Mar 30, 2026 10:30 PM
Flea Finds His Jazz Thing
In the relatively small pantheon of certifiable rock stars venturing into the intersection of pop music and jazz, the…
An all-star cast from 2019’s New York City Winter JazzFest.
(Photo: Jati Lindsay)If COVID cooperates, there will be a live New York City Winter JazzFest, and it will be spectacular.
Scheduled for Jan. 13–22, the festival has a massive lineup of great music and social consciousness. The festival’s most recent announcement is a partnership with the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, the New School and Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) called This Is Movement: Towards Liberation.
The movement will convene during the festival with a series of panels, performances and conversations. Speakers include drummer/composer Terri Lyne Carrington, festival artist-in-residence Angel Bat Dawid, Georgia Anne Muldrow and more.
“Of the groups that the pandemic has hit, artists are one of the most devastated, and if we look at who’s now performing at major venues and festivals, we can see the obvious: the absence of women and non-binary musicians in the comeback,” said M³ found ersSara Serpa and Jen Shyu in a statement. “Through M³, we hope this new paradigm for mentorship and career development, in which musicians and music writers connect, support, and create together through collaboration, respect and empathy, will inspire others to build new paradigms of mentorship around the world, not only in music and arts, but in other spheres.”
The festival will also feature Dawid in a variety of settings as well as a world premiere by Pino Palladino and Blake Mills at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge; a Summer of Soul film screening conversation with Questlove Thompson at Roulette; “The Feel Good Party” with Questlove, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Makaya McCraven, Maurice “Mobetta” Brown and Wildcat Ebony Brown at House of Yes; “Absence” with Terence Blanchard Featuring the e-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet, Makaya McCraven, Samara Joy, Mahogany Brown and Dawid at City Winery; world premieres by the International Contemporary Ensemble with Fay Victor’s Sirens and Silences and Kate Gentile’s biome ii, both at Roulette; International Anthem Showcases with Ben LaMar Gay’s Open Arms and Jamie Branch Solo at Public Records in Brooklyn; and much more.
Visit winterjazzfest.com for complete information. DB
“Cerebral and academic thought is a different way to approach music,” Flea says of his continuing dive into jazz. “I’ve always relied on emotion and intuition and physicality.”
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