There are many opportunities to see live jazz music this summer, including at festivals that might be better known for folk or rock. Derek Smith, host and operations coordinator for KMHD radio, joins us to share some of his favorite upcoming jazz performances.
The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer:
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB, I’m Dave Miller. There are going to be many opportunities to see live jazz this summer, including at some festivals that might be better known for folk or rock. Derek Smith is the host of the Morning Session and the operations coordinator for KMHD Jazz Radio. He joins us now to share some of his recommendations for upcoming performances. Derek, welcome.
Derek Smith: Hey Dave, thanks, thanks for having me on the program. Good afternoon.
Miller: Thanks for joining us. Let’s jump in with some music and then we can talk about it. This is a track called, ‘Throughout the Madness, Stay Strong.’ A great motto for all of us these days. This is by Sons of Kemet.
[MUSIC]
Miller: That is Throughout the Madness Stay Strong by the band, Sons of Kemet. Derek, who are they?
Derek Smith: Well, you can tell by that sound, it’s this kaleidoscopic world of insistent rhythms, their fiery horn lines and those horn lines, they’re all about Shabaka Hutchings. He’s the founder of the band and he’s a true visionary. He is involved in so many projects globally. I can’t even name them all. And he founded the band about a decade ago, out of London and they are going to be at Pickathon [pickathon.com]. And let me tell you that Pickathon has really embraced jazz this year in particular, most notably Kamasi Washington debuted outside of Los Angeles at Pickathon some years ago, so that was a big deal. So they’ve had their finger on the pulse of jazz to a degree. But this year it’s basically the London jazz scene coming to Pickathon. And I think the most exciting show is probably Shabaka Hutchings and Sons of Kemet because it’s their final tour. They’re breaking up at the end of the summer, going to do their own things and their final record, from which that song we heard, Black to the Future, came out on Impulse Records. And it continues the tradition of that label releasing powerful protest music from the world of jazz.
Miller: And as you noted, if you want to see them live, this might be your last chance.
Derek Smith: Definitely
Miller: Pickathon is in early August and so Sons of Kemet will be there along with Nubya Garcia. What should we know about her?
Smith: We’ll Nubya Garcia, she’s a force of nature, on the saxophone, she’s a saxophonist. She started playing at the age of 10 and she very quickly made it clear how good she was going to be on that instrument. And I would say that she kind of channels the fiery energy of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. But she does something much more modern. She comes from a background, her mother is from Guyana, her father from Trinidad. So her music also sort of revels in calypso rhythms in cumbia [cumbia, is a musical rhythm and traditional folk dance from Colombia]. And she also is a fan of Hip Hop and you’ll hear that in her music, her debut, Source, came out last year and it was nominated for the Mercury Prize, which is sort of the highest prize in the land in the UK for music. I was fortunate enough to see her play South By Southwest in 2018, when I covered it for KMHD. And I tell you, I’ve never seen anyone deliver that kind of mesmerizing energy. And the audience was absolutely enthralled. So she’s gonna be playing in the Woods Stage and that’s a very, very atmospheric and intimate space – and again, Pickathon, on August fourth through seventh. And I’d love for you to play the song off of her debut. It’s called La Cumbia, Me Esta llamando, or ‘the Cumbia is calling me.’
[Music Playing]
Miller: That’s Nubya Garcia’s La Cumbia Me Esta Llamando. Nubya is going to be one of the performers at Pickathon this year. Let’s hear one more track from a performer from this Pickathon jazz heavy lineup. We’ll listen to it and then you can tell us more. This is Emma-Jean Thackray with Sun, which starts with a burst.
[Music Plays]
Miller: Who is Emma Jean Thackray?
Smith: That’s what makes me feel so good. Beautiful one. So Emma Jean Thackray, she’s also out of London. She made her way to London to sort of start her musical career and she’s quite interesting. She’s a multi-instrumentalist. She began on the trumpet and she started playing in the traditional brass bands of West England. But she would fall in love with jazz and she starts to learn how to play everything – keys, drums – a lot of her songs, she plays everything that you hear, she records. I think she’s expanded a little bit, she started out in her bedroom studio making all of the sounds that you would hear. That was her singing as well. She founded Movement Records and that album Yellow is where that song we heard, Sun, came from, and her label’s motto, ‘move the body, move the mind, move the soul.’ And she’s equally influenced by that brass band tradition as well as hip hop beats of luminaries like J. Dilla. She’s truly a musical chameleon and she’s never been to Portland, so very exciting that all of these London artists are going to be out of Pendarvis’ Farm [Pendarvis’ Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon] kind of just dazzling the audience with cutting edge sounds of jazz from the UK.
