State Champ Radio Jazz
Boney James becomes the first act to amass 20 No. 1s on Billboard’s Smooth Jazz Airplay chart. The venerable saxophonist reaches the milestone as featured on “Cigar Lounge” by Big Mike Hart, who leads with his first chart entry. James — born in Lowell, Mass., and raised in New Rochelle, N.Y. — first topped the […]
André 3000 will bring his big bag of flutes to the 2024 Newport Jazz Festival, which the former OutKast rapper will headline along with Nile Rodgers & Chic, Kamasi Washington, Elvis Costello, Brittany Howard and Robert Glasper. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news This year is the 70th […]
Some history will be made, and rekindled, during this year’s 13th annual Blue Note Jazz Festival.
The five-week parade of concerts begins on June 1 and will encompass 94 performances by nearly four dozen acts at five venues — primarily the Blue Note club itself in New York City’s Greenwich Village, as well as Sony Hall, the Brooklyn Bowl, Town Hall, Central Park SummerStage and Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park Bandshell.
Alex Kurland, Blue Note’s director of programming, promises that festivalgoers will not be lacking for variety.
“Jazz is very much the guiding force at Blue Note, but we’re not stuck in a box or restricted about genre-specific programming,” Kurland explains. “It’s very open. The inspiration of jazz runs through so much music and so much creative culture in general, so we’re really just embracing all this really special artistry. Jazz represents freedom, and that’s really where we’re leaning towards.”
To that end the festival lineup features a dizzying amount of diversity during its run. But the major news is, in fact, about a jazz artist: trumpet legend Wynton Marsalis will be returning to the 200-seat Blue Note as a bandleader for the first time since 1991. Marsalis will perform 12 shows across six nights (June 11-16) with his regular Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and with the Future of Jazz Septet.
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“I’m so excited to be back at the Blue Note after all these years,” Marsalis tells Billboard in a statement. “One of the fondest memories of my career is being in the Blue Note with Dizzy (Gillespie), Sweets Edison and Clark Terry going to see Freddie Hubbard.”
The shows are part of a new collaboration between the Blue Note and Jazz at Lincoln Center, where Marsalis is the managing and artistic director of jazz. It will also bring performances by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Big Band, directed by Julius Tolentino, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, directed by Tatum Greenblatt, on June 15-16, respectively.
“This is a very historic presentation of Wynton, one of our proudest presentations of the month,” Kurland says. “This is a landmark kind of reunion between Wynton and the Blue Note; he’s played the Blue Note since the opening of the venue, but not as a leader since he began his curation of Jazz at Lincoln Center. It will be unique for him to play in a tiny space. We feel very honored.
“We are all about collaboration and partnership,” Kurland adds. “A lot of that occurs on the stage, but on business and branding and presentation side, we love to partner with different organizations to have these special moments, and working with Jazz at Lincoln Center makes a lot of sense.”
The venues for the four other headliners — Andra Day on opening night, June 1, followed by Corinne Bailey Rae on June 16, British drummer Yussef Dayes on June 22 and the Ezra Collective closing the festival on July 7 – will be announced later this month.
Other intriguing team-ups during the festival include Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah, who’s long incorporated jazz in his mixes, double-billed with New Orleans’ Soul Rebels for three nights (June 21-23) at the Blue Note. At the Sony Hall: Jazz Is Dead performs June 9; Yo La Tengo teams up the Sun Ra Arkestra on June 15; James Brown/Parliament-Funkadelic trombonist Fred Wesley makes a rare appearance on the same bill as the Brecker Brothers on June 21; and Antibalas pairs with Hailu Mergia on June 22.
Other Blue Note festival residencies include New Orleans’ Soullive for six nights; drummer Julius Rodriguez and Crescent City trumpeter Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah will be there for four nights each; and bassist and bandleader Derrick Hodge and Ozomatli for three each. Stanley Clarke will perform June 25-26 at Sony Hall, and Yes/King Crimson veteran Bill Bruford is journeying from England for a June 29 ProgJect show at the same venue.
