There’s a solid link between the birthplace of jazz and the birthplace of the outdoor music festival. For many years, New Orleans musicians have been well represented at the Newport Jazz Festival. The 2017 edition continued that long run on August 4 and 5, the festival’s first two days.
This year’s ambassadors included clarinetist Evan Christopher’s band, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, pianist David Torkanowsky and saxophonist Branford Marsalis’s quartet.
At the start of his Friday afternoon set on the Quad Stage at Fort Adams State Park, Christopher told the crowd his band, Clarinet Road, “is not even about the clarinet anymore. It’s about presenting the great music of New Orleans, which turns 300 next year.”
Trombone Shorty headlined Friday’s opening night concert at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino, the charming original home of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954.
Torkanowsky was part of Christopher’s band on Friday and also returned on Saturday for a solo piano set in the festival’s three-year-old Storyville stage, an intimate 100-seat venue housed inside the former Museum of Yachting.
All photos by Ken Franckling.
Trombone Shorty and his band, Orleans Avenue, put on a high-energy 90–minute show at Newport Casino, the Newport Jazz Festival’s original home.
Trombone Shorty and his band, Orleans Avenue, put on a high-energy 90–minute show at Newport Casino, the Newport Jazz Festival’s original home.
Trombone Shorty and his band, Orleans Avenue, put on a high-energy 90–minute show at Newport Casino, the Newport Jazz Festival’s original home.
Clarinetist Evan Christopher at the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival’s Quad Stage.
Evan Christopher and his band Clarinet Road at Newport.
Drummer Shannon Powell powered Evan Christopher’s Clarinet Road band at the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival.
Pianist David Torkanowsky at the Newport Jazz Festival’s Storyville venue, named after festival founding producer George Wein’s Boston jazz club in the 1950s.
Pianist David Torkanowsky at the Newport Jazz Festival’s Storyville venue, named after festival founding producer George Wein’s Boston jazz club in the 1950s.
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis and bassist Eric Revis at the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 5.
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis’s quartet with pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Kobie Watkins at the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 5.
