A New Yorker’s weekend at Newport Jazz Fest

The first weekend of August brought with it the 70th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival. This annual three day jazz extravaganza is held in Newport, Rhode Island. Since 1980, when the promotion returned to Newport after a brief tryst with New York City, the festival has been held at Fort Adams State Park. The festival has a rich and vibrant history within both jazz and the east coast music scene. The Festival has changed considerably in its 70 year history and its 2024 iteration brought out remarkable performers showcasing remarkable performances but also left some room for growth as its enters its next 70-year ear.

The ethos of Jazz Fest this year was “don’t be in a hurry”. Patrons looking to breeze through the weekend without a touch of patience were met with extreme difficulty. Traffic slowed down through the small sleepy affluent beach town of Newport and bottle necked at the one and only drive in entrance to the park. After making it into the park, cars would wait in a line that queued up the single road to the parking lot where the weary traveler would wait in line for a shuttle bus that would take them to the line to enter the Festival grounds. I’m sure many are playing the worlds smallest violin for us that whine of the lines we had to wait in because we simply had to drive to the show. Offered for those smart enough not to drive to the festival were ferries that would leave from neighbouring towns to drop you right at the festival gate or there was even a ticket and shuttle bus combo you could buy that would drive you from Manhattan(or Brooklyn) directly to the festival gates.

As creative as you could be in your commute, it would still be impossible to avoid waiting in line. There are many people eager to be there who live in ceremony of their favorite art form, jazz, mixed with the natural limitations of hosting the festival in a literal seaside fort so inevitably, you end up with lines. To their credit, the festival and their incredible crew worked tirelessly to keep lines moving quickly and on many occasions passed out free water to those waiting in the heat to make sure no one risked overheating or dehydration.

The crowd consisted mostly of die hard jazz fans, families, post college friend groups, couples in their 30s, and people who got it confused with the equally historic folk festival that was held the weekend prior. The fashion trended primarily in two directions: country club or granola chic. You were just as likely to see someone dressed as if they are about to play guitar for your aunt as you were to see someone in a dancing bear t-shirt under brown cutoff overalls.  I wore linen because I never learned to play tennis.

Now on to the the most important part: the music.

Galactic

The New Orleans based funk band is known to have a rotating cast of powerful vocalist leading the 30-year old ensemble and this iteration was no exception They were joined by Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph who has been with the band for the last 3 years. Galactic held Friday’s 3pm time slot which came with the added bonus of being one of the first shows of the day to have real numbers in attendance. Summer Fridays, commutes from around the rest of the Atlantic coast, or just people too lazy to start at 11 were now finally arriving onsite and ready for their first show of the weekend. Whether it was your first show of the fest or your sixth, Galactic did not disappoint. The well oiled musical machine played a beautifully perfect midday summer set to the packed crowd at the Quad stage. Rock, funk, and jazz danced a maypole twist around each other while audience members danced and sweat through their clothes holding cold soda cans to their foreheads and cheering for more.

Cory Wong

On my way to the next act I was eager to cover, I caught the end of Cory Wong’s set on the Fort Stage. I did not know much about Wong coming into the festival but he was hard to ignore playing on the festival’s main Fort Stage. As I approached he was serenading the crowd with a slow staccato on his guitar. A clean sound with reverb set to high, echoing off into the silent summer bay fort afternoon before the rest of the band rejoined and he shredded out a La Eric Johnson.

Andre 3000

One of the biggest names at the festival this year was Andre 3000. For those who have not been following his career post Outkast, he has been working on a jazz flute album, New Blue Sun, that he released in November of 2023. Despite the name of the tour, New Blue Sun Live, it would be inappropriate to say he was touring the album as he himself said onstage “Its a one time thing. Everything we do we make up on the spot”.

The show had put in place a last minute photo ban so myself and the other photographers had to settle for taking pictures on our phones in the crowd like everyone else. The band came on promptly at 5 and silence ensued. The crowd began to cheer, chant, and whistle waiting for Andre to begin.

Andre called the show to life by turning to face the band and making a few loud guttural chanting sounds that signaled to his posse that it was time to play. He remained facing his band as they created an ambient soundscape for him to riff his flute over. He played a variety of flutes that he would swap out at whim while on stage. They seemed to be stashed next to him on stage so when the feeling overcame him he could change flutes at a moments notice. After five minutes of playing facing the band he finally turns towards the crowd and we get our first good look at him performing.