A strong corps of other vocalists, meanwhile, also includes Lisa Fischer and Gino Vannelli. The festival lineup also includes eight Blue Note brunch concerts on Sundays and one Saturday show devoted to the Buena Vista Social Club’s music on June 8.
“When you’re looking to book amazing, great artists you’re drawing from the global landscape, so that’s very glaring in the lineup,” Kurland says. “There are definitely a lot of innovative artists who are very contemporary; that’s always important for the Blue Note, to have such a progressive edge. Then you have the great icons, the legends…and hopefully you’re giving people a sense of the great range of that’s available.”
More details about the festival can be found here. The full 2024 Blue Note Jazz Festival lineup includes:
June 1—Soulive—Blue NoteJune 1—Andra Day—Venue TBDJune 2—Soulive—Blue NoteJune 2—Harlem Gospel Choir—Blue Note BrunchJune 2—Paula Cole—Sony HallJune 3—Derrick Hodge—Blue NoteJune 4—Derrick Hodge—Blue NoteJune 5—Derrick Hodge—Blue NoteJune 5—Lisa Fischer—Sony HallJune 6—Soulive—Blue NoteJune 7—Soulive—Blue NoteJune 7—Michel Camilo—Sony HallJune 7—ALJO with Hamilton de Holanda and Yamandu Cost—Town HallJune 8—Soulive—Blue NoteJune 8—The Music of The Buena Vista Social Club—Blue Note BrunchJune 9—Soulive—Blue NoteJune 9—Jazz is Dead—Sony HallJune 9—Harlem Gospel Choir—Blue Note BrunchJune 10—Brandee Younger—Blue NoteJune 11—The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis—Blue NoteJune 12—The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis—Blue NoteJune 12—Yemi Alade—Sony HallJune 13—The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis—Blue NoteJune 14—Jazz at Lincoln Center presents Wynton Marsaliswith The Future of Jazz Septet—Blue NoteJune 14—Eliane Elias—Sony HallJune 15—Jazz at Lincoln Center presents Wynton Marsaliswith The Future of Jazz Septet—Blue NoteJune 15—Yo La Tengo with the Sun Ra Arkestra—Sony HallJune 15—Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra—Blue Note BrunchJune 16—Jazz at Lincoln Center presents Wynton Marsaliswith The Future of Jazz Septet—Blue NoteJune 16—Victor Wooten—Sony HallJune 16—Corinne Bailey Rae—Venue TBDJune 16—Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra—Blue Note BrunchJune 17—Julius Rodriguez—Blue NoteJune 17— Haley Reinhart—Sony HallJune 18—Julius Rodriguez—Blue NoteJune 19—Julius Rodriguez—Blue NoteJune 19— Mulatu Astatke—Sony HallJune 20—Julius Rodriguez—Blue NoteJune 20— Mulatu Astatke—Sony HallJune 21—Ghostface Killah with The Soul Rebels—Blue NoteJune 21—Fred Wesley with The Brecker Brothers—Sony HallJune 22—Ghostface Killah with The Soul Rebels—Blue NoteJune 22—Antibalas with Hailu Mergia—Sony HallJune 22—Yussef Dayes—Venue TBDJune 23—Ghostface Killah with The Soul Rebels—Blue NoteJune 23—Harlem Gospel Choir—Blue Note BrunchJune 24—Ozomatli—Blue NoteJune 25—Ozomatli—Blue NoteJune 25—Stanley Clarke—Sony HallJune 26—Ozomatli—Blue NoteJune 26—Stanley Clarke—Sony HallJune 27—Chief Adjuah—Blue NoteJune 27—Gino Vanelli—Sony HallJune 28—Chief Adjuah—Blue NoteJune 28—Bombino with Etran De L’Air—Sony HallJune 28—Os Mutantes—Brooklyn BowlJune 29—Chief Adjuah—Blue NoteJune 29—ProgJect with Bill Bruford—Sony HallJune 29—Brass Queens—Blue Note BrunchJune 30—Chief Adjuah—Blue NoteJune 30—Harlem Gospel Choir—Blue Note BrunchJuly 1—Joey Alexander—Blue NoteJuly 7—Ezra Collective—Venue TBD
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Igmar Thomas exists in a musical ecosystem that engages every part of his human experience, allowing him to express the kaleidoscopic span of creative expression. In a recent chat with Hip-Hop Wired, Igmar Thomas shared a bit about his upbringing in California, encountering fellow leaders of the jazz scene, and his excitement about the inaugural Hip Hop &… festival at the Kennedy Center.
