The Boston Globe - 02.08.2019

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 2019 The Boston Globe G5

withvirtuosic, upbeat music
during breaks between guests.
A few hoursearlier, Batiste
had sat up froma brief post-
soundcheck lie-downon his
dressing room couch to discuss
his career away from his day
gig, whichwill bring him to the
Newport Jazz Festival for “Jon
Batiste and Friends,” Friday’s
opening night concert at the In-
ternational TennisHall of
Fame. Batiste will celebrate the
release that same day of “Anato-
my of Angels,” recorded live
overseveral nights at the Vil-
lage Vanguard this past fall.
Joining him at Newport will
be the bandfromthat album
and four guests: Ethan Iverson,
ELEW(a.k.a. Eric Lewis),PJ
Morton, and Corrine Bailey Rae
— each of whom will perform at
Fort Adams on otherfestival
stages this weekend.
“I wanted to lookat the
scheduleand see who would be
there around that day, and real-
ly make sure that I could put to-
gether a showthat featured a
range of different styles of mu-
sic,” Batiste explains, looking
stylishly casual in a T-shirt and
sweatpants before changing in-
to a suit for the tapingof that
night’s show. “That’s what’s
great about Newport: There’s so
muchthat you can hear, so
many different styles — differ-
ent styles, I think, create a real-
ly rich performance.You have
peoplefromall walksof life
coming onstage: jazz, R&B, hip-
hop, folk. It’s beautiful.”
Batiste, 32, is already an old
hand at Newport. He played a
short but dazzling solo set as far
back as 2012, sandwiched be-
tween the Preservation Hall
Jazz Band and headliner Dr.
John for that year’s New Or-
leans-themedopeningnight.
Last yearhe was featuredat
bothNewport’s folk and jazz
festivals, organizing a star-stud-
ded, protest-orientedset titled
“A Change Is Gonna Come” to
closeout the formerand intro-
ducingmusicfromhis T-Bone
Burnett-producedsolo album,
“Hollywood Africans,” at the lat-
ter.
Friday’s performance will
likewise includenew music, ac-
cording to Batiste.
“We’re going to be playing a
lot of music that we’ve never
played publiclyyet, and then in
between those songs we’re go-
ing to have special guests,” he
says. “We’re going to play ‘Hol-
lywood Africans’ songs, ‘Anato-
my of Angels’ songs,and then
guests and I are going to play
songs that we rehearsed togeth-
er.”
To judge by the album,the
“Anatomy of Angels” musicwill
be the closerto straight-ahead
modernjazz than anything Ba-
tiste has previously played at
the festival. Batiste calls it “ce-
lestial jazz,” and playing it with
him will be his longtime trio
mates PhilipKuehn on bass
and Joe Saylor on drums, aug-
mented on somesongsby three

uBATISTE
ContinuedfromPageG1

of his favorite young horn play-

ers — Giveton Gelin on trum-

pet, Patrick Bartley on alto sax,

Tivon Pennicott on tenor sax —

and two members of Stay Hu-

man, Jon Lampley on tuba and

trumpet and Negah Santos on

percussion. (Louis Cato, also of

Stay Human, played percussion

on the album,and guest Ra-

chaelPrice of Lake Street Dive

sang its only vocal number, the

ballad “The Very Thought of

You.”)

“What I’ve doneis I’ve creat-

ed piecesmadeto be decon-

structed in the moment,” Ba-

tiste says. describinghis latest

work.“The themes are the

same,and the structure is the

same.But insteadof it being

basedon just the themes,it’s

basedon thesedifferentstruc-

turesthat fit together, almost

like Legos, and we can put

them together and take them

apart in the moment. And it’s

different every timewe put

them back together.

“I wanted to create some-

thing that was new, and innova-

tive,” he continues, “and also if

you listen to it and you’re not a

jazz listener, it has sucha deep

spirituality to it that you’re go-

ing to connect to that element

of it. And it will take you on a

journey every single time.”

Christian McBride, Newport

Jazz Festival’s artistic director,

credits festival founderGeorge

Wein with putting Batiste in

charge of Friday night when

otherpossiblescenariosthey’d

discussed weren’t coming to-

gether.

“George came in and said,

‘Hey listen, let’s just have Jon

Batiste put something together,

and let’s just call it “Jon Batiste

and Friends”and put it all on

him.’ And I said, ‘Hey, I think

that’s a great idea.’ Jon is such

an incrediblepersonality, and

people respect him as a musi-

cian, and whatever he does, I

know it’s going to be great.”

Muses McBride, “I wonder if

people really understandwhat

a damn good musician he actu-

ally is,” noting that “when

someone in the jazz worldhas

that extremely rare opportunity

to breakthat glass ceilingof

mainstream stardom” it can ob-

scure how talentedthat musi-

cian is.

This shouldn’t remain a

problem for anyonewhohas

heard Batiste reinvent “What a

Wonderful World,” play piano

on “Kenner Boogie”and

“Chopinesque,” or sing his orig-

inal “Don’t Stop” on “Holly-

woodAfricans.” Or whowill

hearhim and his new band

soar on “RoundMidnight” and

the “Anatomy of Angels” title

tune.

