Kamp Student Radio

To put it simply: I LOVE JAZZ!!! There are very few things I find as fun as getting up and dancing to a great jazz song or truly feeling the emotions of the song in your soul, especially with hundreds of others who are there to do the same. Lucky for me, the Tucson Jazz Festival took place this month from the 16th to the 24th, and I had an incredible, jam-packed week of seeing all different kinds of jazz.

To start off, I attended the Tucson Jazz Fiesta located on the street outside Corbett’s on 6th Avenue. The environment here was unbeatable, with hundreds of people dancing and singing along the whole time. I got there in the middle of Joe Bourne’s set, where he sang the music of Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls and played one of my favorite songs of all time, “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” (by Lou Rawls, of course). As soon as the first note hit, the crowd grew, and everyone was dancing, including me. I tried my best to get my friends up to dance with me, but they were lame, so I was left to dance with the strangers around me. This being said, no one really felt like a stranger in the moment because the joy and excitement of the song overtook any sort of anxiety I felt dancing around people I didn’t know.

Shortly after Joe Bourne’s set, the headliner, Cha Wa, took the stage. I didn’t know much about this group before this performance, other than the fact that they had previously been nominated for a Grammy, but it didn’t take me long to understand the hype around them. The energy they were giving on the stage was so admirable, and you could tell they were having as much fun as the crowd. The main singer was charming, cracked a lot of jokes, and really knew how to get the audience going. The most memorable song they played was “Iko Iko”, another song I love, because they made everyone in the audience sing along with them, and it was so much fun to be a part of. The thing I really loved most about Cha Wa’s performance though, was getting to take pictures of the performers themselves, especially because the main singer’s outfit was incredibly intricate and beautiful. To add to that, he said he handmade it himself, which makes it that much more special. I always love growing my photography skills and finding new and unique things to shoot, and this performance was the perfect opportunity for that.

A couple of days after the Jazz Fiesta, I got to see Emmet Cohen at the Rialto. When I was picking the concerts I was going to attend for the TJF, I scrolled through a large list of performances, and Cohen’s stood out to me because he was focusing on the music of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, who are obviously two legends in the jazz world. I didn’t know until I got there that the reason he had picked these two to celebrate was that this year they would both be turning 100, so he wanted to play their music to celebrate this sort of milestone and the impact that they both had on jazz as a whole. I thought that this was a very sweet sentiment and made me admire Cohen from the start.

I went to this concert alone, but before the music began, I got to know the woman beside me. She asked me if I had seen him before, and I told her that I hadn’t and didn’t really know much about Cohen at all. She informed me that this wasn’t her first time, and when she saw that he was coming to Tucson, she had to buy a ticket, so that got me excited for what was to come. We continued to talk about the instruments we played, where we were from, and I even found out that she went to school years and years ago, only 90 minutes from where I live (shoutout to Washington State University)! Though that really has nothing to do with the concert or jazz itself, I thought it was fascinating that out of all of the people I could’ve been sat next to, I was sat next to someone who is from the same area as me and someone with whom I had so much in common, despite the large gap in our ages. That truly showed that music, and jazz specifically, can transcend eras and ages, and that, at its core, it’s a unifying art form.

Now, onto the music, of course. Pretty much every song that the band played was recognizable when the main themes came around, but they also put some of their own flair into each song and made them something new. They started out with a song titled “Budo” by Davis, and I was instantly floored. To make it clear, I brought a mini notebook with me to this concert so I could write down any thoughts I had, so you’re basically going to get my unfiltered, real thoughts in the moment for anything I describe here. For this song, I was in awe of the solos and really loved one specific part where Cohen would play a little lick, and another instrumentalist in the band would respond with the same thing. You could tell from this very first song that they were all having a great time and were having a lot of fun while playing together. Another thing I wrote down during this song, that really doesn’t even pertain to the music, was “guy in front on phone”. I think this is important to touch on because, seriously, why would you be on your phone in the middle of a jazz performance in a dark hall where everyone around you can see that the bright lights of your phone are beaming into your face? It irked me a bit, but luckily, an elderly gentleman spoke up and said what we were all thinking, and the man swiftly put his phone away. 

I know that realistically, I can’t cover every single song I heard at this performance because this article would be way too long, so I will be skipping around, but I have to talk about the second song they played. I so badly wish that I caught the title of this song because I didn’t know it off the top of my head, but all I can say is wow. First of all, I’ve never seen a bassist, Yasushi Nakamura, move so quickly, and he was incredibly talented, but what really got me was the piano solo that Cohen played. What I wrote down was, “almost cried/chills” because it truly was just that good. Now, I am easily moved by many things, and music is often one of those things, but this solo was just incredible, and in that moment, I could feel the passion and joy radiating off of him while he played. It struck me deeply, and I could tell it did the same to everyone else around me.

