![]() Hentoff was closely affiliated with Mingus, and a catalyst behind some of the most crucial statements of protest in recorded jazz history, like “We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite.” His legacy would have hovered over this Winter Jazzfest even without the news of his passing - but that news felt somehow meaningful in its timing, a testament to the efforts that have come and gone, and a motivating spark for the struggle ahead. He and his band were devouring an Afrobeat groove in a tune pointedly titled “All Brothers,” when I glanced at my phone and learned that Nat Hentoff had died, at 91.Ī towering chronicler of jazz as well as a stalwart defender of free speech, Mr. In 2017, I made the move to New Orleans, and now live. ![]() For my first two decades of attendance, I traveled from out of state to attend. And I don't plan to miss one anytime soon. My reminder came in the middle of an effervescent set at the Bitter End by the drummer Daniel Freedman. I first attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1996, and since then, have not missed one. Hutchings (like the Winter Jazzfest organizers) would surely be quick to acknowledge. Of course, sociopolitical expression among jazz musicians isn’t on its face a new development, as Mr. The vocalist Siyabonga Mthembu sang alongside him, as a proper member of the band, and also read some artful invective composed by the poet Lindokuhle Nkosi: “In the burning of the Republic, it is always the flattened mountain that performs the first act of self-immolation.” Later there came a quieter but still impassioned refrain: “We need new hymns. His sound on the saxophone has an almost tactile bark, and he maintains an intuitive bond with the cadence of the African diaspora: His solo on a song called “ Natty” called to mind the work of Sonny Rollins in calypso mode, without resorting to outright emulation. Hutchings playing in keening gusts and prayerful cries. The group drew from a fiery new album, “Wisdom of Elders,” with Mr. ![]() So did a host of other artists whose work addresses racial oppression, like the pianist Samora Pinderhughes, who presented his “Transformations Suite.” Reed, a judicious drummer and bandleader from Chicago, naturally fit into that rubric with his current band. This year the Winter Jazzfest intensified the stakes with a presiding theme of social justice, which emerged organically out of the programming but then became a kind of directive. Sometimes it even engenders heated debate, as in the case of Chris Dave & the Drumhedz, whose late show at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday was a soup of fleeting rhythmic genius and unfocused meandering. That roving model, designed to encourage discovery, can turn any festivalgoer into a critic: selecting and sorting, setting priorities, making agonized choices. But as always, the festival’s centerpiece was the marathon, featuring more than 100 acts across a dozen or so spaces below 14th Street in Manhattan, on Friday and Saturday nights. This year’s festival began Thursday and will run through Tuesday, when the Liberation Music Orchestra, led by a guest pianist, Geri Allen, draws from its stately songbook of resistance at Le Poisson Rouge. By now, into its 13th annual edition, the NYC Winter Jazzfest has earned the sensation of urgency that flows among both artists and audiences.
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