ON the Beat | Notes from the Road, Rotterdam Ahoy

Missy Mazzoli | Photo: Marylene Mey

ON the MAW Beat

The Music Academy of the West beat goes on, hitting the midpoint of its summer festival plan, with the main highlights of the week being both chamber orchestral and literally chamber-sized.

On Saturday night, this week’s orchestral spectacular offers another major piece of the programming puzzle central to this year’s “American Mosaic” theme: Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, with Christopher Lloyd taking on the narration duties (subbing for the originally scheduled Josh Brolin). Conductor Gemma New will lead the Academy Chamber Orchestra at the Lobero Theatre (not to be confused with the larger model Academy Festival Orchestra, which plays the Granada on most Saturdays during the festival). Filling out the program are the old standard-bearer Schumann and the very much living composer Jasmine Arielle Barnes’ American Lament.

Chamber-wise, tonight, July 16, Hahn Hall plays host to the program called “x2 Series: Legions Will Rise” (link), so named for the piece by composer Kevin Puts — a MAW guest this summer, whose opera Elizabeth Cree grabs the opera production spotlight at the Granada Theatre on July 24 and 26. (See Independent story on Puts here).

But wait, there’s always more: diehards are encouraged to explore the thick calendar of events, including master class encounters and such special concerts as next Thursdays’ (July 23) contemporary-leaning “x2 Series: Trains, Lies & Romance” concert (link), stocked with music by MAW special guest composers Missy Mazzoli and Christopher Cerrone, along with thinking person’s minimalist Steve Reich and Shostakovich. See you there.

North Sea Musings

Cube Houses Rotterdam 2026 | Credit: Josef Woodard

Unfortunately/fortunately, I have headed across the Drink to tap into the perennial and pivotal summer jazz festival circuit over here, taking in two prominent entries on that map: the legendary North Sea Jazz Festival, possibly on the list of the top five jazz fests on the planet, and the Molde Jazz Festival, the cherry of Norway’s robust jazz festival scene. From the unfortunate angle, this means I missed out on a few of this summer’s hot musical ticket items in Santa Barbara — the Music Academy’s reliably magnetizing Percussionfest, Wynton Marsalis (finally) goes Lobero, and Jeremy (“think Denk”) Denk’s annual MAW blowout recital. They have gone on the “ones that got away” list.

But duty called. Considering that I have tried but failed to get to the North Sea festival for many years, this was an especially meaningful pilgrimage for me. As anticipated, it amounted to a dense, intense, exhausting, and exhilarating good time.

Any year at the North Sea festival is a sturdy, jazz-scene-defining harvest of music, packed into the vast venue of Rotterdam’s Ahoy compound, with its 17 stages under one sprawling roof. But this was not just the proverbial Any Year: the North Sea has joined the elite 50-years-and-older club in the still relatively young culture of jazz festivals around the world. (For perspective, September’s Monterey Jazz Festival, reportedly the world’s oldest continuously running festival, will turn 69.)

Speaking of the 50-year mark, one of the clear highlights at North Sea — probably my overall personal highlight — was the ear- and brain-opening Bright Size Life Reimagined project (link), in which the gifted and youngish Dutch keyboardist-arranger Tyn Wybenga’s Brainteaser Orchestra revamped and revitalized the classic Pat Metheny album Bright Size Life, from 1976. In honor of the twin birthdays of his great debut album and this very festival, Metheny signed on to allow a wunderkind-adjacent arranger to respectfully rethink and rearrange that venerable — and still vital — music, with the guitarist gamely playing the often complex parts and issuing his signature soloing throughout.

The result was uniquely thrilling, especially for someone like this scribe, who first heard the album — with the bushy-haired downhome virtuoso playing along with fellow young firebrand wizard bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses — as an already music-obsessed kid just graduating from San Marcos High School.

