Friday was the most exciting day of the weekend for me as it was the day reserved for the "rising stars"/"up and coming" artists. So this was really cool since it was a lot of the artists that are currently pushing new boundaries in the jazz world today - on the day where most people are still working - only 3,500 people attended on the Friday - and the capacity is 10,000 (which I think is about half of how many people were there on the Saturday and Sunday). However, it also means there's some unfortunate overlap since all these artists are playing on the same day (such as the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and Kneebody playing at the same time).
I started out the day with the Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet, whose album "The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint" I mentioned in my top 50 of last year - and I dug what he created live even more than that record. Some of the most cinematic and spiritual music that I've heard in a long time.
Then the Steve Leehman Octet played some crazy cerebral through composed shit that was truly mind bending...but also somehow a lot of fun
Kneebody was another highlight of the weekend. And for some exciting news to folks who are into them - they played some super dope new material from a record coming out in early Fall which will be a collaboration with electronic artist Daedelus.
Snarky Puppy was fun...but I felt like their set last year was a lot more interesting. I know they've gotten a lot more hype since, and have been hitting the festival circuit way harder - and I feel like because of that they've shifted to become more accessible to a larger audience ):
Jack Dejohnette's Made in Chicago group opened up the day on Saturday - which was easily the best thing happening that day, but unfortunately it was on the main stage which was not the right environment for that kind of thing. If you haven't heard the "Made in Chicago" record (which I think is pretty damn brilliant and will definitely be high up in my top 50 records of this year) - it's kind of in the vein of what the Wayne Shorter Quartet are doing nowadays - in the sense that it's pretty free, often a-tonal, and very organic - at times feeling more like spontaneous composition. It's not the kind of thing that most folks dig - and since unfortunately the majority of folks who go to the Newport Jazz Festival because it's a thing to do rather than to hear the music just stay at the main stage - the music got diluted by a huge audience talking over it and putting out bad vibes since they couldn't relate. I'm talking about the folks that bring a bad paper back romance novel and read in their lawn chair with the music for the festival just providing a soundtrack for that, or the absurdly rich people who live in newport and have more money than they know what to do with and just come to the festival because it's what hip rich folks do, or the folks who want to be in that camp and pretend to be. What I caught of the set itself was absolutely amazing - but the quad stage would have served this set so much better since the audience would have been the folks who actually cared to listen - and they would have had a much more intimate venue for it.
Cécile McLorin Salvant's played a bunch of new material from a record she's putting out in September. I found out about her from the jazz festival last year - and I think she's gotten even better since. She won Downbeat's Jazz Vocalist of the year - along with a bunch of other awards - and she totally deserves it. For those unfamiliar with her - she's pretty traditional in what she does - but she brings a really fresh energy to it.
The biggest bummer of the entire weekend was Kenny Garrett. I really dig some of his stuff - especially 2006's "Beyond the Wall" and a handful of other tracks (such as "Sing a Song of Song"). My favorite material of his tends to be darker and more on the spiritual side. The first few pieces he played were solid - and then his set slowly devolved into him just hyping the crowd (and very poorly at that). The last two songs he spent more time trying to get the audience to sing things back and yelling, "WHERE MY HAPPY PEOPLE AT!?!?", "WHAT!", "COME'ON" in a very DMX fashion than he spent behind his saxophone (not that there's anything wrong with DMX...Kenny Garrett simply does not get the crowd amped nearly as well as DMX and would be better serving the audience by playing the saxophone in my humble opinion). I dig that he's trying to do something positive and get the audience involved...but it was among the most boring music I've heard in a long time and a huge disappointment since he's put out so much great music with so much depth that my expectations were really high.
Sunday started off with Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra - I'm usually not one for big band/orchestras in jazz - but he's got a really modern approach and they're super tight. The addition of Rudresh Mahanthappa.and DJ Logic definitely helped take this to the next level.
I got to the Harbor Stage early to get a good spot for Bill Frisell's set and unfortunately had to sit through the last couple tunes of Scott Robinson's set who I felt was simply weird for the sake of being weird - the last two songs I caught were "Weird Canyon" and "The Mental Wizard" - the later was the more painfully proggy of the two.
However - it was totally worth enduring to be in the front row for Bill's set. He started relatively more traditional and then it built into one of the heaviest and gnarliest sets I've ever heard from Bill. And then he closed it with a really beautiful reimagining of "What the World Needs Now" (which was the song that Dionne Warwick was playing when there were riots at the festival in 71).
It's pretty damn amazing that at age 90 George Wein is still seeking out new jazz artists to showcase at this festival that's been happening for 61 years now. Some of the greatest sets I've ever seen in my life have been at the Newport Jazz Festival and I'm glad to say that even after all this time the festival is still in good hands.
(George <3)
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