Jazz as a Salve For Our Times
Powerful percussive energy flowed through the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City at the Winter Jazz Fest, despite plummeting temperatures. Chicago saxophonist and composer Isaiah Collier released his album The World Is On Fire this past October to critical acclaim, so it’s no wonder that he blew the roof off his January 11 performance.
Drawing from the deep well of his latest album, Isaiah sent out healing vibes that also served, in his words, as “a sonic exploration, blending sounds, consciousness, and activism to raise awareness about the pressing issues of our time,” Collier adds, “Through my music, I strive to capture and personify the profound impact of the challenges we face.”
Other highlights of the Jazz Fest’s January 11 programming included a lovely, intimate set by Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn at a venue called National Sawdust. The New Orleans native shone like a diamond in a beaded, diaphanous gown performing music from Quiet in a World Full of Noise (her latest collaboration with producer/multi-instrumentalist Zahn. In the wake of the recent hate-fueled tragedy that beset her hometown, she implored her enraptured audience to try to love one another.
Also performing at National Sawdust was trumpeter/composer Keyon Harrold from the very first notes set a post-modern polyrhythmic scene. Creepy creature features synths and slinky bass lines rippled around his weightless horn riffs, taking a full house to his Grammy-nominated album Foreverland. Matt Swarn slayed on the guitar.
The artist, who’s no stranger to KUVO audiences, impressed the audience as he rolled his original tune “Find Your Peace into a wistful medley with “Over The Rainbow”. Echo-laden Vocals by Malaya augmented the moment with even more depth and emotion.
Later, he deftly folded a few lines of the eden ahbez-penned standard “Nature Boy” into his own composition “Well Walk Now”, which, like “Find Your Peace”, was dedicated to all those in the audience in need of peace, mentioning those impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires, comparing the psychological aftermath to that of the events of September 11 (an idea that resonated with the NYC audience). While Keyon originally hails from St. Louis, he lived in NYC during 9/11 and currently lives in Los Angeles. He ultimately noted that “we were built for this”.
Malaya (an American Idol alum) came back out to reprise her part from the album’s title cut. What I liked most about her performance was that she didn’t rely on her very pretty, velveteen tone (which she employed for most of the set). She wasn’t afraid to sound ugly at the performance’s apex (the equivalent of the beauty queen’s ugly cry, bouquet of roses in hand). There is, of course, beauty in dead flowers, and in emotion, and in exclamation just before the band rolled into a vamp of the chorus from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Perhaps notably, that was the only riff out of all I mentioned previously, that garnered an audible response from the audience. This audience was apparently not a capital J Jazz group of folks, but that’s okay. Jazz music is exactly the salve for those folks too.
Picture credits: Keyon Harrold by Kwafu Alston; Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn by Clifford Usher; Isaiah Collier by Michael Gaetner
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