Festival Recap: The Newport Jazz Festival at 65 – Alive and Thriving

Festival Recap: The Newport Jazz Festival at 65 – Alive and Thriving

There are some festivals that belong on every music-lovers bucket list – Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, The Montreux Jazz Festival, The Newport Folk Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Lollapalooza, and the Monterey Jazz Festival, just to name a few. But one, The Newport Jazz Festival and granddaddy of them all, stands out for myriad reasons.

Having just completed its 65th year on Sunday, August 4, the annual three-day event is the longest-running music festival in the U.S. and one of the most diverse. The festival has not only hosted jazz legends such as Billy Holiday, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, it has also seen Led Zeppelin, B.B. King, James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, Jeff Beck, John Mayall and The Allman Brothers play its stages.

Held August 2-4 at historic Fort Adams State Park on Newport’s sparkling waterfront, the festival is no less adventurous today than in years past. Artistic Director, bassist and jazz icon Christian McBride, along with founder and legendary festival producer George Wein, have made sure of it. Honoring the past while keeping an eye on the future, this year’s lineup featured Herbie Hancock, Kamasi Washington, The Ron Carter Trio, Corinne Baily Rae, Diane Reeves, PJ Morton, Common, Tank and The Bangas, and many more.

Of course, music is the beating heart of the festival, and we’ll get to some highlights in just a minute. But there is so much more that makes this festival a standout. Here’s this writer’s list of what and why.

1. CIVILITY AND RESPECT:

This was by far the most civilized festival I have ever attended. Everywhere I turned, respect by those in attendance was on full display – respect for the music, respect for the stunning venue, and respect for each other.

About 9,000 people a day came through the festival gates, and just about all of them came not only as fans but also as true music lovers possessed of open hearts and open ears. These were people intent on taking in the music fully and reverently not letting anything mar the experience.

Corinne Bailey Rae

For example:

– I did not see a single incident of drunken, drugged-up, out-of-control or foolish behavior. Security, while plentiful and observant, must have been happily bored to tears.

– I barely encountered any incessant, disruptive chatter during performances. The few transgressors who dared try to hold lengthy conversations at inappropriate times were promptly shushed by those around them.

– Smoking was discouraged, and those who did took their puffs away from the crowds.

– People were careful not to invade each other’s space, and very little jostling went on in the standing-room-only crowds near the front of the main Fort Stage.

– Folks actually cleaned up after themselves. Unlike many music festivals, there were no telltale heaps of garbage left behind – just the occasional neglected piece of refuse here and there.

2. A SPECTACULAR VENUE:

Historic Fort Adams State Park in Newport has to be one of the most unusual and beautiful venues to hold a festival in the U.S. Built in 1841, the towering fort once guarded the mouth of Newport Harbor but is now a public recreation area and home to Sail Newport, the historic Eisenhower House, The Newport Folk Festival, and The Newport Jazz Festival.

It’s pretty hard to beat listening to music on the grounds of this centuries-old fort that boasts panoramic views of sparkling Narragansett Bay with the breathtaking Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge off in the distance, not to mention that the cool breezes coming off the bay were welcome relief from the searing August heat.

3. NEWPORT

People may come to Newport for the festival, but they stay for the charms of this small seaside enclave that is best known for The America’s Cup and gargantuan, historic mansions. This is prime New England coastline steeped in an eccentric rebel spirit stretching back 300 years that’s worth exploring.

Aside from sailing and mansions, there’s the city’s picturesque 10-Mile-Drive along Ocean Drive, tons of watersports activities, lovely beaches, fine arts galleries, a lively entertainment district, and dining to die for.

4. MUSIC:

Any thoughts of jazz’s premature demise quickly evaporates once you’ve been to The Newport Jazz Festival. Everywhere we looked, there were young people. Teenagers and twenty-some-things were legion and attending of their own accord – not because Grammy and Grandpa dragged them. These were young folks whose knowledge of jazz and enthusiasm for the art form far outpaced mine. To see teens jump up and groove to Herbie Hancock and Terence Blanchard was a thing of beauty and did my old jazz-loving heart good.

The fact that The Newport Jazz Festival offers students access to the event for just $20 for a single-day ticket certainly helps encourage youth participation. Plus The Newport Festival Foundation’s sole mission is to expand the impact of its festivals, which includes Newport Jazz and Newport Folk, by supporting music education year-round across the country. Ultimately, the goal is to preserve both genres. For more information about how to contribute to The Newport Festival Foundation, click here.

