Now in its 29th year, that’s right, The Boscov Berks Jazz Fest has been taking over downtown Reading, PA for the first two weekends in April for 29 years. Festival general manager John Ernesto is immensely respected within the jazz community and never fails to produce a dynamic series of events. With multiple venues, and a wide mixture of styles ranging from smooth to straight-ahead jazz, jazz fusion, R&B, and blues, one must carefully select the shows to attend, as each are individually ticketed. Many are sell-outs. Our first weekend of shows attended was posted last week: 1) Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Tribute, 2) I Got Life: The Music of Nina Simone, 3) Art Sherrod & the ASJ Orchestra’s Motown, Soul Revue, and 4) The Allman-Betts Band. For the second weekend we have observations on : Celebrating the Music of Weather Report (4/12), brief snippet on Celebrating Al Jarreau (4/12), Slam Allen’s Tribute to James Cotton and Big Sam’s Funky Nation (4/13), Lizz Wright and Jose James Tribute to Bill Withers (4/13) and Remembering Grover Washington Jr. At 75 (4/13).
Celebrating the Music of Weather Report – Jason Miles, Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Gerald Veasley, Karen Briggs, Mino Cinelu, Richie Morales
As you can see from the lineup above, as they were introduced, “some of the world’s best jazz musicians.” Grammy winner, producer and keyboardist Jason Miles presented the first performance of his 2000 album, Celebrating the Music of Weather Report here in 2017 with a slightly different cast of musicians, encoring this year. As you know, Weather Report was usually only a quartet with keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and a revolving cast of bassists, drummers, and percussionists. Miles added more instrumentation with trumpeter Brecker, and violinist Briggs. Mino Cinelu was actually an original member of Weather Report in 1985-86. Brecker is one of the best trumpet players in the world and Bob Mintzer, leader of the Grammy-winning Yellowjackets and Bob Mintzer Big Band is a well-decorated tenor saxophonist. The one who drew the most crowd response though was Briggs, for her dazzling musical and visual performance on fiddle. Minelu was also a sight to behold with his array of percussion instruments, and he even took a turn on vocal. We mentioned Veasley in our first report, His six-string bass is perfect for this lineup as he provided the range and musicality in the vein of the famous Weather Report bassists Jaco Pastorious and Miroslav Vitous. Drummer Morales played with The Brecker Brothers, Mike Stern , several top Latin artists, and such innovative composers as Dave Brubeck and George Russell. It would be difficult to find a better lineup of players.
The program covered a wide swath of Weather Report’s material, including several highly recognizable tunes. Jason Miles and Randy Brecker led into the program by improvising “It’s About Time” into “In a Silent Way.” “Mysterious Traveler” featured mostly ensemble playing with solos from Brecker and Mintzer. “Elegant People” began with Miles on synths before Briggs, who bookended Mintzer’s middle solo,” brought the crowd to their feet with her stunning chops. “Cucumber Slumbers” featured solos from Brecker, Veasley, and Miles while “Young and Fine” had Mintzer out front. The funky “125th Street Congress” followed with short solos from Mintzer, Brecker, Briggs, and Miles. Cinelu led into “Badia” which featured solos from each and engaging dialogue between Mintzer and Briggs, a clear highlight. A medley followed with Miles on synth leading into Cinelu on “Woman in the Feathered Hat” into “Confian” where Cinelu sang and Brecker and Briggs offered up short solos. “Black Market” began with Morales’ drum solo before the ensemble joined. Mintzer soloed and he and Brecker did a call and response with Morales upon the close. That led to a short (wish it had been much longer) chorus of “Birdland.” This was top shelf musicianship for 90 minutes in s show that could have lasted much longer but the musicians had other gigs to get to.
“We’re In This Love Together” A Tribute to Al Jarreau” featuring Chris Walker
This writer only saw a portion of this show which featured video segments on Jarreau and heartfelt performances from Walker and the band. Jarreau’s dad even came out to embrace vocalist Walker, dressed impeccably in white, who mentioned that he played with Jarreau for 22 years, first as a bassist, and later as his music director. During the performance Walker often talked about Jarreau – “As Al would say, learn ho to live in the moment and let the moment be.” This performance presages Walker’s album of the same name due in May. His band for evening had Larry Williams on keys and flute, Mark Simmons on drums, John Calderon on guitar, David Caceres on keys and alto sax, Josh Dunham on bass and Victoria Purcell on background vocals. Special guests during the program were vocalist Regina Belle, trumpeter Rick Braun and saxophonist Eric Marienthal. If you’re not familiar with Walker, his musical pedigree is quite interesting, including stints with Ornette Coleman, Art Blakey, Bob James, Jimmy Heath, Cassandra Wilson, and others, leading most notably to Jarreau and R&B singer Regina Belle.