With a reserved vocal tone befitting of a band leader, Igmar Thomas’ breezy nature translated well in our brief chat with him. We opened up the talk by asking Thomas how growing up in San Diego, which isn’t known for its jazz scene, and how he came to encounter his love of music overall.
“Growing up in San Diego, it’s not New Orleans or New York, it’s more of a slice of franchise America,” Thomas began. “I wasn’t exposed to juke joints and things like that at a young age but my father’s love of music and his record collection was diverse. He loved all types of music.”
Thomas continued, “I heard everything growing up and discovering music via radio and television. My friends and family also got me into a lot of different genres. So my musical vocation at a young age isn’t like say, a cat from New Orleans.”
Thomas then explained that he began his formal training with music at age 11, joining the school band playing in a structured format, and learning the trumpet. He added that the public school system was key in getting him into playing music.
The West Coast jazz scene, much like the Los Angeles underground beat scene, is packed with talent. Thomas has worked alongside the likes of Ron Bruner, Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner, Kamasi Washington, and others during their respective journeys in music. We asked about the early days of those connections.
“It all came together towards the end of high school and it was pretty organic [how we all met],” Thomas says of his early encounters with Washington. “I can’t recall everything but I think I saw Kamasi playing at the UCLA Jazz Fest, or he could’ve been with Christian McBride. Growing up where I did, it was amazing to see him play in the same lane I wanted to be in and killing it at that.”
Thomas adds, “Kamasi was playing better than I could. I actually got to meet Kamasi and his folks via Ray Hargrove, who was my big brother in music. So I was at Catalina’s a lot and met Kamasi and Ron [Bruner] there. I met Kamasi’s whole band eventually, which includes Brandon Coleman, Ron, and his brother Stephen, who everyone knows is Thundercat.”
In the chat, Thomas remarked on how Ron Bruner had more of an eclectic style of dress back then, which Thomas says may have been informed by his working with Sa-Ra Creative Partners at the time while Thundercat was conservative in comparison. These days, Thundercat is viewed as a style icon, something Thomas mentioned with a laugh. He respectfully referred to the bassist as his generation’s Bootsy Collins.
We then switched our conversation to the Revive Big Band and Thomas’ aims with the outfit from its early days to now. With a knowing nod to how his journey played out, Thomas shared that he’s hoping that his band can be an extension of creativity from him and those who make up the band.
“I felt like when we first came out, we were trying to prove something but now, I don’t feel that way anymore,” Thomas explains. “Our message is consistent and what I mean is we’re all one family. They used to box us in by styles, and genres. But our debut album will show our true family tree. That includes Hip-Hop, R&B, funk, rock, and jazz. When you see us play, you see we’re more aligned musically than the award shows would have you believe.”
Thomas added, “I came up in the jazz tradition which does have rules but also, in that same breath, some breaking of the rules. We’ve always mixed things up. Bird [Charlie Parker] did it. Miles [Davis] did it. It’s just history repeating itself and that’s what the band represents. We play within a space of invisible boundaries and sometimes cross them.”
We asked Thomas to share his thoughts on the upcoming Hip Hop &… festival at the Kennedy Center, where Revive Big Band has two evening shows lined up. Having played at the Kennedy Center previously, Thomas says he’s excited to share what his band is doing and is thankful for the hard work of Simone Eccleston, the director of Hip Hop Culture & Contemporary Music at the Kennedy Center.