Not surprisingly, the festival lineup included a long-time visitor with local color, Memphis/Montecito’s gift to the world, Charles Lloyd. The sagely veteran tenor saxist, who also plays in September’s Monterey festival, led a quartet in Rotterdam with ever-fascinating pianist Gerald Clayton and an impressive bass/drums core, unfamiliar to me until now, Harish Raghavan and Kweku Sumbry.

Fate should have it that a recording of this striking music is made, hopefully sooner rather than later. The world needs to hear it.

North Sea 2026 will also be remembered as another strong affirmation of the brilliance and uncommon diversity of vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. She demonstrated her natural eclecticism and deep-dish talent over the course of four distinct concerts — one with her band, another in literal baroque dress mixed with modern winks (unveiling her long-held interest in early music, among other things), with lushly arranged song with the eminent Dutch Metropole Orkest (hear the new album With Every Breath I Take here) and finally, a relaxed yet powerful duet set with her right hand piano virtuoso man, Sullivan Fortner. Fortner has an uncanny knack for turning each solo into a miniature invention.

Tineke Postma North Sea Jazz Fest 2026 | Credit: Josef Woodard

Other happy memories jumped out of the blur of 24 shows, seen all or in part. From the more adventurous end of the spectrum (which seems to translate into smaller audiences), we soaked up inspiration from masterful maverick pianist Kris Davis, the underrated and inventive Dutch saxophonist Tineke Postma, and from inspired free-spirited duets with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and guitarist Mary Halvorson. Tenor player James Brandon Lewis, playing with his quartet, showed why he is one of the greatest “new” voices in jazz — and an inside-outside one, at that — although he’s been at it for years, only recently getting some love and accolades. Another bold contender from the inside-outside camp, and one finally getting her spotlight, is Patricia Brennan, whose strong set added to the long list of festival highlights featuring women artists. Could the male-dominated game in jazz finally be at least somewhat corrected?

Miles Davis’s 100th birthday year blue got funky nods from Marcus Miller’s “We Want Miles!” crew and the Miles/Coltrane tribute project of Terrence Blanchard and Ravi Coltrane — which we heard right here at the Granada early in its tour.

Sun Ra Arkestra at the North Sea Jazz Fest 2026 | Credit: Josef Woodard

Legendary pianist Fred Hersch gave a master class in artistically fortified mainstream piano-trio playing, and the saturnine night-groove machine of the Sun Ra Arkestra — which appeared at the very first North Sea Festival, incidentally — reminded us that “space is the place” until just past midnight.

And the show went on, and on, in a most delectable and challenging way.

At the Q&A session close to the very end of the festival, with master pianists Hersch and Fortner, Hersch made a compelling mission statement: “The world is so fucked up right now,” he said, “more than ever, it’s our job to just spread joy through music.”

On my metro trip back to the hotel very late that night, my exit ticket wasn’t behaving, trapping me behind the gate. My SOS call went unheeded. Apparently, they smelled the barn and just went to bed. Finally, I had to scramble over the high glass-and-metal barrier to escape.

I suddenly imagined that security cameras may have caught my criminal act, and that I might be spending the night in a Dutch pokey. I was spared such a fate, but amid the tension, I felt no pain or fear: the joy that Hersch spoke of was overflowing in my veins and heart-soul.

TO-DOINGS:

On the subject of world-class jazz musicians actually passing through our humble paradise, the new kid club on the civic block, Grand on State, is bringing the boldly gifted and well-traveled mainstream jazz singerRoberta Gambarinito do what she does, and with the impressive pianist Tamir Hendelman in tow, on Wednesday, July 22. Though Italian-born, her English diction is crisper and truer than that of many a native of our land, and her heritage is revealed only when she speaks between songs.

I’ve had the privilege of hearing her in action at the Lionel Hampton Festival in Moscow, Idaho, and at the Monterey festival, and have been dazzled by her post-Ella Fitzgerald chops, precision and passion. Gambarini has worked with several jazz greats, including James Moody, Benny Carter, and a good 20 years with Roy Hargrove, and among her own albums is a tasty one with the great Hank Jones, who is, indeed, elegant and grand on piano. Don’t miss this one.