Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Blindfold Test: Buster Williams
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Kandace Springs channeled Shirley Horn’s deliberate phrasing and sublime self-accompaniment during her set at this year’s Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival.
(Photo: Joey Kennedy)Janis Burley, the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival’s founder and artistic director, did not, as might be expected, spend the eve of her brainchild’s 15th edition fine-tuning details of the concerts and ancillary events that would transpire over the next three days on a two-block stretch of Liberty Avenue, in front of the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, where she has served as president and CEO since 2017. Instead, the veteran presenter, confident that her staff would handle any pressing issues, opted for a 9½-hour ride from New York to Pittsburgh on the Jazz Train, hosted and emceed for the third consecutive year by pianist-bandleader Orrin Evans and four artists who record for his Imani imprint.
Sealed off à la Duke Ellington’s and Cab Calloway’s bands 90 years ago in a private car at the back of Amtrak #43, the jazz-savvy patrons conversed, read, snacked and enjoyed a taste (or two) until, about a half-hour after the last passengers boarded in Philadelphia, the co-op trio Ember (Caleb Curtis, stritch, manzello, and two trumpets; Noah Garabedian, bass; Vinnie Sperrazza, drums) launched an intense, conversational set as the train hurtled westward, defying the vibrations to sustain chops and flow on repertoire like “Lenox Avenue Breakdown” and “Sonnymoon For Two,” before transitioning into a backup band for WBGO Singers Unlimited co-hosts Janis Siegel and Lezlie Harrison. After Harrison soulfully crooned “All Of Me,” Siegel, singing for the first time ever on a train, nailed the wordy, tongue-twisting Jon Hendricks-King Pleasure vocalese lyric to Stan Getz’s 1949 tenor solo on “Don’t Be Scared” and then delivered several high-velocity scat choruses on a blues in her own argot.
An hour later, I presented a mostly Pittsburgh-centric blindfold test for the captive audience. Everyone ID’d George Benson immediately on “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” from Jimmy Smith’s 1982 all-star album Off The Top, but several were convinced that Joey DeFrancesco was playing the Hammond B-3. There followed an all-Pittsburgh “Lush Life” doubleheader, opening with an impromptu performance by its composer-lyricist Billy Strayhorn at Basin Street in 1964, brilliantly self-accompanying his wry, ironic delivery of his challenging lyric fumbles that the cognoscenti immediately recognized and derided, not knowing the singer’s identity; on the nightcap, everyone knew that it was Billy Eckstine declaratively crooning it in Las Vegas in 1960. Pittsburghers Ray Brown and Ahmad Jamal joined Lewis Nash for a spontaneously arranged “St. Louis Blues” from 1994. Orrin Evans accompanied Alita Moses’ lovely reading of Stevie Wonder’s “They Won’t Go When I Go” from Evans’ 2023 album The Red Door. Most everyone knew the players on Horace Parlan’s “Wadin’,” a 1960 soul-jazz classic from the pianist’s Speakin’ My Piece with high-level testifying from Stanley and Tommy Turrentine. It was unclear whether anyone knew before being told that the brisk, authoritative piano trio treatment of “Why Do I Love You” was by under-recorded Pittsburgh bebop pioneer Dodo Marmarosa from a 1961 Argo album.
Burley scored 4 of 5, underscoring the hip sagacity that underpinned her curation of the free, Black American music-oriented outdoor concerts that transpired on Liberty Avenue from early afternoon through late evening on Saturday and Sunday, (Sept. 20–21) for an estimated 30,000 attendees. Burley’s savoir faire also informed her decision to have Akron-based guitarist Dan Wilson (the festival’s artist-in-residence) and Capetown singer-guitarist Jonathan Butler frame their opening-night George Benson Tribute before Pittsburgh’s impressively knowledgeable and stylish jazzocracy at the Wilson Center around Benson’s exhortation to both mentees to always “do your own thing.” After Wilson and virtuosic second guitar Cecil Alexander uncorked their considerable chops on several Benson hits without trying to Xerox their hero, Butler emerged, bringing Bensonesque soulfulness and lyricism to his several selections. Between tunes, the protagonists kept things real in an ongoing conversation about their respective relationships with Benson, during which Butler displayed open emotion while leaning into his South African heritage.
