Next Jazz Legacy announces a celebration of its monumental first year with a performance at the NYC Winter JazzFest at City Winery on Jan. 12.
Next Jazz Legacy is a program by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice that addresses gender and racial inequities by providing opportunities for mentorship and professional development to those who have been underrepresented in jazz. Within their cohort is a lineup of emerging women and nonbinary musicians. The program is co-founded by NEA Jazz Master and founder of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice Terri Lyne Carrington and New Music USA President & CEO Vanessa Reed.
Those involved with the program were able to learn valuable skills, and even had apprenticeships with jazz icons like Esperanza Spalding, Lizz Wright, Marcus Miller, Mary Halvorson, Tia Fuller, Linda May Han Oh, and Chris Potter. Throughout the year, awardees performed on prestigious stages at local and national jazz events throughout the country, including at the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festivaland as part of a special Livestream Concert produced by WBGO.
On Jan 12. Next Jazz Legacy will be partaking in the Winter Jazzfest at City Winery. Doors open at 5 p.m., and a special panel at 5:30 titled “Why the Jazz World Needs Gender Equity” will occur. The panel will discuss the importance of initiatives like NJL for women and non-binary jazz artists, and how those artists are shaping the music’s future. At 7 p.m., NJL will perform, featuring all seven of the inaugural awardees, who are Ivanna Cuesta (Drums), Lexi Hamner (Vocals Trombone), Keyanna Hutchinson (Guitar), Alexis Lombre (Piano/Keys), Anastassiya Petrova (Keys/Piano), Loke Risberg (Guitar) and Kalia Vandever (Trombone).
The last event of the evening starts at 8 p.m., and it is New Standards live. Curated by Terri Lyne Carrington and featuring an astounding lineup of musicians, this debut performance will celebrate the recent publication of New Standards, a songbook featuring lead sheets by 101 women composers, the first of its kind. Tickets to see the Winter Jazzfest are on sale now.
The NYC Winter Jazzfest is returning for its 19th year in mid-January, with a weeklong series of events at over a dozen venues with over 70 performers total.
Beginning on January 12, opening night will feature the first-ever onstage presentation of jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s New Standards Live project. New Standards Live is composed of her book “New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers” and “New Standards, Vol. 1,” an album bringing to life music from this book. Musicians in January’s performance include Michele Rosewoman, Melanie Charles, Michael Mayo, Linda May Han Oh, Kris Davis, Tia Fuller, Caroline Davis, Helen Sung and Mary Halvorson.
Opening night will also showcase French accordionist Vincent Peirani and French saxophonist Émile Parisien leading their respective ensembles, with trumpeter Avishai Cohen joining with his quartet in this concert at LPR. Lastly, UK radio broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner Gilles Peterson will DJ a set at Nublu.
Next are the festival’s marathons in Manhattan on the 13th at (Le) Poisson Rouge, City Winery, City Winery Loft, Zinc Bar, the Bitter End, Nublu, and the Jazz Gallery, and in Brooklyn on the 14th at Brooklyn Opera House, Brooklyn Bowl, Superior Ingredients, Baby’s All Right, National Sawdust, Loove Labs, Club Curious.
The weekend will include a Marshall Allen-led Sun Arkestra set, and at Brooklyn Bowl, a tribute concert to late jazz music promoter Meghan Stabile, who passed away in June at 39. This show will feature Late Show bandleader Louis Cato, revered hip-hop producer Pete Rock with his band, the Soul Brothers, and Igmar Thomas’ Revive Big Band, as well as a number of different special guests. Both nights will run from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.
To close the weekend, on Sunday the 15th, the festival will also present a tribute to late trumpeter Jaimie “Breezy” Branch, who passed away in August at 39. The program, starting 8 p.m. at Nublu, will feature Jeff Parker, Chad Taylor, Fay Victor, and more.
On Tuesday the 17th at 7 p.m., pianist and composer Samora Pinderhughes will present his politically charged multimedia project “Grief & Process,” a collaborative exhibition and performance series taking place at The Kitchen’s temporary location at The Westbeth’s West Side Loft.
At 8pm that same night, multi-instrumentalist Nate Mercereau will direct “Take Two,” in which audience and performers alike will listen to Pharoah Sanders’ 1974 album Elevation in its entirety, after which the musicians will take to the stage for a live reinterpretation of what they just heard.
As in past years, the festival will also present a series of “Jazz Talks” for the afternoons of January 15-17, covering the topics of jazz and gender, wellness, social justice and more.
On the 18th, NYC Winter Jazzfest will close with a concert at Nublu. Information regarding tickets and more can be found on the festival’s website.
Update: New York City Winter Jazzfest has moved all virtual for this year’s event, and will be broadcasting January 14 – 22 featuring 30+ different groups and 150 musicians performing from cities all over the world including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Johannesburg, Miami, St. Louis, Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, and more.
In line with this year’s theme, “The Feel Good,” we asked many of the musicians to perform “Feel Good” music, especially now during these challenging times, when we cannot all be together, we need the valuable musical medicine these musicians provide us. We are so grateful to all of the artists for moving mountains to make this happen.
NYCWJF founder Brice Rosenbloom
The events will start on January 14, starting with the first of four Virtual Marathon Nights More in-person events will be announced in the coming weeks. The full schedule of performers can be found here.
