The delightful, often dizzying marathon known as Winter Jazzfest hits January 5-10 at spaces all across downtown Manhattan (below 14th Street). For this 13th edition we sought out the event’s award-winning producer Brice Rosenbloom with some questions about this year’s event and the fest in general. But first… this corner can always appreciate an arts event with a conscience; such is definitely the case with the Winter Jazzfest; so before we get to our questions for Brice Rosenbloom, here’s some info to get at the heart of the event’s social conscience. (All artists whose images accompany this interview will be featured on various WJF stages.)

2017 NYC Winter Jazzfest Celebrates 13th Season,
Supporting Social & Racial Justice By Presenting
Socially Engaged Artists Who Have Urgent & Beautiful
Musical Messages To Share

Panels To Be Held Combining Musicians with
Black Lives Matter Activists and Officials from American Civil Liberties Union

In 2017, Winter Jazzfest directly addresses the sense of crisis confronting our nation. The festival and its leadership stand firmly with #blacklivesmatter, the American Civil Liberties Union, and seek to address issues of discrimination, police brutality, abuse of power, xenophobia, sexual and gender discrimination, that are all threatening to become more deeply institutionalized in the coming administration.

Artists have always been at the heart of movement-building and social solidarity. Protest and resistance are central to jazz’s existence from its beginnings as the music of marginalized black Americans. Jazz’s vitality and effectiveness in voicing truths about life in America has not changed. As wide-ranging as music can be in style, format and message, so is the manner in which it reflects the politics and social issues of today.

“We support #blacklivesmatter, the ACLU and all who feel threatened in the current political climate. We proudly offer artists our Winter Jazzfest stages to respond to injustice, inequality and divisiveness through music,” says Winter Jazzfest founder Brice Rosenbloom. “We have never felt more emboldened to inspire progress as jazz advocates, as New Yorkers, as Americans, and as global citizens striving to support equality and justice for all humanity.”

Winter Jazzfest will donate a share of profits from the 2017 festival to organizations who are standing up against discrimination and for social justice in America. We hope to inspire support of these causes now and in the coming years. The 2017 marathon features several musical performances explicitly thematically addressing racial and social justice themes through music, words and poetry.

Brice Rosenbloom, How did you come to do this work?
Winter Jazzfest was launched 13 years ago to give exposure to jazz groups that I felt were underrepresented during the APAP (Arts Presenters) conference, when my fellow presenter colleagues were in town to book groups for their performing arts centers, festivals and clubs around the country and internationally. In the first year we showcased 18 groups on three stages and welcomed a sold out audience. Every year we have been able to grow the festival due to the demand of both audiences and artists and its a testament to the health of the jazz scene that we are inundated with so much great talent wanting to play the festival.

Each year you seem to add a new component to the festival – if not an entire new room. From that, and from an artistic perspective, what’s new and different about this coming Winter Jazzfest?
Of course we have always made an effort to include special components in the festival like the touching tribute to Butch Morris by Henry Threadgill a few years ago, or the piano duo with Jason Moran and Robert Glasper at Town Hall during the year of Blue Note Records 75th anniversary, or the special headline show with Kamasi Washington last year at Webster Hall. And for the past few years we have featured artists-in-residence, and this year we’re proud to present Andrew Cyrille on five of the six nights of the festival including two projects on our signature marathon weekend, the Haitian Fascination group and his duet with saxophonist Bill McHenry. Andrew Cyrille will also perform on Sunday January 8th for one of our shows celebrating the 100th Birthday of Thelonious Monk, along with 11 other improvisors recreating the album ‘Solo Monk’ in different configurations or solos, duos, trios and quartets. Other Monk inspired performances include Jason Moran and The Bandwagon, a trio with Florian Weber, Donny McCaslin and Dan Weiss, and Peter Bernstein’s trio all performing the music of Monk. Cyrille will also perform a solo set opening for a show we are calling Sam Amidon Extended which features the songwriter and banjo player in a setting where he will be challenged to improvise with fellow genre straddling musicians including Marc Ribot, Kris Bowers, Shahzad Ismaily, Ben Goldberg, Linda Oh and others.

