Newport Jazz Festival looks to its future

There was a palpable shift in the musical air at this year's Newport Jazz Festival, the first year in which the new artistic director, Christian McBride, put his stamp on the event. 

Christian McBride, George Wein

Founding producer George Wein, 91, still heads the Newport Festival Foundation that runs the jazz and folk festivals in Newport. But the musical choices mostly were McBride's, and that lineup delivered the largest weekend attendance the festival has seen in quite a few years.

Combined attendance was 25,500 for the three afternoons at Fort Adams State Park and a sold-out opening night concert at historic Newport Casino on Friday, August 4. Saturday's attendance at Fort Adams was 9,600, just 500 tickets shy of a sellout for the day.

Exceptional jazz with firepower

Allmark, Antell

John Allmark’s Monday evenings at the Met Café in Pawtucket RI generally feature his very fine big band. This past Monday, Allmark presented his octet, a brass-rich band that gives each player a bit more time in the spotlight than the big-band format permits.

For that evening, the horn line included Allmark (trumpet), Tucker Antell (tenor sax), Mark Vint (alto sax), Angel Subero (trombone) and Bob Bowlby (baritone sax), Dennis Hughes (piano), Bill Miele (electric bass) and Jim Lattini (drums) comprised the rhythm section.

The octet’s first set included a wide range of bop classics from the likes of Horace Silver, Benny Golson and Kenny Dorham, artfully arranged to feature the textures and possibilities of the horns. The band also dug deep into Dave Holland’s “Blue Jean,” which was a feature for Bowlby, and a spirited take on Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” that closed the set.

Musical impacts linger in jazz and beyond

If you’ve ever experienced a musical epiphany, you know of what I write.

It’s about those special encounters with music – not necessarily jazz – where you walk away with goose bumps from the experience. The memories linger for a long time. Perhaps it was the band’s chemistry and musical conversation, perhaps some other intangibles, something that leaves you almost speechless, beyond saying “wow.”

I was reminded of that impact of music last weekend in western Massachusetts at Mass MoCA, the sprawling contemporary art museum in North Adams, housed in a 250,000 square-foot former mill complex.

Mass MoCA’s many exhibits include Dawn DeDeaux and Lonnie Holley’s collaborative installation, Thumbs Up For The Mothership. 

Their multi-faceted installation consists primarily of found objects that were recrafted and are exhibited in ways designed to provoke serious thinking about the issues facing our planet.

The Strength of Music.....

Holley’s portion of the exhibit space included the folk artist and musician’s installation called Vox Humana III: The Strength of Music Lives After the Instruments Are Destroyed.

Detail

This Alabama-born artist, now based in Atlanta, combined a wide range of junked/destroyed musical instruments into a visual commentary. To me, it said, the best musical experience lingers long after the notes ebb into the night.

Other viewers may have different takeaways. That's just fine. That's art's purpose. Right?

When less is more

Patricia Dean

Simplicity can be a breath of fresh air in jazz. One such example occurred on Thursday, July 20 when drummer-singer Patricia Dean performed at the Venice FL: Performing Art's Center's Local Spotlight Festival, an intimate summer lobby series.

Dean appeared with bassist Don Mopsick and guitarist Dave Trefethen as "Patricia + 2." Their performance was inspired by singer Sarah Vaughan's classic 1962 recording Sarah + 2 with guitarist Barney Kessel and bassist Joe Comfort.

The slimmed-down format brought simplicity and sensitivity to the material they dug into because none of the musicians got in each other's way. The result often was simultaneously cool and sultry, with Dean offering beautiful vocals and preferring brushes to drumsticks most of the night.

Pianist will be remembered at Newport

Suffice it to say, Geri Allen will be there in spirit.

Geri Allen at Newport, August 2004

The pianist had been scheduled to perform at this year's Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 5 in the all-star, all-woman trio that has featured her with bassist Esparanza Spalding and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

That changed late last month when Allen succumbed to cancer.

Under the new plan, Allen will be honored with a one-set performance being called Flying Towards the Sound: For Geri, With Love. Carrington and Spalding will share the stage at Fort Adams State Park with three pianists who were proteges, collaborators and/or friends of Allen: Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran and Christian Sands. 

Gates and Morgan – two different takes on vocal jazz

Giacomo Gates

Hot House, New York City’s long-running monthly jazz guide, asked me to profile singer Giacomo Gates, as well as preview singer Melissa Morgan’s metro-area gigs for its July issue, which is now out.

It can be read online or downloaded - or picked up at the many metro NYC jazz venues. 

Gates and Morgan have their own jazz vocal niches because of their approach and specialties. 

Melissa Morgan

You can read here about Giacomo, a master of many trades.

Melissa’s spotlight is available here. 