Miller: Alright so moving on from Pickathon in late August, Mississippi Studios is going to have a show called Jazz is Dead which is both, I understand, a label and a kind of collective of musicians. What is ‘Jazz is Dead?’
Smith: ‘Jazz is Dead’ is sort of the brainchild of Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Now, Adrian Younge, you might know he did, he’s done a lot of music for television and film, Luke Cage most famously. Ali Shaheed Muhammad, a principal member of a Tribe called Quest. Together, they formed a band, the Midnight Hour, and their sort of vision was to create this ‘Jazz is Dead’ label, and to find some of the most amazing jazz artists who kind of stopped recording – artists who put out some amazing records in the late 60s into the 70s, and then for whatever reason they weren’t putting anything out anymore. And Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge have gone and resurrected some of these amazing artists. And the ongoing series basically chronicles and highlights each of these artists working very closely with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.
Miller: One of them is Henry (the Skipper) Franklin. Who is he?
Smith: Well, he’s ‘the Skipper’ because the base carries the rhythm and he’s one of the great, great jazz bassists. He famously played on Hugh Masekela’s hit single Grazing in the Grass, so he’s playing bass on that, everybody knows that one, great summertime song. But most notably he recorded two pretty remarkable albums for the Black Jazz Record Label, which is a label that only released about 20 records, but they’re very much in demand there. They were hard to find. But our friends at Real Gone Music have been re-issuing them on vinyl, both of Henry Franklin’s albums. The Skipper and The Skipper at Home were reissued last year and they’re both post-Bop masterpieces. Later this year, he has his Jazz is Dead record coming out and he’s got a single off of it, If we want to roll that, called The Griot and as it plays, just listen to the impossibly heavy sound he gets out of his bass.
[Music Plays]
Miller: Henry Franklin’s TheGriot. Brian Jackson is another musician who’s coming as part of this Jazz is Dead Concert. What should we know about Brian Jackson?
Smith: Well, Brian Jackson, what can we say? He’s a genius and a visionary and his partnership with Gil Scott Heron yielded some of the most powerful songs ever recorded – songs protesting against systemic racism, against injustice, against so many social ills. Songs such as Peace, Go With Your Brother, the Liberation Song, A Toast to the People. The list goes on and on. He was also a member of Kool & the Gang briefly. He worked with Roy Ayers and we’re very fortunate enough now to have Brian Jackson as a member of Portland’s music community. He’s called Portland ‘home’ for a number of years now. And he released his Jazz is Dead Album, Volume Eight, last year, and it’s just a beautiful record, start to finish, and I should add that this Jazz is Dead Showcase, it’s taking place in Mississippi Studios, August 26th and it also will feature Doug Carn and Catalyst, as well. This is Duality.
[Music Playing]
Miller: I hate to stop that but I want to make time for one last person here. Billy Cobham, coming to the Winningstad Theater in Portland in September, seems like he’s had a lot of jazz lives. Can you give us a sense for what he has done?
Smith: He played on Miles Davis’s Birth of the Cool in 1949. He has done many, many things, worked with Miles again in the late 60s, early 70s and famously he would form the Mahavishnu Orchestra after leaving Miles in 1971. And it was through that work that he kind of staked his claim as one of the greatest jazz-fusion drummers. Two years later, he would release his debut album as a leader, Spectrum. And he actually played that record in its entirety at the Aladdin Theatre to celebrate its 40th anniversary back in 2013. So for Portland, at the end of summer, the very last couple of weeks, September 15 our Friends of PDX Jazz are bringing him to the Winningstad Theater. Billy Cobham’s Crosswinds Project and Crosswinds was his second LP as a leader, released in 1974 and it features a lot of sort of more delicate and open, open aired compositions are really beautiful and the tune I think that we should roll from it to give your listeners a little taste, is the composition Heather and it’s just a little bit of shimmering beauty.
Miller: We’re going to go out with Heather by Billy Cobham Derek Smith, thanks very much.
Smith: My pleasure, Dave, thanks for having me.
Miller: Derek Smith is the Host of the Morning Session, operations coordinator for KMHD Jazz Radio. Tomorrow on the show, health care costs for Oregonians went up almost 50% between 2013 and 2019. It was a bigger increase than in the country as a whole. We’re going to talk to the Oregon Health Authority about what’s driving this increase and what it means for Oregonians. Thanks very much for tuning in to Think Out Loud on OPB and KLCC. I’m Dave Miller, have a great day.
Announcer: Think Out Loud is supported by Steve and Jan Oliver, the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust and Michael and Kristen Kern.
[Heather continues to play…]
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