ANDREW CYRILLE

JASON MORAN & THE BANDWAGON

Additionally this year feels uniquely meaningful for us. A theme of racial and social justice naturally developed in our programming. Of course we have always presented projects that are related to social and racial justice, as jazz is inherently a music that often profoundly reflects societal issues. However this year we received countless proposals from artists whose music directly responded to the many contemporary tragedies of racial violence and injustice that we all witnessed this year. With the tragedies of this past Summer and beyond still resonating so freshly in our minds and with this outpouring of relevance solicitations we felt a personal and professional responsibility to offer our Winter Jazzfest stages to support artists’ messages of awareness and justice in their music. We are proud to do our part to share messages of social and racial justice and hope to further inspire musicians, audiences, and my professional colleagues. I hope they will also be bold and will include projects that are relevant outside of the concert hall on their own stages around the country and beyond. And as a presenter throughout the year (not just for Winter Jazzfest), I am further emboldened to continue this important work, certainly for the next four years and beyond.

Some of the artists that are performing projects that explicitly address racial and social justice include Amina Claudine Myers solo piano, Songs of Freedom with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Alicia Olatuja, Theo Bleckman and music director Ulysses Owens Jr., Samora Pinderhughes’ Transformations Suite, Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone, Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science, David Murray & Class Struggle, Jaimeo Brown Transcendence, LaFrae Sci and Sonic Black, and Craig Harris’s Breathe a project featuring 40 musicians.

DRUMMER/BANDLEADER LAFRAE SCI

We are excited to open the festival with legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders performing with his quartet of Jonathan Blake, Dezron Douglas, and William Henderson, with opening band British bandleader Shabaka Hutchings with The Ancestors, a group from South Africa. And we are proud to close the festival on January 10th with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra featuring Geri Allen in a tribute concert of music specifically written for social and environmental justice. This show will be preceded by a panel of musicians and activists discussing Charlie Haden’s music and his interest in activism.

Lastly we’re proud this year to launch our Winter Jazzfest Talks series at The New School. On Saturday January 7th we are hosting a panel on Social Justice and the Role of Music with representatives from ACLU, BlackLivesMatter, musician and journalist Greg Tate, musicians Samora Pinderhughes and Terri Lyne Carrington, and moderator and journalist Siddartha Mitter. On Sunday we will host a discussion between drummer and artist-in-residence Andrew Cyrille and fellow drummer Johnathon Blake. That will be followed by a panel discussing the life and legacy of Thelonious Monk.

Ultimately we find it fulfilling to warm thousands of bodies with a tremendous amount of buzz and meaningful activity around jazz in New York the first weekend of the year.

PIANIST AARON GOLDBERG

What’s your process for building this festival, and when does the work actually begin from year-to-year?
In some ways the work is non-stop. We already have a targeted list of artists we intend to book for next season, January 2018. But the majority of the work happens in the 5-6 months leading up to the festival. That is when we finalize the artist bookings, strategize marketing, production, and wok on the challenging puzzle slotting the more than 100 groups playing on the weekend marathon nights of the festival, ensuring every stage flows well, works from a production standpoint and most challenging of all, schedule does not have any artist conflicts. With over 600 different musicians performing on these two nights many artists perform multiple sets and we have to ensure those sets do not overlap and that theres proper time for those musicians to jump from one gig to another. But again, from a curatorial standpoint the work really never ends. Throughout the year we are always on the look out for an artist that impresses us enough to include in the festival.


CHILE WILL BE REPRESENTED AT WJF ’17 BY ITS TWO BRIGHTEST INTERNATIONAL JAZZ ARTISTS: SAXOPHONIST MELISSA ALDANA AND VOCALIST CLAUDIA ACUNA

Are you a believer in the benefits of visiting other festivals, and when you do visit other festivals what particular elements are you looking out for?
Absolutely. Just like I hope to inspire my friends and colleagues who attend Winter Jazzfest, its valuable for me to experience their festivals from both the artistic standpoint to see who they are booking, but also from an operational standpoint. With a festival of many stages and moving parts there are always ways we can improve the artist and audience experiences.