The jazz of summer

The concert season in southern Florida pretty much mirrors the months when the area has the most visitors and seasonal residents.... say October through late April or early May. While that makes great sense, some programmers are also taking note that a considerable number of Floridians don't go north for the summer, or for the full summer.

A fair number of restaurants still offer jazz entertainment for their patrons year-round and there are concert gigs if you look for them.

Dick Hamilton

Here's one of the latest examples. The Venice Institute for Performing Arts is running a Local Spotlight Festival throughout June, July and August in the lobby of the Venice Performing Arts Center. It includes a Summer Jazz Series of once-a-month concerts featuring fine area musicians.

The first such jazz event was a Thursday, June 22 concert by Dick Hamilton's quartet, which featured the leader on keyboard and trombone, guitarist Steve Martinucci, bassist John DeWitt and drummer Johnny Moore. All four musicians are based in Sarasota.

The music community helps its own

When a musician gets in a life-altering jam, the music community tends to respond in a very big way.

One of the latest instances involves West Coast bass player Marc van Wageningen. He and drummer David Garibaldi were injured severely on January 12 when struck by an Amtrak train while were walking to a Tower of Power performance at Yoshi’s in Oakland CA.

Marc VW, a 30-year fixture on the Bay Area’s jazz, funk and Latin music scene, has been subbing in the funk band since 2002. He was the most seriously injured of the pair. He underwent surgery to remove his spleen and repair broken bones and facial fractures. Like many musicians, he had no health insurance.

CDs of Note – Short Takes

Taking a look at new CDs by Antonio Adolfo, Mike Longo, Yoko Miwa, Norbert Stachel, and John Stein and Dave Zinno.…

Living his jazz mentors’ advice

Bass player and educator Brandon Robertson practices what he teaches.

Brandon Robertson

Robertson earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in music performance at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where his mentors had sage advice. “They’ve all told me to go out and make my own name for myself. Make my own success,” Robertson says. “I just want to be positive, be professional and play as well as I can play.” 

He’s a busy addition to the Southwest Florida jazz scene since moving here summer. He performs regularly at area jazz venues in addition to his day job as an adjunct professor of instrumental studies at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. He has subbed for the regular bass player in the Count Basie Orchestra. (More on that later.)

CDs of Note - Short Takes

Taking a look at new CDs by Lili Añel, Ron Boustead, Laura Dubin, Diego Figueiredo, Steve Khan, Joachim Kühn, Sarah Partridge, and The Three Sounds....

Oh, have times changed in Newport

There was a time after the first phase of the Newport Jazz Festival (1954-1971), that jazz pretty much was a dirty word in Newport. The city, known as a playground for the super-rich, was a Navy town transitioning into a tourist mecca. 

Always a night with musical surprises

You never know just what's in store when the Dan Miller Quartet performs on Tuesday nights at the  Roadhouse Cafe in Fort Myers FL. There are always musical surprises, and that's a good thing in this case.

It's JAM time again. Get your jazz on.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month - and it is flying by.

The Smithsonian Institution decreed the month's status 16 years ago as a way to spread appreciation for - and interest in - the music genre. Many activities now find themselves under that celebratory jazz umbrella.

The National Endowment for the Arts moved its annual NEA Jazz Masters induction concert from January to April, and, six years ago, UNESCO added International Jazz Day to the mix. That global celebration closes the month on April 30. It reaches more than 190 countries with thousands of performance, education and community service programs in cities and town large and small.

So how are you honoring Jazz Appreciation Month this time around? 

An evening of artful exuberance

In the right hands, Dixieland jazz is more of a feeling than a specific repertoire. It’s not what you play, so much as how you play it. Bob Leary’s sextet closed out the Charlotte County Jazz Society’s 2016-17 concert season exploring a wide array of vintage material that had toes a-tapping.

Eric Alexander shares many shades of bebop

Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander fully embraced the rich and vibrant sound of bebop in his formative years as a jazz player - and continues to help it evolve a quarter-century later.

Eric Alexander

That was the takeaway after his Wednesday, April 5 appearance with the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra at Artis-Naples' Daniels Pavilion. Despite the big name, the band is actually a sextet. They explored a wide range of standard material, finding ways to add their own energetic stamp on it. In each case, the music was stretched for expansive and interesting solos by all of the participants.

Guitar mastery on full display for jazz fans

Diego Figueiredo's Brazilian guitar artistry will make your jaw drop. His nylon-stringed acoustic guitar is merely the vessel for astonishing sounds that come out of his musical psyche, delivered by unusual blends of technique.

A robust sound rooted in early jazz

Trombonist Wycliffe Gordon is a modern-day ambassador for classic jazz dating back nearly a century. He digs the repertoire and style, putting his own stamp on it whether performing vintage songs or his own newer material.

