Winter Jazzfest 2015

Winter Jazzfest, now in its glorious 11^th year, is an exciting way to start the New Year and its popularity is growing every year with attendance reaching close to 6500 people this year. What started as a one-night showcase of up and coming jazz and improvised music, has transformed into a full-blown festival spreading to 10 different venues around Greenwich Village and presenting more than 100 bands. The line up of the festival has it all – big names that drew the crowds to packed clubs as well as lesser known but nevertheless exciting acts one could discover by wandering around. And that’s the beauty of the event – with a day pass one could effortlessly transition from one venue to another without feeling obligated to stay in one place. Now, of course the biting cold might not have been conducive to walking around and the possibility of facing a club packed to capacity (especially true about Minetta Lane Theatre where the line stretched around the block despite the freezing temperature to see Trio 3) were the two reasons why one might have preferred to stay put in one place. But if you were up for an adventure and kept your mind open, the rewards were worth it.

Kicking off the festival at (Le) Poisson Rouge Blue Note Now! featured four groups – Kendrick Scott Oracle, Derrick Hodge, Jose James and Robert Glasper Trio, each one playing old as well as forthcoming material in a club packed to capacity. That was an intense experience from 8 pm until after midnight and it was well worth it. The top notch musician did an excellent job and gave their 100% to the dazzled crowd who stayed standing throughout the 4+ hours event.

The two day long marathon on Friday and Saturday stretched from 6 pm until late night with the last shows starting well after midnight. The abundance of music presented the usual dilemma as to where to go and who to see and while my program was marked with acts that I was determined to check out including Russ Johnson’s Still Out to Lunch playing the music of Eric Dolphy, Trio 3 with Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille and Vijay Iyer and the late night set at Minetta Lane Theatre featuring the music of John Lurie as well as Revive Music’s stage at the Bitter End, it didn’t quite happen the way I planned it.

Instead, I started the festival with the International Composers Pool Orchestra at LPR who played hard swinging jazz that defies easy categorization and they put on quite a performance. These guys, coming from the Netherlands, have been playing together for years and the energy of the band was contagious, you could tell by the audience’s enthusiasm – people were almost dancing and the floor was packed!

The Bitter End was next on my list, especially to see Brandee Younger’s band (hey, you don’t get to hear harp that often!) but the venue was packed and the set up of the place was just not all that inviting for staying long. It’s a shame since so many great artists were scheduled to play there. You could literally camp out there all night without feeling the need to leave,  if only the venue itself was better!

The highlight of Friday night was walking into Kneebody + Daedelus set at LPR. They weren’t on my list but the band left a deep impression! Think amazingly talented musicians (including grammy nominated Ben Wendel on sax) infusing their music with trip-hop, rock and electronica and putting on a show that actually uses the light to enhance the experience rather than distract from it. It was hard not to be hypnotized by these guys! Didn’t regret staying for the whole set even for a second and then there was an encore with the band asking the crowd what they were in the mood for! Will be sure to check these guys out again.

From then on I abandoned my original plan and tried to see the bands I never heard before and didn’t know much about. The Players Theatre, which had more experimental music then the other clubs, turned out to be a great venue – it was spacious, had comfortable seats and great sound. Got to see Mike Pride’s from Bacteria Boys and caught The Marquis Hill ‘Blacktet’ – they were both amazing!

The Carroll Place was not the best choice as far as a place to hear music – too packed, the smell of food was definitely distracting from the music, but the band, Jovan Alexandre & Collective Consiousness, was great and drew a big crowd.

It was great to wrap up the night with Theo Hill’s Trio at Zinc Bar. The place is notorious for being packed during the Jazzfest but the late night hang was quite pleasant. The band featured Mark Whitfield Jr. on drums and Rashaan Carter on electric bass and it sounded fresh and exciting -couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the day one of the marathon.

The most exciting discovery on Saturday was David Murray Infinity Quartet featuring Saul Williams. Their dynamic set was interspersed with jokes and Saul’s spoken word blended perfectly with the music, not a surprise that the place was packed. Besides, as David Murray joked, he got all the best players on his side including “the most expensive drummer in NYC” – Nasheet Waits.

It was nice to catch funky Soul Understated with Mavis ‘Swan’ Poole who were setting the Bitter End on fire and almost got people dancing (a hard thing to do given the layout of the place).

And back at the Players Theatre more avant-garde jazz with Tomas Fujiwara & the Hookup who were tearing up the stage and featured Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet and Mary Halvorson on guitar. Wish I caught more than one tune by this band! Following them was Jen Shyu, whose solo performance was a mix of theatre and improvised experimental music drawing on Korean culture but with a modern twist; it was a very unexpected set but one of the most interesting performances visually.

The addition of the Hot Jazz stage to the festival this year is again indicative of the diversity of music that the Winter Jazzfest presents. Featuring more of traditional hot jazz that makes you want to dance, the Hot Jazz stage took over Greenwich House Music School and the enthusiasm of the crowd that came for David Ostwald’s Louis Armstrong Eternity Band was contagious to say the least.

By coincidence, my last set of the Winter Jazzfest was back at Zinc Bar with Nasheet Waits Equality Quartet with Mark Hellias on bass, Aruan Ortiz on piano and Darius Jones on sax –  an excellent choice to end the three day marathon of jazz!

 

Anna Yatskevich is Flowers In A Gun’s glamorous jazz & beyond critic! Catch more reviews from her here and follow her on IG and Twitter @jazzaddikt.