| Winter Jazzfest Brings New Projects In Jazz To Stage
Friday, January 07, 2011
By Janaya Williams
Some of the hottest names in jazz are performing Friday night in the West Village at the seventh annual Winter Jazzfest. The festival showcases new and interesting projects in jazz music, and is timed to coincide with the annual meeting of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) in New York.
“The goal was to show the presenters that jazz is worthy of their attention and that there really is a vibrant scene happening in New York,” says Winter Jazzfest founder and producer Brice Rosenbloom.
This year, 68 groups are performing on five stages–from emerging artists like Chris Lightcap to established musicians like 89-year-old jazz drummer Chico Hamilton.
“On any given night, there is a lot of jazz happening in New York, but it’s rare that artists are able to check out their friends play,” says Rosenbloom. “This is an opportunity for artists who may have played a set 45 minutes ago to stay in that venue and check out another guy play who they may have heard of, but also hadn’t had the chance to see.”
Winter Jazzfest is January 7 and 8. One and two-day passes are available to the general public at winterjazzfest.com.
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| Chico Hamilton |
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| WALL STREET JOURNAL - NY CULTURE
JANUARY 7, 2011
Jazzfest Comes in From the Cold
By LARRY BLUMENFELD
Brows will likely be furrowed and hands wrung during this year's "Jazz Forum" discussion within the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference at Midtown's Hilton New York and Towers. At least, they were last year. The audience is aging, the arts professionals said, the music's identity either too diffuse or too narrow. And given the digital offerings available at home, it's hard to lure people out for live music of any sort. What can be done?
This year, as last, many conference attendees will find answers a few miles south of the Hilton at one of five West Village clubs during the sixth New York Winter Jazzfest this Friday and Saturday night.
A club crawl through two frigid January nights may sound counterintuitive. But don't tell that to Brice Rosenbloom, whose Boom Collective organization will pack more than 60 bands into three Bleecker Street clubs and two more spaces on Sullivan and West Third streets. Or to the nearly 4,000 people who darted from venue to venue during last year's event.
Mr. Rosenbloom, who curates music year-round at (Le) Poisson Rouge (one Jazzfest venue) created the festival seven years ago, initially filling the old Knitting Factory's three floors. In 2009, he shifted to the present format. He was inspired a bit by the annual South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, which blends an indie-rock club atmosphere with music-industry buzz; by GlobalFest, which showcases world-music artists in New York each January; and chiefly by the APAP conference, which he felt programmed too few jazz showcases and presented them in the dead space of a hotel.
At his home in Fort Greene, Mr. Rosenbloom focused on Jazzfest's evolution. "It's become this great scene," he said, "with band after band playing, and musicians hanging around, checking each other out. For these two nights, Bleecker Street is a completely different place."
That's partly due to the programming format—eight or nine groups in each venue, from roughly dinner time until 3 a.m. It also owes to Mr. Rosenbloom's liberal aesthetic. "If you as a musician consider what you're doing to fit within what you consider jazz," he said, "I'm fine with that."
Stylistic considerations aside, the event breaks down a more forbidding barrier: price. Single-night passes cost $25; two-night full-festival passes are $35. For enterprising festivalgoers, that can mean just a few dollars per band. APAP attendees get free admission: The confluence of working arts presenters and free-ranging fans seems to benefit both groups.
Adam Schatz, one of two co-presenters Mr. Rosenbloom enlisted, heads his own innovative jazz-presenting company, Search and Restore. "I think if you went to Winter Jazzfest not knowing it was connected to the presenters' conference, you'd have no idea," he said. "The passion behind this festival makes even the most industrious of industry folk—the kind who carry around notepads—become fans in an audience rather than talent assessors."
Winter Jazzfest's lineup skews toward the young and the new—then again, Friday night at (Le) Poisson Rouge ends with a sextet led by 89-year-old drummer Chico Hamilton. There's ample chance to discover fresh, iconoclastic bands, such as Andrew D'Angelo's Agogic quartet, including the innovative trumpeter Cuong Vu, and the three-trombone-based quartet Water Surgeons.
