By Tod Smith
In New Orleans, you can find great music in some of the most unexpected
places. From street corners and street parades to festivals and even
funerals, music, particularly jazz music, is such a part of the city's
culture that it can happen just about anywhere and anytime. This cultural
backdrop provides an environment that nurtures and encourages musical
expression from the proverbial cradle to the grave. Young artists start
performing early here and the city has always been willing to provide a
stage and the audience for generations and generations of aspiring
musicians.
The well-chronicled career of Louis Armstrong provides a scenario that plays
itself out even to this day. Young jazzmen learn by performing with the
masters of previous generations. In just the past few weeks, a new
generation of jazz musicians are emerging from an incubation period in which
they received musical nourishment and care from local masters and educators.
And if recent performances are any indication, the future of jazz is not
just bright, it's on fire.
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is a 2-week testimony to the
city's love affair with its music and culture. From gospel to pop, you can
hear it all and see even more at the annual springtime event. The most
intriguing venue is the BET on Jazz/WWOZ tent that this year featured
performances by well-known artists like Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Randy
Weston. Always providing a musical oasis, the jazz tent is a place of
celebration, of history and of creativity. Here the best and brightest of
this young generation debuted to an eager public by the master educators of
the prior generation.
Christian Scott is the seventeen-year-old trumpet-blowing nephew of Jazz
Messenger alum Donald Harrison and may very well be the next in a long line
of New Orleans trumpeters who have made lasting contributions to jazz
history. King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis and Terrence
Blanchard are all part of this continuum and Christian Scott has certainly
benefited from such a strong bloodline. At this event, young Scott performed
twice - once with his uncle's quintet and once with a most interesting
tribute group assembled to honor the 100th anniversary of Louis Armstrong's
birth. This group included currently working trumpeters Irvin Mayfield (of
Los Hombres Calientes); Sony recording artist Marlon Jordan; Gregory
"Blodie" Davis (of New Orleans' Rebirth Brass Band) and master educator
Clyde Kerr, Jr. To say that Christian Scott held his own with this
experienced ensemble would be like saying Tiger Woods has done pretty well
at that golf thing he does. Scott's playing started tentatively, but soon
displayed hints of future accomplishments - perhaps even greatness. Soaring
well above the scale at times, (when appropriate), he also handled the
subtle nuances of space and timing extremely well as his segment of the set
progressed. And while his performance with the ensemble was strong, it was
the interaction with his uncle that makes his future (and ours as listeners)
so compelling. Together they created a sound steeped in the tradition of
jazz, but tinged with the sounds of a New Orleans street parade. Together
on the Donald Harrison, Jr. penned "Hu-Ta-Nay " they brought the house down.
If you haven't experienced it, it can't be easily explained to you. You just
have to hear it.
Later this spring, he performed once again at a fund-raising event for the
New Orleans Center of the Creative Arts (NOCCA). This state-funded high
school has produced some of the best and most prolific jazz talent in recent
memory - Bradford, Wynton, Delfaeyo, and Jason Marsalis, Terence Blanchard,
Donald Harrison and Nicholas Payton among them. At this event, Scott
performed with the student big band under the direction of flutist and
educator Kent Jordan. In ensemble play, one could distinguish his tone and
sound from the other students and his solo work displayed an understanding
of the deeper meaning behind the music. "Cherokee", the Ray Noble standard,
was a showcase for him as many of the other students didn't know the piece
well enough to participate. Christian graduated this year and will be
attending the Berklee College of Music in the fall. Watch and listen for him
- he's sure to be with us for many years to come.
There were more reasons to be excited about the future of the music here in
New Orleans. Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, a trombone and trumpet player
whose sixteen years of age seem to have all been spent performing, was in
such demand that he had to leave one set and literally run to the next.
Andrews, whose brother James is an accomplished vocalist and trumpeter in
his own right, also attends NOCCA and will be there for another two years.
We'll surely be hearing from him again and again. Moreover, he's not just a
good musician; he has a stage presence that leaves people wanting more.
Look out for these guys and their contemporaries. They are well on their way
and are benefiting from a dedicated and talented group of educators in New
Orleans. Many traditions run deep here and music may very well be the tie
that binds them all together.
Until next month, see you 'Round about New Orleans.
