Pitchfork Music Festival returned for its 15th year on September 10th for a weekend of incredible music, food, and art. The show’s artist’s graced the three stages with enough energy to power even the dimmest corners of Union Park. 

Day one of Pitchfork started unconventionally with waiting in line to go down the stairs from the “L” station. Ahead of me, several other people in line were dressed in a similar theme: reusable water bottles clipped to their bags, beaten up Dr.Martens, and vintage T-shirts. The sounds from the festival were floating up from behind the gates, and ticket hawkers stood prepared at the base of the stairs to shout out their wares.

The three stages were at the various corners of the park, with large swaths of dead grass in between. Early in the day, some attendees opted out for lounging in the shade while they listening to the performances, the sound systems carried music loud and crystal clear to the back of the park. I arrived in time to see the Chicago local, DEHD, blast through their set.

Vocalist and bassist, Emily Kempf commanded attention during her performance. Wearing 4 pigtails and baggy clothing, she exuded the kind of effortless coolness that permeated the festival. Listeners swayed to some of the songs in an almost meditative trance. Her face was illuminated by the camera’s, giving us glances at her braces-filled snarl as she shredded through song after song. She asked for a “vibe check” at one point to which the crowd responded with enthusiastic cheering. DEHD’s performance was a perfect constellation of riffs, crooning, and headbanging.

Immediately following DEHD, Indie darlings, Hop Along began their set. Already drawing a crowd at their mic check, the listeners cheered at every snatch of song that came from Frances Quinlan’s guitar. Once ready, they launched right into “Waitress” and to the sounds of screaming fans. Hearing Hop Along live is an experience not to be missed. The myriad of layers to their sound, the rasp of Frances’ voice, and the general feeling of myrrh are something that doesn’t always come through when listening to recorded music.

Like many other artists would share throughout the weekend of the festival, Frances expressed a collective feeling: “It feels so good to be doing this again”.

Saturday began with me running to catch Divino Niño. Having only seen them once before in 2019, I knew that their show was not one to be missed. Hanging near the back of the crowd, Camilo Medina’s face greeted me on the screen, charismatic and full of energy.
Sporting a white tank and combat boots and a pearl necklace, Camilo crooned and thrust across the stage. With all the bravado of a rockstar, Camilo truly took us there. The band switched seamlessly between moods and even instruments, at times forgoing guitars completely to rap or dance around the stage. It was a great reminder of what live music can be, especially after months of lockdown.

We ended this Pitchfork weekend with one thought in mind: See Danny Brown. This year marked the ten-year anniversary of his album, XXX, which Danny made sure to mention during his set. New to his music, I wanted to see firsthand what his stage presence was like, and to hear his incredible lyricism firsthand. What I was met with was a hodgepodge of music festival moments: Fans rushing to get to the stage, Danny doing call-and-response with his choruses, crowd surfing, and good old-fashioned moshing. By the time a wall of death opened in front of the stage, I knew that this was going to be the highlight of the show. Danny bantered with the crowd, admitting he hadn’t practiced his songs over quarantine: “I was too busy with my air fryer, man.” Which turned out to be true as Danny stumbled over the lyrics to one of his songs and jovially laughed it off. The crowd could care less it seemed as the energy radiating off the crowd was permeable. A turquoise blue bra sailed onto the stage at one point, of which Danny scooped up and wore for part of the set.

After a summer spent mostly indoors, it felt good to see Chicago concert-goers come together under the sun once again for a weekend of live music. If it’s one thing this city knows how to do, is celebrating the return of live music with all the joy and screeching one can handle.

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NYC Winter Jazz Festival week continued into the Saturday night marathon with the first select performance at Mercury Lounge. This spot was packed for the early set by trumpeter Marquis Hill. Marquis became known for blending of styles and the warmth of his tone on trumpet which were both on full display tonight. He was playing with a band of musicians that, as he put it, are “some of my favorite musicians in the world.” Their rapport with one another definitely showed, particularly in the interplay between James Francies on keys and Joel Ross on vibraphone. Marquis and band sounded great, revisiting his early works on New Gospel.

