Mondays With Morgan is a column in LondonJazz Information written by Morgan Enos, a music journalist based mostly in Hackensack, New Jersey. Therein, he dives deep into the jazz that strikes him – his principal focus being the scene in close by New York Metropolis.

This week, Enos spoke with DC JazzFest’s Sunny Sumter and Willard Jenkins. The previous is its president and CEO; the latter is its inventive director.

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The pageant runs in Washington, D.C. from 30 August to three September; a hyperlink to the pageant’s web site (*) will be discovered on the backside of this text.

On identify recognition alone, the lineup for DC JazzFest 2023 is on fireplace.

There are NEA Jazz Masters, like saxophonists Charles Lloyd, Kenny Garrett, and Huge Chief Donald Harrison, in addition to the revered bassist Dave Holland.

There are GRAMMY winners, like vocalists Gregory Porter and Samara Pleasure – and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, who’s gained 4 in complete.

To not point out different greats, like trumpeters Etienne Charles and Marquis Hill, pianists Orrin Evans and Arturo O’Farrill – the checklist goes on. However those that run DC JazzFest are a much bigger image.

“I don’t assume persons are essentially wanting on the names of the artists,” Sunny Sumter tells LondonJazz. “I feel they’re enthusiastic about coming to DC JazzFest and discovering new jazz expertise throughout all spectrums.”

Given its proximity to cities like New York and Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. is a pure jazz hub; as such, its teeming scene components into DC JazzFest’s programming.

“We stay in a neighborhood the place there may be lots of jazz presentation,” provides Willard Jenkins. “So, it’s incumbent that as an annual pageant, we current issues that one won’t in any other case have a chance to listen to throughout the course of a given 12 months on different phases in our neighborhood.”

Learn on for extra insights about DC Jazz Fest from each Sumter and Jenkins, earlier than the pageant hits on Labor Day Weekend.

LondonJazz Information: What’s your strategy for this 12 months’s DC JazzFest? What surprises can all of us look ahead to?

Sunny Sumter: I feel the strategy this 12 months is that we’ve such an all-star lineup with NEA Jazz Masters. And we all know Willard obtained the category of 2024 NEA Jazz Grasp distinction, so he’s joined that group. When he programmed the NEA Jazz Masters, he didn’t know on the time that he’d find yourself being within the class.

Now we have lots of our dwelling legends who’re nonetheless round. And as we discovered from the pandemic, we’d higher current them whereas we are able to. That’s why we’ve Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland – simply these implausible legends of this music.

Willard Jenkins: Initially, we need to replicate the place jazz is within the present 12 months – but in addition, honour the wealthy custom of this music with the masters. The difficulty is to try to current a lineup that displays a large amount of the breadth and depth of this music we name jazz.

LJN: To you, at what juncture can we stand in jazz’s evolution?

WJ: We’re at some extent the place we’ve been for a few years now, the place we’ve an evolution of musicians coming into the scene.

I’ve all the time stated that the healthiest sector of the jazz neighborhood is jazz training, and that’s as a result of we see younger individuals everywhere in the world needing to study this music. Consequently, the music has develop into internationalised – a world language.

You have got artists who’re arriving from varied scenes and colleges, bringing their cultural experiences and language to this music. It’s actually broadening the music, and it’s an ideal growth.

SS: Jazz is such a world model. [Willard] and I had been each over in Perugia in Italy [for Umbria Jazz Festival]. I simply spent a while in Newport. We’re going to Monterey a couple of weeks after our pageant.

I feel it’s thriving proper now. It’s reached this crossroads that we’re all enthusiastic about, as a result of we’ve so many genres of music represented in jazz.

Now we have communities mixing their folks music with it, from their varied nations. Now we have jazz and go-go proper right here in D.C.; that’s obtained some nice legs proper now. A number of gospel musicians are choosing up the jazz umbrella.

Even the large band aesthetic we noticed with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Huge Band; we’re bringing on the jazz D.C. all stars in our very personal large band.

We’re creating varied platforms – individuals assembly individuals the place they’re. Someway or one other, they’re ingesting the Kool-Assist, as a result of my goodness, we’re getting crowds that we’ve by no means seen earlier than. A number of the informal followers are popping out and embracing the music.

