The Continuum Continues at
Newport Jazz Festival July 29-31
NEWPORT, RI, July, 2016 – For six decades, the Newport Jazz Festival has been a showcase of jazz music’s brightest stars. It’s also been a nexus point where the full extent of the music’s continuum; the inventions, dimensions, styles, syncopations, and sonorities, have crossed stylistic musical barriers. Stefon Harris, Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington exemplify the very essence of that continuum. In the words of Duke Ellington, they are “Beyond Category.”
Made in the 20th Century, the vibraphone grew up at the same time jazz took shape and its lineage is a select one: from Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Ayers. Vibraphonist/marimba virtuoso Stefon Harris is the next step in that legacy, as evidenced by his sideman dates with everybody from Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron (performs at Newport Jazz Festival on Sunday, July 31) and Steve Turre, to his eclectic, jazz tradition-in-transition recordings he released from 1998: In a Cloud of Red Dust, Black Action Figure, Kindred, The Grand Unification Theory, Evolution, African Tarantella: Dances With Duke, and his latest, Urbanbus. On those recordings, Harris laid down some good vibes on 4/4 swing, go-go, Afro-Latin, R&B, hip-hop grooves. And he’ll no doubt do the same when he takes the Fort Adams State Park stage on Saturday, July 30, with his new ensemble, Sonic Creed, consisting of pianist James Francies, vocalist/flutist Elena Pinderhughes, guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Joshua Crumbly and drummer Jonathan Pinson. He credits the jazz aesthetic in the Black church for his wide-open approach to the music.
Made in the 20th Century, the vibraphone grew up at the same time jazz took shape and its lineage is a select one: from Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Ayers. Vibraphonist/marimba virtuoso Stefon Harris is the next step in that legacy, as evidenced by his sideman dates with everybody from Joe Henderson, Kenny Barron (performs at Newport Jazz Festival on Sunday, July 31) and Steve Turre, to his eclectic, jazz tradition-in-transition recordings he released from 1998: In a Cloud of Red Dust, Black Action Figure, Kindred, The Grand Unification Theory, Evolution, African Tarantella: Dances With Duke, and his latest, Urbanbus. On those recordings, Harris laid down some good vibes on 4/4 swing, go-go, Afro-Latin, R&B, hip-hop grooves. And he’ll no doubt do the same when he takes the Fort Adams State Park stage on Saturday, July 30, with his new ensemble, Sonic Creed, consisting of pianist James Francies, vocalist/flutist Elena Pinderhughes, guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Joshua Crumbly and drummer Jonathan Pinson. He credits the jazz aesthetic in the Black church for his wide-open approach to the music.
“I grew up with the culture of jazz,” Stefon says in a YouTube interview with Dr. David Schroeder of New York University. “My mother’s a Pentecostal minister, so I grew up in the Black church. And many of the cultural manifestations in jazz, are embodied in the church experience … This idea of individual expression, it’s not about copying sounds from the past. You stand up in church and you sing out of tune, the congregation’s gonna say ‘that’s alright, baby.’ You get a certain level of support … it’s about you telling a story. I think my introduction into music: from church music to soul music like Stevie Wonder, it was always about the music being used for something greater than just playing the right chord changes.”
Another artist who grew up playing in the church is the Grammy winning pianist/keyboardist Robert Glasper. A product of the “Houston Renaissance” of game-changing artists who went to that city’s famed High School for the Performing and Visual Arts – where Jason Moran, Eric Harland, Helen Sung and Beyonce are distinguished alums – Glasper moved to New York in 1997, studied at The New School, and gigged with Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett, Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove and rappers Q-Tip, Kanye West and Jay-Z. His first major label CDs, Canvas and In My Element were mostly straight-ahead affairs, but it was on his subsequent recordings, Black Radio, Double-Booked, Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP, and Black Radio II where Glasper’s pointillistic pianism with his group The Experiment beautifully blended jazz, R&B, electronica and hip-hop into one nation of under a black, brown and beige grooves, whether he’s performing with Meshell Ndegeocello, Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu and Bilal, or playing the music of Stevie Wonder, hip-hop producer Dilla, Abbey Lincoln or Sade. His 2015 release Covered, is a jazzy, mash-up of acoustic trio renditions of Joni Mitchell’s “Barangrill,” Victor Young’s “Stella By Starlight,” and Jhené Aiko's “The Worst,” and his latest, Everything's Beautiful, an evocative re-rendering of Miles Davis’ music inspired by his score of the movie, Miles Ahead, starring Don Cheadle.
