Sixth Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Stands Up For Real Jazz

Paul Carr

The Sixth Annual Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival returns Presidents’ Day Weekend to the Hilton Washington DC/Rockville Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, 1750 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20852. Put on by the Jazz Academy of Music, the motto of Mid-Atlantic Festival is “Standing Up For Real Jazz.” In this vein, the focus is on hard, swinging jazz with a number of national headliners mixed in with some of the finest musicians in the Washington DC area. The featured performers for this year include vocalists Tierney Sutton, Allan Harris and Carmen Lundy and instrumentalists including trumpeter Sean Jones; saxophonists James Carter, Jimmy Greene, Craig Handy and Marcus Strickland; bassist Rufus Reid; trombonists Delfaeyo Marsalis; and pianists Kenny Barron, Ellis Marsalis and Patrice Rushen. Local jazz favorites include vocalists Sharon Clark and Janine Gilbert-Carter; saxophonist Paul Carr; pianist Eric Byrd, and vibraphonist Warren Wolf. Performances are held both on the Ronnie Wells Main Stage as well as smaller club settings.

Sharon Clark

Friday night, February 13, the Ronnie Wells Main Stage opens with tenor saxophonist Paul Carr, head of the Jazz Academy of Music, and a marvelous player leading a group with vocalist Sharon Clark. Clark, arguably DC’s leading female jazz singer. Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote that she “evokes not Holiday but rather a less operatic Sarah Vaughan fused with the more animated side of Shirley Horn, a singer who also liked to take her time. Ms. Clark’s voice is rich, her phrasing unfussy, her jazz embellishments minimal.” They will be followed by another terrific singer Tierney Sutton, with trumpeter Sean Jones closing the evening with his group.

Main Stage activities resume late morning Saturday February 14 with the Mid-Atlantic "Jazz Voice"--Vocal Competition with six semi-finalists competing for a $2000 Grand Prize. Shortly afterwards an afternoon session features DC drummer Samuel Prather and Groove Orchestra with the marvelous vocalist Christie Dashiell. They are followed by Chelsey Green and the Green Project, led by the talented violinist. Saturday Evening’s Main Stage performance opens with a Tenor Saxophonist Summit with three of today’s most compelling tenor players: James Carter, Craig Handy and  Marcus Strickland. After their set, vocalist Allen Harris will captivate the audience followed by Ellis Marsalis and son Delfaeyo, on The Last Southern Gentleman Tour.

Craig Handy

Sunday on the Main Stage, Vuyo Sotashe, the 2014 Mid-Atlantic Vocal Jazz Competition winner, opens the afternoon show followed by the great bassist and composer Rufus Reid leading his Quartet. Craig Handy and Second Line Smith closes the session. Handy’s latest project mixes New Orleans grooves with a tribute to the great organist Jimmy Smith.

Sunday evening’s final Main Stage session opens with one of this writer’s favorite vocalists, Janine Gilbert-Carter backed by a trio that includes pianist Eric Byrd with a saxophonist to be named. Carter brings plenty of warmth and a touch of Dinah Washington to a varied selection of material. Next is  tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene whose backing group includes the legendary Kenny Barron on piano and will focus on music from Greene's latest album, “Beautiful Life” on Mack Avenue Records. Greene is a masterful saxophonist with a robust tone and this recording is part of his ongoing grieving process at the sudden and tragic loss of his 6-year old daughter, Ana Marquez-Greene, who fell victim to the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass murder in Newtown, CT. After this performance, vocalist Carmen Lundy will close out the Main Stage with the great Patrice Rushen on piano and keyboards.

Marcus Strickland

Throughout the festival, there will be plenty of music in the MAJF Club and the MAJF Juke Joint rooms. Friday night the Marcus Strickland Quartet performs two sets in the MAJF Club while David Cole will be laying down blues in the Juke Joint. Saturday shows in the MAJF Club include the Terry Koger Sextet, vocalist Chad Carter, and the great drummer Winard Harper, while Memphis Gold will be in the Juke Joint. Sunday evening Shirletta Settles, Anthony Compton, and Sarah McKenzie are among the MAJF Club room performers while Anthony “Swamp Dog” Clark will be blowing his harmonica and shouting the blues in the Juke Joint.

