Summer is the season for festivals here in Rhode Island, and heading into this last weekend in July, two festivals are offering very different experiences.
The Newport Jazz Festival kicks off Friday, 62 years after its founding in 1954.
The Providence Fringe Festival, FringePVD 2016, is now underway through Saturday. A relative newcomer to the arts scene in Rhode Island, this theatrical festival features about 200 performers in various locations around the city. The festival’s founder says you’ll see some, “really weird, out there stuff.”RIPR’s Chuck Hinman talks with Brown University music professor Matt McGarrell and writer Johnette Rodriguez about the Newport Jazz Festival, and with Fringe Festival founder Josh Short about FringePVD 2016.
The headliners for this year’s Newport Jazz Festival include Norah Jones, Angelique Kidjo, Gregory Porter and Chick Corea Trilogy with Christian McBride and Brian Blade. (Christian McBride is also the newly-named Artistic Director of the festival, to succeed George Wein in 2017.)
Writer Johnette Rodriguez, though, says music fans should keep their eyes on the small stages. “You discover people you hadn’t heard about but might really love” she says. She specifically recommends checking out Henry Butler, a piano player she calls “a reincarnation of Professor Longhair.”
A local highlight will come Saturday morning when the Rhode Island Senior All-State Jazz Ensemble kicks things off on the Harbor stage at 11:05. The RI Music Education Association presents these talented high school seniors from all over the state, to be directed by Brown University music professor Matt McGarrell. McGarrell says by happy coincidence the festival is honoring saxophone great Jimmy Heath, “and he’s agreed to appear with the RI All-State Jazz Band. It’s a great honor for the jazz band to even just meet him, never mind being able to play his music.”