So when Glasper performs at Fort Adams State Park on the Sunday, July 31, with alto saxophonist Casey Benjamin drummer Mark Colenburg and bassist Burniss Travis, be prepared to hear a multitude of moods and grooves by a master of dance and trance. “I’m a hip-hop musician, and I’m a jazz musician,” Glasper says in Philadelphia Weekly. “Jazz musicians remix every time they play, and hip-hop is the daughter of jazz. Without jazz, there probably wouldn’t be hip-hop, which is why it’s so easy to blend them. But at the same time, they are two different disciplines. You have to study both of them.”
Another high-profile project Glasper worked on was the game-changing, rap album To Pimp a Butterfly by Compton’s Grammy winning rapper, Kendrick Lamar. The 2015 CD is an evolutionary work that features jazz musicians swinging in intense, straight-ahead fashion under Lamar’s lyrical flow. Tenor saxophonist and fellow L.A. native Kamasi Washington also played on that CD. But it was his stunning, three-CD, 17-track debut, appropriately entitled The Epic, released that same year that took the jazz world by storm. Washington grew up in Leimert Park in South Central L.A, and honed his Coltrane/Pharaoh Sanders tenor tones and sheets of sound under the tutelage and mentorship of Horace Tapscott, SonShip Theus and his father, saxophonist Rickey Washington. He woodshedded and gigged at Billy Higgins’ club, The World Stage, studied at UCLA and worked with a number of pop acts including Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Stevie Wonder and Lamar. Ambitious as it is original, The Epic is a sonically sprawling confluence of mainstream, avant-garde and choir-based musical idioms. Buoyed by the intense, critical acclaim from critics, Washington – much in the same manner his saxophonist ancestor Charles Lloyd (who performs at Newport on Sunday, July 31) played for rock festivals in the sixties – plays to thousands of pop-loving kids from Bonnaroo to Coachella, and has emerged as that rare bridge that connects jazz to the masses.
Washington makes his Newport debut on Friday, July 29, and Sunday, July 31, at Fort Adams State Park, with his group, The West Coast Get Down featuring vocalist Patrice Quinn, keyboardist Brandon Coleman, bassist Miles Mosely and drummers Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Tony Austin. He proves that there are no West Coast ghosts. “I’m a big fan of Max Roach, the Percussion Bittersweet, and Abbey Lincoln. Washington says in Down Beat. “There’s stuff that Donald Byrd did with voices, and there’s Symphony of Psalms by Stravinsky. I grew up playing in choirs, so that aspect of the music has also been in there … There are a lot of connections between things, which people might not always see or expect….”
The 2016 Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Global Asset Management takes place July 29-31 at Fort Adams State Park and the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino. Artists also include Norah Jones, Chick Corea Trilogy with Christian McBride and Brian Blade, Gregory Porter, Angélique Kidjo; John Scofield/Joe Lovano Quartet; Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society; Charles Lloyd New Quartet; Tierney Sutton; Django Festival All Stars; Kenny Barron Trio; Toshiko Akiyoshi; Steve Coleman and Five Elements; Galactic, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah; José James; Kneebody, The Hot Sardines, Anat Cohen and many others.
For more information and tickets, visit www.newportjazzfest.org.
In addition to the Festival’s presenting sponsor, Natixis Global Asset Management, support comes from Alex and Ani, North Coast Brewing Co., Toyota, D'Angelico, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Rhode Island Foundation, Ticketmaster and travel partner, WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM. The Preferred Hotels of the Festival are Hotel Viking, Newport Marriott, Hyatt Regency Newport and The Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina. Media supporters are DownBeat, JazzTimes, WRIU and WICN.
Another artist who grew up playing in the church is the Grammy winning pianist/keyboardist Robert Glasper. A product of the “Houston Renaissance” of game-changing artists who went to that city’s famed High School for the Performing and Visual Arts – where Jason Moran, Eric Harland, Helen Sung and Beyonce are distinguished alums – Glasper moved to New York in 1997, studied at The New School, and gigged with Christian McBride, Kenny Garrett, Nicholas Payton, Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove and rappers Q-Tip, Kanye West and Jay-Z. His first major label CDs, Canvas and In My Element were mostly straight-ahead affairs, but it was on his subsequent recordings, Black Radio, Double-Booked, Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP, and Black Radio II where Glasper’s pointillistic pianism with his group The Experiment beautifully blended jazz, R&B, electronica and hip-hop into one nation of under a black, brown and beige grooves, whether he’s performing with Meshell Ndegeocello, Lalah Hathaway, Erykah Badu and Bilal, or playing the music of Stevie Wonder, hip-hop producer Dilla, Abbey Lincoln or Sade. His 2015 release Covered, is a jazzy, mash-up of acoustic trio renditions of Joni Mitchell’s “Barangrill,” Victor Young’s “Stella By Starlight,” and Jhené Aiko's “The Worst,” and his latest, Everything's Beautiful, an evocative re-rendering of Miles Davis’ music inspired by his score of the movie, Miles Ahead, starring Don Cheadle.
