International is the catch word for jazz in June with two important festivals holding down the first and third weekends.
The month begins with the Caribbean-flavored Tomato Festival’s main food and music events in the French Market area June 5 and 6. Bands from Trinidad, Haiti (Tabou Combo), Martinique and, of course, Louisiana, will perform on the Fest’s two stages. Four local (but unnamed at press time) brass bands will take to the streets for the Festival’s annual parade.
A highlight of this festival two years ago—when the Tomato Festival met Martinique Week—was the appearance of Martiniquen clarinetist Michel Godzom. This wonderful reedman will return to perform twice each day of the festival (noon and 4 p.m.), confirming, as he did at his last performance, the musical and cultural links between his island home and the Crescent City.
Godzom’s style, which is called biguine, feels so familiar and at home in the French Quarter. As noted at the time of his last performance, the music often sounded much like traditional jazz with a Caribbean rhythm—a ragtime street parade. Many of New Orleans’ traditional jazz players, hearing Godzom for the first time, could easily have sat in with the group on “Skinny Snake.” It’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to hear Godzom again. He’ll bring in his six-piece band, which last time included trombone, keyboards, bass and drums, for a real ear opener. Don’t miss performance.
The blazing trumpet of Cuban transplant Arturo Sandoval headlines this year’s Carnaval Latino at the foot of Canal Street on June 19 and 20.
Fans of Latin jazz have long known the stratosphere-reaching trumpeter from his tenure with the far-reaching Cuban band lrakere, which was first heard in the United States in 1978. Sandoval’s impact was also heard when performing with Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Band. (Sandoval was first inspired by Gillespie, who, of course, was so influential in the merging of jazz and Cuban music when in 1947 percussionist Chano Pozo joined his orchestra.)
Sandoval left Cuba to find asylum in the United States in 1990. Last time he played New Orleans was at the 1991 Jazz & Heritage Festival when he lit up the Jazz Tent, leaning back and producing some rapid-fire blowing while congas and timbales filled the stage. Last year’s Chicago Jazz Fest set had the trumpeter in a bit mellower mood, performing more straight-ahead jazz, some of which came from his Grammy-nominated album I Remember Clifford (GRP Records).
Sandoval and his band—Otmaro Ruiz (piano), Tom Warrington (bass), Aaron Serfati (drums) and Kenny Anderson (saxophone)—will close the festival on Sunday night, June 20.
For the last 10 years, Olympia Brass Band trumpeter/assistant band leader and record producer Milton Batiste has been putting out traditional jazz, gospel, and R&B recordings featuring local artists. With the release of up-and-coming saxophonist Greg Tardy’s debut, Batiste has stepped into the contemporary jazz scene. In conjunction with Warren Hildebrand of Mardi Gras Records, Batiste has also stepped into the world of CDs. “Three years ago it (CDs) cost an arm, a leg and three spiders,” said Batiste. Now, with a minimum order of 500, Batiste can go to the superior format.
Batiste first met Tardy (who is now just 27) about a year ago when the New Orleans-born saxophonist joined the Young Olympians (also known as the Soul Rebels), the junior brass band to the 100-year-old Olympia band. Tardy also moved up to play with the senior band, is a member of the Neville-filled, funky/hip-hop aggregation DEFF Generation, is a regular on New Orleans jazz scene, and, at the beginning of March, became a sideman with drumming great Elvin Jones’ Jazz Machine (with a little help from fellow sideman, trumpeter and now Machine musical director Nicholas Payton).
Tardy’s album Crazy Love, recorded at Ultrasonic Studios, is really a team effort, showcasing not only Tardy’s horn and compositional skills, but also the sparkling talents of an all-star “young lions” combo—Payton, drummer Brian Blade, pianist Peter Martin, and bassist Eric Revis. Additionally, Batiste and Tardy’s mother, vocalist Joann, who wrote the title cut, take part.
Tardy wrote about half the tunes on the album, some of which he considers “serious compositions” and others written “just for fun.” It’s easy to tell which is which. On his Coltrane-tinged “Aquamarine,” Tardy isn’t foolin’ around, either compositionally or when he sets his horn to the task. The more light-hearted Tardy is heard on the swinging New Orleans rhythm “Mrs. Dave’s Cats,” which was composed on the spot in the studio. Before going back out with the Jazz Machine, Tardy will be leading his own group at Snug Harbor on June 6.
Speaking of Snug…the Frenchmen Street club is really mixing it up this month with a schedule that includes not-oft-seen names. Roger Lewis, the low-down horn man (baritone sax, and also sometimes soprano) from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, will offer up what he calls a “variety-pak” of jazz—contemporary, traditional and funk—on June 2. Included will be his original material from Dozen albums, such as “Use Your Brain” from Open Up and “Song for Bobe” from The New Orleans Album.
Bassist Dewey Sampson, often heard with Ellis Marsalis, will come in with his own combo the following night. After a long absence, sousaphonist extraordinaire (and ex-Dirty Dozen) Kirk Joseph will take the stage June 10. And after an even longer absence—some ten years—saxophonist James Rivers will return with the James Rivers Movement on June 6. Hey, I like all this scramblin’.
