Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste said: “I see jazz as a superpower. It has never depended on popularity to maintain relevance because its value is undeniable; it represents all the nuances of the human soul. It is an honor to play this music because it is my heritage – it is the Blackest, deepest American classical music that has grown to become a universal art form…” (The Guardian, 2021).
Since 1958, the Monterey Jazz Festival (MJF) has emerged as a premiere presenter for artists of jazz related genres, starting with the early years on where iconic performers like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones, Miles Davis and Etta James graced the stage. The tradition continues with a dynamic lineup for year’s festival that runs from September 27-29 at expansive Monterey County Fairgrounds. The exciting assortment of Grammy Award winners and cutting-edge artists include Stanley Clarke N.4EVER, Mavis Staples, Samara Joy, Somi, Tim Green Quartet, Gerald Clayton Trio, Marquis Hill: Composers Collective, Blind Boys of Alabama with Bobby Rush and Regional All-Star Band.
Educational enhancement is also a big part of MJF’s commitment in offering programs like Next Generation Jazz Orchestra and Women in Jazz, that promotes performances with high school musicians chosen across the United States – as well as a Summer Jazz Camp and Jazz Uplifts for third to sixth graders throughout Monterey County.
This year’s festival also contains a spark of magic in the inaugural season of Artistic Director Darin Atwater who already has a storied career in jazz and crossover music as composer, pianist, conductor, a Cultural Ambassador for the United Nations and faculty member of the Peabody Institute - Johns Hopkins University. In 1995 he debuted with the National Symphony Orchestra as pianist and composer of Piano Concerto which subsequently launched a unique career as performer at high-profile venues such as Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and Smithsonian Museum. His compositional output includes Song in a Strange Land, Day of Affirmation, South Side Symphonic Dances and Black Metropolis – which the Philadelphia Orchestra premiered last year.
At the Peabody Institute, Atwater teaches jazz and the course American Roots Music. Apropos of this, Dvořák can be added to the mix as a result of his stint in America as Director of the National Conservatory of Music from 1892-1895. He wrote: “I am now satisfied that the future of music of this country {USA} must be founded upon what are called Negro melodies. This must be the real foundation of any serious and original school of composition. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are American.”
Through the years, contributions by African Americans have enriched America’s music scene, and not just standouts such as Scott Joplin, William Grant Still and trailblazers like Marian Anderson; there are others like Fisk Jubilee Singers and violinist/composer Will Marion Cook who studied with Dvořák during the composer’s American stay – as well as present day talents. Atwater offers insight into the evolution of the African American musical tradition. “The Negro spiritual exchanged field wear for formal wear in the halls of Fisk University, from survival songs to arts songs, informing and influencing Harry T. Burleigh – the regal and sonic reservoir and first to codify the spiritual as an art song. That fed Dvořák’s hunger and obsession with Negro music while he composed what would become the ninth symphony, From the New World. Dvořák was labeled a “negrofile” for his insistence of Negro music as the future of the American school. So, the idea of elevating American music around that framework with a focused megaphone on Black culture was blasphemous, and here we are some 129 years later still wrestling with that singular truth.”
Atwater comments that Dvořák incorporated many musical ideas into his works that are based on Slavic folk music and Czech country songs, but his enchantment with and respect for the African American musician was rather cutting-edge. He also points to an overriding socio-political element associated with the African American cultural experience. “Much ink has been spilled over the commodification of Blackness and cultural appropriation has social and political consequences, and erasure plus usurpation is a well-documented practice in our cross-cultural exchange. What’s needed is real conceptual restructuring, not optic Blackness. Bravo Dvořák.” Atwater’s dialogue gives us a taste of how cool it would be to attend his American Roots Music class.
Atwater is also the founding director of Soulful Symphony, a 75-member large ensemble of mostly African American and Latino musicians who give acclaimed performances of repertoire that is relevant, trending and often outside of the box. “Soulful Symphony is an example of the prophetic spirit of the arts in so far as we are not a repertory orchestra. We don’t have the convenience of pulling Mozart or Ellington off the shelf. Every show must be created, composed, arranged, orchestrated and staged. This means we’re constantly balancing chaos and order, an aesthetic framework found in jazz, gospel, blues, hip-hop and roots music.” He further explains that this type of framework is also found in Balinese gamelan orchestras as well as Chopi orchestras of Mozambique where impulsive, on-the-spot creation takes precedence over standardized performance art from the past. “Like musical explorers, the experience is a discovery in the moment where we and our community of participating listeners often don’t know where we’re going until we get there. That’s ritual.”
Atwater points out the mission behind Soulful Symphony. “Taking what was given to us and building upon it to leave a legacy far greater than what we received from those who came before us. That’s what Soulful Symphony is all about. For almost 25 years, we’ve redefined the symphony orchestra in America. We combine a symphony orchestra with a big band and a gospel choir with a rhythm section. We play Motown and Monk, Gershwin and gospel, rap and maybe even rock. Like a musical Lego set, our only limitations are the ones we place on our individual creativity.”
With Monterey Jazz Festival’s legacy of excellence and Artistic Director Darin Atwater’s vision, the possibilities are endless. On the MJF website, Atwater’s welcoming message includes this thought: “Our festival theme, Crescendo in Blue was created for you, my new Monterey jazz family. It will give you a sense of tremendous scope of jazz – past, present and future – as it exists in the world with its remarkable diversity of voices and nationalities…It’s my hope that when you leave our Monterey Jazz Festival, you’ll have another perspective about the possibilities of greatness in your own life.”