For the next set, I returned to Webster Hall for the second night of the Revive Music stage, which was definitely the place to be for the night, as evident by the very thick crowd. Luckily I caught the end of Brandee Younger’s set with her band Soul Awakening. Brandee is a mesmerizing presence on stage and carries on the legacy of musicians like Dorothy Aashby and Alice Coltrane with a fresh approach.

Makaya McCraven returned for the second night with the same cohort of musicians but an entirely different set. This was his first preview of the upcoming album, We’re New Here: a Reimagining by Makaya McCraven, which reworks the music of Gil Scott-Heron. Makaya used a MacBook and Ableton to incorporate some Gil vocals and additional beat layers – like the claps/snaps on “New York is Killing Me.”

The theme of the Revive Music stage was mental health awareness, which was addressed by numerous musicians and spoken word artists on the mic throughout both nights. Makaya took time before their final song to address the audience, one that was filled with many musicians, reminding musicians to check in on each other, and talking about how the people on stage with him weren’t just his bandmates, they had become his family. “Music is an art form that has the ability to heal the artist AND the listener, and it’s a really special thing to be a part of that.” They closed with a new rendition of “I’m New Here” with Junius Paul on vocals.

Terrace Martin’s Gray Area followed. Terrace talked on the mic quite a bit, about his story being from Crenshaw, about his ego-less band, about wanting to share a message about more than achieving financial success. He introduced his special guest Keyon Harrold by telling the story of how they met when they were 15 years old at band camp. He laughed and said, “that’s some real nerdy shit… band camp.” They performed “Valdez Off Crenshaw” together.

The last set of the night at Webster Hall was Robert Glasper, playing to a packed crowd. The trio warmed up the stage with a cover of Radiohead’s “Packt like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box.”  There was something incredibly poignant about hearing Robert’s vocoder rendition of the lyrics: “After years of waiting/nothing’s changed.” With a résumé and circle of friends like that of Robert Glasper, everyone knew there would be surprise guests. One song after another, he introduced different friends to the stage:

Taylor McFerrin for a beatbox battle; Terrace Martin on keys/synth for an R+R song (he stayed on stage for the rest of the set); Yebba for vocals on “Fuck Yo Feelings.”

Then he introduced drummer Karriem Riggins to come on stage, telling the story of how they met in 1998 in J Dilla’s basement in Detroit. Robert said to the audience, “any Dilla fans here?” and the crowd cheered. “Ok, then y’all are gonna like this.” Karriem and Robert started what was clearly a Dilla beat, then Robert says, “and then I met this rapper…” he shared, which to everyone’s astonishing surprise was Common who came out on stage right on the beat. The audience erupted. The group went into “Nag Champa” together while Common really worked the crowd. Vocalist Muhsinah was also on stage, she and Terrace did Dilla’s vocals on the chorus with the audience singing along.

Common and Robert had some hilarious banter – you could really sense the friendships that these guys have with each other. They closed with “The Light” and Common got the crowd involved in the chorus. Muhsinah (and another female vocalist at the end) did the chorus. A really beautiful end to a star-studded set.

For a bonus round, Sunday night offered up From Detroit to the World: Celebrating the Jazz Legacy of Detroit and honoring Marcus Belgrave at Le Poisson Rouge. The lineup of this night included Detroit jazz legends Ron Carter and Louis Hayes, as well as a new generation of Detroit musicians and students of Marcus Belgrave such as Karriem Riggins, Theo Croker, Kassa Overall, and Kasan Belgrave.

There were four sets of music, curated by singer Joan Belgrave, the wife of Marcus Belgrave. Though it was a long night of music, it proved to be worth it when the final set included lots of switching on the instruments and mixing the generations of musicians for fresh arrangements of some of Marcus Belgrave’s compositions. “Detroit Day,” with Joan Belgrave on vocals, Zen Zadravec on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Karriem Riggins on drums was a highlight.

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Under an ever-widening umbrella of the term jazz, NYC’s Winter Jazzfest is growing to become one of the best places to experience the creativity and artistry of a new generation of jazz musicians.

In its 16th year, the festival’s program included events all over lower Manhattan and Brooklyn over 11 days. With hundreds of musicians all in the same place at the same time, artists who inherently collaborate and jam together frequently, naturally you can expect at least a few surprises and impromptu moments that make this festival a lot of fun.