Performances can be accessed via winterjazzfest.com, on YouTube and Facebook. Select performances are also available on Qwest.TV and on WBGO channels.
2022 NYC Winter Jazzfest has announced its lineup running from January 13-22, 2022 presenting a full spectrum of jazz. The Artist-in-Residence will be Chicago composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid.
This will be the 18th annual rendition of the NYC Winter Jazzfest. The festival was founded in 2005 and over the years has cemented a reputation as a hotbed of cultural discovery, supporting the rich growth and continued vitality of the jazz community.
This year’s festivities will include 10 nights of programming: marquee performances, including major world premieres, from artist-in-residence Angel Bat Dawid, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, Ben LaMar Gay, Jaimie Branch, Fay Victor and Kate Gentile; a Summer of Soul screening/convo and “The Feel Good” Party with Questlove and guests; and once again our weekend multi-venue, multi-artist marathon, which has become recognized as one of New York’s most essential nightlife offerings, giving audiences full access to all participating venues and dozens of groups performing from early evening deep into the wee hours.
NYC Winter Jazzfest’s Artist-in-Residence is composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid who is known in the world for the premiere of “Afro-Town Topics: A Mythological Afrofuturist Revue”. Inspired by Fats Waller, Bat Dawid presents a new original score using the traditional framework of a musical revue (a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches) as a compositional blueprint with the intention of creating and exploring the production of new Afro sonic realities and futures. Additionally, Bat Dawid will perform a DJ set at the opening night event at City Winery on January 13 and present her Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty on January 14 during the NYCWJF Marathon.
With the support of South Arts, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians will hold its inaugural residency under the auspices of NYCWJF. Supported by a consortium of public and private funders including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andrew Mellon Foundation and nine state arts agencies, South Arts has, through its Jazz Road Creative Residency program, provided grants of up to $40,000 this year to 52 artists or groups including M3, in order to foster their artistic and professional growth while allowing them to engage in a wide range of artistic and community projects throughout the US.
M3 was cofounded by acclaimed musicians Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa in 2020 to address ongoing gender inequity and underrepresentation in the jazz and creative music worlds, and to foster partnerships among women and non-binary musicians around the world through new composer commissions, published writings, collective conversations and other programs. The M3 residency seeks to reverse the imbalance seen at many jazz festivals by presenting 21 women and non-binary bandleaders, showcasing them across 10 days as performers, composers, workshop leaders and facilitators.
Participants include Samantha Boshnack, Romarna Campbell, Caroline Davis, Miriam Elhajli, Ganavya, Eden Girma, Val Inc. AKA Val Jeanty, Maya Keren, Erica Lindsay, Lesley Mok, Camila Nebbia, Shanta Nurullah, Cleo Reed, Michele Rosewoman, Sara Serpa, Jen Shyu, Monnette Sudler, Anjna Swaminathan, Sumi Tonooka, Fay Victor and Malika Zarra.
The current lineup for NYC Winter Jazzfest includes: Angel Bat Dawid (Artist-in-Residence), Alan Braufman, Alicia Olatuja, Allison Miller, Anjna Swaminathan, Antonio Sánchez – A Bad Hombre Project, Ben LaMar Gay, Brianna Thomas, Camila Nebbia, Camille Thurman, Caroline Davis, Chien Chien Lu, Cleo Reed, Code-Switch with Nasheet Waits, JD Allen, Eric Revis, Connie Han Trio, Craig Taborn, Dave Harrington Pranksters East, Eden Girma, Erica Lindsay, Fay Victor, Ganavya, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Gilles Peterson (virtual), Greg Ward’s Rogue Parade, Harriet Tubman, In Common: Walter Smith III and Matt Stevens featuring Kris Davis/Harish Raghavan/Terri Lyne Carrington, Jaimie Branch, James “Blood” Ulmer, James Brandon Lewis, James Francies, Joel Ross, Blaque Dynamite, Jen Shyu, Joel Ross, Julian Lage, Julius Rodriguez, Kassa Overall, Kate Gentile, Lakecia Benjamin, Lesley Mok, Louis Hayes, Madison McFerrin, Mahogany Browne, Makaya McCraven, Malika Zarra, Marc Ribot Trio, Marshall Allen, Matthew Whitaker, Maurice Brown, Maya Keren, Melanie Charles, Michele Rosewoman, Miki Yamanaka, Miriam Elhajli, Monnette Sudler, Nate Mercereau, Nate Smith +KINFOLK, Nduduzo Makhathini, Pino Palladino and Blake Mills featuring Sam Gendel and Abraham Rounds, Questlove, Ray Angry, Romarna Campbell, Rudresh Mahanthappa Hero Trio, Sam Gendel, Samantha Boshnack, Samara Joy, Samir LanGus, Samora Pinderhughes GRIEF, Sana Nagano, Sara Serpa, Sarah Elizabeth Charles SCOPE, Shai Maestro Quartet, Shanta Nurullah, Sistazz of The Nitty Gritty, Steph Richards +Supersense, Sumi Tonooka, SuperBlue: Kurt Elling featuring Charlie Hunter, Takuya Kuroda, Terence Blanchard featuring The E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet, Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science, Thana Alexa, The Bad Plus, The Jazz Gallery All-Stars, Theo Croker, Tim Berne Duo with Gregg Belisle-Chi, Val Inc. AKA Val Jeanty, and Zoh Amba.
For more information on 2022 NYC Winter Jazzfest visit their website.