His body ducks and weaves and his head bobs with the notes he plays and reacts to the distortion he applies with his tongue or his breath. Background effects are distorted sounds you’d expect in jazz. Vibrato trumpet spun out to infinity. Heavy bass drums boosted to near 808 weight. Distorted woodwind keys held long and distorted further past the point of familiarity. The drummer had effect mics set up on either side of him lined to speakers set on either side of the crowd so he could shake a maraca into one and then the other and give the feeling of the music was chasing you around the venue. One of the most impactful moments of his set was when he took a break from 30 straight minutes of music to speak to the crowd that had formed around him. The fans hung on his every word as he spoke, rapping about Newport and being at the historic festival, joking about the only Newport he ever heard of was Newport cigarettes. He told the crowd that the band had made “a pact to fly free and explore” and that is what they did.

Brittany Howard

Following Andre 3K was another powerhouse performance by Brittany Howard. I had the pleasure to see her play at Webster Hall in Manhattan this past year and one thing she can do like no other is draw a crowd. Like the Webster Hall show, every inch of standing room was filled with folks trying to see her play. The beer garden, which up until now I had seen a crowd-less oasis in the fields around the Quad stage, was filled to capacity. Security was working overtime to keep walkways clear as people spilled over from the wings. Her vocals and her ability to make her vintage 1960’s Kent Videocaster come to life are absolutely magnetic and have the power to draw you up off your butt and onto two dancing legs.

Kamasi Washington

A huge name in Modern Jazz and one of the, what I am calling, Big Three of Jazz currently, Kamasi Washington took the headlining spot on Friday night. The crowd was eager for his performance as it felt like a spiritual kickoff to the weekends events. He had a large band accompanying him but he took the spot dead center and when he walked out he commanded the attention of the audience. He spoke, played the keys, lead the band from song to song, but the moments that captivated the most were his saxophone dalliances.

Lianne La Havas

Saturday’s midday headliner was Leanne La Havas. Saturday gets going a lot faster than Friday as all the festival-goers are off work and have an idea for how to best traverse the days events. Everyone has finally filed in and the first show to begin after the wait time for the line to enter the festival grounds drops from 30 minutes to 15. She performs solo, just her and her guitar, something that I have an avalanche of respect for. Her slightly toned reverbed guitar played a constant picked rhythm and lead while her voice bounced around the high range of her vocal range to create a one woman band. Her voice was tremendous and her confidence to play alone in front of that crowd was incredible.

Artemis

This all women jazz septet played for a slim crowd around the fort stage. The group has been playing together for years and that rapport was immediately evident as they seamlessly meandered from song to song appearing to making it all up as they go. Despite the impromptu nature of the music Artemis were playing you could see them all reacting to shared looks and body language that telegraphed to the whole band what was about to come next. The crowd may have been on the smaller size but their enthusiasm was unmatched and the band played off their energy with gusto.

Terrace Martin

The second of the Big Three of Jazz took the quad stage at 3pm on Saturday. Terrace Martin’s set began, laboured by some technical difficulties which required a live soundcheck. Martin and his band took the chance to create something unique for the packed in crowd. As every instrument played and got their levels dialed in by their sound guy, the instruments that had already been tested would keep playing. This created a deli counter sandwich of a song as the bread slid over and each layer was added on until the whole band was playing along and the musical sandwich was complete. Even after each instrument was ready to go the band continued to jam for another 10 minutes. The crowd was absolutely enthralled.

After the opening jam the band got back to their regularly schedule programming. Martin was situated off to stage left behind a box of keyboards. Between each song he would speak to the crowd encouraging them to bring the energy up or joking about how he missed the weed in California or teaching a little on the history of jazz and those who played these stages before him. Martin stood out especially on his interplay between his talk box and his saxophone, the former with which he would modulate his voice to a wah wah sound that he could then seamless transition to the sounds of his saxophone.

Acid Jazz is Dead

DJs Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad played an all vinyl DJ set after Terrance Martin and his band had departed the Quad Stage. Concert staff set in quickly to remove chairs and turn the shaded stage into a club dance floor with DJs ready to showcase everything jazz has to offer. Acid Jazz is Dead’s focus is to showcase jazz from all time periods and all around the world. The DJs spoke to the crowd before they began their set and encouraged the crowd to create what I would call a jazz mosh pit. As they dropped the needles onto records they had traveled the world collecting they made a call to action to the crowd “Sing along, Dance along. This one is gonna be a party”.

Elvis Costello

Costello was set to begin on the Fort Stage at 5pm but the band came on a few minutes late and were furthered slowed due to some audio issues. Audio gremlins seemed to be plaguing the festival today but the crews and the bands alike were handling it in stride and much to the audience’s credit so were they. The culprit behind Costello’s technical issues seemed to be in the audio routing as it sounded like mics were left hot or were being fed to certain speakers or monitors they should not have been as the show was harassed by feedback buzzing out for all to hear. It provided for a tough set but the band worked through it well and the Elvis Costello fans were willing to give their idol the benefit of the doubt. Costello directs the band while he is on stage moving his hands like a conductor signalling the brass section to rise or fall or telling his drummer to up the tempo. The 70-year old croons with a vocal unctuousness unfit for his age but brings on cheers from the crowd as he growls out the lyrics.

