The seventh Richmond Jazz Festival wrapped up Sunday night, ending four days of food, fashion, art and more than three dozen eclectic performers, solidifying the event’s reputation as one of the genre’s best in the nation.
“To us, it’s all about a very diverse and explicit lineup and bringing together jazz and music fans. Since attendees come from all over the country, we always want to offer the best experiences,” said Jasmine Roberts with Johnson Marketing, the event’s organizer.
Total numbers were not available by Sunday afternoon, but Roberts said that thousands attended this year in spite of record temperatures that made it the hottest in the festival’s history.
The headliners Sunday were rap and neo-soul group the Roots and Funk combo Morris Day and the Time.
The Roots are no stranger to Richmond stages, but the combo around drummer and music historian Questlove has moved up a notch in national recognition after being tapped as the house band for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
The Time were founded by pop music giant Prince, who died April 21. A former high school classmate, Morris Day, has vowed to keep the Minneapolis sound alive.
But throughout the day Sunday, jazz fans were still raving about jazz icon Herbie Hancock’s performance Saturday night.
A huge get for the festival, Hancock took to the stage late in the evening, after many fans had braved blistering heat and blazing sun for hours.
Unfazed by humidity and high temperatures, Hancock even vowed to turn it up a notch.
“Is it hot enough for you? We’re gonna try to make it hotter. You don’t mind, do you?” Hancock said, flashing a boyish grin as he basked in his audience’s adoration.
Widely considered to be the last of the great progenitors of modern jazz, the 76-year-old is something of a musical chameleon — not by accident the title of one of his biggest fusion hits of the 1970s.
On Saturday, Hancock and his three-piece group ventured deep into fusion jazz, taking the audience to sometimes far out places in distant, unmapped musical territories.
Dressed in a white banded-collar Kurta tunic and comfortable black slacks, Hancock sat behind a Fazioli concert piano and a Korg Kronos music station — two instruments that represent the different musical worlds in which Hancock resides.
Much of Hancock’s performance resembled the style and sound of his 1973 jazz-funk album “Headhunters” — a dramatic departure from hard bop.
But at times, the medleys of his older hit songs appeared somewhat disorganized, even rushed, as if Hancock rather wanted to move on to new things, which he readily acknowledged.
“It’s a little smattering of a bunch of things together that I wrote many, many years ago,” he said in what sounded like a disclaimer.
The band concluded the night with “Chameleon,” one of the most widely recognized jazz standards. The funky bass line that opens the song, originally played by Hancock on an ARP Odyssey synthesizer, sent the audience into a frenzy.
“I first saw Herbie back in the day when he played in Miles Davis’ group,” said Bernard Carson, who had traveled from Fayetteville, N.C., to see the jazz giant for a second time. “What he did here was an entirely different bag. It was more his funk stuff, but he sure brought some fire,” Carson said.
For the purists, the Ramsey Lewis Quintet brought back the hard bop Sunday, and seven-time Grammy winner Al Jarreau was a soulful highlight in the late afternoon. In spite of ailing health, and walking on a cane, Jarreau assured the audience that things are gonna be all right.
“I’ll sing from a wheelchair, I’ll sing laying down, I’ll do what it takes,” Jarreau said.
A hidden gem was alto saxophonist Sonny Fortune, who drew a fairly small crowd at the smallest stage, which was tucked away behind the main stage.
Fortune, who catapulted to fame as a member of Elvin Jones’ group, the drummer for John Coltrane, is comfortable in both the bop and avant-garde and free jazz idioms.
On Sunday, he alternated between the alto sax, flute and soprano sax, veering off into Coltrane land with a powerful adaptation of Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints.” For lovers of undiluted 1960s jazz, Fortune was the way to go.
Roberts, the organizer, said that because of the heat, guests were allowed to bring their own snacks and bottled water to Maymont. Fanning out over the lawn between the three stages, Maymont looked like a giant outdoor picnic.
Some spread out their blankets and made the festival a family affair, like James McCrae and his wife Denice from Newport News, who came with their three children.
“This is our second time and we are determined to make it a family tradition,” McCrae said. “Where else do you have all this music, and you can just lay around and take it all in? I just wish we’d have a bit more of a breeze to cool it down.”
But most people stayed hydrated, Roberts said.
“We did have one or two people who were overheated, but they were taken care off by our EMTs,” she said.
The next Richmond Jazz Festival is already planned for the second weekend of August 2017.
Click here to read the original source article via Richmond.com