June Jazz Fest Picks
Not everyone can give up a week-and-a-half of nightlife to musical exploration, but if you're so driven, now's the time to get a grip on the schedules of Manhattan's June jazz fests. It's reservation rush for several must-see JVC Jazz Festival-NY (June 12-24) and Vision Festival XI (June 12-18) concerts.
The first is a Vision celebration (June 14) of Sam Rivers' lifetime achievement, which looms large and, though he's 83, shows little sign of trailing off. He's an irrepressibly garrulous reeds player, whether he's on flute, soprano or tenor sax. In person at Vision, Rivers fronts a newly constituted Rivbea Orchestra at 7 and his current Florida-based trio at 10:30. A retrospective film program (June 12) at Anthology Film Archives promises concert footage and interviews of Rivers, and it could be a real treat: He worked with Billie Holiday, T-Bone Walker and (briefly) Miles Davis before establishing his unique compositions, rapacious attack and legendary Studio Rivbea, a jazz loft in Noho.
JVC Jazz Fest producer George Wein's fests have become nuanced surveys of highly regarded, passingly commercial jazz artists, plus local favorites and people he just digs. For hardcore fans of music that makes one think and feel, the JVC schedule gets going June 15 at the Studio Museum of Harlem, with ailing yet thriving pianist Andrew Hill's trio. While undergoing cancer treatments, Hill has released a beautiful album, Time Lines (Blue Note), and plumbs deep mysteries with each performance. He'll probably end early enough to get to the electronically processed trumpet-trombone unpredictabilities of Bill Dixon and George Lewis, titled "Videosonic Projections" at Angel Orensanz Center.
Ornette Coleman has for almost 50 years been jazz's prophet-shaman-seer, blowing past conventions and penetrating listeners' consciousnesses as naturally as he breathes. His quartet with two acoustic bassists and his preternaturally fast-handed drummer son Denardo is rumored to be, at last, issuing a record. There is nothing, however, like hearing Coleman, now 76, in person. His alto saxophone sings the bluesy, if not always comfortable, truth at Carnegie Hall June 15.
There are also alternatives that Friday: the Vision bill features sweet-groovin' Chicago drummer Hamid Drake with his four-sax band Bindu; altoist saxophonist Rob Brown with most under-rated pianist Craig Taborn, violinist Billy Bang's Quintet and bassist Henry Grimes with poet Sekou Sundiata. There's also jazz-funk from bassist Marcus Miller's band and trumpeter Roy Hargrove's RH Factor at Irving Plaza, which offers standing (maybe dancing) room only.
Saturday, June 17 is no contest: JVC features smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti and righteous vocalist Lizz Wright at Carnegie, while Vision has Roscoe Mitchell's Chicago Quartet, skronk guitarist Joe Morris with Parisian bassist Barre Phillips, violinist Jason Kao Hwang's new EDGE quartet and a trio of drummer Rashied Ali, saxophonist Charles Gayle and bassist William Parker. Sunday, Vision ends with the final U.S. performance of the David S. Ware Quartet, led by the tenor saxophonist, pianist Matt Shipp, bassist Parker again and drummer Guillermo E. Brown.
Other highlights of the week: Dave Brubeck's Birthday Party with quartet and big band at Carnegie Hall (June 21); the return of Motown legend Smokey Robinson (June 22); pianist Herbie Hancock with combos of Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Brian Blade, Jack DeJohnette and Ron Carter, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and others (June 23) and Afro-Cuban mambo master bassist Cachao (June 24).
JVC also showcases Charles Lloyd's "Sangam" project (June 22), and guitarist Bill Frisell's trio (June 23). There are a few local favorites, such as guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli's 80th Birthday celebration June 19, "Clarinet Marmalade" (June 20), Brazil Nights at Jazz Standard and an International Women in Jazz night at St. Peter's Church.
On Monday, June 19 the JVC fest salutes the Village Vanguard club with a Carnegie Hall extravaganza convening Hargrove's Quintet with guest vibist Bobby Hutcherson, The Bad Plus alternative piano trio, the modernist Paul Motian Trio + 1, Dr. Michael Smith's Original Liberty Jazz Band of New Orleans traditionalists and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra with saxophonist Joe Lovano as guest soloist.
Of course, New York's jazz clubs remain open while festivities rage. From Sistah's Place in central Brooklyn to Smoke on Manhattan's Upper West Side, from Zebulon upstairs of the "L" train to Sweet Rhythm, Cornelia Street Café and the Blue Note in the heart of Greenwich Village, jazz musicians who do not fit the JVC or Vision profile will still be blowing, plucking, stroking, hitting and serenading.