Not to mention established names doing new things. If you missed clarinetist Don Byron's excellent New Gospel Quintet at Jazz Standard in 2009, here's another shot. One don't-miss centerpiece is Friday night's "VisionFugitive!" collaboration, which expands tenor saxophonist J.D. Allen's trio to an 11-piece ensemble and distills his music through Lawrence D. "Butch" Morris's transformative "conduction" process.
Feeding from many streams, Jazzfest also documents how musical tributaries flow—via musicians. Before listening to the influential music of alto saxophonist Steve Coleman on Saturday night, one can check out two members of his Five Elements band—vocalist Jen Shyu and guitarist Miles Okazaki—showcased through their own projects. Or follow pianist Jason Lindner on Friday night from (Le) Poisson Rouge, where he plays in clarinetist Anat Cohen's quartet, to the Zinc Bar, where he performs in drummer Dafnis Prieto's Proverb Trio, and finally to Kenny's Castaways for a midnight set with Mr. Lindner's own trio. If bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott intrigued you within trumpeter Terence Blanchard's band, separate sets will reveal their visions as leaders.
Jazzfest's greatest virtue may be a conjuring of the communal spirit absent from other New York jazz events, save for the Vision Festival. Its shortcoming is that most of these bands play in an organic style requiring time to fully unfold, but sets rarely run more than 40 minutes. So call this a tasting menu—yet still a diverse bounty rooted in but not ruled by whatever we call jazz.
—Mr. Blumenfeld writes about jazz for the Journal.
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| Brice Rosenbloom and his Boom Collective organization have lined up performers such as Don Byron and Chico Hamilton for the seventh Winter Jazzfest. |
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| Hot picks
Post insiders tell you where to go!
Posted: 11:45 PM, January 6, 2011
HOT JAZZ
With more than 60 bands at five West Village hot spots tonight and tomorrow, the NYC Winter Jazzfest has certainly grown beyond its humble beginnings at the Knitting Factory seven years ago. But what began as a sort of industry showcase has evolved into, well, a party, with some bands starting sets as late as 3 a.m. At $25 and $35 for one- or two-day passes, it’s possible for anyone to affordably experience a wealth of jazz, from fiery young talents like the Robert Glasper Experiment (whose pianist-leader moonlights as Mos Def’s musical director) and the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey to established legends like 89-year-old drummer Chico Hamilton. With so many acts at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall, Kenny’s Castaways, the Bitter End and Zinc Bar, tonight and tomorrow, the choices can get overwhelming. But festival planner Brice Rosenbloom reminds us that “there’s so much great music all night, you really can’t go wrong.” For schedule and other details: winterjazzfest.com.
— Charlie Heller
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| Jazz Listings
Published: January 6, 2011
★ The 2011 NYC Winter Jazzfest (Friday and Saturday) By now a regular postholiday splurge for the New York jazz scene, the Winter Jazzfest gathers dozens of musicians, most often in sharp working bands, playing concise sets in as many as five nearby Greenwich Village clubs. Among them are Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth and Steve Coleman and Five Elements, which each released a celebrated album last year. But you’ll want to look over the full schedule, available at winterjazzfest.com. Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, near Thompson Street, Greenwich Village , (212) 505-3474, winterjazzfest.com; $25 for a single-day pass, $35 for a two-day pass. (Chinen)
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| Winter Jazz Fest 2011 Preview
January 5, 2011 by Josh Jackson
Filed under Interviews
WBGO’s Josh Jackson previews the Winter Jazz Festival with Patrick Jarenwattananon from NPR’s A Blog Supreme. Hear songs from Chris Lightcap Bigmouth, the Curtis Brothers, Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, Chico Hamilton, plus unreleased music from Derrick Hodge and the Captain Black Big Band.
http://www.wbgo.org/thecheckout/winter-jazz-fest-2011-preview/
Listen to the interview HERE.
