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New York City’s Winter Jazz Fest: John Medeski, Nels Cline, Bernie Worrell, Ravi Coltrane

Bernie Worrell – photo by Brian Stollery

New York City’s Winter Jazz Fest, now in its 8th year, has become one of New York’s can’t miss musical events. Taking place at five different Greenwich Village clubs – Le Poisson Rouge, Sullivan Hall, Kenny’s Castaway’s, the Zinc Bar and The Bitter End, Winter Jazz Fest features some of the best up and coming names in jazz. The five clubs are all within a minute walk of each other and feature music all night long, making it easy for attendees to bounce around and stumble upon new talent. Almost like a mini-SXSW for the jazz world, New York’s Winter Jazz Festival is a glimpse into the future of jazz while also featuring some more established musicians.

One of those more established musicians, John Medeski, kicked off the festival for me with a solo set at Le Poisson Rouge early Friday evening. Though Medeski, Martin & Wood are quite the experimental jazz band, John threw all convention out the window during his solo show. From intricate atonal compositions to ditching his piano for a long bamboo flute, Medeski’s performance was wildly experimental. Following Medeski at Le Poisson Rouge was Nels Cline, now famous as the lead guitarist of Wilco. But long before joining Wilco, Cline had established himself as one of the most talented guitarists in the avant-garde jazz world, and during his set with the Nels Cline Singers he mixed effect-heavy jams with transcendental melodies such as in “Squirrel of God.”

During a break between Cline’s set and Jenny Scheinman’s Mischief & Mayhem (which also featured Cline), I wandered across the street to Kenny’s Castaways to catch Michael Blake’s Hellbent. Hellbent is a reunion of sorts for some of New York’s best jazz musicians as Blake, trumpet player Steve Bernstein and drummer Calvin Weston all played in John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards in the early 1990’s. With the powerhouse drumming of Weston leading the way, the old friends showed their chemistry is as strong as ever. After catching a few songs of their set, I rushed back across the street for Jenny Scheinman’s Mischief & Mayhem. The band’s folk and rock sensibilities shone through as Jenny and Nels traded melodic, rootsy-flavored riffs.

Following Scheinman’s set, Marco Benevento delivered more experimental rock-influenced jazz with a solo piano set at Sullivan Hall. Benevento performed solo but spirited versions of his own “The Real Morning Party” and “Atari” along with a sparkling cover of My Morning Jacket’s “Golden.” But the highlight of Benevento’s set was his performance of a brand new original, “Fireworks,” which aptly demonstrated his uncanny ability to write gorgeously flowing rock melodies. Back over at Le Poisson Rouge, the immensely talented Steven Bernstein led his band through a rousing, funky tribute to Sly & The Family Stone, which featured John Medeski sitting in on organ.

As I ended my Friday enjoying Bernstein’s funk, it was only appropriate to start Saturday night off with some more funk from the Bernie Worrell Orchestra. Worrell, who was a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and touring member of the Talking Heads, led his band of “kids,” as he routinely referred to them, through P-Funk classics such as “Mothership Convention.” Following Worrell at Le Poisson Rouge was Ravi Coltrane, a last minute addition to the Jazz Fest lineup. Ravi performed along with bassist Matthew Garrison (son of bassist Jimmy Garrison who worked with Ravi’s famous father) and young drummer Nikki Glaspie. Nikki’s hard-hitting funky drumming is one of a kind and nearly stole the show, as I heard “Who was that drummer?” over and over again immediately after their set. Between Glaspie’s drumming, Garrison’s effect-heavy, guitar-like basswork and Ravi’s exploratory, soaring solos, the set was the festival’s most exciting.

Pianist Vijay Iyer and his trio followed Coltrane at Le Poisson Rouge and while bassist Stephen Crump thrilled the crowd with inventive solos, the venue was so insanely packed that I headed back to Sullivan Hall to check out Justin Brown’s John Scofield-influenced guitar playing. With over 2,000 fans in attendance each night, 2012’s Winter Jazz Fest was another wild success, and the packed crowds and occasional lines outside venues (in addition to the $45 2 day pass) were a small price to pay for the pure abundance of groundbreaking, creative music that challenged the crowd’s conception of jazz music.