In a lineup as loaded as this one, it’s not often that any performance can be called “must-hear.” But when a set involves McCoy Tyner’s trio, plus the added star power of Bobby Hutcherson and Roy Hargrove, it’s a no-brainer.
My carefully-drawn plans for the evening are beginning to fall apart. Peter Apfelbaum’s New York Heiroglyphics ensemble is fabulous, but their set is already coming to an end…
As expected, Charles Lloyd’s set is full of inventive spirit. The vast red Arena stage curtain parts to reveal the quartet already in action. Lloyd does not interrupt the proceedings with talk, instead letting the music work on its own terms.
Moments from the festival: blues, big band, the mystique of Eastwood, and the higher consciousness of Charles Lloyd.
Duke Robillard often works a little jazz into his guitar playing, but this set is pure blues, with crunchy West Coast licks, a lowdown Chicago scream, and jumpin’, honkin’ and growlin’.
Some of the best music at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival is being made in its smallest room. In the warm, dark confines of the Starbucks Coffee House Gallery, Steve Erquiaga’s Trio Paradiso is making the exotic feel familiar.
It’s a short but difficult trek from the Arena to the Garden Stage. CNN has set up shop midway between the two venues, and an interview in progress with Bonnie Raitt has clogged the passing avenue with gawkers. The struggle pays off in the end.
My calendar says Saturday, but here at the Monterey Jazz Festival it must be Sunday morning. The McCollough Sons of Thunder, straight from Harlem’s United House of Prayer, fill the air with worshipful brass.
Kurt Elling is on stage with the mighty Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra to premiere “Red Man-Black Man,” an ambitious collaboration with John Clayton that explores the intersection between Native American and African-American music and culture.
As I walk into Robert Glasper’s second set, the tune seems to be Sam Rivers’ “Beatrice.” But it is nearly impossible to be sure where one tune ends and the next begins, as melodies fade in and out of each other like a DJ’s mix.
Wandering the grounds of the Monterey Jazz Festival, I catch a few minutes each from three exciting young artists: Robert Glasper, Sasha Dobson, and Eldar.
The Dizzy’s Den stage has exploded in a technicolor orgy of Brazilian-tinged electric funk. Uri Caine’s Bedrock trio with Tim Lefebvre and Zach Danziger seems to be producing enough music for a band twice its size, and their sound board is pumping at full volume.