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| Village Voice Blogs
As for the weekend, the Winter Jazz Festival takes on the city for a two-day showcase featuring over 60 acts that span over five Bleecker Street venues (LPR, Kenny's Castaways, Sullivan Hall, Bitter End, Zinc Bar). There are too many acts to name, but highlights for us include the Charles Gayle Trio, Asphalt Orchestra, Sameer Gupta's Namaskar, and Steve Coleman & the Five Elements. Tickets are $25 a day or $35 for both
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| www.npr.org/blogsupreme
5 Bands To Discover At Winter Jazz Fest
No one questions New York's jazz intensity. When several news outlets — online and printed — make it their mission to document everything improvised in the city, you know you've hit the jazz jackpot.
Parsing through the concert listings can be daunting, but choosing one event to attend on Jan. 8-9 is easy. In the heart of the West Village, there's a music cornucopia that best encapsulates the New York scene: Winter Jazz Fest. With five stages and more than 60 bands, the festival highlights mostly emerging talent, with big names such as Don Byron and Nels Cline sprinkled in, and occurs during the 2011 APAP Conference. This is where artists, managers, agents and most importantly music presenters converge on America's music capital to showcase and discover new talent. This is where concert tours are born
Categories: Take Five: A Weekly Jazz Sampler
January 4, 2011
• by Simon Rentner and Patrick Jarenwattananon
5 Bands To Discover At Winter Jazz Fest
Sameer Gupta
• Album: Namaskar
• Song: Salaam
Percussionist Sameer Gupta is cut from a global cloth. Born in India, raised in the U.S. and Japan, and now residing in New York, Gupta sews together sounds from all over the world. He plays a half-standard drum set with half tabla percussion, weaving in swing with Indian raga. His heritage is clearly apparent on his second release,Namaskar, which means "give respect" in Sanskrit. The album pays homage to the Golden Era of Bollywood: "Salaam" is featured in the 1980 classic film Dostana. Like his music, his band is a mix -- a blend of American and Indian musicians. In this track, jazz pianist Marc Cary gives an inspired performance on Fender Rhodes. --Simon Rentner, WBGO
Namaskar is available from Motema Music.
Aaron Goldberg
• Album: Home
• Song: I Mean You
Pianist Aaron Goldberg is better known as a sideman than a leader; he's put in lots of time with masters of the modern mainstream like Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis and Kurt Rosenwinkel, among many others. But occasionally his grace and virtuosity are showcased in front of his own groups, generally anchored by his core trio. (Winter Jazz Fest attendees will be treated to Eric Harland, a Tilt-A-Whirl of a drummer, playing his role.) On his latest album, Home, Goldberg's band turns melodic and balladic when it wants to, or suggests Latin grooves, or becomes a hyperkinetic post-bebop hydra. The take on "I Mean You," by Thelonious Monk, shows off the latter nicely. --Patrick Jarenwattananon
Maurice Brown
• Album: Cycle Of Love
• Song: Fly By Night
Sometimes, and probably more often than not, modern jazz just needs to feel good. This is the approach of Maurice Brown, a trumpeter bred in Chicago, who lived in New Orleans and found sanctuary -- after Hurricaine Katrina -- in the city of New York. His band, the Maurice Brown Effect, signifies his musical journey across America, picking up saxophonist Derek Douget in the Big Easy and pianist Chris Rob in the Windy City along the way. The Cycle of Love revels in the many moods of falling into an intimate relationship -- the excitement, the dreaminess, the routine, and even the disappointment. "Fly by Night" captures the bliss. --SR
Johnny's Dream Club
• Album: Johnny's Dream Club
• Song: Ciudad
The generally progressive tilt of Winter Jazz Fest extends to Latin music, as well. Witness Juan-Carlos Formell and Johnny's Dream Club, a group that's bred a different strain of Afro-Cuban jazz. Loud, rambunctious dance music this is not: It centers on Formell's acoustic guitar and wistful, almost spoken singing. His tunes feel like a sort of original folk music, seemingly tossed off with casual mastery, but they wouldn't be what they are without studied jazz improvisers, some of whom are from Formell's native Cuba. The net result is seemingly meant to evoke a hazy dream, an imagined memory of a Havana long ago -- the key word is "imagined," but it's no less arresting for it. --PJ
For more information, visit Johnny's Dream Club's MySpace page.
