CHARLIE PARKER JAZZ FESTIVAL 2017 - NYC, SATURDAY, AUG 26

• photography by Clara Pereira / text by Filipe Freitas

On Saturday, August 26th, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, which is celebrating its 25th year, happened at Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park with an attractive lineup.

CHARENEE WADE

The rising singer Charenee Wade opened this day with songs of her latest record Offering: The Music Of Gil Scott-Heron And Brian Jackson. The greatest moments of the concert arrived with “Home is Where the Hatred Is”, where groovy funk and swinging jazz in its purest tradition cohabit, and “Song of the Wind”, a ballad that tells the importance of our ancestors. While the former piece featured a widely applauded sax solo by the Harlem-born Lakecia Benjamin, the latter thrived with the cascading arpeggios and counterpoint created by pianist Oscar Perez. The rhythm section also featured Paul Beaudry on acoustic bass and Johnathan Blake on drums.

LOUIS HAYES QUINTET

For the second act of the afternoon, we had the veteran drummer Louis Hayes, who just turned 80. He led a cohesive quintet composed of Abraham Burton on saxophone, Steve Nelson on vibraphone, David Bryant on piano, and Dezron Douglas on bass.
They opened with “Silver’s Serenade”, a piece included in his most recent record Serenade For Horace (a homage to Horace Silver), which featured improvisations by everyone except the bandleader. 
The vibrant Latin pulse of Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia” was immediately recognized by some of the attendants, who reacted effusively when the bass brought up that dazzling groove. Hayes delivers an intuitive solo here and then thanks everyone, declaring: “it’s wonderful to be here! It couldn’t be any better!”
Swinging along with an engaging melody, “Hastings Street”, which was composed by Hayes and Silver and earned its title from a famous street in Detroit, was the tune that followed. The band finished in a hasty rhythm and bop panache with another composition by Silver, “Cookin’ at the Continental”.

TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON & SOCIAL SCIENCE

Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington was surely assertive in her socio-political statements and musical activism, which focused on justice, equality, and freedom.
Her project Social Science features pianist/keyboardist Aaron Parks, guitarist Matt Stevens, bassist/saxophonist Morgan Guerin, vocalist Débo Ray, and rapper DJ VAL.
They kicked in with Parks’ “Trapped in a Dream”, an atmospheric funk-inflected piece boosted by the rapper’s inflamed and conscious words. 
Joni Mitchell’s “Love”, recharged with the bandleader’s tasteful percussive attacks, was rearranged with a cool, modern feel and soul-idified by Ray’s voice. It also featured an energetic improvisation by Stevens, who repeated the dose on his own piece, “P.L.”, an instrumental delivered in a typical piano-guitar-bass-drums formation. They concluded with a swagger hip-hop tune, chilled out by Parks’ key vibes and electrified by Stevens’ tortuous discharges.

LEE KONITZ QUARTET

The jazz marathon ended with the one-and-only Lee Konitz, who went on stage without his alto saxophone and later forgot the name of Jeremy Stratton, his bass player. Well, he certainly didn’t forget how to play standards, marking them with his personal trademark and incredible note choices, despite the reluctance of using the microphone to project his super articulated speeches. 
Super well-disposed, Konitz, who turns 90 in October, also hummed a few tunes and was admirably supported by the understated George Schuller on drums and the hyper communicative Dan Tepfer on piano, with whom he engaged in playful interactions.
Clever takes on “What Is This Thing Called Love”, “All the Things You Are” were on his song list, which also featured a tune by Charlie Parker, “Body and Soul”, and a sax-piano duet on Monk's “Round Midnight”. The encore arrived with “Alone Together”, in which he and the versatile pianist embarked on a spirited vocal duel. What a fun concert!