Kassa Overall

Sunday brought with it not only the final day of Jazz Fest ’24 but also some extremely unfavourable weather. A reprieve for those attending the festival the prior two days, Sundays gloominess brought a break in the heat that promised both no more sunburning and thunderstorm that could easily shut the show down. Before the weather could get anywhere near cataclysmic proportions, Kassa Overall took the Harbor stage at noon on Sunday. The band drew a thick crowd for its lunchtime performance. The Harbor stage is situated closest to the festival entrance and the hot licks from the band enticed all who could hear it over to see who was playing. As I drew near I can hear them covering Outkast’s “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” which is met with thunderous applause. They had the crowd dancing, cheering, clapping back all at noon on a Sunday when all seems gray and dreary.

Sunday Jazz

After Kassa Overall, Sunday Jazz took the Harbor stage. Sunday Jazz is a collective of musicians formed at the Courtland Club in Providence. The Courtland club has become a home to Rhode Island’s jazz scene since its inception in 2019. This Sunday afternoon saw 7 alumni of the Courtland Club come together to play a mix of original compositions and arraignments by members of the band. The synthesis between this rag tag mix of artists was seamless and created an egoless mix of music perfect for Sunday smooth listening.

Cimafunk

The aptly self proclaimed “Afro-Cuban Rockstar” tore the house down with his 8 piece ensemble. The band is all bright colors and high energy. Each member came out dressed to impress and took their places on stage before Cimafunk ran out in his bright blue button up shirt and ripped into their first song. Each member of the band had their own unique swagger to their playing. Rather than the big band mixing all the personalities into one larger personality, the personality of the band is that of each of their unique members and their own flourish to their style and play.

The music was rocking and upbeat and only left the audience member wishing that they had pulled the seats for this show like they did for Acid Jazz is Dead so there would be more room to dance around. Many were standing at their seat dancing anyways so why not open the pit up? The band helped fix this dancing issue by allowing a huge crowd to congregate and dance onstage while they wrapped up their electric set.

Laufey

A stand out set and a name that many should look up after reading this was Laufey. She needs no help from me to get ears on her music as shown by her recent set at Lollapalooza which was one of the best attended daytime sets in the festival’s history and was the only time that the Chicago philharmonic has ever graced any of those stages. Her performance in Newport is just another testament to her talent. She is a multi-instrumentalist with specific talent for the guitar, piano, and cello but her real power comes from her voice. I could barrage you with cliches that could try to describe how good her voice is but the only way to really understand it is to go and see her play live, outdoors if you can. We are only allowed to take pictures of the artists for the first three songs of an artists set and when her first three songs ended the everyone in the pit had to be dragged out because of how captivating her voice is. The Icelandic-Chinese performer didn’t let up for a moment in her set as she built up and up and up pushing her voice to new places seemingly just to show she could and we in the crowd just cheered and begged for more.

Noname

Noname was the lone rap artist I saw at the festival and you could tell she felt a little at odds with her setting. The show began with a few audio issues that left her standing quietly on stage with nothing to do or say. For a few awkward moments she stood there silently before deciding to take a chance. She greeted her audience and tells us she is going to try a few new songs she’s writing for her upcoming album and she is going to do them a cappella while they sort out the audio issues. She raps a verse off the top of her head and then moves on to another. It was nothing short of incredible.

Watching her move through her new material all alone on stage without even a backing track was something one of a kind that I may never get to experience the likes of ever again. After her solo session the band is able to join in and contrasting heavily with the slow poetry of her first few solo songs, the band rips into an aggressive high energy set. She comments on playing within view of a giant American flag and how she feels out of place playing in Newport because she “hates billionaires” before ripping into a song that attacks the status quo in America. Her performance was a standout of the festival for me.   

Robert Glasper

The final member of my Big Three of Jazz, Robert Glasper, came late on Sunday and just when the clouds looked to be at their angriest. This set was all about he music and none of the frill of performance. They didn’t wait or try to hide anything from he crowd. The whole band came out other and began to set up. Not just the roadies and utilities but the band themselves. When everything was dialed in Glasper joined the likes of Costello and Washington in directing his band with little more than the wave of his hand staring the show off to ruckus applause. Glasper signals to audio engineer to bring the faders up and he interns signals to his band who open up like a high pressure faucet and clasper just lets them run. He sits in a two sided cage of keyboards and sings into a mic he runs through a modulator. It was my final set of the festival as the rain began to come down earnestly and chased many of us to our cars and back the road.