DRUMMER ERIC HARLAND, HARPIST BRANDEE YOUNGER, AND TENOR MASTER CHICO FREEMAN WILL GRACE VARIOUS WJF STAGES

From my personal experience at Winter Jazzfest I’ve come to feel the best method is to arrive early at whichever venue has the lineup of most interest and simply camp out there for the duration of the evening. How would you respond to that?
That definitely works for a lot of people, and now that nearly half of our venues do offer seating options that strategy is sound. Of course the festival was founded with the idea to encourage people to bounce around between venues we have developed the programming to work for an audience that would prefer to stay put. With that in mind we have programmed each stage with appropriate flow that we hope an audience will appreciate lines of connection between different groups. I think this year you can’t go wrong if you plop yourself down at any of the fully seated venues. At the larger Tishman Auditorium at The New School the programming touches on three of the themes of the festival with two projects explicitly touching on music and justice opening with Craig Harris’s Breathe with 40 musicians paying tribute to Eric Garner and other tragedies of racial violence over the years. Then our artist-in-residence Andrew Cyrille will perform a special duet with saxophonist Bill McHenry; followed by Songs of Freedom, the music of Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln with vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater, Alicia Olatuja, Theo Bleckman, Jazzmeia Horn, and music director Ulysses Owens Jr; and that stage will close with Jason Moran and The Bandwagon performing the music of Thelonious Monk. The next night in that same auditorium we welcome back ECM records who helped us curate this stage with both European and American artists including Tomasz Stanko, Ravi Coltrane, David Virelles, Nik Bartsch, Bill Frisell and others. Other venues where I am confident audiences will appreciate

What would you recommend to the discerning audience member who is somewhat conflicted and desires to hear one band here, another there, and still others at a third and fourth venue, which of course necessitates a certain intrepid nature?
Go with the flow, try not to make strict agendas. Theres so much incredible music available on the marathon nights that you really cannot go wrong. You’ll find yourself seeing artists that you know throughout the night but what we ultimately hope for is for the discovery of new music. Yes some venues will be full but since there will always be space somewhere we recommend not waiting in a line and instead venturing to one of the other venues where a new music discovery is likely. We do have a page on our website which gives nearly real-time updates of venue capacity status, at winterjazzfest.com/crowds

Certainly we recommend audiences attend the festival with an open mind. Besides impromptu music discovery there will be many surprise guests performances, countless mind blowing sets, opportunities to rub shoulders with musicians in intimate venues, and late night jazz hangs with both pure energy and genuine spirit that is both reminiscent to this city’s jazz past and a sign of the true potential jazz scene that New York deserves.

Happily we remain in Discovery Mode where it concerns the unearthing of classic jazz recordings. One of the more pleasant 21st century developments in this constant excavation was the revelation of the Savory Collection of classic jazz performance broadcasts. One recalls with great interest the palpable excitement in the announcement of this discovery by tenor saxophonist-educator Loren Schoenberg, who has been an abiding administrative presence on the National Jazz Museum in Harlem team almost since the inception of that evolving project. On several recent occasions chatting with longtime NJH board member and DC-based attorney Daryl Libow, I’ve been updated on the project. Clearly it was time to pose some Independent Ear questions to Loren Schoenberg on the current status of the Savory Collection project.

Loren, for those not familiar with the story, please tell our readers how the existence of the Savory Collection first came to your attention.
I met Bill Savory in 1980 when I was working for Benny Goodman. It was then that he mentioned that he had a tremendous collection of broadcast recordings, way beyond what anyone knew that he had. However, the impression was that these were only of the Benny Goodman band. That would’ve been wonderful; but as it turned out, it comprised less than half of the total collection.

Talk about your 30-year quest to track down the Savory Collection.
From the moment that he mentioned the existence of the collection, I asked if I could hear the music. Over the course of the next 24 years, until his death in 2004, dozens and dozens of my requests were routinely ignored. We spoke on the phone, and corresponded, and he was always promising me that access would be forthcoming. But it never happened. Every time I called him, Bill would eventually modulate into a detailed technical discussion of the challenges he was having in playing back the old recordings. I pretended that I knew what he was talking about.

