Déjà vu: The Richmond Jazz Festival
Last week, organizers announced the lineup of the 2nd annual Richmond Jazz Festival. The two day festival held at Maymont will have 19 different groups.
Many of you may remember the article: All that jazzy: The Richmond Jazz Festival. Well it’s that time of the year again! The Richmond Jazz Festival at Maymont’s lineup is now posted.
This year, two pre-festival events will be held:
Homegrown at the Hipp
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Local musicians will perform at the Hippodrome Theatre in the Jackson Ward.
Tickets – $15Big Voodoo Daddy
Friday, August 12, 2011
Richmond Centerstage
Tickets – $25
The main event:
Saturday, August 13, 2011 – Sunday August 14, 2011 at Maymont park in Richmond, Virginia.
Tickets – $40 per day or $70 for weekend pass (Before 7/1/11)
Tickets – $45 per day or $75 for weekend pass (After 7/1/11)The lineup is:
Robin Thicke, Aaron Neville, Chrisette Michele, Fourplay, Los Lobos, Jazz Attack featuring Rick Braun, Peter White and Gerald Albright,The U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, Brian Culbertson, Soul of Summer featuring Jonathan Butler , Maysa and Eric Darius, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Spyro Gyra, Kirk Whalum, The Rippingtons, Earl Klugh, Down to the Bone, Pieces of a Dream, Christian McBride, Simone, Soul Rebels Brass Band, Tizer featuring Karen Briggs, Maestro J
Change a few names and last year’s article can do this years festival justice. False advertising and mislabeling come to mind as the list is almost entirely limited to artists that fit the mold of smooth jazz, R&B, or soul. Only two of the nineteen groups use upright basses and most of the groups utilize synthesizers. Why is acoustic jazz almost entirely ignored while a majority of the history of jazz is acoustic? The variety is disappointing considering jazz is the longest recorded and one of the most expansive genres of music.
Despite last year’s attendance of 7,000 to 8,000 people and very expensive ticket prices, the event still lost money. The event’s organizers remain confident, promising some proceeds to Richmond City Public Schools. No matter the financial outcome, the organizers promise to boost the cities image.
Last year, the article mentioned other jazz festivals and their changing lineups:
In the last few years and especially due to the dwindling economy, jazz festivals have had trouble bringing in audiences. In order to draw the numbers and keep their businesses afloat, festival organizers have taken to bringing in big non-jazz acts to fill up the bills. Seeing names like Pearl Jam on jazz festival line-ups is a reality that jazz fans have had to accept. Such is the case with the Richmond Jazz Festival: there will be acts along the R&B and soul tip that sound “jazzy” but really have nothing to do with jazz, the vocalist’s bluesy melismas the closest thing to come to improvisation in their set. While other festivals at least book real jazz (as Schuller would call it) to counter the totally non-jazz acts, we won’t find such counters at the RJF.
Here are some different jazz festivals so you can draw your own conclusions:
Detroit:
Cost: Free
Lineup: Dianne Reeves, Dave Holland Octet, Joe Lovano, Steve Wilson, Toots Thielemans, Vijay Iyer Trio, Regina Carter
Artist in Residence: Jeff “Tain” Watts
Bottom Line: Detroit, a city that has fire works on June 27th instead of July 4th to save money, hosts one the largest free jazz festival in the world.
Monterey:
Cost: $40*-$315
Lineup: Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, India.Arie, Idan Raichel, Joshua Redman, Huey Lewis and the News, Terence Blanchard, Geri Allen, Poncho Sanchez, etc.
Bottom Line: This event has a wide variety of styles and generations of jazz.
New Orleans:
Cost:$45-$60 per weekend
Lineup: Arcade Fire, Jimmy Buffett, Mulgrew Miller, Kenny G, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, etc.
Bottom Line: This concert gets a lot of attention but every year its lineup looks more and more like Bonnaroo.
Newport:
Cost: $40-$100
Lineup: Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet, Eddie Palmiere Latin Jazz Band, Mingus Big Band, Wynton Marsalis, Trombone Shorty, Grace Kelly with Phil Woods, etc.