Slam Allen’s Tribute to James Cotton and Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Guitarist/vocalist Slam Allen played in the late James Cotton’s band for nine years, eventually becoming its bandleader. Allen had been dreaming of doing this tribute for a year or more and assembled major talent for this date. Joining him were stellar keyboardist Dave Keyes, a sideman and leader with a few of his own albums out, as well as three top-flight harmonicists, each with very different styles, all bandleaders too. Allen is a top-flight entertainer, skilled at engaging an audience as he did here, beginning with, a bit ironically, two B.B. King tunes, “Let the Good Times Roll” and “How Blue Can You Get?” Then it was “time to get this show started.”
Allen brought Hudson Valley’s Rene Carlson to the stage first. She soloed with finesse, wowing the crowd, and proving that she had that requisite harmonica train sound down. She played on “Got My Mojo Working” before the energetic Mikey Jr. revved it up for “One More Mile to Go” and “V8 Ford,” singing on the latter. 2009 BMA nominee Steve Guyger, who plays in a more traditional style, joined for “Rocket 88.” It’s not often that you see three top-flight harmonica players on stage trading licks and having so much fun! Keyes was in the spotlight for “Baby Please Don’t Go” before they all jammed on “Boogie Thang”.
Big Sam’s Funky Nation followed, sadly to a crowd that had thinned out to about half after Allen’s show. Big Sam and his band are great performers but the segue from Chicago blues into NOLA brass and rap proved difficult for many we have to guess. The environment played in as well as the room was set up with table seating. Big Sam’s quintet is essentially a party band, a dance band. It’s not a show one stays seated for. Nonetheless, unfazed (as this has doubtlessly happened before) the band gave a great show.
Lizz Wright and Lean on Me: Jose James Celebrates Bill Withers
Lizz Wright was described by this writer who introduced her as “smooth, graceful, classy, and versatile” and she personified those words and more in her 80-minute performance that drew heavily from her most recent album, 2017’s Grace produced by Joe Henry. Musical director and keyboardist for that project, Kenny Banks, together with guitarist Chris Bruce were in her backing quartet. Wright mixes folk, blues, gospel and jazz and is described by some as a less adventurous Cassandra Wilson. Her program runs through those various genres with occasional solo spots to the talented Banks. The most recognizable tunes were her upbeat version of Neil Young’s “Old Man,” Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights” and perhaps the title track from the album of the same name, “Salt.” Wright, like many, began in the church and it was on the more gospel-infused songs where her power shone through best – “Seems I’m, Never Tired Lovin’ You” and “Nearness of You.” Wright spoke often between selections but several people, not just this writer, complained about not hearing her well. That’s the only small quibble; the music was strong.
Jose James’ 2018 Blue Note album Lean on Me – A Tribute to Bill Withers was his program for his ninety-minute performance. James and his backing quartet (guitar, keys, bass, drums) injected soul and some hip hop flavor into familiar Withers’ favorites beginning with “Ain’t No Sunshine” through “Just the Two Us,” “Grandma’s Hands,” “Use Me,” “Lean on Me,” “Better Off Dead” and “Lovely Day” and a few others. James created a strong rapport with the audience at one point saying, “these boots I’m wearing are from my now girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.” His use of scat and other improvisational techniques had him honoring Withers in his own contemporary way.
Remembering Grover Washington Jr. at 75
It seems more than fitting that the Berks Jazz Fest would honor Grove Washington Jr., who made his name in nearby Philadelphia and is considered by many to be the father of “smooth jazz,” the festival’s major genre. This writer professes little knowledge or affection for “smooth jazz” but always had a place in my ear for Grover’s soulful approach. While there were 13 musicians onstage Saturday, including four saxophonists in the front line, that was a small aggregation compared to the large ensembles, orchestras, in fact, that backed Grover on his albums. Looking at Soul Box yesterday, there were 50. That aside, this performance was truly great, surely one of the Fest’s top shows.
<P>The saxophonists were clearly the stars, as it should have been. Grover played all saxophones (alto, soprano, tenor) and each was represented with Gerald Albright absolutely bringing down the house with his alto solos, Kirk Whalum did his part of tenor, especially on “Please Send Me Someone to Love,” with Everette Harpe fiery on both his alto and soprano solos. Any Snitzer was also solid in his tenor soloing. The finale was like a vintage cutting session with all four saxophonists blowing the roof off the ballroom.
The entire band not only felt the spirit of Grover but featured a few of Grover’s original band members, namely guitarist Lee Steacher, bassist Veasley, keyboardist and bandleader Bill Jolly, keyboardist Donald Robinson, drummer Steve Wolf and percussionist Pablo Batista. The berk horn of Mike Anderson, Rob Diener and John Loos also supported.
This festival, like most, was highly successful, providing much anticipation for next year’s 30th anniversary which promises even more special shows.