They continued with more classic tunes, including Miles’ “Four”, which was so smooth and relaxing, and then they played a piece that Cohen actually composed himself. It was a suite that sort of commemorated Davis and Coltrane, and it was STUNNING. It started out with a lone, muted trumpet, and the tone was gorgeous (played by Jeremy Pelt). I felt like I was ascending into the heavens. When Cohen joined in, he did something that I never even thought of as being a possibility: he muted the piano by putting his hand on the string inside. In hindsight, that makes sense, but I had never seen anyone do that before, and I thought that it was a really cool technique. Out of all the movements, the second was my favorite and gave me the craziest chills of my life because it was just so beautiful. One of my notes was, “holy drum solo”, because the man on drums, Joe Farnsworth, was unreal. He played multiple lengthy and exciting solos, and his solo in this song specifically earned him a standing ovation because everyone was truly in shock.

The concert continued into many more enjoyable tunes, including a beautiful rendition of “My Favorite Things” where Cohen strummed the piano strings – another thing I had never really seen before. Unfortunately, during this song, a girl behind me was singing along, so it kind of took me out of the moment, but you know, that happens sometimes, I guess. As for the other songs they played, one of the notes I took was “highest note I’ve ever heard on a sax” because the saxophonist, Tivon Pennicott, was incredible! His solos stole the song when he had one.

They finished out their set with a fan favorite, “Giant Steps”. This song was so fun to hear live, and everyone in the crowd loved it. Towards the end of the song, they even played a short excerpt from “A Love Supreme”, and that got everyone in the crowd to softly sing those words while they played. It was really beautiful, and I have chills again writing this right now. I really don’t think they could have ended their performance any better than that, and if you’ve never listened to “A Love Supreme” from front to back, stop reading right this moment, go do that, and don’t come back until you’ve finished.

The second song they played included a little vocal part from Sanders, but rather than singing, it had more of a spoken word feel to it, which was really nice, and it added a cozy sound to the song. The thing about this song that really grabbed my attention, though, was the time signature that it was played in. Before it began, the drummer made a little joke that we needed to “help him keep time”, but he honestly wasn’t joking because I really couldn’t figure it out the whole time. I was sitting there zooming into their dark sheet music with my phone’s camera, trying to come up with some answer, and my best guess is that the song was in 7/4, which, for me as a classical cellist, is a nightmare. Regardless, they made the song sound great, and the groove was actually really fun.

Once again, I can’t really touch on every single song they played because that would just take too much time, but I really enjoyed the third song, and it reminded me of the music I heard at Chicago’s The Green Mill Lounge, which made me feel a little nostalgic. Moving on, every song they played consisted of at least one solo, and I really need to talk about the bassist’s solos. The kid on bass is still in high school, and is actually Sanders’ student, but he was incredible! I was absolutely floored when I found out he was years younger than me, because he really was that good and has so much potential for the future. A few songs after this, they played a song that I loved the groove of, and I wrote down that it was my favorite so far, and that I recognized it, but couldn’t put my finger on where it was from. Then the chorus struck, and it hit me. I was very shocked to hear “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson in this classic jazz set, but I definitely wasn’t mad about it because that’s one of my favorite MJ songs. They did a great job making this song their own and kind of de-funk-ifying it while keeping it true to the original, if that makes any sense. I also found it really sweet that once everyone figured out what the song was, they started quietly singing along.

They played a few more songs before their encore, and in this period of time, Sanders switched to a flugelhorn for a song or two without me realizing. I feel like I don’t really see flugelhorns too much, so it was kind of refreshing to see one in this little performance. Most of my remaining notes are just about how the man on keys was killing it the whole time, and how chill the feeling in the room was the whole time, and then came the encore. They played a really fun, more upbeat song to end the night off, and I noted that the “drummer [was] going crazy style” because he was really letting it all shine. For this one, the keys were turned to more of an organ-like sound, and it really blended beautifully with everyone else in the band. This one made me want to get up and dance, and it was a great song to end us off on because it got the energy back up just before we had to get up and leave.

I am incredibly grateful that I got to witness so many talented artists this year at the Tucson Jazz Festival, and I thank those who allowed me to attend (also shoutout Nathaniel for getting me press). All of the performances were so much fun, and I got to see many different sides of the jazz world while connecting with wonderful people. This was my first year attending the festival, and I look forward to doing it again next year!