“There’s no boundaries to music,” Camila Meza said in her early set in Kilbourn Hall last night. The Chilean singer-songwriter/guitarist said she was attracted to the New York jazz scene and, from there, all the beats, harmonies, and languages of Latin-American music and jazz tumbled together to create Meza, the tender-voiced singer with adroit facilities on the guitar. Her world-music influences, rooted in centuries-old traditions, take on new shadings and grooves when paired with the complexities of jazz. And the influences go beyond that, too: in one tune, it was unclear whether the band was playing montuno synopations or a polyphonic Bach fugue. She was a standout show on Thursday night, and definitely an artist who will be remembered as a jazz festival find.
Like friends in a quarrel, Isaiah Thompson sat facing away from his bandmates. How would the trio play together if not for visual cues to hit accents and tempo shifts? With some head bobs and ear-tuning leans, the bassist and drummer still managed to grab Thompson’s fleeting note slams, and Thompson was able to communicate his plan. Perhaps they left it up to God, which is the topic of Thompson’s latest album, The Book of Isaiah. But Isaiah’s God is one with sarcasm, at least in works like “The Cakewalk Deliema,” which is all about the inside joke of white folks appropriating the cakewalk dance, a dance that the Black slaves made up to make fun of white people. The sly syncopations in the tune were someone letting us into a joke. Thompson is, generally speaking, a musician who sits at the intersection of Oscar Peterson-like stride, Gospel, and blues, with a touch of contemporary bop. And even in works that seem to be a traditional hymn, he shifts styles phrase to phrase, as if he has an attention deficit to genre. And he’s clearly a pianist with expert facilities; he can plunk down note clusters, glide up and down the piano in two-handed glissandos, and flutter and zoom around the keys like a real piano superhero (which was the topic of yet another tune he played). The audience at the late set at Max wouldn’t let him off the stage, so he played one more, a standard, “How High the Moon,” with virtuosic fireworks.
Instead of going home, like a middle-aged mom should, I decided to see the buzz at the new late-night jam addition at Vanni’s at the Inn on Broadway. I thought it would be impossibly crowded with people ignoring the music, but the darkened speakeasy atmosphere was a great match for the energy of jazz festival week. The music was good, the drinks were good, and the atmosphere pulled it all together. It’s a great addition to the late-night options at the jazz festival.
Today’s recommendations are a little later than usual because I was on WXXI Connections today to talk about the insanity that was the New York Times‘s The 30 Top Living American Songwriters list. (That should be a gift link.) I was joined by WXXI 91.5FM Music Director Mona Seghatoleslami, jazz musician and comic Dave Chisholm, and Rissa the Righter, a local songwriter, for a lively conversation that delved into the purpose of such a list, the obvious omissions, the personal experiences embedded in our feelings, and the overall industry response. You can watch the recorded version here:
But before it gets too late, here’s what’s on my to-do list for tonight’s RIJF:
1. Vocalist Brittany Davis, whom I previewed in my Jazz Festival discovery piece. Here’s what I wrote:
“Pinning down an artist like Brittany Davis, another potential festival discovery, is hard; they don’t stick to one genre. The blind, non-binary Seattle singer and keyboardist is a chameleon, gliding between soul, hip-hop, rock, and beyond, as if questioning why anyone would want them in a single lane. But their latest album, Black Thunder, is undeniably jazz, with complex chords and a honed voice that, in tone and social message, conjure Nina Simone. Fans of vocalists who ride in popular lanes will have to make a hard choice on Friday, June 26, between Davis, at the Montage Music Hall, and festival headliner Gladys Knight (a separately ticketed headliner show).”
2. Those who remember Norah Jones’s infamous appearance at the first year of the RIJF will be interested in another Sasha Dobson, one of Jones’s collaborators. A singer, songwriter, and guitarist, she’ll show us another side of vocal pipes tonight at the Inn on Broadway at 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
3. New Orleans represents tonight with two shows: The virtuosic and communicative multi-instrumentalist Kyle Roussel, in Kilbourn Hall, and clarinetist Doreen Ketchens, in Temple Theater. Two different sides of New Orleans jazz, you’ll find. I’ve heard Ketchens’s smooth, jovial wails on the clarinet, so I’m looking forward to soaking up some of Roussel’s energetics tonight, to carry me through the final day of the festival. (Are we tired yet?) But I do hope that anyone going to Ketchens feels moved to get up and dance in Temple Theater. Her music is not for sitting down.
4. I’m closing out with Orrin Evans’s Trio at Max of Eastman Place. Evans was a former member of The Bad Plus, when they were doing more of their original stuff, turning pop tunes into indie-jazz complexities. He left the band when the COVID pandemic took him in other directions, and I’m curious to see what he’s been up to.
That’s, of course, assuming you aren’t planning on going to headliner Gladys Knight, which would be an understandable detour for tonight. See you on Jazz Street!
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