“Had the Stephen Colbert

gig not comearound,he still

would have been extremely suc-

cessful,” says McBride,stating

what oughtto be obvious. “Be-

causehe’s got talent, and he’s a

hell of a piano player.”

Bill Beuttler canbe reached at

[email protected].

ByBillBeuttler

GLOBECORRESPONDENT

J

on Batiste is headlin-

ing on Friday nightat

Newport’s Interna-

tional TennisHall of

Fame, but the bulkof

the Newport Jazz Festival action

takes placein daylightFriday

throughSunday, with overlap-

ping performances on the four

stages at Fort AdamsState Park.

Closingthe mainFort Stage

will be Herbie Hancock on Fri-

day, KamasiWashington on

Saturday, and the hip-hopstar

Commonon Sunday. Thunder-

cat will precede Hancock on the

mainstage on Friday. A clue to

the festival’s continued broad-

minded,forward-lookingap-

proach to defining jazz is that

all four men have worked with

Robert Glasper, whose collabor-

ative groupR+R=NOW(also

featuring Terrace Martin of

Hancock’s currentgroup) did

similar duty last year.

Not that therewon’t be plen-

ty on offer that’s more identifi-

ably linked to the music’s past.

RalphPetersonand the Messen-

ger Legacy will openthe main

stage Saturday paying tributeto

Art Blakey, for example,and on

Friday Gary Bartz, who did his

own stint as a Jazz Messenger in

the 1960s, will celebrate the 50-

yearanniversary of his now

classic, thencutting-edge al-

bum“AnotherEarth” with a

bandfeaturing CharlesTolliver

and Ravi Coltrane.

Christian Sands will lead fel-

low pianists Helen Sung and

Tadataka Unno in a tribute to

Erroll Garner on Sunday. Han-

cockwill return Saturday for a

trio set with Christian McBride

and Vinnie Colaiuta, and Ron

Carter will lead his trio with pi-

anist DonaldVega and guitarist

RussellMalonein a set of

chamber jazz.

But therewill be a jazz-in-

flected classical quartet, Marika

Hughes’s the New String Quar-

tet, at the StoryvilleStage on

Sunday, followed by genre-defy-

ing saxophonist MatanaRob-

erts, whose newest releasein

her mammothhistoricalproj-

ect “Coin Coin” will arrivein

October.

The Bad Plus and their for-

mer pianist Ethan Iversonwill

performsimultaneouslyfor

most of theirseparate sets on

Friday, Iversonwiththe Billy

Hart Quartet. Saxophonists Tia

Fuller, Marcus Strickland,and

Dayna Stephenswill eachlead

combos, and Ravi Coltrane will

be pairedwith the brilliantpia-

nist David Virelles.Heralded

newcomers JamesFrancies,

Makaya McCraven, and Joel

Rosswill each lead progressive

groups, and Ross will also per-

form with the all-star collabora-

tive In Common (not to be con-

fused with the hip-hop headlin-

er), with Walter Smith III, Matt

Stevens, Harish Raghavan, and

Kendrick Scott.

Othertop combos expand-

ing jazz boundaries: Terence

Blanchard’s E-Collective, Cami-

la Meza & the Nectar Orchestra,

and Jenny Scheinman and Alli-

son Miller’s superb new Parlour

Gamequartet. And the justly

celebrated British group Sons

of Kemet is sure to get people

up and dancing.

Vocal stars include NEAJazz

Masters Dee Dee Bridgewater,

DianneReeves, and SheilaJor-

dan; 2019 DownBeat Critics

Poll jazz artist (andvocalist)of

the year Cécile McLorin Sal-

vant; and Buika, currently com-

manding attention for her work

withCarlos Santana on his al-

bum “Africa Speaks.” This being

Newport, thereare also stellar

big bands: Darcy James Argue’s

Secret Society, Sun Ra Arkestra,

Spanish Harlem Orchestra, and

2019 Best Latin Jazz Album

Grammy winnerDafnis Prieto

Big Band.

Thecompletelineupand

schedules are availableat

http://www.newportjazz.org.

Bill Beuttler canbe reached at

[email protected].

At Newport, collaborations link

the past, present, and future of jazz

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT/KEYSTONE VIA AP/FILE

“Youhave peoplefromallwalksof lifecomingonstage:
jazz, R&B,hip-hop,folk,” Jon Batiste says of Newport.

Jon Batiste knows

what’s great about

playing this festival

NEWPORT JAZZFESTIVAL

AtFort AdamsStatePark,

Newport,R.I.,Aug.2-4.

http://www.newportjazz.org/tickets

HENRY ADEBONOJO/ROCJERRISMADISON

LEONNEAL/GETTYIMAGES

ETHANMILLER/GETTY IMAGES

PHILIP CHEUNG/THENEWYORKTIMES

DEBORAH FEINGOLD

EVA HAMBACH/AFP/GETTYIMAGES

Newport Jazz Festival

performersinclude

(clockwisefromtopleft)

TerenceBlanchard,Dianne

Reeves,HerbieHancock,

Ravi Coltrane,Kamasi

Washington,CecileMcLorin

Salvant,andBuika.

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