Additionally there will be free performances in the Hotel Atrium including Big Band and Combo competition performances. There will also be interviews with a number of the artists and workshops for students that are led by some of the performers. One can see how packed the weekend will be. For more information with fuller artist biographies, information on accommodations and tickets along with special features on several of the performances visit, http://www.midatlanticjazzfestival.org.

Winard Harper coming to the Kennedy Center

2012 Midatantic Jazz Festival Day 1-2174109, a photo by NoVARon on Flickr.

The wonderful drummer Winard Harper (seen here leading his group Jeli Posse at the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival) will be at the Kennedy Center's K.C. Jazz Club on October 18 with Jeli Posse. Winard recently took to Facebook to share with folks this upcoming appearance.

This is what he had to say:

"Hoping the DC and Baltimore folks will help spread the word about the Kennedy Center appearance October 18. Looking forward to performing there and working with some of the neighborhood schools while we're in town."

As a subscriber to the the Kennedy Center Jazz Program, I purchased tickets to this show when they were announced early this past summer. I enjoyed seeing Winard back in February 2012 and look forward to this upcoming show. If you are in the DMV area and love straight-ahead hard bop, you will not want to miss Winard and Jeli Posse.

Here is a clip of Winard Harper & Jeli Posse in performance.

Frank Wess and Magic 101

Veteran Tenor Saxophonist Frank Wess was 89 when he recorded Magic 101 that has just been issued on IPO Recordings. On this he is accompanied by another jazz veteran, the remarkable Kenny Barron piano along with bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Winard Harper. With this superb band, Wess weaves his magic (a bad pun but it is Wess' nickname) over a program of standards, mostly ballads. 

From the opening moments of Irving Berlin’s Say It Isn’t So, to the last lingering notes of Duke Ellington’s All Too Soon, Wess plays with warmth and imagination while Barron mixes deft restraint with energetic solos while Davis and Harper deftly push things along. Harper is especially wonderful with his use of brushes at times as well as pushing things along crisply when appropriate. But Wess is the heart and soul of the music here. Both Lester Young and Ben Webster, two of his main influences, always thought about the lyrics of the songs they played, and on the lovely The Very Thought of You, Wess shows just how well he learned this lesson. Harper’s deft cymbal work embellishes Barron’s lovely solo here as well.

Wess’ own Pretty Lady is a lovely ballad followed an exquisite rendition of Come Rain or Come Shine. After another lovely reworking of a standard, Easy Living, Barron provides a bit of sophisticated blues piano to introduce Blue Monk, with Wess’ tenor contributing to the late hours feel of a blues-drenched performance of this jazz classic. The set closes with an unaccompanied rendition of Duke Ellington’s All Too Soon, which the Duke wrote as a feature for Ben Webster, that exhibits the full breadth of the warmth and tone of Frank Wess. 

Bret Primark entitled an upload of Wess performing Lush Life with his Washington DC high school classmate, the late Dr. Billy Taylor, “When Frank Wess Plays a Ballad, Ben Webster Smiles.” The wonderful Magic 101 has much that will make us (and would make Ben Webster) smile.

I received my review copy from a publicist. Here is the youtube clip I referred to in my review.

Avery Sharpe Honors His Mentors

Bassist Avery Sharpe is perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure with the great McCoy Tyner who he joined in 1980. A varied career, he has worked with such significant artists as Art Blakey, Archie Shepp, Dizzy Gillespie and Pat Metheny in addition to his long tenure with Tyner. He has also recorded a number of highly praised albums that showcase his original compositions. On his JKNM Records label, he has issued Legends and Mentors: The Music of McCoy Tyner, Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef, on which he plays homage to them, first performing an original dedictated to each as well as two compositions by each. For this disc he has brought together a band that includes John Blake on violin; Joe Ford on saxophones as well as flute; Onaje Allan Gumbs on piano; and Winard Harper on drums. Blake and Ford both are also alumni of Tyner’s band.

