Newport Jazz Fest 2025 - Moses Yoofee Trio in Conversation with alldaywes
At the legendary Newport Jazz Festival 2025, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two-thirds of the boundary-pushing Moses Yoofee Trio—Moses and Roman—for a conversation that was as vibrant and forward-thinking as their music. As the host of Jazz Odyssey, a Denver-based radio show focused on progressive, genre-blurring jazz, I’ve been spinning their debut album MYT nonstop since its release. Meeting them in person, just after their electrifying festival-opening set, felt surreal. We talked about the evolution of their sound, the energy of live performance, their unexpected chemistry with drummer Luke Titus, and how technology and genre fusion are helping bring jazz to a new generation. From Ableton setups to intimate club shows in Denver, the Moses Yoofee Trio is crafting a sound that’s both rooted and revolutionary.
alldaywes: It's so cool to finally meet you guys. I do a show in Denver called Jazz Odyssey and I was telling him (Roman) it's curated with forward thinking, progressive jazz, stuff like that.
Roman: Dope.
alldaywes: So honestly, you guys are right up my lane. I've really been playing the MYT album since its release. It's so awesome.
Moses: Wow, thank you so much.
alldaywes: Yeah. When you were releasing the singles leading up to it and everything, I was like, oh, this is going to be special.
Moses: Appreciate it. So, are you promoting the shows there or how is it?
alldaywes: Yeah, I have been writing and talking about your new album on my show and then I saw you were announced on the Newport line up, I applied for a media pass to cover the festival. And then funny enough the Cervantes show in Denver was announced shortly after on the same weekend as Newport. So I was like, that's hilarious. But I’m happy to meet you all the way out here for a legendary weekend of music!
Roman: Oh, so you could have done it at home? (laughs)
alldaywes: I guess so! But I mean what's cooler than Newport?
Moses: Safe.
alldaywes: One of the things I was going to say is how's it feel to kick off Newport Jazz Festival 2025?
Roman: It's crazy!
alldaywes: It's a 71-year-old festival. You guys really were one of the first acts to start the weekend off, so how'd that feel?
Roman: Yeah, I mean we were a bit scared because we didn't know if the weather wasn't good and yesterday when we landed and when we drove here this morning, it was like, ah man. We don't know the vibe of the festival. We were not really aware that it's an early festival, so it starts early and ends early and we were like, ah, are even some people going to be there or no? But then it was packed, I was like, okay. That's nice.
alldaywes: I also wanted to ask you about, so this is my first time at the festival. Have either of you been here before?
Moses and Roman: No, never.
Moses: I just heard a lot of good things about it, and I was in Berkeley College for two summer semesters when I was 15 and 16 and it was always that time when everyone went to Newport so I was going to go and then missed it and stuff. So I'm super happy to finally be here.
alldaywes: Yeah, finally make the appearance! I was going to ask about how it is playing with Luke (Titus)? I know he's sitting in for Noah right now. Luke's an amazing player.
Moses: He's crazy.
Roman: Yeah. No questions. (laughs)
Moses: No questions really, he’s amazing.
Roman: Amazing.
alldaywes: Did it feel like you just kind of vibed immediately? Was it the first you guys have played before together?
Roman: Never. We never met.
Moses: We never met before. Met yesterday evening.
alldaywes: No way! Wow..
Moses: And we didn't touch an instrument except for the show today together.
alldaywes: Wow, that's amazing. On stage it felt like you were just mending together.
Roman: It felt normal to play, which is a good sign.
Moses: He also really came prepared to play and he's a super chill guy.
alldaywes: So I was talking about the show that I do is kind of forward-thinking jazz, kind of pushing the boundaries, stuff like that just like you guys. And do you think that stuff that, you know how you're kind of blending genres, there's not really a fine line of this is traditional jazz, you guys kind of have some, there's some soul and r and b influences with the electronic sounds and stuff like that. Do you think that that's bringing more young people into jazz? And the audiences you are playing to?
