Barcelona Jazz Fest @ 50 104| International Festivals 109| Gems in Switzerland: the Jazznojazz Festival
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90| EARSHOT EMBRACES DIVERSITY 92| UNITED STATES FESTIVALS 100| BARCELONA JAZZ FEST @ 50 104| INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS 109| GEMS IN SWITZERLAND: THE JAZZNOJAZZ FESTIVAL Simphiwe Dana is shown performing at the 2018 Cape Town International Jazz Festival in South Africa. (Photo: Rashid Latiff) NOVEMBER 2018 DOWNBEAT 89 Myra Melford, shown here playing the 2015 Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle, will perform at this year’s edition. DANIEL SHEEHAN Earshot Jazz Festival Fosters Progressive Sounds ver the course of 30 years, Seattle’s Earshot Earshot had gathered enough steam to mount not a proven commodity.” Jazz Festival has earned a reputation as its inaugural festival. Frisell moved to Seattle shortly thereafter Oone of the premier U.S. jazz gatherings Though the early editions presented a mix of and lived there until 2017. (He’s now back in committed to new sounds. This year, the month- styles, Earshot co-founder Gary Bannister (who New York.) He has played Earshot numerous long spree (which runs Oct. 7–Nov. 4) features later booked Seattle’s Jazz Alley and died in 2010) times. This year, he appears as a member of Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret, Marquis Hill, favored the avant-garde, and Gilbreath has fol- Circuit Rider (led by cornetist Ron Miles and Keyon Harrold, Fay Victor, Jakob Bro, Harriet lowed his lead. Born in Seattle and raised there featuring drummer Brian Blade). Miles’ 2017 Tubman and Jazzmeia Horn, while also present- and in Minneapolis, Gilbreath, 70, worked for release with the band, I Am A Man (Yellowbird), ing marquee names such as David Sanborn, Pat years as a construction estimator before vol- also included pianist Jason Moran and bassist Metheny, Kamasi Washington, Bill Frisell, Maria unteering for Earshot in 1990. Two years later, Thomas Morgan. Schneider, Tom Harrell and Regina Carter. he found his calling as its executive director. Like neighboring jazz festivals in “For us, where the art form is moving for- Over the years, Gilbreath has presented Seattle Vancouver, B.C., and Portland, Oregon, ward is where the juice is,” says Earshot Executive debuts by The Bad Plus, trumpeter Ambrose Earshot is a sprawling, urban affair, spread out Director John Gilbreath, who has led the organi- Akinmusire, keyboardist Robert Glasper and over a variety of venues, from nightclubs like zation since 1992. pianist Kris Davis, as well as multiple perfor- the Triple Door, Showbox and the Royal Room Earshot’s commitment to edgy music goes mances by trumpeter Dave Douglas (before he to concert spaces like Benaroya Hall (home of back to 1984, when a scrappy group of volun- was well-known) and AACM figures such as the Seattle Symphony Orchestra) and Cornish teers started a newsletter, then formed a non- multi-instrumentalist Roscoe Mitchell. College’s Poncho Concert Hall. This year, profit to present concerts by local musicians, as Frisell played one of his first engagements the festival will present 62 concerts, plus film well as the very first Seattle appearance by leg- with his own band for Earshot, in 1989. screenings, readings, panel presentations and endary pianist Cecil Taylor. (Full disclosure: “It was rare that we could get a gig then,” the workshops. On average, the festival fills about This writer was an Earshot Jazz co-founder guitarist recalls. “It was a big deal for us. Earshot 15,000 seats over four weeks. Gilbreath is espe- and, briefly, its first executive director.) By 1989, is willing to take a chance on something that’s cially proud that 40 percent of the groups this 90 DOWNBEAT NOVEMBER 2018 DANIEL SHEEHAN Bill Frisell first played Earshot in 1989. year are led by female artists. “I was really trying to do 50 percent women-led ensembles,” he says. “I wound up at 40. Last year it was 25. So, we’ll just keep on it.” Melford, who has played the Earshot Jazz Festival every few years since the early ’90s and this year will be celebrating the release of Snowy Egret’s second album, The Other Side Of Air (Firehouse 12), supports Gilbreath’s efforts. While Melford notes other U.S. festivals also give voice to the avant-garde—the Chicago Jazz Festival, New York’s Vision Festival and the Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles among them—she credits Seattle as being “way out ahead in the diversity of players and approaches, and especially emerging and experimental, progressive young musicians.” Over the years, Gilbreath has accomplished a lot with a little, operating with a bare-bones staff—one managing director, a part-time newslet- ter editor and, during the festival proper, a production crew of five—and partnering with other organizations to share expenses, personnel and risk. Though the festival budget has grown from $42,000 in 1992 to $275,000 in 2018, that’s small potatoes compared to other large-scale festivals, where corporate-sponsored budgets can be measured in the millions. One way Gilbreath economizes is by stretching the festival