Portico Quartet
• Album: Isla
• Song: Line
Sounding like soprano saxophonist Paul Winter meeting minimalist composer Steve Reich, Portico Quartet exudes a feeling of airiness and wonderment. The group features Jack Wyllie on saxophones and electronics, Milo Fitzpatrick on double bass, Duncan Bellamy on drums and piano, and Nick Mulvey on percussion and hang drums. The hang -- a steel drum from Switzerland shaped like a UFO -- induces the state of elation. The London group tries to harness what it describes as "world music from the future," a contemporary sound that cannot be easily traced to a specific genre or discipline. Isla features tunes that slowly build in atmosphere and drama: "Line" begins with a sparse rhythmic pattern and progressively layers in complexity. --SR
About Us:
A Blog Supreme is an ongoing conversation about jazz for both indoctrinated fans and curious listeners, with NPR Music producers and special guests. Follow us here, onTwitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.
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| Jazz notes for the week of Jan. 5
Published: Wednesday, January 05, 2011, 8:01 AM
By Star-Ledger Entertainment Desk
Winter JazzFest
Winter JazzFest is New York City’s newest annual jazz tradition, and it is fast becoming one of its most exciting musical institutions. Currently in its seventh year, it features more than 60 acts spread across two nights and five West Village venues.
Headliners of this year’s festival include Anat Cohen with Jason Lindner, West Orange resident Charlie Hunter, David Weiss Point of Departure, Don Byron’s New Gospel Quintet, Trenton native Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Tia Fuller, and JD Allen’s VISIONFUGITIVE with conductor Butch Morris.
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg — festival producer Brice Rosenbloom of BOOM Collective, working with Revive da Live and Search & Restore, has managed to pack an unthinkable amount of creativity into a three-block radius.
The 2011 Winter JazzFest takes place Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. at five Manhattan venues: Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St.; Sullivan Hall, 214 Sullivan St.; Kenny’s Castaways, 157 Bleecker St.; the Bitter End, 147 Bleecker St.; and Zinc Bar, 82 W. Third St. Tickets are $25 for one evening, $35 for the weekend, and allow access to all clubs. Call (718) 858-2557 or visit winterjazzfest.com.
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| Latino happenings in Nueva York, Jan. 5-11
VIVA@NYDAILYNEWS.COM
Wednesday, January 5th 2011, 4:00 AM
FRIDAY 7
JAZZ: Drummers Dafnis Prieto and Pedrito Martínez and singers Juan-Carlos Formell and Xiomara Laugart are among the Latinos performing in the seventh annual NYC Winter Jazzfest, a two-day, five-venue West Village extravaganza featuring 60 groups, $25-$35. Also tomorrow. For a full schedule, visit www.winterjazzfest.com.
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| Event: WINTER JAZZFEST
Fri., January 7, Sat., January 8
Multiple venues
http://winterjazzfest.com
CAN YOU DIG IT?
The Winter Jazz Fest returns
By Jim Macnie
It’s a circus that ignites the local jazz landscape for two long nights. But better, the Winter Jazz Fest is also a sparkplug of sorts, a chance for everyone on the scene to stand shoulder to shoulder and dig sounds, spout opinions, and grab a glimpse of the artistic manna that’s with us all year long. The deal? Five venues, 60 acts, and an omni-stylistic approach that makes room for plugged and unplugged, swing and skronk, vets, and newbies. There’s no room for full recommendations here, but I wouldn’t sleep on Five Elements—they fried a few minds last year. And this is first gig for Chris Lightcap’s Big Mouth since its Deluxe earned lots of love on year-end critics’ lists. Grab a coffee and stay at the Bitter End until the bitter end (Noah Preminger is worth waiting for).
