The 71st Newport Jazz Festival was held from August 1 to 3, 2025, at Fort Adams in Newport, RI, featuring jazz, R&B, pop, and hip-hop performers on three stages. This is the second consecutive year that the festival sold out, meaning an attendance of 10,000 each day. The festival thrived under bright, sunny skies, comfortable temperatures, and slight ocean breezes. Yet the overflowing crowds often made it challenging to observe the performers on the smaller stages. Attendees need to act swiftly to ensure a good view of the performers they want to see on those stages. With sixty performers across the three days, there were many outstanding performances as the artists typically bring their ‘A game” to this historic venue. These choices of the top ten performances depended to a degree on timing and positioning for viewing. Ask any attendee or any writer, and their list will likely differ from this one. We extend our apologies to the many great artists that we were unable to observe, typically due to conflicting schedules.
The Top Ten Performances
Marcus Gilmore Centennial Tribute to Roy Haynes– Drummer Marcus Gilmore is the grandson of the iconic jazz drummer and statesman Roy Haynes, who passed in late 2024 at the age of 99. This set featured the epitome of a jazz supergroup, a quartet that had never played together as a unit until this time. Of course, pianist Danilo Perez and bassist John Patitucci have had a long-established rapport as members of Wayne Shorter’s Quartet for almost 20 years. Add the fiery and visually entertaining Kenny Garrett on alto sax, and the result was magical. Artists of this caliber can create an explosive, yet seemingly tight performance while practically improvising the whole set. Fist bumps and smiles abounded between the four. It was an unrelenting set of powerful, high-tempo jazz filled with bracing solos from all four who built in-the-moment chemistry.
Cymande– The nine-piece group from London, popular in the ’70s, disbanded in 1975 and recently regrouped and reconfigured. Their sound is a unique, intoxicating stew of smooth R&B, reggae, calypso, and soul. They brought all of that and more to the stage, fronted by co-founders bassist Steve Scipio, guitarist Patrick Patterson, and lead vocalist Raymond Simpson, the band had the audience swaying and head bobbing throughout the set that included “How We Roll,” “Chasing an Empty Dream,” and “Changes” from their latest album Renascense, The audience rose to their feet with the earlier hits “Starling” and “The Message” where all were on their feet for “The music is the message and the message is music” which broke into Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up.” These six-decade veterans can still ignite an audience with both four-part harmony vocals and fiery instrumental solos.
Kenny Garrett– With a slightly retooled ensemble, altoist Kenny Garrett is still drawing most of his set from 2021’s Sounds of Our Ancestors, which is filled with Afro-Cuban rhythms. Playing at the Harbor Stage, not the larger Quad Stage, where he appeared in 2021, Garrett delivered another roof-raising performance with even more audience involvement. He mustered such through not only his masterful alto saxophone playing, but also on keyboards, and some vocal scatting. He moved around the stage stealthily, his head bobbing up and down as he played, often using one hand to encourage audience applause and involvement. It’s a testament to his incredible energy that he may have surpassed the excitement he mustered four years ago.
Dianne Reeves – Christian McBride introduced vocalist Dianne Reeves as a “living titan” who belongs in the same conversation as Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Betty Carter. Reeves then proceeded to show that her 40 years of performance put her on a level rarely reached by any vocalist. Her stage presence, connection with the audience, and her improvising ability are unmatched. Who else introduces band members by singing for a full five minutes, dropping in descriptions of each? She began her set with Stevie Nicks’ “Dreams,” an inventive arrangement of “Someone to Watch Over Me,”and closed with “Lazy Afternoon,” delivering a clinic in phrasing, emotion, and pure talent. She won the audience over immediately and sustained that rapport for her full set.
Philadelphia Experiment – The group last played the festival in 2017. With Questlove on hand for a performance later in the day by The Roots, bassist Christian McBride reconvened the trio that included pianist Uri Caine. Turntablist DJ Logic added textures and served almost as a wordless vocalist. McBride is known primarily as an acoustic bassist, but his electric bass playing in this setting was beyond filthy funky. The quartet established a relentless groove throughout the set, drawing on material from their 2001 album of the same name, such as the title track and tributes to Marvin Gaye (“Trouble Man”) and Grover Washington Jr. (“Grover”), and mixing in some spontaneous jamming along the way, combining for a truly infectious set of funked-up R&B and jazz.