“I love what they’re doing at the Kennedy Center, they’re doing a tremendous job,” Thomas said. “Seeing it from the outside looking in, I love every bit of it. The festival idea is amazing and I hope it’s a trend that spreads. I am a big fan of both Hip-Hop and jazz and I rock Hip-Hop ahead of my jazz gigs and vice versa. That same synergy I seek in life, we hope to give the fans in attendance via the Revive Big Band experience.”
Thomas continued, “I want to be sure to add that the Hip Hop &… festival is dedicated to the memory of Meghan Stabile, who started the Revive Music Group. Our work with Revive Music informed our interpretation of jazz and Hip-Hop. This is the result of Revive Music Group and all of the work Simone Eccleston has put in to make this happen. It’s all coming full circle because Meghan got us booked at the Kennedy Center in 2014 and now Simone is making all these wonderful things happen.”
Learn more about Igmar Thomas and the Revive Big Band here.
To obtain information on any of the ongoing Hip Hop &… festival happenings, featuring Robert Glasper, De La Soul, Rakim, and more, click here.
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Photo: Igmar Thomas/Kennedy Center
Multiple Grammy-winning jazz guitarist-vocalist George Benson is rejoining the Warner Music Group (WMG). In addition to new music arriving later this year, the legendary artist and WMG are celebrating the reunion with a previously unreleased video featuring Benson in a live performance of the track “Lady Blue” in the late ‘70s. Explore Explore See latest […]
On Monday (March 24), Jazz at Lincoln Center revealed the host for its upcoming all-star tribute to late legend Tony Bennett, which doubles as the center’s annual gala fundraiser. Tony-nominated, Billboard 200-topping singer and actor Josh Groban is set to host the April 17 even at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. […]
André 3000 knew he was taking a big swing when he released his rap-free, flute-forward album New Blue Sun earlier this year. So naturally he wanted to get some feedback from his longtime former partner in rhyme in OutKast, Big Boi.
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In a new cover story for High Snobiety, Three Stacks reveals that he played “some” of the instrumental jazz album for Big, whose reaction was just about perfect. “He was smiling… He was like, ‘Man…,’” André said of Big Boi’s response to the album with mouthful song titles such as the opening track, “I Swear, I Really Wanted To Make A ‘Rap’ Album But This Is Literally The Way The Wind Blew Me This Time.”
‘Dre said he also cued it up for a “lot of buddies,” as well as his son, who told him, “‘It’s the real thing. It’s not a mimic. You really did this.’” The listening sessions included an early preview for Tyler, the Creator as well.
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“I was in Tyler’s living room listening to it, and then Frank [Ocean] just shows up. And so we’re all sitting there listening to it,” he said. “I’m wondering what the young people’s opinions would be. And I’m so happy that what I’m hearing is really good feedback.”
The interview also pulled back the curtain on the early confluence of jazz and hip-hop that André found in the music of A Tribe Called Quest — including the news that he originally used the nom de rap “Jahz” in homage to Tribe’s Q-Tip.
“My first rap name was Jahz because of Q-Tip,” he explained. “We were huge A Tribe Called Quest fans. In high school, they were the pinnacle — them, Grand Puba, Souls of Mischief. I don’t think Q-Tip gets enough credit for introducing a generation of kids to a forgotten music.” Specifically, 3000 said he was super inspired by how Tribe wove jazz samples into their psychedelic hip-hop stew.
“As a kid, jazz music meant some old-people shit that’s in elevators,” André said. “Q-Tip found a way to make it actually cool. The jazz guys were actually the rap guys of that time. They were doing heroin, they were in clubs. Years from now, people are going to listen to trap music and think, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ It happens. It happens.”
New Blue Sun hit hard when it dropped in November, with “I Swear” — which clocked in at a robust 12 minutes and 20 seconds — entering the Hot 100 at No. 90 on the Dec. 2-dated chart. That made it the longest-running song ever to have hit the chart, surpassing Tool’s “Fear Inoculum,” at 10:21 in length. André’s track – an instrumental, which is also unusual for a modern Hot 100 hit – also bested the August 2019 No. 93 peak of Tool’s track.