Thirty years is a not insignificant chunk of time, so you obviously felt this was a worthwhile sleuthing mission. Given all the recorded material already out here, why did you feel this was such an important pursuit?
Early on, a mutual friend of ours had mentioned that there were probably a couple of Count Basie recordings among the Benny Goodman recordings in the collection. Lester Young has always been my main inspiration, not only for playing music, but also as a collector and as an historian. So once I understood that there was the possibility of just a few minutes more of prime Lester Young with Count Basie, that was all I needed.

Tell us about the actual contents of the Savory Collection.
There were close to 1000 acetates. These eventually, when transferred, played a couple hundred hours worth of music. They were all recorded off the air, actually, the great majority were recorded off the air, as there are a handful of actual live recordings that he made. The artists whose work was captured are far too numerous to list here, but a shortlist would have to include Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, John Kirby, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Kirsten Flagstad, Arturo Toscanini… and that’s just for starters.

How did the National Jazz Museum in Harlem come to be the source of this collection’s current dissemination?
Bill Savory’s son, Eugene, thought that it was proper that the collection wind up with an institution which was likely to do something to disseminate the music. The museum’s then board chairman, Jonathan Scheuer, traveled with me immediately back to Gene Savory’s house, paid for the collection and then donated it to the museum.

What efforts did it take to prepare the Savory Collection for public consumption?
Two people were indispensable to this effort. Doug Pomeroy, a world-famous recording engineer, came out of retirement to supervise every single aspect of rescuing the music from the recordings, and then transferring them digitally, and then doing the extensive work to make them as listenable as possible. On the legal end of things, which was extraordinarily convoluted, nothing whatever could have happened without another one of our board members, Daryl Libow, who somehow found the time outside of his career as a partner at the esteemed Sullivan and Cromwell law firm, to spend literally hundreds of hours on this project. I worked hand in glove with both of these guys in untold conversations and emails over the course of many years to get to this point.

How will the Savory Collection be made available for public consumption?
We have issued two albums so far which are available for download through iTunes music. Each one comes with an extensive set of liner notes as well.

What will comprise the initial Savory Collection release(s)?
The first album is a compilation of classic broadcasts ranging from Coleman Hawkins to Fats Waller to Ella Fitzgerald to Lionel Hampton, as well as a couple of far more obscure artists who are deserving of greater recognition.

How do you envision this project going forward for the benefit of the Museum project?
Over the course of the last decade, the museum has been doing literally hundreds upon hundreds of public events, whether they be lectures, concerts, dances, you name it. Now we are very happy to add to our profile some of the most important previously unknown jazz recordings of all time. It really helps for the museums mission, and we have also produced concerts internationally were young artists reflect on these classic old recordings and create new sounds. In fact, I did one in Poland last summer, that was out as out can be!

What is the current state of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem project?
We are ensconced in our lovely new home right on the center strip of Harlem [see contact info below], right up the street from the Red Rooster, Sylvia’s, and many other mainstays. Our two artistic directors, Christian McBride and Jon Batiste, are still very much involved, giving advice end guidance, and we have a small but energetic and dedicated staff that somehow make it all happen. This is all really a tribute to our founder, Leonard Garment, whose vision placed us right in the middle of Harlem many years ago.

National Jazz Museum in Harlem
58 W. 129th Street
New York, NY 10027
www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org

A performance of Gerald Clayton’s “Piedmont Blues” project exemplified the DMV’s jazz concert calendar recently at Strathmore Music Center in suburban Maryland

The DC metro area, which we refer to hereabouts as the DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia) is a strong concert market where jazz performance is concerned. Certainly we have our share of stalwart clubs who present the music, Twins Jazz and Blues Alley among them. Those two pillars are bolstered by all manner of clubs, bars, and restaurants which host the DMV’s robust community of world class resident artists. And then there are the pop-up space presentations of the cutting edge entities known as CapitalBop, and Transparent Productions. In fact, besides being a potent jazz and experimental music presenter, CapitalBop also serves as a sort of online clearinghouse for all things jazz in the DMV, including their always-healthy online calendar of live jazz presentations available at www.capitalbop.com, a good source to refer visiting friends and others coming to our Nation’s Capital seeking live jazz.