My Saturday experience began with a dynamic set by comprehensive Akron-based pianist Theron Brown with an accomplished combo, including spirited tenor saxophonist Chris Coles, chops-aplenty trumpeter Tommy Lehman and supple bass-drum pair Jordan McBride and Zaire Darden). Brown started with a tuneful, metrically modulated arrangement of Cedar Walton’s “Bolivia,” then spun out a delicate piano solo on Kamau Kenyatta’s impressionistic “Peter Kobia.” Dan Wilson joined the party with a crisp rendition of his “Who Shot John,” generating a fiery guitar solo.
Down the block, Michael Mayo concluded his original “A Tethered Mind” and moved into “Just Friends,” enveloping the lyric with his smooth tenor, sustaining the mood with a long vocalese section that showcased his pristine articulation and effortless range. After a clever original titled “My Anxiety,” he navigated the scat passage of Nancy King’s treatment of Cleanhead Vinson’s “Four” over a hip-hop-adjacent beat matrix that seemed a touch forced. “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” was another tour de force, as Mayo looped a real-time contrapuntal bass line with his voice, and then a backup chorus as he flowed between the lyrics and signifying scat passages.
Kandace Springs was channeling Shirley Horn’s deliberate phrasing and sublime self-accompaniment on “The Nearness Of You” with think-as-one partners Caylen Bryant on bass and Camille Gainer Jones on drums. Springs moved to Fender Rhodes for the Roberta Flack hit “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” a staple of her sets for several years, showcasing Bryant’s strong contralto as they switched off from verse to verse and harmonized their voices.
I continued in “speed dating” mode, catching the final 15 minutes of Etienne Charles and Creole Soul. Joined by alto saxophonist Godwin Louis, pianist Axel Tosca, guitarist Alex Wintz, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Harvel Nakundi, the erudite 42-year-old leader sang a soca and a calypso with idiomatic flair and good humor, then code-switched to hardcore jazz with an authoritative trumpet declamation.
I spent the next few hours setting up, conducting and winding down from a public DownBeat Blindfold Test with Dan Wilson. When I emerged, the sun was almost down, and Tarbaby (the long-standing collective trio of Orrin Evans, Eric Revis and Nasheet Waits), well into a set referencing their kaleidoscopic 2024 album You Think This America, was segueing from Andrew Hill’s “Reconciliation” to a poignant treatment of the Depression-era Bessie Smith vehicle “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out,” rendered with simplicity and elegance. The flow suddenly shifted to a clustery, atonal, ametric line (“O,” from Tarbaby’s 2009 debut album) on which they built the tension so dramatically that there was nothing left for them to do but roar in unison.
Branford Marsalis Quartet raised the metaphorical roof even higher, operating at telepathic levels of mutual intuition on oft-played repertoire that traversed a century of jazz expression. Marsalis played soprano on Joey Calderazzo’s anthemic, set-opening “The Mighty Sword,” switched to tenor on Keith Jarrett’s “Long As You Know You’re Living Yours” from BMQ’s current album, then back to soprano on Calderazzo’s balladic art song “Conversation Among The Ruins.” He played tenor on the 1920s chestnut “There Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth The Salt Of My Tears,” the Monk-ish flavor of his Rollins-esque thematic tenor improvisation outlined by Justin Faulkner’s extravagant Frankie Dunlopisms. Remaining on tenor, Marsalis continued the thematic improvising master class on John Coltrane’s “Confirmation” contrafact “26-2,” then picked up the soprano to conclude with the timeless New Orleans blues “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It.” By now, it was too late to catch the superb bassist Jonathan Michel, another Imani artist, a few blocks away at guitarist John Shannon’s Con Alma Club, and veteran singer-songwriter Eric Benét was well into his set before an adoring throng. I called it a night.
My Sunday experience began with a tight, kinetic noontime concert by Akron-based, Cleveland-born alto saxophonist-flutist Nathan-Paul Davis and the Admirables. The leader’s occasional forays into the alto’s harmonic outer partials and his sere melodic flute lines over well-executed Afro-funk and trap chants on drumset and two percussion evoked Clevelander Albert Ayler’s cusp-of-the-’70s crossover efforts, Marshall Allen with plugged-in Sun Ra, Pee Wee Ellis with James Brown.
Soulful 26-year-old singer Ekep Nkwelle, already an international presence for her association with Jazz at Lincoln Center, was halfway into a praiseful “The Creator Has A Master Plan.” She followed that oft-covered Leon Thomas incantation with a gospel-infused rendering of Geri Allen’s aspirational “Timeless Portraits & Dreams,” supported by rising star pianist Julius Rodriguez’s nuanced comping and a meaningful solo. Her compelling set ended with an original blues titled “Early In The Morning,” a swinger on which Rodriguez, bassist Jonathon Muir-Cotton and drummer Nazir Ebo all had room to stretch.
