Newport 2025 - So Embarrasing

[tranemonk]

https://newportjazz.org/lineup

This is one of these moments in life, where I feel really old... since most of these artists I don't know and don't care about. I feel depressed that this is what this great festival has become....  Terrible lineup IMHO. It basically has four or five bands I'd actually pay to see.

[Rabshakeh]

Are you serious?! I clicked on this thinking it would be so much worse. There's tones of stuff on here that is unquestionably jazz. A mix of older statesmen/women, younger musicians and some more adventurous stuff. It seems unobjectionable.

You should see what Montreux has on. 

[Dub Modal]

That actually looks decent to me. Dark horse act that Id want to see would be Louis Cato, Scofield and Marcus Miller. Cato is the band leader for Colbert's late show and in the small musical segues between commercials they play some really interesting stuff. After Shorter passed they played Footprints which I would have loved to have heard. Colbert even remarked after that one that it was intense. So this trio would be 2 guitars and a bass, and I'm guessing maybe a rhythm section? Despite the commercialism necessary for television these days I think Cato has chops. 

 

 

Edited April 16 by Dub Modal

[T.D.]

25 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Are you serious?! I clicked on this thinking it would be so much worse. There's tonnes of stuff on here that is unquestionably jazz. A mix of older statesmen/women, younger musicians and some more adventurous stuff. It seems unobjectionable.

 

Agreed. Much better than I feared and the thread title implied.

Edited April 16 by T.D.

[mr jazz]

Ron Carter would be at the top of the list not in the middle for moi. Not a bad lineup, IMO.

[Ken Dryden]

Far too many of them seem little known or outside of jazz. Put the true jazz stars at the top of the billing, not the nobodys.

[Royal Oak]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Are you serious?! I clicked on this thinking it would be so much worse. There's tones of stuff on here that is unquestionably jazz. A mix of older statesmen/women, younger musicians and some more adventurous stuff. It seems unobjectionable.

You should see what Montreux has on. 

You piqued my interest into looking at the Montreux line up. Hahaha Block Party and Pulp at a jazz festival. Neil Young, Alanis Morissette, Lionel Richie wtaf.

I agree with others that the Newport line up looks jazzy enough. I guess the problem is that all about 93% of the OG jazzmen are dead.

Edited April 16 by Royal Oak

[JSngry]

Where's Mel Torme?

[mjazzg]

I seem to remember a similar thread from last year.

I also think this is a good lineup, established names alongside newer artists that are taking Jazz into interesting directions

[Dub Modal]

Can't seem to find a sharable image of Montreux's lineup but it heavily skews toward pop, with what seems to be the majority of jazz acts relegated to the Casino stage. 

[mjazzg]

44 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

Far too many of them seem little known or outside of jazz. Put the true jazz stars at the top of the billing, not the nobodys.

I think referring to The Roots, Monae, Collier and Spalding as nobodies probably says more about you than you think.

One person's nobody is most definitely someone else's somebody. Sweeping dismissals like that really does no one any credit

[Rabshakeh]

Worth remembering that The Roots are at least adjacent to jazz.

Certainly jazzy enough: competent fusion musicians (including ones who dabble in credible fusion side projects: note The Philadelphia Experiment lower down the list) playing behind rappers. Questlove is as close to being a jazz celebrity as anyone in 2025. 

[rostasi]

[JSngry]

Where's George Shearing?

[Ken Dryden]

2 hours ago, mjazzg said:

I think referring to The Roots, Monae, Collier and Spalding as nobodies probably says more about you than you think.

One person's nobody is most definitely someone else's somebody. Sweeping dismissals like that really does no one any credit

Not referring to Spalding, but burying jazz masters active for decades below the first three you mentioned is a joke.

Edited April 16 by Ken Dryden

[rostasi]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

Where's George Shearing?

I don't know. You'd think they'd have him since they were able to get Leon Thomas.

[mjazzg]

7 minutes ago, Ken Dryden said:

Not referring to Spalding, but burying jazz masters active for decades belong the first three you mentioned is a joke.

It's actually shrewd marketing.

Jazz events need to make money so you highlight the names with the biggest potential audience. Activity for years doesn't necessarily equate to folk through the door. It's a commercial event not a charitable one.

And the "Jazz masters" get to expose their undoubted mastery to a potentially new and wider audience which can only be a good thing for them.

Edited April 16 by mjazzg

[Clunky]

I've long accepted that "box office" always comes further up the bill than the artists I'd be interested in. I'm mindful however  that the former  effectively bankroll the latter less commercially viable acts. 

[Ken Dryden]

2 hours ago, Dub Modal said:

Can't seem to find a sharable image of Montreux's lineup but it heavily skews toward pop, with what seems to be the majority of jazz acts relegated to the Casino stage. 

Can’t say I was very impressed with it either.

[JSngry]

Where is Gerry Mulligan?

[tranemonk]

2 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

Not referring to Spalding, but burying jazz masters active for decades below the first three you mentioned is a joke.

Thanks Ken...  I'm glad I'm not the only one who reads it that way. I know they have to put non-jazz "big names" out there...  but there are a lot of people they could have gotten that I think would have drawn a good crowd. Pat Metheny hasn't been there in years. How about Dave Holland, Benny Green, Kurt Elling, Monty Alexander, Joshua Redman, Helen Sung, Maria Schneider, Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, etc... ?

[Niko]

See, and I find myself wondering wtf Terence Blanchard and Kenny Garrett are so much higher on the list than Tyshawn Sorry and Darius Jones... And then I remember that getting hung up on the ordering of bands on a poster means you're either very young or getting very old ... 

Edited April 16 by Niko

[Rabshakeh]

9 minutes ago, tranemonk said:

Thanks Ken...  I'm glad I'm not the only one who reads it that way. I know they have to put non-jazz "big names" out there...  but there are a lot of people they could have gotten that I think would have drawn a good crowd. Pat Metheny hasn't been there in years. How about Dave Holland, Benny Green, Kurt Elling, Monty Alexander, Joshua Redman, Helen Sung, Maria Schneider, Monty Alexander, Kenny Barron, etc... ?

None of these people are a 1/4 as popular as The Roots though.

[Simon8]

 

[tranemonk]

22 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

None of these people are a 1/4 as popular as The Roots though.

That's kinda my point.