Wycliffe Gordon

Such was the case on Friday, March 24 when Gordon performed at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in Fort Myers as part of its Jazzy Nights concert series. He was backed by four Southwest Florida jazz all-stars: tenor saxophonist Lew Del Gatto, pianist Joe Delaney, bassist Don Mopsick and drummer Tony Vigilante.

CDs of Note - Short Takes

Taking a look at new CDs by Joe Bourne, Andrea Claburn, Ingrid and Christine Jensen, Jeff Rupert & Richard Drexler, and Jimmy Scott….

Looking ahead: Southwest Florida jazz calendar

Here is a rundown of noteworthy jazz events, principally in the Sarasota to Naples territory, from now through April when the 2016-2017 concert season winds down.

Celebrating Stan Getz and other jazz giants

Tenor saxophonist Jeff Rupert & Friends, featuring rising star singer Veronica Swift, wound up a 10-day Florida concert tour on Sunday, March 19, with a stunning matinee performance in Venice.

Jeff Rupert

 Rupert, who directs the University of Central Florida's Jazz Studies Program, was joined for this performance by fellow faculty members Richard Drexler on piano and Marty Morell on drums, plus Swift and bassist Don Mopsick. 

New Orleans on parade - and other surprises

Singer Lisa Kelly and trumpeter JB Scott had a few surprises up their sleeves for their return performance at the Charlotte County Jazz Society on Monday, February 13. The Jacksonville-based musicians spent about one-third of their two-hour concert digging deep into music associated with New Orleans. They also.brought a larger band than anticipated and featured Scott on several vocal numbers in addition to his solid trumpet artistry.

Celebrating a man and his music

The depth and breadth of pianist, arranger and composer Dick Hyman’s career seems astonishing by any musical standards. Most aspects of his career, which began in the late 1940s in the thriving Manhattan music scene, were touched upon Tuesday, March 7 at the 37^th annual Sarasota Jazz Festival.

Trad jazz with a few twists

Clarinetist Bud Leeds brought musicians together from near and far - in this case, mostly far - for his annual South County Jazz Club matinee performance on Sunday, March 5 in Venice FL. His "Trad Jazz Ensemble" featured players who are right at home in the traditional jazz/Dixieland genres, but the afternoon touched on more recent music as well.

Jane Monheit digs Ella - and plans to keep on digging

Jazz singer Jane Monheit's musical home is the Great American Songbook. She showed a Naples, Florida audience on Friday, February 24, that with sensible bits of personal redecorating, it is still in very good hands.

Jane Monheit

She performed two 75-minute sold-out shows at Artis Naples' Daniels Pavilion, sharing her love for "First Lady of Song" Ella Fitzgerald. Material from Monheit's recording Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald (released last year on her own label, Emerald City Records) made up half of the night's repertoire. The other half consisted of Ella-related songs that Monheit has not yet recorded as part of this project.

Afro-Cuban jazz under the banyan trees

Chuchito Valdes

Latin fire is in pianist Chuchito Valdés' genes. He's the son of Chucho Valdés and grandson of the late Bebo Valdés, two of Cuba's venerable jazz pianists.Though now based in Cancun, Mexico, he carries on the family tradition, much like his globetrotting father. 

Chuchito shared many elements of his Afro-Cuban jazz technique with a crowd beneath the majestic banyan trees at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota FL on Sunday, February 19.

A jazz event 50+ years in the making...

To say it was long overdue is an understatement. Joshua Breakstone and Don Mopsick grew up in Linden. NJ. Their families knew each other and sometimes hung out together back in the 1960s, long before either man had any designs on a career in music.

Joshua Breakstone

Guitar modernist Breakstone and Mopsick, best known as the bassist in Jim Cullum's Jazz Band for more than 18 years, performed together for the first time on Friday,. February 17 at a South County Jazz Club matinee concert at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice.

A night of jazz with "George Who?"

You may not know him by name, but changes are great you've heard this saxophonist's performances over the past five decades on countless hit pop, rock 'n' roll or jazz recordings, movie and TV soundtracks.*

Studio musicians and even big-band section players often toil in anonymity, unlike the exposure that can come from small group jazz performances. If you do know George Young by name, so much the better. 

The fine art of solo jazz piano

Dick Hyman

Either as a snowbird or a full-time resident, pianist-composer-arranger Dick Hyman has lived 30 miles up the road in Venice for a few years longer than the Charlotte County Jazz Society has existed. 

The stars aligned on Monday, February 13, for Hyman to make his first CCJS appearance in Port Charlotte. It was long overdue. And it was also the first solo piano concert that the society has presented in its 27 seasons.

A fine tribute to Brazilian jazz

To fully appreciate the rich place that Brazilian jazz holds today among the world's music forms, you have to go back to its roots in the late 1950s and the 1960s. So that's what a top-notch quintet did on Sunday, February 12 on Longboat Key, across the bay from Sarasota FL.

