Newport Jazz Fest-Birdland-Jazz Standard

The day we arrived to New York we went to Jazz Standard to see Mingus Big Band (or Dynasty, not really sure). First time I was going to hear Mingus music live, I thought they would play mainly classics, I was wrong. 

To start with, 4 or 5 saxophonists were there, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, drums, bass and piano. (first jazz band I saw that was that big)

They just blew our (dad, bro and me) heads off. Playing the 15 minute or so 'The Clown', with laughing from the part of the band, just freaking tight and awesome.

That and 'Chair in the Sky' (from Mitchell's album) were the highlights and that I remember the name of the songs. 'Chair in the Sky' was sung by one of the trombonists, soulblowing, I was stunned.

Unfortunately they didn't let us take pictures and much less record, so I found this on YouTube of the same band, if you're interested:

Then it was Birdland! Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond and Dave Liebman, entitled "Masters Quartet". It's somehow unfair to listen to Mingus and then to this. This quartet is made of pro's, with a long work through the past 4 decades. Still, it really wasn't that great. 

Steve, which I love one of his ECM albums, dissapointed me with his excessive use of notes to play each solo. Steve Swallow was playing a "weird" bass guitar that sounded sometimes like a guitar, I would have preferred an upright bass a million times.

Yet, Dave and Billy (who I wasn't aware of) really did the show for me. Lovely soprano sax playing, when covering a Wayne Shorter tune, as well as some wild tenor when they covered Mr. P.C. 

What really did the night for me was that we stayed for both shows, it was free if you stayed waiting inside for the next one. I drank an Irish Coffee, first time, haha, pretty cool, while my bro was having beer. 

We were really feeling the magic of the city from then on.

Some photos I managed to take, not of great quality

We then went to Newport, legendary festival of jazz. We had tickets for Saturday and Sunday, we saw both entirely, slightly rested there haha. There were three stages, for those who don't know. Fort Adams, which is the biggest but also the most unconfortable, the sun there burnt you. 

I'll point out the highlights for me:

Jack DeJohnette Group playing 'It's About that Time', just killer long composition with a funky yet tight group. I was really happy that the group was conformed by Dave Fiuczynski on guitar, I really like his unique playing. The rest of the group was Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone; George Colligan, piano; Jerome Harris, acoustic bass guitar, who I wasn't aware of any. Rudresh was really impressive, the other two were also great.

The Bad Plus with Bill Frisell: I knew the band but had never really heard much of them, other than that they were quite good, so I dragged my bro to see them. Pretty wild stuff, bordering free jazz constantly. Yet, there was one composition that was one of the best things from the whole Fest. They covered Paul Motian's "it should've happened a long time ago" which I didn't know, and wow, that was just trippy and awesome. Repetitive and slow moving piece that reminded me of those interstellar jams by 60s and 70s psych bands. The drummer, oh man, that guy is bad-ass.

Jenny Scheinmann and Bill Frisell: yep, Frisell again, he played three times, he was doing his Lennon album, but I didn't see that. I didn't know Jenny, violin player. Just the two of them, one really didn't know what to expect. It was slow-moving, minimalistic, gorgeous. Frisell really is superb when he uses those guitar effects to create tripping atmospheres, while Jenny played lovely melodies but also followed Bill's minimalistic ideas.

Pat Metheny Unity Band: I was pretty excited to see this, though didn't held high expectations. He played last, in Fort Adams, on Saturday. Masterful, he's Metheny, why did I doubt? He started the show playing his Picasso guitar alone, wonderful way of opening. And then the rest of the band came in. The compositions were of his new album which I don't have, yet, these days you don't expect much change from Pat, and not saying it is as a truly bad thing. The up-lifting melodies, the synth guitar, some latin influences, great, great, great. 

By the way, this band consists of Chris Potter on sax (soprano, alto, tenor and bass clarinet?), Ben Williams on upright bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums, the latter had a drum solo spot that was brilliant.

But there's more to his show. The Orchestrion things! Yes, the machine-instruments were there for a part of the show, really crazy seeing an accordion moving. Without Lyle Mays, Pat needed this, hehe.

Last highlight of his, he played "Are you Going with me?" (from Offramp) as an encore, while a rather sad tune in my opinion, it was simply beautiful to listen that live.

Kurt Elling was a suprise. My brother recommended me to see him, and I thank him. He's a singer with a quartet of bass,drums, guitar and piano, playing a really cool jazz. It was good for a change of the modern stuff that I mentioned before. The guy really knows how to entertain, jokes, scat, great vocals, and good compositions that varied, it wasn't really predictable. "Jazz fans have brain" that's what he said.

The Fest ended with Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Fort Adams stage. It was rather odd, but I think those who know about jazz festivals nowadays, expected this. They played for more than 2 hours, playing a very American kind of rock with blues influences, with a woman leading the vocals. At first it was a turn-off, although they weren't really bad. But hey, I already had listened to more than 10 hours of jazz or so, why not some rock which I'm a fan, eh? It was fun, long soloing, some nice brass section. But the climax was the encore. I had told my brother at first, "no man, they can't finish with rock! They should finish with funk, in any case!". That's what they did, covered two Sly Stone songs and it was just awesome. Danced, sung, fantastic.

In the end of the day, I was extremely pleased and we reached to various conclusions with my brother about the Fest. We found it cool that there was such a wide variety of jazz styles, including some really freak ones like Bad Plus and yet people applauded a lot, also were big bands and New Orleans jazz. Probably would have wanted some other names on the line-up, at first, but no, it was just perfect. 

One concern though is about something rather deeper, the promotion of jazz and it's rather unavailability for younger people to get to know the genre. The fest supposedely says that they're all in for the promotion of new stuff as well as introducing to younger audiences, yet the prices are really not accessible at all, I had the luck to go with my dad. The audience, over 3000 persons maybe much more, not sure at all, was 80% over 40. I have no problem with that, I wasn't really expecting otherwise, but I just think that it's a shame that many jazz lovers that are younger can't really watch this and have such experience.

I really wanted to throw this up, haha, sorry that it's not really greatly written. I'll try to upload some of the videos these days.