out over several weeks. Though this sometimes can make the event feel like a long, dense concert series, rather than a festive celebration, it affords Gilbreath a wide window from which to pick and choose acts that might already be on tour. The gaps in between leave nights open for local artists, such as pianist (and longtime Hermeto Pascoal collaborator) Jovino Santos Neto, who is part of the lineup this year. “The three-day festivals that are spending 3 million bucks can create anchor dates for tours,” Gilbreath noted, “whereas we need to be more opportunistic in our booking.” Though the Earshot Jazz Festival always has included at least one artist of the stature of a Keith Jarrett or Wayne Shorter, the event has been crit- icized in the past for catering to a boutique audience Gilbreath calls “the faithful 50.” But that might be changing. This year’s bill boasts a robust bal- ance of old and new, established artists and rising stars. Two major grants Earshot recently received from the Doris Duke and Andrew W. Mellon foundations have been a tremendous boost to the organizational budget. The funding already has enabled Earshot to double its full-time staff and begin digitizing 34 years of Earshot magazine. The grants also stipulate benchmarks for adding much-needed spon- sorships and partnerships. Such growth feels appropriate to the vast expan- sion Seattle has experienced in the past decade, largely due to Amazon, which employs 45,000 locally, and other tech companies, like Adobe, which has a large branch plant in the Fremont neighborhood, right down the street from the Earshot office. “I’ve always felt there has to be the perfect corporate partner out there, in a city so committed to innovation and the creative spirit, but that still honors tradition—just like jazz,” Gilbreath observed. With or without a corporate sponsor, Earshot soldiers on, committed to new sounds, just as it has from the beginning. —Paul de Barros NOVEMBER 2018 DOWNBEAT 91 UNITED STATES CHRIS GRAAMANS JB MCCABE PHOTOGRAPHY Pianist Gerald Clayton and bassist Essiet Okon Essiet at the Oregon Coast Jazz Party Charleston Jazz Festival Frost Music Live! Angel City Jazz Festival Newport Performing Arts Center. Music Director Holly Coral Gables, Florida Los Angeles, California Hofmann’s roster highlights the talents of numerous September 2018–April 2019 Sept. 30–Oct. 14 acclaimed artists, including DownBeat poll winners. The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami This fest features more than 15 performances spanning LINEUP: Regina Carter Quartet, Helen Sung, Grace Kelly will present more than 100 concerts and events in seven venues across Los Angeles. It presents nearly 100 Quartet, Tanya Darby, Sinne Eeg, Yve Evans, Mimi Fox’s four themes: Frost Classics; Jazz, Pops & Beyond; Frost of today’s most acclaimed, boundary-pushing artists on San Francisco String Trio, Kerry Politzer's Bossa PDX, Ser- Faculty Recitals; and Frost Lectures and Workshops. the jazz scene. The festival will include the world pre- ena Geroe, more. Among the highlights are concerts featuring interna- miere of trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith’s oratorio devot- oregoncoastjazzparty.org tionally acclaimed guest artists collaborating with Frost ed to Rosa Parks. faculty and students. The Signature Series also features LINEUP: Wadada Leo Smith, Satoko Fujii’s This Is It! Trio, 3LWWVŵHOG&LW\-D]])HVWLYDO a Jazz Roots concert at the Adrienne Arsht Center and Xenia Rubinos, Ches Smith/Craig Taborn/Mat Maneri, 3LWWVŵHOG0DVVDFKXVHWWV Frost Symphony Orchestra performances with guest Subtle Degrees, Azar Lawrence Experience, Tiger Trio Oct. 5–14 conductors. (Myra Melford, Nicole Mitchell, Joëlle Léandre), Noah The Colonial Theatre and other venues in the Upstreet LINEUP: Jeff Beal, Kneebody, Carl St. Clair, Trudy Kane, Preminger Quartet, Lisa Mezzacappa’s avantNOIR, Chris- Cultural District participate in this fest, with the headline Tian Ying, Gerard Schwarz, Joshua Henry & Marcus toph Irniger's Pilgrim, Lauren Elizabeth Baba’s theBA- weekend taking place Oct. 12–13. The free “jazz crawl” Lovett, Rafael Padron with Eglise Gutierrez & Shelly Berg, BAorchestra, Silverscreen Sextet. features local musicians performing in restaurants and Jo Lawry, Ingrid Jensen, Adam Rogers, Michelle Merrill, angelcityjazz.com lounges throughout the downtown area. PRISM Quartet, Sybarite5, Thomas Mesa, Jodi Levitz, LINEUP: Christian McBride’s New Jawn, Veronica Swift, Alan Johnson, Ross Harbaugh & Tian Ying, Frank Ticheli, Gabriel Severn, more. Zephyros Winds, Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra with Texas Jazz Festival Corpus Christi, Texas berkshiresjazz.org John Daversa and Charles Castleman, Larry Rachleff, more. October (Dates TBD) frostmusiclive.com This free all-ages event features four stages, food and Duck Jazz Festival market vendors, and dancing. Duck, North Carolina Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival LINEUP: Past performers include Greg Abate/George Oct. 6–7 Boston, Massachusetts Prado, Powerhouse Big Band, Cruise Control, Alex Garib- Held at Duck Town Park, this non-ticketed festival pres- Sept.