With Newport’s Jazz Festival opening this weekend, we talk jazz in America — where it is and where it’s going — with jazz great Terence Blanchard, Jonathan Batiste and NPR’s Patrick Jarenwattananon.
The Newport Jazz Festival opens this weekend, and there will be great old names and talents in the spotlight — Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, the great octogenarian Wayne Shorter and his quartet.
But there will be younger talent aplenty, too. And new sounds of jazz — Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Amir ElSaffar, Jonathan Batiste.
And a bridge like Terence Blanchard.
This hour, On Point: Batiste and Blanchard are with us. We’re looking at jazz and where it’s headed.
– Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Terence Blanchard, five-time Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger and film score composer. (@T_Blanchard)
Jonathan Batiste, jazz singer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. He performs with the trio, Stay Human. (@JonBatiste)
Patrick Jarenwattananon, jazz critic, producer for NPR Music, editor of NPR’s A Blog Supreme. (@blogsupreme)
Interview Highlights
Terence Blanchard on creating his music:
What’s happening here is kind of like a melding of a lot of musical genres together, trying to take composition and the world of jazz to a new place or a different place, trying to bring in my background as a film composer, my background as a person who loves classical music into the world of jazz but not forgetting the tradition of jazz.
Blanchard on young audiences and the evolution of jazz:
There are younger people who are in the audience … When people have that argument [that the audience is "graying"], I think a lot of that is because certain musicians are trying to uphold a tradition. We have to constantly move forward.
This music is an evolutionary thing. It has to evolve daily, and it has to be relevant. If you those elements in your music, you’re going to attract younger people. You’re going to attract people who are into things that are happening now. It’s not to say that we don’t respect our traditions and our history — we do, and you can hear that in the music — but the other side of it is you have to move forward.
We have to take all of who we are and bring all of those things together to create an art form that’s unique and really our own sound.
Patrick Jarenwattananon on the new generation of jazz musicians:
One of the great things about this jazz community is that so many of the people who gained the respect of the jazz community come through the same sort of educational models. They come through more experienced band leaders, like Terence, and maybe they’ll then choose to go off in a different direction themselves, but they still come from this place of learning and a lot of practice and tradition-absorbing.
I guess you could say that Robert Glasper is an example like that. his first few albums demonstrated this great, deep knowledge of how to play ding-ding-a-ling jazz but recently with his experiment band, which will be at Newport, he’s been really reflecting the blend of hip hop and R&B and how modern jazz could sound.
Playlist
Not available on Spotify but played during the hour:
“Personalities” by Fabian Almazan
“Let God Lead” by Jonathan Batiste
“Al-Badia” by Amir ElSaffar
From Tom’s Reading List
NPR Music: 5 To Watch: Newport Jazz Festival Debuts: “In recent years, Newport Jazz has held surprises throughout its entire lineup, thanks to programming designed to bring more names into the fold.”
Associated Press: 59th Newport Jazz Festival Stars Cole, Hancock: “The festival begins Friday with performances by Natalie Cole, her uncle Freddy Cole and the Bill Charlap Trio at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.”
The Atlantic: The End Of Jazz: “There is no reason to believe that jazz can be a living, evolving art form decades after its major source—and the source that linked it to the main currents of popular culture and sentiment—has dried up.”
The New York Times: Homophobia In The Ring Delivers Fatal Blows: “Toward the end of Terence Blanchard’s ‘Champion,’ which received its premiere this week at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis here, the protagonist, Emile Griffith, relives the terror of being attacked by homophobic thugs.”
Video
The Terence Blanchard Quintet plays from their 2009 album “Choices” live at WNYC’s “The Greene Space” in New York City.