Articles

Jason Moran: Promoting the Freedom Principles

By Leo Sidran

Pianist, composer, conceptual artist Jason Moran on truth versus passion, promoting the “Freedom Principles," America's unfortunate way of forgetting the past, when innovation becomes rhetoric, what it means for African American musicians to move freely “from the stage to the table," the power dynamic in choosing repertoire, coming up in Houston among a generation of jazz innovators (including Robert Glasper and Eric Harland), what we still have to learn from Louis Armstrong, the common threat from Thelonious Monk to KRS-1, ...

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon at Cologne Philharmonie

By Phillip Woolever

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon Cologne Philharmonie Cologne, Germany November 22, 2019 As the sprawling local Christmas markets prepared for a holiday tourist onslaught, Jason Moran and the Bandwagon presented masterful skills transcending any singular celebration. The concert was part of the trio's celebratory 20-year anniversary tour and there was indeed much to cheer. Moran made a few humorously accurate observations about the musicians gaining both instinctual familiarity and unpredictable quirks that were apparent ...

Jason Moran piano solo

By Antonio Baiano

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon at the Kimmel Center

By Victor L. Schermer

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts Perelman Theater Philadelphia, PA March 29, 2015 This concert contrasted stylistically with a previous engagement at the Kimmel Center when, in 2007, Jason Moran appeared with an expanded group including horns and a vocalist. At that time, “The group played a diverse pastiche of themes derived from blues, gospel, popular music, and an old cowboy motif found in every Western flick you've ever ...

Jason Moran: Joyful Proclamations

By Franz A. Matzner

Jason Moran requires no introduction, either as an artistic alchemist or a spokesperson and educator. Moran has left an indelible mark on modern jazz and is now seated at one of the nation's most preeminent performing spaces--the Kennedy Center--as its artistic director for jazz. Already, his capacity for insight, humor, and innovation have launched a new era for the Center's jazz programming, defined in equal measures by careful regard for the music's history, a broad artistic view, and pointed political ...

Jason Moran: All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller

By Mark F. Turner

Jason Moran is an artist who is not afraid to look back while constantly pressing forward. The 2010 MacArthur Fellow is a leading jazz pianist with moments of kinetic energy, agility, and sensitivity, the likes of his one-time teacher, the great Jaki Byard. Whether performing with varied ensembles and musicians, bringing new perspectives as the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center or combining freestyle jazz with live skateboarders in San Francisco, Moran's passion and capacity is having an ...

Rebellion and Respect: Kennedy Center Celebrates Blue Note's 75th Anniversary

By Franz A. Matzner

Blue Note Record's significance to modern music is as inarguable as its story is remarkable. Over its 75 year lifespan the label has recorded many of jazz's defining artists, its evolution tracing the trajectory of America's most significant musical form from its beginnings to its present day diverse manifestations. It is therefore especially auspicious that the celebration of its 75th anniversary took place at the Kennedy Center just as the center welcomes experimentalist Jason Moran as its now ...