VI and other Caribbean Jazzmen star at Phillips Collection, DC Jazz Fest (updated with review of The Jelly Roll Morton Latin Tinge Project” at the Kennedy Center))

USVI

For the past 27 years, the Phillips Collection has always had a free showing of its works of art during Dupont-Kalorama Museum Walk Weekend in DC.  As of last year, the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival turned DC Jazz Festival was added as a new element, essentially to expose area families to the twin attractions of art and Jazz, in one place.

This very popular weekend-long event, in partnership with the Phillips Collection, celebrated the synergy between jazz and the visual arts.  Featured artists included the Berklee World Jazz Nonet, Reginald Cyntje and the DC Jazz Collaborative, Noble Jolley, Victor Provost and the Sousa Middle School Dance Ensemble and a slew of other international Jazz acts.

Sample photos of the event courtesy of Liz Medina Chiomenti here…

Enter the Victor Provost Quartet, the DC Jazz Collaborative featuring trombonist Reginald Cyntje and the Berklee World Jazz Nonet.  The idea behind the employment of these Jazz artists was to enliven and enhance the experience of visitors to the museum by providing them with pure Jazz entertainment on site, as was the case with the Jazz Nonet, and to have Provost and Cyntje essay improvisatory interpretations of the pieces of art on display.

The boys from the Virgin Islands got to figuratively mingle their sounds with the visual images of the Phillips Collection the first weekend of June.

At mid-month, June 17-20 to be exact, Provost and Cyntje were joined by percussionist Alioune Faye, bassist Reuben Rogers, piano/keyboardist Carlton Holmes, saxophonist Ron Blake and drummer Dion Parson of the 21st Century Band for a stint at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center.  Trumpeter Nicholas Payton was down as their special guest on Friday 18 and Saturday 19.

In addition to “playing original compositions and arrangements in the spirit of Caribbean Jazz with Virgin Islands roots,” during that Dizzy Club Coca Cola run, the band was due to release its new recording, Live at Dizzy’s.

Victor Provost and his band Synthesis can otherwise be seen at Jo Jo Restaurant & Bar on Tuesday nights at 1518 U St NW Washington DC.  If you missed him on May 25, and June 01 with Nate Jolley on drums and Mark Foster on bass, June 08 and June 29 with Eric Wheeler on bass and Jolley on drums, check back next Tuesday during happy hour.

Victor Provost Synthesis Trio with Jolley & Wheeler, June 29 (photo credit: VP)

The other concerts of note from the DC Jazz Fest were by Trinidadian trumpeter Etienne Charles who gave a free concert at the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage, June 01; Paquito D’Rivera as a special guest of the NEA Jazz Masters in a tribute to James Moody, June 10, with the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, June 11 and again on June 13 presenting the Jelly Roll Morton Latin Tinge Project, a world premiere of a work commissioned by DC Fest and the Kennedy Center; the Claudio Roditi Quartet (Brazil) and the Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band, June 12.

In concert: The Jelly Roll Morton Latin Tinge Project” at the Kennedy Center by Mike Joyce, blog.washingtonpost.com:

Judging from the paperwork alone, the musicians who took part in the world premiere of “The Jelly Roll Morton Latin Tinge Project” at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater…had their work cut out for them.  Each performance of a newly arranged Morton composition was punctuated by the shuffle of sheet music, a constant reminder that the pianist’s rich and complex repertoire predates the era of contemporary song forms.

Yet arranger-trumpeter Michael Philip Mossman wasn’t preoccupied with matters of tradition and fidelity when the 6th annual DC Jazz Festival came to a close.  His commissioned suite incorporated modern Afro-Caribbean rhythms, bop-inspired flourishes and flamenco dance in both elegant and stirring ways.

A chamber jazz setting, prominently featuring Mossman, clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera and cellist Akua Dixon’s Quartette, often served as the framework for orchestrations that evoked big band dynamics and interplay.  Dixon’s string quartet, for example, sometimes substituted for a robust reed section when D’Rivera’s fluid clarinet and Mossman muted trumpet were carrying the melodies.  Percussionist Pernell Saturnino, meanwhile, underscored the ties that bind Afro-Caribbean rhythms with seminal jazz works – in this instance, “King Porter Stomp,” “Wildman Blues,” “Finger Buster” and other Morton gems.