The event, co-sponsored by the Jazz Club of Sarasota and Longboat Key's Temple Beth Israel, musically transformed the temple into an acoustically superb jazz room for the afternoon, one where the instruments needed little or no amplification.

Jazz saxophonists dig the Great American Songbook - and much more

Saxophonists Peter and Will Anderson are steeped in the jazz and Great American Songbook classics, but their material is never fenced in by that repertoire.

Peter and Will Anderson

Such was the case on Friday, February 10 when they performed at a South County Jazz Club matinee concert with guitarist Felix Lemerle.

Swinging with Gates is quite a jazz journey

Giacomo Gates' jazz vocals mastery is rooted deep in the scat and vocalese traditions, then blended with his engaging ability to put songs in context and good humor. He has carved out his own special niche among jazz vocalists. His career included construction work on railroads and the Alaska Pipeline among many other things before diving into jazz full time around 1990.

Young jazz singer draws on her inner bop

Veronica Swift

Veronica Swift was born with jazz in her blood. It sounds like singing in the genre comes as natural to her as breathing.

Swift, the 22-year-old daughter of singer Stephanie Nakasian and the late bebop pianist Hod O'Brien, was first runner-up in 2015's prestigious Thelonious Monk International Vocal Competition. She graduated last month from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music with a Bachelor in Music, majoring in jazz voice.

On Friday, January 24, she shared her artistry with the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto Quintet at Fort Myers' Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center. The event drew a sellout crowd of about 400.

Looking ahead: Southwest Florida jazz preview

Southwest Florida's 2016-17 jazz concert season will continue through May. Here is a rundown of noteworthy jazz events, principally in the Sarasota to Naples territory, from now through March.

A jazzy way to end the day

Eddie Metz Jr.

Drummer Eddie Metz Jr. brought his mighty International Trio plus tenor saxophonist Harry Allen to Sarasota FL to provide a musical balm to Inauguration Day on Thursday, January 20.

"We're glad your here rather than at home cheering or yelling at the TV," Metz said at the outset. "We don't care what side you're on -- because this is the universal language of music."

Jazz guitar mastery and heartfelt moments

Guitarist Larry Coryell, Russell Malone and Nate Najar teamed up Thursday, January 19 for an evening that showcased their individual styles and common ground as players. The concert, billed as the Great Guitars of Jazz, was held at the Venice (FL) Performing Arts Center.

A jazz singer's heartfelt return to familiar territory

Toronto-based singer June Garber delivered a superb - and superbly programmed - performance on Friday, January 13 as part of the South County Club's matinee concert series in Venice FL.

June Garber

It was the first area appearance in nearly two years for Garber, a vocalist whose art crosses the border between jazz and cabaret with ease. The occasional cabaret-style gesture or expression is nearly forgotten, however, when she immerses herself in the jazz feeling and is surrounded by ace instrumentalists.

Sarasota Jazz Project returns for a strong big band night

What a difference three years makes. The Sarasota Jazz Project returned to Port Charlotte on Monday, January 9 for Big Band Night in the Charlotte County Jazz Society's concert series. 

With very few personnel changes, the band was stronger and more in the groove compared to its ho-hum December 2013 performance. It showcased both classic and a bit more contemporary material, and this time it also featured a top-notch guest singer. Miami-based Lisanne Lyons sang with a mix of poignancy, bluesy grit and bits of scatting that enhanced her eight-tune performance.

A masterful night of straight-ahead and Gypsy jazz

Martin Taylor

Jazz guitar master Martin Taylor was the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra’s featured guest at the sextet’s January 4 concert at Daniels Pavilion. It was a spectacular night on all counts. 
 

 The award-winning Englishman, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2002, dazzled the Artis Naples audience with his style and musicality in a 75-minute set that showcased his sheer talent, sense of bandsmanship and touched on his best-known career association. He spent toured the world and recording more than 20 albums with French violinist Stephane Grappelli from 1979 to 1990.

The year in jazz

My comprehensive compilation of significant jazz happenings across the US and around the globe during 2016 is now posted at All About Jazz. You can read the details here. 

To summarize: It was a year of triumph and a year of tragedy in the jazz world. It bubbled with events and initiatives to strengthen jazz’s place in American and world culture, as well as a variety of venue openings, closings and cancellations. Jazz and stories about jazz men and women hit the silver screen over and over. 

Pop star David Bowie put his farewell musical ride in a jazz context. The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra financing scandal cost the trumpet-playing founder his job. Four young musicians lost their lives in horrible ways. The National Endowment for the Arts welcomed four new NEA Jazz Masters and the jazz world said farewell to five others who were among the many industry-associated musicians and figures who passed away over the past year.