Moses: Hopefully. Safe. I don't know if it's the influences which make the young people come, but I think just giving or putting jazz more on the map with the brighter broader picture and hopefully inspires young people also to keep up. And also, Instagram man, I think on Instagram, People just share and post themselves and look at other people and how they play and stuff. So I think it's a lot about also hype, I don't know, kind of.
alldaywes: Yeah, people can connect easier. So with the MYT album, which is an amazing project by the way…
Moses: Thank you so much.
alldaywes: talk about how you kind of adapted those recordings for the live performance. What does it feel like getting to improvise on some of those songs and just how that feels on stage?
Roman: Yeah, it's always like we prepared the set for quite a bit and it's… Wait a second.. (crowd roars in the background) That's crazy.
alldaywes: Yeah, Sofi Tukker is really going crazy over on the Quad stage.
Roman: Nice. Good for her. Yeah, it feels nice. I know it's nice. It's always like, we love doing records and we want to do more records, but it's a different kind of art. It's about different things, it feels like. doing a record or playing live, there's some difference, it's not the same. And we definitely like to play live. It's just fun and touring everything about it's fun.
Moses: Also we had our struggles in the beginning to make the album work live or we changed up some beats here and there. Also not playing some of our favorite tunes. The vibe is just a different one when we play live. And also, with all the tunes from the past and the new tunes. It's quite a bit of a setlist, so it was hard to choose and also how to put the album tracks on stage.
alldaywes: Right how to translate it almost.
Moses: Yeah. We also were now playing it kind of easy, so it's super open parts and everything can still happen. It's not full arrangements. Yeah.
alldaywes: Well Moses, I saw you were running some Ableton live up there on stage with the keys and what kind of sounds are you pulling out of that thing?
Moses: I'm basically using it for triggering in the first place, triggering all the backings, which are running. And when the backings are running, then there's also a click running. But the sounds I do are mostly just samples I trigger, and I use the piano. All my piano sounds are from Ableton as well. Like a Kontact library because it's like from Nils Frahm, like a “Noire” because I always just hated the piano sound from the Nords. That's why.
alldaywes: The Nord's too basic for Moses Yoofee Trio!
Moses: Shout out, Nord. (laughs)
Moses: And the thing is the Rhoades sound and the Wurlitzer sound, they're so good, so warm and so nice. But the piano sounds just don't transmit so good on a big PA. That's why I chose to do also the piano sounds in the box and I think it's better.
alldaywes: Yeah, that's so cool. So mentioning that you guys are going to my hometown of Denver, Colorado to perform at what is really an intimate club at Cervantes in Denver. It has a lot of really rooted jazz history there in that club and in five Points with people coming through and playing in there. What's it, do you kind of gear up for shows that, special shows like that?
Roman: Honestly, we don't know the venue. We don't know at all what is to be expected.
alldaywes: Yeah, well it's like even with Newport Jazz Festival, a legacy jazz festival type of thing. You just going up there and just letting it fly?
Moses: Yeah, I mean it also depends on the set time. Then we always have to adjust the set list for, so today it was more of a festival show and in Denver it's going to be a full proper concert from us with all the tunes. Because you get a set time here and then there. Yeah, because we usually play like 75 minutes, maybe even longer, and today was more of like 45 minutes.
alldaywes: So Denver can expect a little bit more extended release, Moses Yoofee Trio?
Moses: Safe. More tunes and more vibes.
alldaywes: Cool. Well that's really all I had for you guys. I really just thank you so much for sitting down with me.
Moses: Thank you so much.
alldaywes: I'm so stoked to meet you guys. I've been a fan of the album and of just your work, so very cool.
Moses: Sweet. Thank you so much. Hopefully see you in Denver at some point! We'll all be there together.
alldaywes: I'm sure we'll make it happen. You'll be back when I'm there some time, I know it. (laughs) Nice. Thank you again.
Moses & Roman: Thank you!
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