse is more than just a quirky seasonal gig.

The way Anderson tells it, when he was around 8 years old he had a magical Halloween experience. “One year, I don’t know what happened, but everyone just decided to pull out all the stops and just do insane costumes with an amazing amount of detail,” he says. “Just being able to be in the middle of all that—tromping around like a group of monsters who looked like we just crawled out of the TV—was just … there’s nothing like it.”

Anderson imagines that most people on the Haunt cast of performers have a similar story. “Pretty much everyone who does a monster here has a special connection to Halloween, in general,” he says. “So coming in and being able to do that professionally is really a dream—it’s amazing.”

Lacey Bryant uses the experience—and money—she earns from Halloween Haunt to support her work as a full-time artist. Photo by Greg Ramar.

Psycho Swirl
Back in Jester Town on opening night, it’s easy enough to escape the packs of jeering jokers—if one is willing to step into one of Bryant’s new mazes, Chaos House.

Upon entering the room, a thick cloud of stage smoke and strobe lights add to the confusion of the myriad angled mirrors lining the walls. Black and white patterns on the floor add to the confusion and prevent those navigating the maze from easily picking out a clear path. In a few of the rooms within the maze, concentric circles and wavy lines on the ground work in concert with the strobes to make it seem as if the floor is shifting underfoot.

The optical illusion is indeed disorienting. So much so, that the wicked witch’s seemingly over-the-top Trump allusion comes rushing back to mind—along with something Bryant had said just a week prior: “I think Chaos House is just going to blow people out of the water.”

It seems that both she and her friend in the pointy cap were right.

Of all the incredible blues performances Dan Ross has seen in his time, there is one he will never forget. “It was just fantastic when John Lee Hooker came out and basically rocked 3,000 people with his boot,” Ross says, recalling one of the two times the blues legend performed at the Fountain Blues Festival in San Jose.

It was the mid-’80s, and Ross was a 19-year-old San Jose State University student intent on helping build a blues festival for his alma mater. He couldn’t possibly have known back then that the Fountain Blues Festival would go on to become one of San Jose’s best known music festivals.

Not even Ted Gehrke, who was serving as faculty advisor to Ross and the rest of SJSU’s Associated Students—the student-run organization that pushed to start the festival—realized what they had set in motion. “Never in [his] wildest dreams” did Gehrke think the Fountain Blues Festival would grow like it has.

The Associated Students started the Fountain Blues Festival in 1981. According to Gehrke, the students chose to focus on blues because of its mass appeal and because of budget constraints: hiring blues musicians was cheaper than pop or rock artists.

For the first 25 years, even though the festival was free, Gehrke, Ross and others still managed to book top talent—like Hooker, Buddy Guy and Bo Diddley.

The festival did suffer some slow years. Heavy rain forced organizers to reschedule the festival in 1994 and the whole show was nearly halted in 1997 because of financial troubles. However, just like the music it presents, the festival proved tough to kill.

Organizers started charging festival goers in 2005. That same year, they booked Etta James, who undoubtedly helped ticket sales. That year’s Fountain Blues Festival sold out fast.

Today, the fest is produced by the non-profit Fountain Blues Foundation. The foundation is composed of 14 volunteer board members, with Gehrke as president and some of the same 1981 individuals who were a part of the Associated Students team that organized the first Fountain Blues Festival, including Ross. Coming into its 35th year, organizers expect to draw between 3,000 and 5,000 people from all over the South Bay and beyond.

Looking into the future, Fountain Blues Foundation member Amy Anderson says the goal of the festival remains the same as always—but with a twist.

The mission of the Fountain Blues Festival has always been to preserve the history of blues. However, Anderson says, the foundation is currently looking at ways of drawing new listeners into the fold, which means including a variety of artists and bands with different backgrounds—not just the blues.

“We’re trying to diversify the music to broaden the audience,” Anderson says, noting that younger listeners might not even realize how much the popular music they have grown up listening to is influenced by the blues.

As Ross puts it: “It’s a blues festival, but it’s really an American music festival.”

This year’s headliners are The California Honeydrops. Known for their energetic and engaging performances, The California Honeydrops play a mixture of R&B, funk, Delta blues and Southern soul. Their impressive repertoire of performances includes festivals like Outside Lands, Monterey Jazz and High Sierra. 

Returning to the festival this year is Otis Taylor. Known for songs “Nasty Letter” and his version of “Hey Joe,” Taylor has played the Fountain Blues Festival twice before—in 2004 and 2010—and Anderson describes him as “Jimi Hendrix on the banjo.” Taylor’s somber lyrics and stories capture the purest and most authentic form of the blues.

Opening the event is the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir. The award-winning choir was founded in 1986 at a gospel music workshop at Living Jazz’s Jazz Camp West. 

The festival still keeps close ties to SJSU by including a side stage where students from SJSU and area high schools showcase performances.

Fountain Blues Festival
Jun 25, 11am, $20-$75
Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose

San Jose Jazz Winter Fest is bringing 24 live performances from veteran and emerging jazz acts, as well as student groups. Here is a selection of some of the most interesting musicians playing at this year’s gathering.