Vibrant DMV jazz scenes can be found in several manner of non-traditional spaces as well, including such healthy community scenes as the extremely popular Friday evening jazz fish fry at Westminster Church, where a recent visit yielded an uplifting performance by the Bobby Felder Big Band. Equally popular on the DMV’s weekly jazz calendar is the Wednesday & Sunday evening sets at the Jazz and Cultural Center (curated by DC trumpeter DeAndrey Howard), known as “Jacs”. Both are testaments to a DMV presence which can unfortunately be quite scarce in certain communities – the presence of large, primarily African American audiences for jazz.

An example of the “pop-up” nature of CapitalBop’s presentations came a couple of Saturdays ago when they presented percussionist Kahil El’Zabar‘s Ritual Trio, with David Murray on tenor sax and Harrison Bankhead on bass at a basement space on bustling U Street. That gig had a listed duration time of 6:00-10:00pm… certainly a bit odd timing for a Saturday evening presentation of such questing explorers as El’Zabar, Murray and Bankhead, who one might ordinarily expect to encounter roundabout midnight. And there’s where the pop-up nature of CapitalBop’s venue for that evening came into view. The main attraction was a bit delayed on their turnpike journey down from NYC, so following the impressive tenor saxophonist Brian Settles‘ bristling opening trio set, a loooong change-over ensued. But CapitalBop had a strict curfew for that evening’s pop-up, so once the Ritual Trio got set it was off to the races for its spellbinding set. Kahil is particularly adept at casting spells when he takes up his kalimba or sits at his cajon and burnishes the room with his incantatory vocal exhortations. Fact was, the pop-up venue in question had another event later than night, thus the 10pm cut-off.

There remain plenty of opportunities to catch great live jazz in smaller, more intimate spaces, but the DMV is also blessed with an unusual amount of jazz concert opps. That starts with the healthy slate of Kennedy Center jazz presentations, though even that venerable institution has carved out its own intimate Kennedy Center Jazz Club; and that’s the venue that will predominate the KC’s 2016-2017 jazz season, at least until the renovation of its main home, the upper level Terrace Theatre, is completed next October. Recent jazz at the KC activity has included an incredibly uplifting election week performance by the Wayne Shorter Quartet that included the performance of a new Shorter piece with wind ensemble, at the end of a week when many of us needed some spiritual uplift. Coming mere days after the tumultuous 2016 presidential election, from the explosive audience response to the Shorter performance it was quite clear that many in the house truly needed some soul-satisfying music that particular Saturday evening. The next weekend came a KC Jazz Club performance by the ebullient saxophonist Tia Fuller‘s quartet.

The DMV’s impressive jazz concert calendar was recently augmented by sightings of two of the music’s most promising young musicians, in suburban Maryland. The Clarice, a handsome performing arts complex on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, has in recent seasons shifted much of its jazz performance activity to the club/cabaret-like environment of the Kogod Theatre. One recent Friday evening they presented trumpeter Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah‘s rough riding sextet, significantly featuring two DMV-based artists in Christian’s touring unit: alto saxophonist BraxtonCook, and bassist Kris Funn, two more of Howard University’s many contributions to the DMV scene. Christian Scott is a young artist who has always been on the get-ahead, making obvious advances with his music with each sighting. Further regional flavor came to his unit from the Virginia Tidewater area, courtesy of drummer Corey Fonville. Also notable was the presence of one of the most impressive new artists on the scene, flutist Elena Pinderhughes. The expectation was high and Christian Scott delivered completely, playing as much trumpet as anyone out here today.

The following Saturday evening brought another of this season’s performance highlights, the “Piedmont Blues” project conceived and composed by pianist Gerald Clayton, part of an ongoing sort of blues extensions series being presented by the Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda, MD. This new work, which one certainly hopes will be recorded, was originally commissioned by Duke University, which compelled what became a two-year immersion in the Piedmont blues culture of the Carolinas, an odyssey the extent of which was conveyed backstage afterwards by Gerald’s proud dad, the master bassist John Clayton.

