Darin Atwater Steers the Ship at Monterey Jazz Festival

By Paul de Barros I Sep. 17, 2024

The third artistic director in the festival’s history, Darin Atwater comes to Monterey with a distinctively different background than his predecessors.
(Photo: Courtesy Monterey Jazz Festival)

The 67th edition of the Monterey Jazz Festival, which runs Sept. 27–29 at the Monterey Fairgrounds, features just what its loyal fans have come to expect: a star-studded mix of headliners, commissioned work, challenging new acts, youth programs and a funky Saturday afternoon party. No less than Stanley Clarke, Brandee Younger, Jason Moran, Somi, Robert Glasper, Mavis Staples, Josh Redman, Samara Joy, Chief Adjuah, the SFJAZZ Collective, Hiromi, Keyon Harrold, Miguel Zenon and Robert Glasper are on the bill. But longtime patrons will notice hints of some new directions. They come courtesy of Monterey’s new artistic director, Darin Atwater, who took the helm last fall after the retirement of Tim Jackson.

Only the third artistic director in the festival’s history (San Francisco DJ Jimmy Lyons came first), Atwater, 53, comes to Monterey with a distinctively different background than his predecessors. He is the first from the East Coast and also the first African American. A pianist, composer and educator with a classical and gospel background, as well as a deep knowledge of jazz, he is the founding artistic director of the Baltimore-based Soulful Symphony, which performs American music with an emphasis on African American experience. Atwater has served as composer in residence for the Baltimore Symphony, and his composition “Day Of Affirmation” was commissioned and performed by the Jazz Lincoln Center Orchestra. He also teaches American roots music at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.

“He’s a renaissance kind of guy,” says Lenora Helm, dean of professional education at Berklee College of Music, who has often collaborated with Atwater. “He has his heart and mind and work in circles that overlap, as a musician, as an academic leader and as a cultural arts programmer.”

Atwater says he has no intention of dramatically changing Monterey. He especially admires its tradition of commissioning new work and the commitment to jazz “baked into its constitution.”

“Most jazz festivals are no longer jazz festivals,” he notes.

But just as Jackson brought his particular outlook to the festival, Atwater clearly intends to add his own touch to Monterey. For starters, this year’s schedule reflects his love of the human voice. Nearly two dozen singers and vocal ensembles share the bill, from Samara Joy and Mavis Staples to Lila Downs and Gabriella Cavassa.

“I come out of the gospel choral tradition,” he explains. “The voice is a sonic canvas. The American songbook is a vehicle for storytelling. I want to embrace those traditions.”

Atwater has also significantly expanded the festival’s gospel component. The Monterey Peninsula Gospel Community Choir joins Texas Southern University Gospel Choir, which appeared last year, on the Sunday morning program on at the newly named Tim Jackson Garden Stage. There is now a gospel program at the arena Sunday, as well, featuring the inspirational Donald Lawrence and Company.

Atwater is a macher in the gospel world. When Monterey Jazz Festival Executive Director Colleen Bailey attended a celebration with him earlier this year at Houston’s Wesley AME Church, she was stunned by the reception he received.

“I walked in with Darin and it was like, ‘Darin Atwater’s here!’” Bailey says. “All these famous gospel singers were there, and he got called out along with them. When we were in Baltimore, he was given a key to the city. He is a very well-known figure in the music industry, in other places. I think this is his West Coast opportunity.”

It’s also an opportunity for Atwater to show off East Coast acts Californians might not have seen before. One is Baltimore tenor saxophonist Tim Green, who has performed with Christian McBride; another is a D.C. area favorite, vocalist Sara Jones. Charlotte, North Carolina-based pianist Sean Mason is also a first-timer at Monterey this year, as is the soulful Pennsylvania singer Avery Sunshine.

If you notice a healthy mix of genders in Atwater’s program, it’s no accident.

“This was really, really intentional,” he says. “We have to scrub ourselves of any blind-spot biases.”

In addition to his commitment to equity, Atwater also appears ready to take on the Monterey audience’s notorious resistance to change, particularly jazz-adjacent forms such as hip-hop. In 2014, the crowd exited en masse when The Roots came on at the Jimmy Lyons Stage, the festival’s main, 5,000-seat arena. Undeterred, Atwater has invited Baltimore-born hip-hop artist Mumu Fresh (Maimouna Youssef) to the big stage Saturday and the infectious New Orleans hip-hop group The Soul Rebels to the West End Stage. The West End Stage is also where curious listeners can soak up the sounds of Marquis Hill, Harriet Tubman, Tarbaby, Joel Ross and Jason Moran’s Band Wagon.

“We want to inject the festival with as much new life as possible, build a bridge to the next generation,” Atwater affirms.

There is one ingredient that old-timers might notice is missing from this year’s program: Monterey’s customarily fulsome nod to Bay Area musicians. Though San Francisco’s Christian Pepin & Orquesta Bembé is featured at the Pacific Jazz Café, a venue where Atwater hopes to reassert jazz’s oft-forgotten ties to dance, the festival is short on local names.

“That’s just my learning curve,” Atwater admits. “That will shift. I’ve been doing a lot of homework. That’s my job.”

In fact, his job is even bigger than that. In addition to booking the festival, Atwater will teach master classes in the festival’s ongoing collaboration with Historic Black Colleges and Universities — to date, Texas Southern University (sending its Gospel Choir) and North Carolina Central University (offering its Jazz Ensemble). Eventually, Bailey says, Atwater will also participate in Monterey Jazz Festival On Tour, which offers a revue to major cities around the country.

“It’s a juggernaut,” says Atwater, who also will retain his position as artistic director of Soulful Symphony and continue to compose, if he can find time. “But I’m so honored to have the opportunity to take the baton.” DB