Undead Jazz Fest (NYC):
Cost: $25*-$50
Lineup: Medeski Martin and Wood, The Claudia Quintet, Andrew D’Angelo Big Band, Ari Hoenig Quartet, etc.
Washington DC:
Cost: Individual Shows
Lineup:Bobby McFerrin, Roy Hargrove and the RH Factor, Donald Harrison, Antonio Hart Quintet, Darius Jones Trio, Heath Brothers, etc.
*denotes single day ticket price
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Aaron Williams
Aaron Williams loves music, basketball (follow @rvaramnews!), family, learning, and barbecue sauce.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Don’t sell New Orleans short. I was absolutely blown away by the festival. I was there for the second four day weekend. The price is $60 per day, plus food and beer. Worth every penny.
The variety was incredible. Don’t be mislead by the list of musicians above.
In addition to the Jazz Tent, Blues Tent, Gospel Tent, there are four main stages, at least three of which had local musicians playing at any given time of day.
In my opinion, it deserves respect as the Grandfather of music festivals.
It’s been going on for at least a decade–Jazz festivals not booking Jazz acts. Jazz has had it’s own share of decline in many ways, but there are still a plethora of great bands/artists/projects for promoters. Honest, forthright promoters/organizers (ie Investors) should just call it the Richmond R&B Festival. They won’t have to change the lineup, just keep McBride on the sidestage they will probably have him on anyways.
Thank you anonymous. I imagine New Orleans is amazing, but the headlining acts in New Orleans are far from jazz. Detroit is what amazes me. I would have figured broke Motown would have overpriced R&B artists not Joe Lovano and Vijay Iyer.
Richmond R&B Festival sounds good to me. Christian McBride probably won’t play his most far out stuff. He might even bust out the electric bass.
Detroit, Monterey, & Newport are true jazz festivals. The others are more like the Hampton Jazz Festival; the only place jazz can be found is in the name of the festivals!
There are definitely great jazz festivals out there. Winterfest and The Undead Jazz Festival in New York City have really solid lineups of heavy hitters. They don’t have the artists that draw in non jazz listeners so they still seem to be slightly “underground.”
Nice article, and appreciate the festival listings. If the Richmond “Jazz” Festival filled out at least half their line-up with legit jazz artists, they could maintain their fest name. As it stands now, they should stop insulting jazz fans and rename it the Richmond Smooth R&B Festival. Where’s Duke Snider?
Christian McBride is the only legit jazz performer on that list. The rest are rubbish.
Ken,
The good news is Chirstian McBride is bring his group Inside Straight which acoustic and swinging as opposed to his electric group.
It is worth mentioning that at this point last year Terence Blanchard was still on the bill but he eventually dropped out.
But here is the truth you all seem to ignore…if the Richmond Jazz Festival booked straight ahead acoustic jazz acts you all mention…the attendance would be 12 people! The true jazz audience does NOT support…they just come online and whine…and who says smooth jazz is not jazz? Get outta here! The first year, they got 8000 people to come out…this year it will be 20,000 people I bet…STOP HATING!
John,
Can you point out in my article where I say smooth jazz is not jazz?
(I like Los Lobos, but it isn’t really jazz)
Can you point out in my article where I say there should be 19 straight ahead acoustic jazz acts?
My biggest complaint is the variety. Spyro Gyra should be next to Ornette Coleman who should be next to Mark Turner who should be next to Chuck Mangione who should be next to Vijay Iyer.
20,000 people won’t show up. The prices are crazy, the lineup is less recognizable and there wasn’t incredible press last year.
I don’t know who the true jazz audience is, but I bet it can be as strong as the “the true folk audience.” Do you think there are 100,000 folk music fanatics in Richmond? If the organizers create variety and an experience, drop ticket prices and advertise to the masses and not smooth jazz fans, then we will see the event grow.
Ornette Coleman is not well. I don’t think he will be making any festival appearances.
To be fair, the New Orleans festival is called
THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ AND HERITAGE FESTIVAL.
I cannot stress the regional aspect of this festival and the importance of regional arts enough.
As for “true” jazz festivals, Monterey has included Huey Lewis and the News as a headlining act.
Other festivals that you should consider “true”: VISION, FIMAV, CHICAGO. None of these will be featuring anyone from any of the Back To The Future franchise.