Corinne Bailey Rae recently wrapped an eight-show residency at Manhattan’s beloved Blue Note Jazz Club, performing 2023’s Black Rainbows – which explores soul, garage rock, jazz, downtempo electronic and even a bit of house – in its entirely. That album was one of the year’s finest, but seeing it presented live — with Rae sharing the painful and inspiring stories of Black American history that galvanized her to make these songs – made it clear that the concepts and ideas behind the album are as rich and stunning as its musical tapestry.
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Black Rainbows began taking shape when the English singer-songwriter visited The Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago’s South Side. The hybrid space, which Theaster Gates opened in 2015, is a gallery, media library and museum that encompasses everything from African American periodicals dating back to the 1940s to the personal vinyl collection of house godfather Frankie Knuckles to a collection of historical artifacts portraying Black people in blatantly racist ways. In short, it’s a complicated space dedicated to African American history, one that gives people the opportunity to confront the beautiful and the ugly in equal measure.
Rae’s visit morphed into an ongoing perusal of the collection, and soon, new songs began to take shape in her mind. A vintage photo of a teenage girl who won the “Miss New York Transit” title 70-some years ago inspired the riot grrrl energy of her song “New York Transit Queen” (Rae even tracked down and interviewed the woman, Audrey Smaltz); the story of writer/abolitionist Harriet Jacobs, who escaped slavery but spent seven years in a cramped hiding space, watching her children play through a peephole, informed the hopeful yet elegiac “Peach Velvet Sky”; advertisements from Valmor Products, a Chicago beauty brand geared toward African American women, led to the jazzy, ambient “He Will Follow You With His Eyes”; and a sweaty dance party to Knuckles’ records at the Stony Island Arts Bank resulted in the thumping “Put It Down.”
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In the midst of performing “Put It Down” at the Blue Note on Friday (Feb. 16), a woman in the seated audience stood up and began dancing – greeting the sight with a smile, Rae stepped down from the stage to join her as the band kept the house-inflected groove going. And from the sax player to the drummer, that band was a knockout. Perhaps having Rae explain the stories that inspired the songs before playing them pushed her players to bring each one to vivid, vibrant life in that intimate space.
When it came time for the encore, Rae gamely trotted out her 2006 soul-pop gem “Put Your Records On” and the sweetly soulful “Trouble Sleeping” from the same album. It probably goes without saying that she’ll be forever associated with the former, and there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s a timeless classic, one that’s recently found a Gen Z audience via a viral cover. But Black Rainbows stands as Rae’s finest artistic statement to date, an exquisite tapestry that electrifies both intellectually and emotionally – and seeing her present this layered work live is a gift.
André 3000 is an enigma. The reclusive former OutKast MC has kept a low profile for much of the past 20 years, popping up for an occasional guest verse or movie role when he’s not wandering the Earth playing one of his arsenal of flutes.
But on The Late Show on Thursday night (Feb. 8), the rapper-turned-jazzer hung around to take the “Colbert Questionert,” the random series of queries from host Stephen Colbert meant to delve into the unexplored recesses of the enigmatic flautist’s soul.
As always, Colbert opened with the easiest question: what is the best sandwich? In the perfect response, 3000 offered up “a friend bologna sandwich,” adding some crucial cooking tips, including cutting slits into the lunch meat so it doesn’t bubble up in the pan.
As for his first concert, of course André — currently on tour promoting his first new solo album in more than two decades, the rap-less, all-instrumental flute jazz collection New Blue Sun — had the coolest answer: a Fresh Fest hip-hip jam in his hometown of Atlanta featuring Public Enemy, LL Cool J and Whodini. “My mama took me,” Dre bragged, as Colbert tried to earn cool points by revealing that his mother had also taken him to his first show, the slightly less hip Captain & Tennille.