So when Glasper performs at Fort Adams State Park on the Sunday, July 31, with alto saxophonist Casey Benjamin drummer Mark Colenburg and bassist Burniss Travis, be prepared to hear a multitude of moods and grooves by a master of dance and trance. “I’m a hip-hop musician, and I’m a jazz musician,” Glasper says in Philadelphia Weekly. “Jazz musicians remix every time they play, and hip-hop is the daughter of jazz. Without jazz, there probably wouldn’t be hip-hop, which is why it’s so easy to blend them. But at the same time, they are two different disciplines. You have to study both of them.”
Another high-profile project Glasper worked on was the game-changing, rap album To Pimp a Butterfly by Compton’s Grammy winning rapper, Kendrick Lamar. The 2015 CD is an evolutionary work that features jazz musicians swinging in intense, straight-ahead fashion under Lamar’s lyrical flow. Tenor saxophonist and fellow L.A. native Kamasi Washington also played on that CD. But it was his stunning, three-CD, 17-track debut, appropriately entitled The Epic, released that same year that took the jazz world by storm. Washington grew up in Leimert Park in South Central L.A, and honed his Coltrane/Pharaoh Sanders tenor tones and sheets of sound under the tutelage and mentorship of Horace Tapscott, SonShip Theus and his father, saxophonist Rickey Washington. He woodshedded and gigged at Billy Higgins’ club, The World Stage, studied at UCLA and worked with a number of pop acts including Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Stevie Wonder and Lamar. Ambitious as it is original, The Epic is a sonically sprawling confluence of mainstream, avant-garde and choir-based musical idioms. Buoyed by the intense, critical acclaim from critics, Washington – much in the same manner his saxophonist ancestor Charles Lloyd (who performs at Newport on Sunday, July 31) played for rock festivals in the sixties – plays to thousands of pop-loving kids from Bonnaroo to Coachella, and has emerged as that rare bridge that connects jazz to the masses.
Washington makes his Newport debut on Friday, July 29, and Sunday, July 31, at Fort Adams State Park, with his group, The West Coast Get Down featuring vocalist Patrice Quinn, keyboardist Brandon Coleman, bassist Miles Mosely and drummers Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Tony Austin. He proves that there are no West Coast ghosts. “I’m a big fan of Max Roach, the Percussion Bittersweet, and Abbey Lincoln. Washington says in Down Beat. “There’s stuff that Donald Byrd did with voices, and there’s Symphony of Psalms by Stravinsky. I grew up playing in choirs, so that aspect of the music has also been in there … There are a lot of connections between things, which people might not always see or expect….”
The 2016 Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Global Asset Management takes place July 29-31 at Fort Adams State Park and the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino. Artists also include Norah Jones, Chick Corea Trilogy with Christian McBride and Brian Blade, Gregory Porter, Angélique Kidjo; John Scofield/Joe Lovano Quartet; Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society; Charles Lloyd New Quartet; Tierney Sutton; Django Festival All Stars; Kenny Barron Trio; Toshiko Akiyoshi; Steve Coleman and Five Elements; Galactic, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah; José James; Kneebody, The Hot Sardines, Anat Cohen and many others.
For more information and tickets, visit www.newportjazzfest.org.
In addition to the Festival’s presenting sponsor, Natixis Global Asset Management, support comes from Alex and Ani, North Coast Brewing Co., Toyota, D'Angelico, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Rhode Island Foundation, Ticketmaster and travel partner, WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM. The Preferred Hotels of the Festival are Hotel Viking, Newport Marriott, Hyatt Regency Newport and The Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina. Media supporters are DownBeat, JazzTimes, WRIU and WICN.
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Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc.™ was founded by George Wein in 2010 to build and continue the legacies of the famed Newport Jazz Festival® and Newport Folk Festival®. Under the auspices of the Foundation, the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals present performers who respect and honor jazz and folk music traditions, and at the same time reflect the changes in today's musical trends. In addition, the Foundation presents programs to educate young people about jazz and folk music as presented at the annual festivals. For more information, please visit www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org.
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