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Groove to the sounds of the Monterey Jazz Festival at the Walker
Posted: Mar 06, 2008 in Things to do, Music
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In 1958, the idea of an outdoor jazz festival was pretty much untested, though George Wein had debuted a successful progenitor in Newport, R.I., four years before.
But West Coast fans had nothing to give them an excuse to gather under the fabled California sun and listen to jazz for days on end, that is until the Monterey Jazz Festival came along 50 years ago.
The late-summer event has thrived, and the current management wants to enhance Americans' awareness of that success. So, in January, a band called the Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary All-Stars embarked on a 54-stop tour, which will visit Indianapolis Thursday.
A sextet led by pianist Benny Green will play the Madame Walker Theatre. The band features octogenarian reedman James Moody, who first played at Monterey in the Dizzy Gillespie band in 1962, as well as Grammy-winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, a frequent visitor to Indianapolis.
The rhythm section is filled out by bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Kendrick Scott. Nnenna Freelon is featured on vocals.
Talking by cell phone on the tour bus heading to West Palm Beach recently, Moody sounded like anything but an elder statesman in speaking about his colleagues: "What's nice about this is that they're young and they're all fantastic musicians, and I'm learning a lot."
About to turn 83, Moody doesn't claim to be holding on to any secrets for surviving road life as a working musician. "It's just to conserve your energy as much as you can," he said, "and, when you get a chance, sleep."
Green, who first played at Monterey as the 17-year-old pianist in an all-star high-school band, seconds the idea that spending so much time with the All-Stars wears well on everybody. "There's such great rapport," he said, both on and off the bandstand.
What about the added burden of being the band's musical director? "When we first got together," Green said, "I assumed that meant a lot in terms of taking responsibility to kind of give structure and shape to the program."
Instead, it was evident from the first rehearsals last September that, given the "dynamic musical personality" of each member of the group, "my position was really one of allowing everyone to be heard," said the 44-year-old pianist, speaking from the band's tour stop in Richmond, Va. "There's not so much directing as I'd thought."
The band's repertoire includes showcases for Freelon ("Misty," "Time After Time"), arrangements of tunes by such MJF stalwarts as composer-bandleader Gerald Wilson, and pieces associated with such past festival notables as Gillespie and the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Moody said that the band's rapport became more solid when news of Blanchard's Grammy Award broke last month. And, of course, he also heartily endorses Herbie Hancock's slightly controversial laurel for Album of the Year.
"Some people on CNN were saying Herbie Hancock shouldn't have gotten that," Moody said scornfully. "It's the same old thing: people disrespecting jazz. They said it should have gone to this girl singing all about rehab -- what the hell does that have to do with music?"
A grizzled survivor of all sorts of musical fads, the usually affable Moody added: "When it comes to something ignorant and dumb, the Americans are like, oh, boy, give me some more of that. But anything that has some intelligence to it, it's like it has come here from the next planet."
The Monterey Jazz Festival touring band is out to show -- 54 times' worth -- that some earthlings can still deliver the musical goods.
Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary All-Stars
Where: Madame Walker Theatre, 617 Indiana Ave.
When: 7 p.m. Thursday.
Tickets: $35 VIP, $25 general admission, $20 children 12 and younger and seniors. For more information, call (317) 236-2099 or visit www.walkertheatre.com
- By Jay Harvey / Indy Star