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| Goings On About Town: Night Life
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
New York Winter Jazz Fest
The little festival that could—now in its seventh year—judiciously avoids the mainstream through a smart mix of forward-thinking artists and still vital veterans. Sprawling through five West Village venues and swinging until four in the morning, the festival features more than sixty artists, including Robert Glasper, Steve Coleman, Anat Cohen, Charles Gayle, Shane Endsley, Nels Cline, and Abdoulaye Diabaté. (Jan. 7-8. For more information, visit winterjazzfest.com.)
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| THE WEEK AHEAD
Jan. 2 — 8
Pop/Jazz
by Nate Chinen
Published: January 2, 2011
There are at least two ways to experience the WINTER JAZZFEST. The first puts a premium on efficiency: you scan the schedule, spread across two nights and five Greenwich Village clubs, and map out an itinerary. This is the method presumably favored by those in town for the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, who peruse the Winter Jazzfest with their future concert calendars in mind.
The second way, more casual and a lot less pressured, involves tramping from club to club, with a flexible sense of purpose. (Some of those clubs, like Kenny’s Castaways and the Bitter End, will exceed their legal occupancy before you get to the door.) You’ll run into old friends, or make new ones, and follow the currents of word of mouth. Your Twitterfeed, or the Twitter feed of the person standing next to you, will tell you where the action is, or where it’s about to be.
Whatever your strategy, you’ll want to know that the Winter Jazzfest offers a cross section of the city’s progressive jazz ecosystem, gathering groups and artists from multiple scenes. Steve Coleman and Five Elements, who released one of last year’s more dazzling albums, will be there, as will sharp working bands led by the pianists Jacky Terrasson, Orrin Evans and Aaron Goldberg; the clarinetist turned saxophonists Don Byron, Anat Cohen and Chris Speed; and the drummers Chico Hamilton, Kendrick Scott and Mike Pride. Take notes, or just take note, and you’ll probably hear something new. Friday and Saturday; tickets and schedule: winterjazzfest.com; $25, or $35 for a two-day pass.
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| New York Magazine
NIGHTLIFE
Critics' Pick
Winter Jazzfest
An adventurous celebration of the city’s jazz community that, over two nights, packs 63 bands into five clubs along Bleecker Street. Catch serious acts as different as rambunctious guitarist Nels Cline, lyrical pianist Jacky Terrason, and hip-hop-inflected saxman Steve Coleman. Venue and scheduling information at winterjazzfest.com. — Eric Benson
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| Notes And Tones
Jazz season planners get an earful of great music
By Jon Poses
Sunday, January 2, 2011
You would think in the post-holiday world, things would be relatively quiet — especially given that people are likely burnt out socially and darn near broke. This is not the case, however, within the arts industry as a pair of major annual conferences and a juxtaposed jazz festival are set to take place later this week.
It is unfortunate that most of us have to choose between the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, or APAP, which takes place Friday through Jan. 11 in New York — and the Jazz Educators Network, or JEN, which occurs Wednesday through Saturday in New Orleans.
APAP is the giant industry gathering, relatively speaking, with 4,000 who attend it in Manhattan. As noted in this column last year around this time, APAP brings together presenters and agents from across the country so each can meet the other and consummate any number of programming marriages for the upcoming seasons. For example, the University Concert Series will send Assistant Director Kimberly Earnest and perhaps others to New York to scout out the lay of the cultural landscape for next season; yours truly also will attend this “cluster” in the hopes of coming across jazz artists for the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series.
It is only in the past few years that jazz has gained a toehold at APAP, which, quite frankly, all but ignored the art form. Thanks to a shift in the marketplace, namely the implosion and demise of the International Association of Jazz Educators, the door was opened; jazz folk are now taken seriously at APAP. In addition to the booking possibilities, there are now a number of jazz-related gatherings and forums.
Of equal importance is the creation and nearly instant growth of a simultaneous West Greenwich Village-based “Winter Jazz Fest,” which has organically morphed into a five-club festival Friday and Saturday with no fewer than 100 bands. APAP unofficially incorporated this affair into its showcase schedule, although the festival is open to the public as well. I went to this last year, and it was a revelation. Simultaneous shows start in the early evening at Le Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall, Zinc Bar, Kenny Castaways and the Bitter End, where Bob Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel got their starts. The schedule can be found at www.winterjazzfest.com.