The first trio of tunes is Sharpe’s Big Mac, his salute to Tyner followed by Tyner’s Ballad For Aisha and Fly With the Wind Big Mac brings together distinctive voicings of Blake’s violin and Ford’s alto along with strong solos. Tyner’s Ballad For Aisha has a middle-eastern flavor which Blake’s violin brings to the fore with Gumbs maintaining the flow after which Ford enters on soprano sax followed by Sharpe taking center stage. Sharpe launches Fly With a Wind, which one assumes Sharpe, Ford and Blake played numerous times with Tyner. The exhilarating composition never grows stale.

The Chief is the tribute to Archie Shepp, and its stately melody also features one of Ford’s strongest solos here, with Sharpe’s solo serving as a bridge to Blake. Shepp’s Steam is a lovely waltz while Ujaama hits a hot tempo with Ford back on alto and Blake solo is followed by Gumbs and Ford, with Sharpe solid anchoring the performance.

Gentle Giant, a performance that features changing tempos opens with some marvelous flute from Ford, while Sharpe takes an unaccompanied solo followed by Harper’s thoughtful drum solo. Lateef’s slightly exotic Morning, with its delicate, dance-like rhythms is a strong feature for Ford on tenor while the uptempo Because They Love Me is an exhilarating romp with Ford again on tenor and Blake and Gumbs both playing impressive here. Lateef’s music perhaps has not remained as much in the forefront of the jazz world as that of Tyner and Shepp, and hopefully tthesef performances will rectify that.

Legends & Mentors is a loving tribute by Sharpe and his colleagues of three of the past century’s major jazz artists who are done proud by the performances here.

This review originally appeared is the April 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 303). I received my review copy a publicist for this recording. Avery Sharpe’s website is http://www.averysharpe.com/ and he has a new recording out, Running Man.


Here is Avery Sharpe with his trio doing Mr. P.C.

Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival Bring the Real Jazz to DC area

Paul Carr and Randy Brecker at 2011 Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival

It is about 5 weekends from the 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival. The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival revives the legacy of the East Coast Jazz Festival that ran for 15 years starting in 1992. The ECJF originated in honor of Elmore “Fish” Middleton, a Washington, DC jazz radio programmer, whose commitment to promoting jazz music and supporting emerging jazz artists became the guiding principle behind the festival. The driving force of the ECJF was the late Ronnie Wells, a Washington DC jazz icon. After her passing, so did the ECJF.

Bassist Michael Bowie

Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival takes place at the Rockville, Maryland Hilton Hotel over the President’s Day Weekend. Under the auspices of Washington DC area saxophonist and educator, Paul Carr, the Festival has a focus on not simply bringing some of the best local and national jazz performers to the area, but to help nurture and support Jazz Education. Besides such notable performers like Roy Haynes, Terrell Stafford, Carmen Bradford and Nicholas Payton, the festival spotlights local artists like vocalist Sandra Johnson, guitarist Mark Mosely, and bassist Michael Bowie. There are master classes for aspiring jazz musicians, a jazz for mall boppers class, jam sessions, band competition for high school bands and more. There are also artist interviews, and much more.

The Festival opens on Friday night February 17 with highlights on the main stage being Winard Harper and the great vocalist Carmen Bradford backed by the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Orchestra conducted by Paul Carr. Saturday afternoon a highlight will be the Jazz Ain’t Dead Jazz Troupe featuring Maurice Chestnut. Saturday evening features the acclaimed Baltimore vibraphonist (and much more) Warren Wolf and the legendary Roy Haynes and the Fountain of Youth band with the terrific Jaleel Shaw on saxophone. Sunday afternoon has a focus on gospel with a play, “The Mahalia Jackson Story’ featuring vocalist Lavenia Nesmith. Sunday evening includes a Trumpet Summit featuring Brain Lynch, Nicholas Payton and Terrell Stafford and the evening concludes with Festival director Paul Carr’s Quintet with Terrell Stafford, Joey Calderazzo, Michael Bowie and Lewis Nash.

Nicholas Payton will be part of the Trumpet Summit.
He is seen here at the 2009 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

As can be seen, this year's Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival will present another full weekend of great music. I had a blast at last year's Festival and look forward to more of the same. I hope to see some of you there. For more information check out the website, http://www.midatlanticjazzfestival.org/. Here is a preview of the Festival.