As 2019 drew to a close and we prepared to turn the page to a new decade with the arrival of 2020, there were a plethora of “Best of The Decade” lists that popped up on music sites all over the web and social media. One of the unequivocal favorites amongst many writers and music news sources – and my own top album from the past 10 years – was Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly. This album was a standout for many reasons, and a bold artistic statement for Kendrick Lamar after the success of good kid, m.A.A.d. city. But it also encompasses one of the major trends in music of the past decade: an overt collaboration between hip hop artists and jazz musicians. Many artists have been quoted as saying that “jazz is the mother of hip-hop” and hip-hop producers have been sampling jazz music for many decades. But To Pimp a Butterfly brought that relationship to the forefront, in style, instrumentation, and production. The credits on TPAB include Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, and Flying Lotus – all artists that are rooted in jazz but have been defying musical categorization throughout their careers. These are the kind of musical artists that are typically the highlight of the NYC Winter Jazzfest, artists that are all over the liner notes of your favorite R&B or hip-hop albums, even though they might not be household names.

The signature events of the NYC Winter Jazzfest are the Manhattan marathon nights: multiple venues all over the Village area with several hours of music sets, all happening simultaneously. This means that you can catch a lot of great music in two nights, but you’ll also certainly have to miss some acts that you’d like to see – tough choices! Here’s the start of my coverage through a weekend of amazing music: Friday night marathon by venues.

I started the night at SOB’s to catch The Era Footwork Crew from Chicago. The dancers warmed up the floor in front of the stage, and towards the end of their time, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble came on stage and played for their final dance and the dancers’ individual bows. This made for a seamless transition into HBE’s energetic set. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble’s original lineup included seven brothers, sons of esteemed jazz trumpeter Phil Cohran. Though the lineup has slightly changed over the years, the energy is still the same. They deliver an infusion of jazz, and hip-hop, with funky grooves and house rhythms that definitely got the crowd moving.

Next, I went to Webster Hall for the Revive Music stage. Over the years, Revive Music have been curating an incredible lineup of genre-blending musicians that lean heavily to a hip-hop sound. The set that I caught was Chicago drummer Makaya McCraven’s In These Times – one of his latest projects, with a cohort of mostly Chicago-based musicians including Matt Gold (guitar), Irvin Pierce (tenor sax), Marquis Hill (trumpet), Greg Ward (alto sax), Junius Paul (bass), Brandee Younger (harp), and Joel Ross (vibraphone). These musicians have all played together and with Makaya for so many years, their chemistry on stage together is remarkable. Although he was tucked all the way in the back of the stage, behind the seven musicians with him, his nuanced power on the drums couldn’t be missed.

After an interlude of spoken word artists and a DJ set by Raydar Ellis, Revive Big Band led by Igmar Thomas filled the stage. Igmar Thomas (musical director for Lauryn Hill, Nas) is a charismatic bandleader and got the crowd involved as they moved through some jazz classics and also some mash-ups, like a Theolonius Monk tune right into Common’s “Thelonius.” Special guests included Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Dee Dee Bridgewater singing a jazzy version of “You’ve Got a Friend,” Alice Smith singing a cover of Donny Hathaway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free,” and emcee Raydar Ellis to add to the band’s rendition of a track from Guru’s Jazzmatazz.

After another break, Pete Rock did a DJ set, but many people had left to head over to other venues to catch the final sets of the night.

The night wrapped up at The Dance with Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die. A very late night set that was definitely worth staying up for. Jaimie is a fearless and unique trumpeter and vocalist, and her band is tight. Chad Taylor on drums is remarkable. About halfway thru the set Jaimie had the lights turned down, then turned on a little clip light next to one of her mics, pointing right into the bell of her trumpet as she brought it right up to the mic – a cue that turned the reverb on the mic for her trumpet, and led the band into an interlude of surreal experimentation. Nuevo Roquero Estero from her recent album FLY or DIE II was the jam that got the crowd moving. She closed with “Love Song,” and Jaimie got the whole crowd to sing along with her at the end: “this is a love song for assholes and clowns…”

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