Rachael & Vilray – The singer-songwriting team of Rachael Price (Lake Street Dive) and Vilray fronted a sextet of three horns, bass, drums, and vibraphone (Warren Wolf), almost the complete cast that plays on West of Broadway, the duo’s pop-jazz album, released the very same day on August 1. The casual, conversational vibe of the set, including almost every selection from the new album from “Is It Jim?” to “The F-word” to “The Key to Gramercy Park” to “The Stuff,” to the title track and several in between. Rachael’s charming voice and classy demeanor, along with Vilray’s (the songwriter and lead vocalist on some tunes) wit, and terrific unison and solo playing from the band, made for a perfect close to the day on the Harbor Stage. Showing an acute awareness of audience and place, a set highlight included Blossom Dearie’s 1948 “Rhode Island Is Famous for You.”
Christian McBride Big Band – Dressed in all white, the 20-piece Christian McBride Big Band was quite a sight on the Fort Stage. The leader, dressed in a dark suit, kicked it off with his “Brother Mister,” featuring Steve Wilson on soprano and Nabate Isles on trumpet. “Thermo” by Freddie Hubbard followed with solos from Ron Blake on tenor, Xavier Davis on piano, and Freddie Hendrix on trumpet. These members of the orchestra are longtime McBride collaborators and appear on his upcoming release Without Further Ado, Vol. 1. Blake soloed again on “Op. 49 – Cold Chicken Suite,” from the forthcoming album and guest Cecile McLorin Salvant sang Cole Porter’s “All Through the Night” from the album, preceded by one of her old time, rather salacious tunes. The set highlight, though, was Providence, R.I.’s own Jeffrey Osborne (‘’J.O”), who brought R&B with “Back In Love Again” from the new album, later “getting the party started” with a hit from his ’70s group LTD. It was as diverse a big band set as one could hope for.
Tyreek McDole – Tyreek, the 24-year-old Haitian vocalist from Florida, is an emerging voice blessed with a smooth delivery and impeccable range. He drew from his album, Open Up Your Senses, by playing the title track written by Horace Sliver, “Somalia Rose,” written by Allyn Johnson, Nicholas Payton’s rather meditative “The Backward Step,”and a compelling take of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” that was tear-inducing, accompanied only by the fine pianist Caelan Cardello. Tenor saxophonist Dylan Band from Philadelphia shone on both tenor and soprano on the other tracks. McDole has a contagious smile, an amazing stage presence for one so young, and an ability to captivate an audience, as we witnessed in the opening act of the festival on Friday morning.
Willow – There is always at least one surprise. The daughter of actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith was presumably riding her parents’ coattails, so some of us thought. The staff had taken out all the chairs at the Quad Stage for her performance, and she thrilled the standing throng with an all-consuming stage presence, ridiculous vocal range, and uncompromising energy. While her combination of neo-soul, psychedelic folk, pop funk, and hard rock is far afield from jazz, she won the audience over with her take-no-prisoners performance backed by a loud and equally charged-up band.
Darius Jones – There is very little presence of free jazz at Newport, so we need to give our kudos to Darius Jones’ saxophone trio of bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Jason Nazary. Jones’s alto can be both lyrical and screeching. He drew from his recent spiritually oriented Legend of e’Boi, including “We Outside” and “We Inside.” The most compelling of all was a tune he adapted from Alan Lomax, written in the penitentiary while chopping wood by Henry Gibson Wallace, whom Jones proudly acknowledged. Lightcap’s arco playing combined with Jones’ intense emotional delivery was goosebumps-inducing.
Wanting to see a full set or longer set:
- Parlor Greens – Funky beyond all get-out organ trio. Jimmy James (formerly from Delvon LaMarr Organ Trio) is today’s Jimi Hendrix, too. 40 minutes was too short.
- Lakecia Benjamin – One of today’s most energetic performers, especially on Coltrane material
- Ekep Nwelle -Vocalist with incredible range and class. Folks were buzzing about her set.
- Aaron Parks Little Big – Great harmonies between Parks’ piano and guitarist Greg Touhey with support from top notch bass-drum tandem of David Ginyard Jr., and drummer Jongkuk Kim.
- BCUC – The seven-piece funk, hip-hop, punk rock group had the Quad audience on their feet for the twenty minutes I was there.
- Hiromi’s Sonic Wonder – Hiromi may be the most visually exciting pianist to watch. Adam O’Farrell’s effects-enhanced trumpet can be otherworldly.
- Bobby Sanabria’s Octet – The only Latin band in attendance and one that is always uplifting
- Etienne Charles Creole Soul – His mix of Caribbean music and jazz is rather unique and usually quite stirring.
- Tyshawn Sorey Trio – One of the most engaging acts in today’s Creative Music scene.
Next year’s 72nd Newport Jazz Festival will take place on July 31 – August 2, 2026.
Photos by Mary Hynes
