I am gearing up for the Newport Jazz Festival and you can hear that engine turning over this whole set. My second favorite part of every music festival is the anticipation, the weeks or months spent spinning new music and unbridled excitement. It lets the music take a form that cannot be experienced with standard casual listening. Like a child in the candy store, I tried to deliver a scoop of each form I came across, each exciting shape with sweet or sour toppings.

The set opens sour, aja monet from Brooklyn delivers a poignant poem “the perfect storm”. The track is about a year old and each truth resonates louder today than yesterday. It could be argued that this is not a jazz song, however this is not a jazz show, this is FM Radio and I hope to reach New York with sounds stronger than the whimpers of thousand saxophones. After all, “JAZZ IS DEAD” as proclaimed in the next track titled such by Theo Croker, Gary Bartz, and Kass Overall. The themes are trite, but that trite works as a new refrain. The bait fish smells terrible, but what a catch. That is “Nature(‘s) Dance” the next track by Sebastien Ammann, Ralph Alessi, John Hérbert, and Eric McPherson. The piano simply shreds the rhythm section into unfamiliar territory and everyone still flourishes.

But it was time to dial things back and keep jazz in more familiar boundaries. “Save it for a Rainy Day” by Nicole Zuraitis and Gilas Hekselman reel things back in with a broad introduction that matched how the previous track left it. “Stardust” by Riley Mulherkar follows and it should be clear we have moved from the sour candies to some of the sweetest. As a trumpet player I have a bias towards trumpet music and Riley delivers, with a technique that meshes flutter-tonguing and vibrato while still staying soft-spoken. The mic catches some breaths between phrases, but they belong in the mix, they keep the sound airy, light, and sweet like cotton candy. Jaleel Shaw delivers “Conclusions” and we pick up speed. Playing a Philadelphia musician in New York may sound wrong, but the influences move faster between these cities than the i-95. To keep things sweet, Johnathan Blake gives us “A Slight Taste” but it’s probably toffee because its uptempo and gets stuck in our teeth for 8 minutes.

I frequently play things from our station archives during the summer, so the airwaves get somethings new. “The Librarian” by Sefi Zisling gives me the same chills I get while putting the stylus down on some vinyl that has been on our shelf for over 50 years. This track sounds just like my fingers fluttering through CDs and records because it is now my responsibility to make sure they are not forgotten. Particularly large is our collection of blues records. The civil rights messaging scattered in records with side B untouched. These are the oldest part of our station and locked in the foundation. “The Awakening”by Aneesa Strings and Sean Jones helps put a modern spotlight on this foundation, it glitters and reminds us “we’ve been misled”.

Jazz is Dead, is a record label and project by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad and their title may have you misled. “Viajando por Ai” enlists Marcos Valle a Brazilian artist to reject this title. Using international examples to highlight jazz’s life in distant and unexpected places is something I try to do with this show, but Adrian and Ali have beat me to it. This project is only one of many for them and the next track “Sua Beleza e Beleza” let João Donato add to this argument. The influence of these two fantastic Brazilian artists bleeds into “Boa Tarde Povo” by Anat Cohen, a talented multi-instrumentalist giving foreign impressions of bossa themes. The use of acoustic guitar in jazz is carried like soaring bird by JOIA LUZ’s vocals alongside Guinga in “Fonte Abandonada”. To add to the romance languages, Ana Tijoux rhymes in French for the Chilenos in La Brigida Orquesta on “Acaecer”. This new release has me anticipating a new LP by the group and I believe they bring some of the most exciting sounds to the genres of rap chileno and jazz. La Récré helps us cool off with “Petite Douceur” something sweet and upbeat before our last real sour treat.

Avantdale Bowling Club is from outside Auckland, New Zealand and their music makes the country far less idyllic than The Lord of the Rings. Their music contains live jazz instrumentals and heartbreaking poetry about the struggles of addiction. This last track is titled “Friday Night @ the Liquor Store” and we have grown up, we weren’t in a candy store. We put our mouth to the tap and spun through the top shelf, so it’s time to wrap up.

This episode was streamed live on 89.1 FM and on WNYU.ORG so catch more next Thursday 9-10:30 PM.

K3FAY