Marquis Hill
Cafe Stritch; Thu, 7pm, $15-$25

Known for his technical but elegant sound, trumpeter and composer, Marquis Hill is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most imminent trumpet practitioners of his generation. Hill has had a long history in jazz with a resume to prove it. Since the age of twelve, Hill has performed in countless ensembles, earning a MA in Jazz Pedagogy from DePaul University from which he began leadership of his long running ensemble, the Blacktet. With four albums under the belt, Hill’s innovative composition and performance was awarded with the 2012 International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition and the 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. Hill is also a noted musical educator, with past teaching positions at University of Illinois, Chicago and the NIU Summer Jazz Camp. Marquis Hill and the Blacktet, which includes Christopher McBride on alto sax, Justin Thomas on vibraphone, Joshua Ramos playing bass, and Makaya McCraven on drums will be performing for one night only at Cafe Stritch. (TM)

Nicholas Payton Trio
Jade Leaf Lounge;Fri, 8pm, $25-$35

San Jose Jazz has a built reputation for consistently exhibiting exciting and imaginative musicians. With their upcoming presentation of the Nicholas Payton Trio, the company is ramping up its renown. Two decades ago he was hailed as one of the jazz’s most promising trumpeters. The Grammy-award winner has collaborated with everyone from Ray Charles to Herbie Hancock, and a revolutionary style, Nicholas Payton is considered one of the most important and distinct boundary pushers in jazz. This innovation extends to the use of other instruments such as keyboards and organs, which further extend Payton’s tantalizing but ethereal soundscapes. Much of this is a showcased on the Nicolas Payton Trio’s 2015 double album Letters, which they will be performing along with songs from Numbers  at the Jade Leaf Lounge. Payton’s trio also includes bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Joe Dyson. (TM)

Nosotras
MACLA; Fri, 8pm, Free

In 2007, an 8.0 earthquake struck Peru. It lasted for three minutes and killed 519 people—including 17 attending mass in a church in Ica. More than 1,000 people were injured and 50,000-plus houses were destroyed. The destruction still affects daily life. Nosotras formed to raise money for the survivors. Composed of female performers, the renowned collective has toured South America, hoping to inspire and stress the crucial role women play in the arts. The quartet plays modern jazz, spiced up by percussive dancing by Gabriela Shiroma and conga and cajon slapping by Peta Robles. (JF)

Incendio
Jade Leaf Lounge; Fri, 10pm, $15-$25

Before J.K. Rowling borrowed the word to christen flaming spells, Incendio served as a fitting moniker for this energetic group. Meaning “fire” in both Italian and Spanish, the band plays “Latin guitar world fusion,” which means they lay down some truly blistering acoustic and electric licks over a eclectic array of clean, invigorating rhythms. Since 2000, they’ve averaged more than 150 shows a year, hitting venues like the Sundance Film Festival, the California World Festival and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. They’ve released nine studio albums—their seventh, “The Shape of Dreams,” sat atop the Amazon Flamenco charts for the better part of 2013. (JF)

Bria Skonberg
Cafe Stritch; Sat, 6pm, $20-$30

Bria Skonberg lives as testament to how full of crap dumb blonde jokes are. The award-winning trumpeter, vocalist and composer stands out among modern musicians for her roots in classical jazz, but explorations that fold in influences from soul music, world percussion and New Orleans blues. After two heavily praised albums, So Is the Day and Into Your Own, her third album will be executive produced by San Jose Jazz Festival—the venture funded by an anonymous donor. She runs the New York Hot Jazz Camp and Festival, and still somehow finds time to volunteer at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens. (JF)

Bill Doggett
Jade Leaf Lounge; Sat, 8pm, $20-$30

Titanic R&B organist Bill Doggett is turning 100. The legendary centurion and former child prodigy formed his first collective at the ripe age of 15. He worked with and arranged compositions for Ella Fitzgerald. He toured with her as well as with Johnny Otis, Wynonie Harris and Lionel Hampton. He’s known for singles, “Hippie Dippie,” “Slow Walk” and his signature hit, “Honky Tonk.” The shimmering instrumental strolls along a loping bassline, giving time for his accomplices to rip solos on the guitar and saxophone before Doggett brings things home with a rollicking organ riff where his fingers zip, slide and pounce on the keys with holy exuberance. (JF)

J.C. Smith Blues Guitar Slingers
Cafe Stritch; Sat, 9pm, $20-$30

The Bay’s own J.C. Smith cracked into music as a drummer for the Back to Back Blues Band. Then, he traded in the sticks for an axe—a Gibson 335 to be precise—and started hacking new paths through the genre. His latest release, “Defining Cool,” stuck on the Roots Music Report for 20 straight weeks. He assists the Silicon Valley Blues Society and appears on KKUP-FM as “Johnnie Cozmik.” Rounding his lineup of slingers: Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alvon Johnson, Jimi Hendrix tribute artist Pistol Pete, and Swiss import Aart de Geus, who creates his distinct sound by pumping his guitar through antique amps. (JF)