As in years past, young talent was on full display on three of the festival’s stages. Student ensembles, including the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, URI (University of Rhode Island) Jazz Big Band and RIMEA (Rhode Island Music Educators Association) Senior All State Jazz Band opened each day’s festivities at the Harbor Stage.

And the prodigious talents of young musicians from Boston’s Berklee College of Music filled the airspace throughout the weekend and proved why the school remains one of the country’s most prestigious institutions.

On Friday, Berklee students and teenage collaborators DOMi & JD Beck, (a.k.a. keyboardist and producer Domitlle Degalle and drummer and producer James Dennis Beck) gave fans a glimpse into the future with an electrifying performance of up-tempo, future sonic jazz infused with hip-hop beats and synth harmonies. Meanwhile Berklee graduate and piano prodigy 24-year-old Tom Oren brought attendees at the intimate Storyville Stage to tears with his mastery of classic jazz tunes along with a few originals.

On Saturday, thirteen-year-old pianist Brandon Goldberg, whose first album Let’s Play was just released in April, blew Storyville away with his nimble, classic style. Also on Saturday, 23-year-old vibraphonist and composer Joel Ross, who has performed with Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride and Stefan Harris, took over the Harbor Stage with ease. Too numerous to name them all, these were just a few of the gifted young people taking their much-deserved turns at the festival.

The old masters were there too. Among them was jazz drummer William “Billy” Hart (78), whose impressive resume includes performing with soul artists Otis Redding and Sam and Dave as well as stints with Herbie Hancock and Stan Getz, took to The Harbor Stage Friday with Billy Hart Quartet.

The forever-young, singer/songwriter Sheila Jordan (90), who pioneered a bebop and scat style of singing with only an upright bass as accompaniment, opened The Harbor Stage on Saturday with The Royal Bopsters. Also on Saturday on The Harbor Stage, Ron Carter (78), the iconic bassist who has recorded with legends such as Miles Davis, Lena Horne, Dexter Gordon, B.B. King and Cannonball Adderley, was showing the world how jazz classics are done with The Ron Carter Trio.

This being a build-your-own-adventure kind of festival offering far too much music to take it all in without missing something, FOMO was the only downside of the weekend. You can’t have it all, I suppose, but you can take in enough historic performances to soothe any regrets. So, here are just a few of the highlights that I still can’t believe I was lucky enough to experience.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2:

• The Sun Ra Arkestra: Led by 94-year-old band leader and multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen, the Sun Ra Arkestra opened the main Fort Stage with an energetic performance of Afro-pageantry and avante-garde big band swing that has been their hallmark since the 1950s. The thirteen-member collective strutted their stuff, dancing, singing and chanting, bringing the chill opening-day crowd to their feet.

• Kandace Springs: Classic, contemporary, sultry, soulful, versatile complex – pianist and singer Kandace Springs delivered a gorgeous performance on The Quad Stage of R&B-bathed jazz. She laid herself bare with passionate interpretations of popular soul classics like Roberta Flack’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and War’s “The World is a Ghetto” before a receptive audience that rewarded her honest and heartbreaking delivery with love and affection. She’s definitely one to watch.

• Herbie Hancock: Christian McBride put it best while introducing Herbie Hancock when he said that, once artists are known only by their first names, they have reached the place of legends. So, when people speak about “Herbie” in jazz circles, everyone knows who that is. Arguably the greatest living keyboardist and musical innovator alive (Go ahead. I dare you to prove me wrong), Hancock closed out Friday on The Fort Stage to a huge and hugely enthusiast audience.

Veteran band members Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) James Genus (bass), Terrace Martin (keyboards & sax) and Lionel Loueke (guitar) joined Hancock for a set that covered a wide-ranging selection of tunes including hard-driving funk from his seminal work Head Hunters.

Always forward-thinking, Hancock opened another door to the future and brought out an extraordinary young flutist and vocalist, 24-year-old Elena Piderhughes, to perform one of her original works with Herbie on vocoder. Much like the Newport Jazz Festival, the 79-year-old Hancock shows no signs of slowing down.

• Jon Baptiste: The music didn’t end with Friday’s closing sets. John Baptiste, the brilliant New Orleans pianist and Stephen Colbert sidekick, took a break from his day job as the perpetually effervescent bandleader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform Friday night at Newport’s International Tennis Hall of Fame. Billed as Jon Baptiste and Friends, Baptiste brought along his band Stay Human as well as well as a diverse selection of artists from and along with a diverse and brilliant cadre of artists performing at the festival including jazz pianists ELEW (Eric Lewis) and Ethan Iverson from the modern jazz trio The Bad Plus, vocalist Corinne Bailey Rae, and keyboard player and Grammy-winner PJ Morton.