Colbert quickly corrected himself, though, a remembered that it was actually 1970s/1980s fluglehorn/trumpet giant Chuck Mangione. That selection that clearly appealed to the host’s woodwind-loving guest, who then scatted along with Colbert on a duet of Mangione’s signature 1978 jazz-pop classic “Feels So Good.”
3000 ran through a series of other provocative answers to questions such as “What is the scariest animal?”(humans), the requisite “Apples or Oranges?” (oranges) and “What do you think happens when we die,” which was more complicated. “We just kind of transfer to another body… the energy doesn’t go anywhere,” André said. “These are just kind of space suits, or Earth suits we walk around in… I think that energy goes into something else or to another we can’t even imagine.”
As for why he has never appeared in any of the Fast & Furious movies, veteran actor 3000 joked he would have “but I think Ludacris took the role!” Turns out he wasn’t joking. He said he did audition for a spot in the long-running, rubber-burning franchise, but was aced out by his fellow A-town MC Luda. He’d still come back for a later chapter, perhaps for the as-yet-unwritten one Colbert suggested: Too Fast, Too Flute.
The sire of Stankonia then proclaimed that his favorite smell is a baby’s breath, “when they’re new and it don’t stink yet,” while dubbing cigarette smoke his least favorite odor. Also, for the record, André is not a cat or dog person, but that’s just because he’s hardly ever home. Plus, if you heard how badly he screwed up the ant farm he got when he was a kid you’d understand why that is.
And finally, asked to name the one song he’d want to listen to on an endless loop, Three Stacks thought long and hard and said “something by [John] Coltrane.” He kind of punted on summing up the rest of his life in five words, though, grinning as he rambled, “somewhere doing something with my hands, building something, drawing something, sculpting something, chiseling something… in a workshop somewhere… making physical things that will last 1,000 years.”
Watch André answer the Questionert below.
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Did a celebrity tattoo artist violate copyright law when she inked a photographer’s portrait of jazz legend Miles Davis onto the arm of a friend? A jury is set to the decide that question in a trial set to kick off Tuesday.
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Photographer Jeffrey B. Sedlik filed his lawsuit back in 2021 against Katherine Von Drachenberg – better known as Kat Von D, a celebrity tattoo artist who rose to prominence in the 2000s on her TLC reality show “fLA Ink.” He claimed she infringed his 1989 image of Davis by using it as the basis for a tattoo.
After years of litigation – and a U.S. Supreme Court case over Andy Warhol that changed the legal landscape midway through – attorneys for Sedlik and Von D will head to a Los Angeles federal courthouse Tuesday for a jury trial that will settle the dispute once and for all.
Sedlik, who calls his photo “world-famous,” has argued that Von D clearly broke the law when she chose to “precisely replicate every aspect of the iconic Miles Davis portrait in the form of a tattoo.” Von D, meanwhile, says she only used the image as a reference and that her tattoo is protected by copyright law’s so-called fair use doctrine, which allows people to re-use protected works in certain situations.
Initially, Judge Dale S. Fischer seemed inclined to side with Von D on a key question: Whether she had “transformed” the photo into something new. In a May 2022 ruling, the judge said Von D had “changed its appearance to create what she characterizes as adding movement and a more melancholy aesthetic.”
But the case got a legal shakeup a year later, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major ruling on fair use. In that decision, the justices said that the late Andy Warhol had violated a photographer’s copyrights years earlier when he used her images of Prince to create one of his distinctive screen prints – a decision that was widely interpreted as making it harder to prove fair use.
After the Warhol ruling came out, Judge Fischer ruled against Von D on that same key question of “transformative.” Citing the new Supreme Court precedent, the judge ruled that simply putting the same image in a new context and claiming new aesthetics was not enough to count as a fair use.
But even after that ruling, the overall question of fair use must still be decided by the jury at the trial set to kick off Tuesday. Jurors will be tasked with deciding whether Von D made “commercial” use of Sedlik’s image – a tough question, since she inked her friend free-of-charge but also promoted the work on her social media accounts. They must also decide whether her use of the image hurt Sedlik’s ability to license the image himself, another key question in any fair use case.