The work was superbly realized by Gerald Clayton & The Assembly, including saxophonists Logan Richardson, Tivon Pennicott, and Dayna Stephens, guitarist Alan Hampton, Gerald’s longtime trusty bass partner Joe Sanders, Kendrick Scott on drums, and an extra special contribution from the gifted tap dancer Maurice Chestnut. Of special note were the contributions of vocalist Rene Marie, who brought a certain sass, mother wit and great drama to her vocal cum recitation role in the ensemble, where significantly she sat alongside the horns throughout the performance. Even more impressive was the fact that Ms. Marie was actually a replacement player for Lizz Wright, who was originally slated to perform a similar role. Somehow Rene Marie’s temperament and ability to bring heaps of drama to the role seemed more appropriate to a work of this magnitude than even the remarkable Lizz. Gerald Clayton managed to not only deliver the folkloric aspects of the Piedmont Blues tradition, he also brought a sense of freshness from a very old place. In addition to his piano playing, Clayton also engaged certain laptop-triggered field recordings, and largely original field recorded video footage that further enhanced the audience’s sense of place with this work.

Pianist-composer-educator Darrell Grant is someone I first spotted for his very accomplished work many moons ago with first Betty Carter, then with Tony Williams‘ quintet. Fact is even in those late-80s/early 90s days there were more than a few exceptional jazz pianists on the scene. But there was something about Darrell that struck a chord; perhaps it was the obvious pure joy with which he attacked the music with such gusto. Certainly it was the fact that he seemed to elevate whatever band was fortunate enough to share his talents. And besides his playing prowess, once I met Darrell Grant it was clear that this was a musician who had much more on his mind than making the next gig. We worked together for a awhile as I served in a consulting, advisory capacity, assisting D.G. in his career development efforts.

I got an email from Darrell Grant a few weeks back which noted the approach of the 20th anniversary of his relocation. As one who has long advocated that jazz musicians should be careful what they wish for when they become overly enamored of the need to live in NYC, clearly some questions were in order for my old friend Darrell Grant; questions which might yield responses worthy of giving other musicians pause before continuing to further over-populate NYC’s jazz community.

As you approach 20 years since you relocated to Portland from NYC, how has the move proven fortuitous?
Relocating to Portland felt like seeking something out that I couldn’t completely define. I have often said that I moved from NYC seeking community. But I read recently, and I think it is true, that community is not something you find, but something you make. So I think a better answer is that I was looking for the opportunity to re-invent myself outside of the customary expectations of what a jazz musician does. Because New York is so big, and it is so often challenging just to survive, it was hard to see that anything I might do, either inside or outside of music, would make a significant impact. In Portland, it is easier to see the ways in which my efforts connect to the larger web of activities that make the community thrive.

Being a working artist, composer, and educator outside NYC for the past 20 years has shaped my thinking about the role that an artist can play in a community. In Portland, I’ve had the chance to engage with people from all walks of life, to share ideas and projects with politicians, academics, community leaders, and artists in a way that feels holistic- in that we are working together to shape a vision of the future.

I’ve been back and forth to NYC regularly since leaving. Even though the city has changed, New York is still undeniably magnetic. Its concentration of talent and ambition is exhilarating to be around. But, at this point in my life, my own ambitions have shifted, and are less defined by a professional profile, more connected to my effectiveness in this specific community.

What were some of the initial challenges of forging a jazz life outside of NYC?
I would be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes miss New York’s wealth of talented artists from whom to draw inspiration and collaborate. This is not to say that there are not national and internationally recognized artists in Portland. Per capita this town has high density of accomplished jazz musicians, as well as a bounty of young talent. But it is not New York, where on any given day, you could encounter some world-class player you had never heard of.

As a young musician in New York, I was proud of the fact that I was embarking on my career at the center of the jazz universe. Being surrounded by the industry, it was easy to feel like every gig, even the $50.00 date in Brooklyn for a handful of people, mattered. It might be written up by someone in the jazz media, or attended by one of my artistic heroes. Being outside of NY and away from the national scene, I think one looks for other measures of significance for his or her artistic work.

