July 2000

New York Beat
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By Nick Catalano

As festival season winds down in Gotham it begins to gear up in Europe. Until recently, this intercontinental jazz transition was simply the usual bill of fare for the musicians and singers who have long recognized the plethora of European festivals as a major source of income. But whereas the festivals of both continents have always paraded the au courant American jazz stars before audiences hungry for familiar names, i.e. Diane Krall, Casandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, etc., this year an important difference occurred at, of all places, the JVC Festival in New York still viewed by most as the world's marquee festival.

In this millennium year 2000, producer George Wein turned the tables. He flooded the JVC with offshore artists presenting a preponderance of concerts with non-American bands and singers. The audience excitement generated by these new faces was very gratifying to me because I have long believed that much important original jazz creativity in recent years has come from areas outside of America where, of course, the art form was first uncovered 100 years ago. The history of the music is replete with irony. Why, for instance, did American jazz artists often receive much greater aesthetic respect from European audiences than they did at home? Why did the music have such a difficult time achieving recognition in major concert venues in the United States and from establishmentarian critical circles? Why have American composers and writers always been compared to European masters and inevitably suffered in the comparison no matter how talented they were? None of these questions has ever been satisfactorily answered but a hint at solution may be on the horizon as European, South American, African and Asian jazz artists become more visible to American audiences, record companies and the powerful United States media. What many of these artists have done is to dig deeply into American jazz roots and supply new melodic colors, indigenous dance forms, local rhythmic innovations, and other cultural specifics that result in brand new musics. Unfortunately, geniuses like Hermeto Pascoal from Brazil, Toru Takumitsu from Japan, Richard Galliano from France and others have not been properly exposed to American audiences. But as evidenced by this year's JVC festival, George Wein is trying to change all that.

On a two-night series, smack in the center of the JVC, the producer offered the "first major United States performance of French Jazz Masters" and revealed stalwart French stars Michel Portal, Henri Texier, Louis Sclavis, Aldo Romano, Mino Cinelu, Richard Galliano. On another evening, long ignored Swedish masters were featured - they included Putte Wickman, Jan Lundgren and Arne Domnerus. Great excitement was generated by Japanese star Toshiyuki Miyama and a host of latino stars (who have led the offshore invasion in recent years,) led by Chano Dominguez, dominated the major JVC venues. Vocalists from virtually everywhere scored substantially! Angelique Kidjo from West Africa, Claudia Acuna from Chile, Julia Zenko from Argentina and Cesaria Evora from the Cape Verde islands were all greeted enthusiastically.

In a few days I will go to Vienne, France and cover that huge festival - over 150,000 expected to attend. As American stars (Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, etc.) appear alongside Eurojazz artists I'm hoping I will have new opportunities to investigate the changing face of jazz and its growing internationalization. See you next month.

Mino Cinelu	Aldo Romano, Louis Sclavis & Henri Texier	Richard Galliano & Michel Portal