Meanwhile, Jazz Education Network — a kind of phoenix from the IAJE ashes — has risen since its 2008 founding. The group, composed largely of jazz educators, some jazz journalists, musicians and industry/manufacturers, is a membership organization and envisions itself as a more transparent entity than its predecessor. The group met the first time in May in St. Louis at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and in kind of a gamble, decided its second annual conference would happen some six months later, in New Orleans. As noted, it overlaps with APAP. There were roughly 1,200 people in St. Louis — a far cry from the 8,000 to 9,000 that showed up at IAJE each year. Still, it is a start and a good one. The question is: How many people will make the trip only six months later and how many will make it to New Orleans as first-time members? Costs are reasonable, which makes sense given the state of the jazz economy.
Although organizers profess to be quite different from IAJE, I think they are referring to organization structure. Content-wise, JEN — and the related conference — very much resembles IAJE: educational panels offered by musicians for other musicians; industry panels about how to get started in the business; some grant-writing panels; and lots of performances — from high school and college bands as well as from working bands, including major evening performances each night. Organizers chose New Orleans because it symbolized “The Birthplace of Jazz.” Although most who attend will be directly involved one way or another, JEN’s conference is open to the public. For information and tickets, visit www.jazzednet.org.
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| LOOKING AHEAD
Time to Turn the Cultural Page
By BEN RATLIFF
Published: December 30, 2010
JAZZ
The heap of first-class improvised music in New York over the next month alone looks so good that I feel badly for everyone everywhere else. First, there’s WINTER JAZZFEST (winterjazzfest.com), next Friday and Jan. 8, spread across five clubs within a few cold steps of one another in Greenwich Village. Here is current New York jazz in context and enactment, situation and story: groups like the saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo’s Agogic, a quartet including the trumpeter Cuong Vu; the pianist Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band; the trumpeter Shane Endsley’s Music Band; and the drummer Mike Pride’s From Bacteria to Boys.
THE SAXOPHONIST STEVE COLEMAN will play that festival, at Le Poisson Rouge on Jan. 8, with Five Elements — don’t miss it — but he also appears at the Jazz Standard(jazzstandard.net) in a trio led by the drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, on Jan. 18 and 19.
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| Things to Do
101 things to do in New York City in the winter
48. Experience a jazz marathon
If you missed CMJ, fear not: You can hear up to 60 bands for $35 during the Winter Jazzfest. This year’s lineup promises the same rock-concert energy of last year’s sold-old shows, featuring Nels Cline, Charlie Hunter, Chico Hamilton, Don Byron, Dafnis Prieto, and John Medeski, among many other greats. winterjazzfest.com. Jan 7 and 8; day pass $25, weekend pass $35.
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| Music
2011 NYC Winter Jazzfest
By Hank Shteamer
Once upon a time, summer was jazz-festival season in NYC. But with several of the major warm-weather showcases now defunct, Winter Jazzfest now seems like the apex of the genre’s annual calendar. This year’s seventh edition features a dizzying 60-plus sets over two nights—here are five not to miss.
Chico Hamilton
(Le) Poisson Rouge; Fri 7
The esteemed drummer, who turns 90 in 2011, offers a master class in sensitive propulsion.
Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth
Kenny's Castaways; Fri 7
Bassist-composer Chris Lightcap presents music from his long-time-coming third LP, Deluxe, a marvel of dreamy lyricism.
Matana Roberts
Zinc Bar; Fri 7
An imaginative saxist who sings, sobs and wails through her horn, Roberts will take the stage unaccompanied tonight. Brace yourself.
Aethereal Bace—3rd Eye
Kenny's Castaways; Sat 8
Saxophone heavy Abraham Burton squares off with deadly drummers Eric McPherson and Nasheet Waits.
Steve Coleman and Five Elements
(Le) Poisson Rouge; Sat 8
In June, alto wizard Steve Coleman dazzled at Undead Jazzfest—Winter Jazzfest’s sister event—with his signature groove labyrinths. Expect more of the same tonight.
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