How have you gone about keeping busy musically and building your own ’scene’ in Portland?
Keeping busy has never been a problem. Since bandleading is an integral part of my musical life, I’ve always had one or more performing projects going. In terms of building a scene, I have also enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had here to curate music. Whether that has meant organizing a themed performance or an education initiative for the Portland Jazz Festival, or walking into a restaurant and thinking “this would be a great spot for a jazz club,”and then starting one. One of the benefits of Portland over New York is that there are fewer barriers to putting ideas like this in action. I have created and run two jazz venues in Portland, and had the opportunity to employ local, regional, and national musicians. I’ve also had a full-time teaching position for the past twenty years. In that time, I have taught every undergraduate and graduate jazz class in the curriculum. I have created new courses, instructed private students, mentored emerging artists, served on committees, started an institute, and served as an administrator – lots of hats. However, performing and composing continue to be the fuel for my work as an educator.

From a musical perspective, have there been any advantages to your post-New York life?
Having a full-time job and raising a family, the prospect of extensive touring soon lost its luster. One of the big advantages of living in a beautiful place like Portland is that people come to you. Just by virtue of living here, I have had the chance to perform on major stages with artists like Esperanza Spalding, Nicholas Payton, James Moody, Somi, Art Farmer, and numerous others. Furthermore, while in NYC these might have been “pick-up gigs,” I have had the luxury of taking time to thoroughly prepare for these performances and thus make them far more musically impactful than the usual run-out date.

Living in Portland has provided me the opportunity to explore different ways of thinking about my role as an artist. One of the most significant has been the idea of shifting away from economics as the predominant measure of success. In NYC, I’m not sure I ever would have considered the possibility that the number of people who donated to causes I believed in, or the appreciative letters I received from individuals saying that my music had healed them or given them hope, was a better measure of success than the number of units sold, or a sheaf of positive reviews. I like that here my success is defined by my own individual goals, rather than the industry’s.

I feel like living here, I have had the freedom to express my unique voice. Away from the industry spotlight, and New York’s economic challenges, there has also been less pressure to concern myself with the prevailing trends in music. I worry less about being “pigeon-holed” as an artist than I did during my time in the city. I also find there is less explaining to be done about “what my music is” and why I am making the artistic choices I’m making.

Finally, and this may be unique to Portland, there is a proprietary sense of pride that this city takes in its homegrown artists, and which they extend to those who migrate here. So I felt welcomed as an artist from day one, and any love I gave Portland was reciprocated in kind. Another aspect of this is the feeling that I’m not “just a musician” here in Portland. While there is an appreciation for my music-making, there is also the feeling that my artistic contribution is just a part of who I am in this community.

How important has education been to your life in Portland and how has your work as an educator enhanced or detracted from your music?
My role as an educator has been a critical part of my life in Portland. Even in 2016, few people can really relate to the path of a freelance artist. Having the imprimatur of university professor has provided a context for what I do, and made it easier to make connections. It has also provided a forum and an incubator for my art and ideas, and given me access to a more highly educated people than I ever could have cultivated as a freelance jazz player. I continue, however to see myself as an artist who teaches. So rather than a job, my PSU position provides a platform to do the work I most believe in—work I would probably be doing anyway.

What about your recording career in this life after New York?
Recording is only one way in which I as a performer and composer disseminate my ideas. Like most musicians during the late 90’s and early 00’s, I embraced the DIY approach to making records. I started a label and produced my own CD’s, and those of other artists. My last two recordings came out on regionally-based independent labels. Origin Records in Seattle has national distribution and promotion. Musician-run and Portland-based label PJCE Records, on which my last recording The Territory came out, does not. Figuring out how to document and spread my music is a challenge, But frankly, with the changes in the industry, I’m not sure I would done much recording even if I had stayed in NYC.

For any musician contemplating such a relocation, what advice would you offer?
The advice I would offer a mid-career musician thinking about moving out of New York is:

1) Be clear about what your goals are, and what you hope to accomplish as an artist. If you are someone who needs external validation to feel as though your work matters, that may be harder to come by in a more regional scene.

2) Maintain your old connections, but don’t be afraid to build new ones where you are. With social media and travel it is possible to keep bands together, maintain an audience, and keep one’s connection to the larger jazz world. But one of the benefits of relocating is the opportunity to create a life in the place where you are.

3) Be ready to invest. You may have to spend time finding and/or training the musicians you want to work with, as well as cultivating opportunities to share your art with audiences. We as artists also need to invest in ourselves. Making a place for myself in Portland has required me to cultivate a diversity of skills and talents, not just the musical ones. Each of us brings a unique mix of these things that allow us to thrive, wherever we live.

