For my birthday weekend, I gave myself a present and an assignment – review the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival. Here’s the result, at DownBeat Magazine. The nation’s oldest jazz festival was never only about jazz. This year’s edition presented the full gamut of jazz and “jazz-adjacent” music, including big personalities like Samara Joy, Jon Batiste, and Herbie Hancock.
Filed under Bill Charlap, Bob Dorough, Branford Marsalis, Camille Thurman, Charles McPherson, Christian McBride, Derrick Hodge, Diana Krall, George Wein, Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, Kenny Washington, Kurt Elling, Larry Goldings, Lionel Loueke, Louis Armstrong, Marquis Hill, Newport Jazz Festival, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles
I’m excited that so many of my favorite artists and interview subjects are nominated for 2021 Grammys! The list includes John Beasley; Kurt Elling, featuring Danilo Perez; Kenny Washington; Becca Stevens; Chico Pinheiro; Maria Schneider; Alan Broadbent; Chick Corea; Christian McBride; Brian Blade; Terri Lyne Carrington, and Jacob Collier (album of the year, no less!). Big congratulations to all. And stay tuned for my upcoming portrait of John “Killer Beas” Beasley in JazzTimes.
2. Album Of The Year
Award to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s), Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and Mastering Engineer(s) credited with at least 33% playing time of the album, if other than Artist.
31. Best Improvised Jazz Solo
For an instrumental jazz solo performance. Two equal performers on one recording may be eligible as one entry. If the soloist listed appears on a recording billed to another artist, the latter’s name is in parenthesis for identification. Singles or Tracks only.
32. Best Jazz Vocal Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal jazz recordings.
33. Best Jazz Instrumental Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new instrumental jazz recordings.
34. Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new ensemble jazz recordings.
35. Best Latin Jazz Album
For vocal or instrumental albums containing at least 51% playing time of newly recorded material. The intent of this category is to recognize recordings that represent the blending of jazz with Latin, Iberian-American, Brazilian, and Argentinian tango music.
62. Best Instrumental Composition
A Composer’s Award for an original composition (not an adaptation) first released during the Eligibility Year. Singles or Tracks only.
63. Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella
An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
64. Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
An Arranger’s Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.
11. Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
For albums containing approximately 51% or more playing time of instrumental material. For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new recordings.
“Despite being at the crest of a 25-year career, during which he has been called ‘the standout male jazz vocalist of our time’ by the New York Times, among many other awards and accolades, he is modest about his achievements and self-critical to a fault. At one point in our conversation he blurts out, ‘Man, I sure wish I could sing better.’” My cover story from the May 2020 JazzTimes.
Smalls/Mezzrow impresario and pianist Spike Wilner.
For the lead story on New York City in @DownbeatMag’s 25 Greatest Jazz Cities package (Feb. 2019), I spoke with musicians who run jazz clubs, like Spike Wilner and Matt Garrison (Shapeshifter Lab); other musicians who live here (Anat Cohen, Kurt Elling); and jazz label execs Don Was (Blue Note), Barney Fields (HighNote/Savant), Seth Rosner and Yulun Wang (Pi). Read it here.
Kurt Elling has always been one of our most cerebral jazz singers, which is not to say he doesn’t swing like a mother. Over lunch and several glasses of Montepulciano at his favorite neighborhood pizzeria on the Upper West Side…
…we talked for nearly three hours about his new album, The Questions (Okeh), which he describes as both a reaction to the era of division and vitriol brought on by the Trump Administration, and an attempt to rise above it and consider more cosmic matters. To that end, the album features shattering, modern interpretations of Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and Paul Simon’s “American Tune;” it also includes lyrics he adapted from favorite poems by Wallace Stevens, Franz Wright, and Rumi, among others. The album, co-produced by Branford Marsalis, is one of my favorite discs of the year. Our discussion appears in the June issue of DownBeat, but you can read it here.
Filed under Branford Marsalis, Downbeat, Kurt Elling
Allen Morrison - Music Journalist, Jazz Pianist, Songwriter, Lecturer - Long Island, NY 
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