LJN: You have got somebody like Samara Pleasure, who gained a GRAMMY for Greatest New Artist and deservedly has an enormous business push. Then you could have somebody like Julieta Eugenio, a implausible participant who’s making strikes below the radar. How do you strike a stability between these two realms?

WJ: Samara Pleasure was a really glad circumstance for us, as a result of we really booked her for our pageant earlier than she gained the GRAMMYs. We’re actually benefiting from her meteoric rise, which isn’t about hype. It’s about her artistry. As a result of in case you see Samara Pleasure, you see somebody who’s 24 years outdated, who has an unusual sophistication and maturity about their artistry. That may be a very fantastic growth for the music. We all know how individuals reply to voices.

However then you could have somebody like Julieta Eugenio, who has a really mature tenor saxophone strategy, and is rising and within the growth stage. We’re very proud to have somebody like Julieta representing our DCJazzPrix rising bands competitors. It exhibits the standard of artists who’re collaborating.

Sunny talked about earlier the good masters who’re acting on the pageant, like Charles Lloyd, Dave Holland, Huge Chief Donald Harrison, Kenny Garrett, et cetera. However we balanced that out by presenting the following era of this music.

LJN: Are you able to speak concerning the evolving function of Washington, D.C. within the jazz panorama?

WJ: I feel Washington, D.C.’s historical past in jazz tradition has all the time been considerably underrated. I suppose as a result of it’s so near New York and Philadelphia, two of the good cities in jazz historical past. However there’s a wealthy jazz tradition right here that we proceed to honour.

SS: Jazz is extremely wealthy on this city. As a result of, one: we’ve 19 universities and schools; all of them have had very wealthy jazz programmes for many years. When college students depart college, they have a tendency to remain right here and construct neighborhood.

The opposite factor is that we’ve a really unbelievable group of audiences, who come and sit down and take a look at music. I feel as a result of you could have that direct connection between artists and audiences, this metropolis is likely one of the most vibrant cultural jazz hubs on the planet.

LJN: Once I have a look at the DC JazzFest lineup, it principally consists of acts who match squarely within the jazz idiom. However I see main jazz festivals who succumb to stress to e-book acts far afield from jazz, thereby diluting the aesthetic and ethos. How do you guys match into this equation?

WJ: We do have some giant venues that we use as our phases, together with a spot referred to as the Anthem, the place Gregory Porter is acting at our pageant.

Now we have to be conscious of artists who will make it worthwhile for us to interact these bigger venues. And we additionally need to be conscious of, as you recommend, sustaining the integrity of the occasion.

A lot of what we confer with as well-liked music right now is knowledgeable by jazz, and carried out by artists who got here out of Berklee School of Music, or jazz training programmes across the nation.

It’s a balancing act. As a result of on one hand, you must have in mind your duty to maintain the organisation.

Financially, you must be conscious of that. Alternatively, you must current artistry that displays the place the music is right now, and the place it’s going tomorrow.

We aren’t averse to presenting artists from different genres. However we do have a look at the jazz affect, or how jazz knowledgeable these artists is likely to be.

SS: Along with the jazz knowledgeable, there are jazz impressed artists we signify. Should you have a look at our roster over time, you’ll see we introduced Frequent; we introduced the Roots. We are going to proceed to try this.

We need to convey as many individuals [as possible] to our residence. They might not essentially be jazz aficionados; they could be informal followers of the music. They might be coming only for the expertise. However what we discover is that once they come for that, they stroll away falling in love with the brand new jazz artists.

We simply handed a five-year strategic plan. Once I’m speaking to our stakeholders, the one message we ship to them is that this will probably be a premier cultural vacation spot in D.C. for jazz music. And oftentimes, it’s not the jazz followers such as you which can be coming.

WJ: There’s an effort to make it an expertise, extra than simply seeing a rotation of performances. With any main pageant, a serious objective is to create an actual scene across the occasion. We’re pleased with our progress in creating that scene right here.

LINK: DC JazzFest’s web site