4) Be prepared to serve. Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said that the purpose of life is to be of use. In older cultures the role of musician was one of service. We kept the history, told the stories, framed the rituals, helped celebrate the joys and mourn the losses of the people. Our art is still needed to serve these critical functions. I would encourage all artists to be citizens of the place you live. Let your voices be heard. Stand with others for what you believe. Collaborate freely and cultivate meaningful relationships with all types of people. Don’t be afraid to ask the essential question: “How can I help?”

– Darrell Grant, 2016

Roughly a year ago in an interview with Elan Mehler we introduced Newvelle Records, a very promising new vinyl-only boutique record label in development. At that point Newvelle was on the cusp of its first release, among those a solo piano record by NEA Jazz Master drummer-bandleader-composer Jack DeJohnette, who actually began his performing career as a pianist and who years ago set that precedent with a piano release for the Landmark label. Since then I’ve had an opportunity to sample two of Newvelle’s initial spate of releases, albums by the late pianist Don Friedman, who passed on to ancestry last June, and the rangy, composer-ly pianist Frank Kimbrough, whose past exploits include the Herbie Nichols Project.

Slipping vinyl from sleeve… another mark of distinction: each record is what might be characterized (sans whatever the vinyl industry term may be) as frosty colored vinyl. Clearly some follow-up questions for Elan Mehler were in order.

Considering the Don Friedman and Frank Kimbrough releases, from the gatefold jackets, to the spare graphics there is a clear sense that you’re endeavoring to establish a “look” for your Newvelle releases. What is the thinking behind that “look” and how important is that to your overall business plan?
Elan Mehler: We are definitely interested in maintaining an identity and a feel for our records. I think the “look” comes directly from the concept. Because we release in “seasons” by membership, each series of six records uses the same cover artist and writer. A lot of our “look” comes from giving these artists as big a canvas as possible. Not trying to fill the space around their work leaves clean lines. Each season should have its own flavor that comes from the artist and the curation. Season two is all color photos from the collective Tendance Floue while Season One is all Black and White covers by Bernard Plossu.

The frosted vinyl appearance of your records is rather unique; how did you come up with that product?
Thats actually what a clear vinyl looks like with no dye added. I’ve always thought clear vinyl looked cool and we like the message that we don’t add anything unnecessary to the process…

From your initial releases one might get the sense that you have started out, at least in your initial stages, with piano-based records. Is that a fair assessment of your plan?
No. We’re going as the muse takes us. I’m a pianist so we reached out to some of my teachers and mentors, like Frank Kimbrough and Don Friedman. I also have always loved Jack DeJohnette’s touch on the piano and Jack recommended Leo, who’s an incredible pianist. But, from both seasons: Noah Preminger, Ben Allison, John Patitucci and Chris Tordini all have bands without piano.

INSIDE DESIGN OF JOHN PATITUCCI’S NEWVELLE RECORD

How have you gone about determining whom to record for Newvelle?
Well, its been my pleasure and privilege to reach out to some of the musicians I’ve most admired since I first fell in love with Jazz as a pianist. Some musicians have reached out to me directly with specific projects. I’d like Newvelle to become a home for projects that musicians have thought about doing for a long time but don’t necessarily fit into their “narrative” of releases. I love that we’ve recorded Jack DeJohnette’s first solo piano record, Frank’s first quintet record, Noah Preminger’s first ballad record, John Patitucci’s first record of all Brazillian music, Rufus Reid‘s first recording with string quartet, the first duo recording from Lionel Loueke and Kevin Hays…

PIANIST KEVIN HAYS & GUITARIST LIONEL LOUEKE IN THE STUDIO FOR THEIR NEWVELLE DUO RECORD

What are your plans going forward, in terms of recording projects in the works or on your wish list?
I have a couple people that I’ve been speaking with about Season Three, but I don’t want to give up all of our secrets yet! If you’re out there and think you might be a good fit for what we’re up to here and like our model, give me a shout!

The Newvelle Kickstarter campaign is posted until December 1st at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1906610871/newvelle-records-box-set-and-season-2-launch