Bringing the heat: Newport Jazz Festival celebrates 70th year  

Friday acts feature Kamasi Washington, Brittany Howard, Andre 3000 & more

Photos by Emilee Angell | Newport Life Staff

The 70^th Newport Jazz Festival kicked off Friday at Fort Adams State Park on a sultry summer day where bodies, most glistening with sweat, swayed to all kinds of jazz, from classic interpretations to contemporary experimental sets, the sounds of New Orleans emanating from some stages and the melodies of harps, flutes, and poems from others.  

Kamasi Washington was the official headliner, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it was Birttany Howard, who closed out the Quad Stage.  

Howard, who also played the main stage at Newport Folk Festival last Sunday, returned to Jazz Fest for another set, where her powerhouse vocals and star presence made the heat of the day fade away. She arrived on stage to loud cheers and rousing applause, and was introduced by Christian McBride, the festival’s artistic director, who also plays and composes jazz music.  

“Hey, what’s happening Newport Jazz Fest?!,” McBride said as he took to the stage to welcome Howard. “Are you having a good day at the 70^th – seventieth – Newport Jazz Festival?”  

McBride remarked on all the positive vibrations coming from audience members throughout the day. “Coming up next is someone who is so, so special,” he said. “Not trying to flex, but we worked together at the Whitehouse under Mr. Obama… it was a different Whitehouse then – it was the Brown house.” At that, loud cheers, and knowing laughter, erupted from the large crowd that had gathered inside the fort, a crowd that is distinctly more diverse than that of Newport Folk Festival. Side stage, Howard could be seen flashing a smile and peace-fingers.  

“What’s up everybody!” Howard said as she emerged on stage, in a sparking kaftan-like dress, shades, and big hoop earrings. “Thank you, Christian McBride, for that beautiful intro.” And then she launched into an hourlong set that, by the end, had the crowd up and dancing, with people filling in the aisles and area in front of the stage. She was joined onstage with a full band and two vocalists.  

Two guests who played earlier in the day joined her on stage for different songs. The first was saxophonist Jaleel Shaw, and the second was guitarist Cory Wong, who also played Folk Fest last weekend. Aja Monet, a spoken word artist who shared her poems that afternoon, was seen dancing in the front among the crowd for most of Howard’s set.  

“Thank you so much,” Howard said midway through, “I’m having such a good time. I’m so charged up.” She played music from her solo albums, including the latest, “What Now,” along with “Stay High,” “Baby” and “13th Century Medal” off Jaime, her 2019 album, the latter song with repeating lyrics “We are all brothers and sisters,” a sentiment the crowd seemed to agree with.  

A few hours earlier, on the Harbor Stage, Aja Monet, the poet, delivered an equally beautiful albeit more tranquil set. Monet, who is a Grammy-nominated poet and the first spoken word artist to grace a Jazz Fest stage since Langston Hughes in 1960. 

Monet, wearing a long blue dress with white embroidering, her mic stand adorned with red flowers, opened with “why my love?” which begins: “My love be a front line/ My love be a fighter/ A shade that sisters and saves/ My love survived the middle passage/ Waded the waters/ My love be grassroots/ Organizes movements, the birds the bees.” Another twelve stanzas unfolded, set to soft jazz coming from two accompanying musicians, the crowd transfixed.  

Another poem, “unhurt,” she dedicated to a friend who passed away last fall, and “weathering” she said was for all the lovers in the room. “Who brought their boo-thing?!” she asked the crowd. “We need more radical lovers,” she went on to say. “Revolutionaries are some of the most powerful lovers… some of the best love-makers.” She added, with a smile, that she hoped all the couples made it through the day okay. “If not, blame it on Newport.”  

“Today is James Baldwin’s birthday, a fellow Leo,” she noted about halfway through, to loud applause. “This next poem is dedicated to those of us who know a thing or two about the devils.”  

She went on to remark that we are in unprecedented times in the United States – a sentiment that received more than one “Amen!” – and said she does not take for granted having a platform, at this time, in this country. “We believe in the power of the people,” she continued, to which some in the audience responded “Speak!” This, she went on to say, includes ensuring access to universal healthcare, clean drinking water, a roof over one’s head, to “make it possible for people to have access to basic material needs,” at which point the crowd erupted in loud cheers of agreement.  

“This poem is called the devil you know,” she said. Later, she remarked on the upcoming election, saying “I’m not gonna tell you who to vote for, I’m not gonna tell an Indigenous person or a Black person or a Palestinian person who to vote for,” another sentiment that received rousing cheers, and which was paired with her comments that “an end to genocide is the bare minimum, the bare minimum.”  

“If you’re going to vote, do it with your spine – with the way you live. The ballot is not a bullet, but it can be a border or a bridge,” she said, adding: “Revolution is not a spectator sport – silence is a noise too.”  

THIS & THAT 

• Andre 3000 took to the main stage Friday afternoon for “New Blue Sun Live,” a reference to his 2023 album which was the famed rapper’s solo debut, in what was an experimental set that at times felt like a sound journey. For both the album and set, Andre played the flute, with his band members playing all varieties of instruments. The overall effect, especially in the heat of the afternoon, was a little trippy.  

• Brandee Younger took to the Harbor Stage with her harp – a beautiful instrument with a deep blue frame and carved engravings. The Grammy-nominated artist opened with what she described as an obscure Alice Coltrane number, and then segued into “Unrest,” a piece she composed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and which featured two parts, the first a harp solo. “It’s always a little nerve wracking doing the solo piece at a festival,” she said.  

• New Orleans-based Galactic took to the Quad Stage, bringing with it the big band sounds of The Big Easy. As the group was about to enter the stage, a person in the crowd was heard saying “This is going to be one of the highlights of the weekend.” Halfway through their set, Galactic welcomed onstage special guest Irma Thomas, a singer known as “The Soul Queen of New Orleans.” “It feels like a hundred years ago that I was here,” Irma told the crowd. “I feel very blessed that I can still perform at this age… I feel very blessed that all of you still want to come out and listen.” She said some of the songs she was singing were sixty years old, others were new and came out of conversations in the recording studio with members of Galactic, which will be part of a forthcoming album.  

• Also delivering a high-energy set on the Quad Stage was PJ Morton and his band, Afro Orleans, currently on their “Cape Town to Cairo” tour. In his closing number, Morton said to the crowd, “If you don’t remember anything else I said tonight, remember: everyyythinggg will be allllriggghhtt.”  

• The URI Jazz Collective, formed of six guys, performed on the Foundation Stage to a small crowd, offering transportive tunes and taking turns playing solos.  

• Later, Tre. Charles – “a singer-songwriter who dives into the depths of his soul to invite you into his world” – played the Foundation Stage, his soft melodies perfectly paired with the hazy harbor behind him, the slightest of sea breezes edging the fort.  

• Moonchild took to the main stage in the early afternoon, the lead singer wearing a silver beaded bodysuit and silver boots, her voice raspy as she switched instruments. Another of the trio was in a royal purple track suit.  

• Earlier in the day, Aneesa Strings took to the Harbor Stage, at one point offering a cover of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” altering the lyrics to “Newport State of Mind.”