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  Coming on the heals of his newly released album Anatomy of Angels—Live at the Village Vanguard, Baptiste and friend played to a packed house of jazz enthusiasts who reveled in the music and his message of unity and love. The night included two sets and selections from his new album as well as classics such as “Sweet Georgia Brown” and Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train.”

A consummate showman and bit of a light-hearted goof, Baptiste displayed all his improvisational skills during a 15-minute-long piano duel on matching Steinways with his mentor and friend ELEW. These two pulled out all the stops trading hilariously creative versions of tunes that were all over the map, including “The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s theme from Star Wars) and The Sound of Music’s “My Favorite Things.” If anyone had any doubt about Baptiste’s star power, Friday’s performance put all that to rest.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 3

• Dee Dee Bridgewater and The Memphis Soulphony: A grande dame of jazz and Broadway, 69-year-old Dee Dee Bridgewater showed exactly why she is a master of the stage with the ability to bend the audience in any way she wished with her indomitable spirit. The three-time Grammy-winner owned this stage with her confident swagger and soul-shaking delivery of R&B classics including “Soul Finger” by the Bar-Kays and “Giving Up” by Gladys Knight & The Pips. Her eight-piece band and two vibrant back-up singers laid down a foundation of funk and soul for Bridgewater to build upon. By the end of her set, every behind was up out of their seats and shaking their groove things. Mission accomplished, Bridgewater took her bows to a raucous standing ovation.

• Hancock/McBride/Colaiuta: In the liner notes to Money Jungle, the legendary album featuring Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus and Max Roach, George Wein wrote that they were a triumvirate, not a trio. This truth applied to Saturday’s awe-inspiring collaboration between Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride and Vinnie Colaiuta. This singular performance at The Harbor Stage before an overflow crowd was worth the price of the weekend’s ticket alone.

I had goose bumps and chills through the entire set that was a master class in improvisation. We were thunderstruck by the musical conversation being had between musicians who have the ability to bend the time/space continuum with their genius. This is how jazz is done – now and forever.

• Dianne Reeves: One of the world’s pre-eminent jazz vocalists, five-time Grammy winner Dianne Reeves delivered a breath-taking performance that solidified her place among jazz legends. With unparalleled grace, skill and confidence, Reeves brought her unique improvisational and R&B stylings to The Fort Stage before a sea of delighted fans for a light-hearted celebration of the power of music. After her passionate cover of Stevie Nicks’ ”Dreams,” I know I’ll never hear the song quite the same way again.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 4:

• Christian Sands (3 Grand) Erroll Garner Tribute: At just 28, Christian Sands first played the piano at three, has five Grammy nominations under his belt, and was drafted by Christian McBride to play in his trio. As if that wasn’t enough, his debut album REACH released this past April shot to number one on the jazz charts, where it sat for four weeks.

L To R: Christian Sands, Helen Sung, Tadataka Uno, Luques Curtis and Savannah Harris. Photo Credit: Dalia Jakubauskas

On Sunday, he brought his monumental talents to The Fort Stage along with two other gifted young pianists, Helen Sung and Tadataka Unno, along with Luques Curtis on bass and Savannah Harris on drums for tribute to legendary pianist/composer and master of swing Erroll Garner. The jaw-dropping performance that followed included brilliant interpretations of “Erroll’s Bounce” and “Erroll’s Theme.” They then knocked it out of the park, closing with “Gemini” by Geri Allen, the late, great pianist, composer, bandleader and educator. At one point all three pianists were playing together on one piano, flooring us all in the process. The future of jazz is held in the fingertips tips of these skillful young hands.

• Terence Blanchard Featuring The E-Collective: Mind blowing, radical, groundbreaking, dangerous, and earth-shattering don’t even come close to describing the other-worldly performance by Terence Blanchard and The E-Collective. Led by Blanchard, a New Orleans native, Grammy Award-winner and revolutionary trumpeter, The E-Collective includes Charles Altura on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano and synthesizers, Oscar Seaton on drums, and David Ginyard on drums.

Exotic and electric, the band blasted the outer edges of jazz with sonic tempos that opened a door to the future. Blanchard’s psychedelic tempos fell silent numerous times to give his young cohorts the chance to stretch their immense talents to the breaking point, including several face-melting guitar solos by Charles Altura. Clearly jazz’s youth movement is moving full steam ahead.

Christian McBride, George Wein and their stellar team have put together something magical with The Newport Jazz Festival. And I have all the confidence in the world that, in time, the baton will be passed to a generation of highly capable young people who will take jazz far into the future. This quintessential American art form is indeed in good hands.

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