Because of interview commitments, I had time only for the first tune by John Shannon’s excellent organ trio (Cliff Barnes, James Johnson III), and the last two pieces by magisterial 40-ish drummer Obed Calvaire’s Haitian Project (the band included the popular singer Dener Ceide, virtuoso pianist Willem Delisfort and Godwin Louis) from his superb self-produced 2024 album 150 Million Gold Francs.
Fortunately, I was able to catch the entirety of Jazzmeia Horn’s ebullient, playful set with an excellent trio (pianist Richard Johnson, bassist Eric Wheeler and drummer Jeremy Bean Clemons). Horn delivered four originals — “Tip,” “Happy Woman,” “Submit To The Unknown” and “Destiny” — from her 2024 release, Messages, then “When I Say” from Love And Understanding, and concluded with the standard “You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me.”
About a half-hour later, I brought my 6-year-old granddaughter Naima to the August Wilson Center’s green room to meet and be photographed with Ms. Horn and Ms. Nkwele. Then they sat for a brief interview. “When I played today, I felt free,” Horn said, referencing her connection to the enthusiastic majority Black audience she’d just performed for. “I know these people understand exactly where I’m coming from, so I’m more prone to say what’s on my mind. It’s family. I know exactly what to say to my family, to move them spiritually and help them get through the week.”
Both expressed their appreciation to Janis Burley for her perspicacious stewardship. “What are the odds of myself, Jazzmeia and Dee Dee Bridgewater all performing on the same day with no overlaps?” Nkwele said, referring to Bridgewater’s imminent evening show. “We’re all Black women whose message is freedom. It took a lot of care on Janis’ part to curate that. Apart from Sunny Sumter at the D.C. Jazz Festival, I’m not sure how many Black women are curating jazz festivals.”
“Janis is adamant about bringing in the best artists, including women who can inspire other young women in the audience,” Horn said. “Also, she’s so real in her belief in community and how she loves on you. She has a different relationship with musicians and artists because of the way she respects us. Although she isn’t a playwright, what she’s doing is similar to August Wilson by bringing in artists who speak to people musically about society and what’s happening in the world.”
“I read Fences in high school, and every time August Wilson’s name is invoked, I think of Black excellence,” Nkwele said. “It’s a powerful thing for me to receive a platform and be trusted to show the excellence I strive for. Festivals like this ensure against erasure of our legacy, because it continues the conversation at a time when so many of our mentors who gave us all they’d gotten are passing away.”
A few hours before, I asked Burley about the common threads she perceives between August Wilson’s oeuvre and the joyful noise raised under the festival’s imprimatur. “I’d say the common thread is storytelling,” she said. “All the artists here are telling their story or somebody’s story through their music. August Wilson’s plays tell stories about African Americans in their lives and lifestyles, their challenges and triumphs in every decade of the 20th century. It’s sharing your stories. Protecting your stories. Controlling your narrative through your art. It’s the most important thing we can do.
“I consider the audience my friends, and I basically book people who I want my friends to meet and hear. I like to provide different perspectives. I want to introduce them to new artists and musicians who work in Pittsburgh and Ohio. I want to honor the folks who are considered the legends, who really have innovated music. And Pittsburghers like to dance, so we always have bands that allow you to dance or sing along. I work similarly to Orrin Evans — he has access to a lot of musicians, and he gives them freedom to create and build. That’s why I asked him to have his Imani Records folks run the jam session for the festival. After a few years, we started thinking about how to add another experience or facilitate transport to Pittsburgh from New York and Philadelphia. That’s how the train idea came up. We handle the administrative end.”
After completing these interviews, I spent some time listening to the brilliant Mississippi-born bluesman-singer-songwriter Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, 26, who did what he does. Then it was time to hear Dee Dee Bridgewater and her intense trio (Carmen Staaf, piano; Hannah Marks, bass; Shirazette Tinnin, drums). Her set spoke to the times. Offering cogent, pointed commentary between each song, she opened with “People Make The World Go Round,” then Percy Mayfield’s “Danger Zone,” then Donny Hathaway’s “Tryin’ Times” and then Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn!”
Then I ran out of gas. The Jazz Train was leaving for New York at the crack of dawn. Even the prospect of hearing Bilal do his singular thing at 2025 PIJF’s final concert couldn’t dissuade me from calling it a night. DB
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