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Powerful Female Voices To Highlight Newport Jazz Festival This Weekend
By Kevin C. Peterson
Two distinctive vocal styles will dominate this year’s Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island this weekend, which runs from Friday, August 2 to August 4.
They include Tank and the Bangas and Cecile McLorin Salvant — a pair of highly individualized voices which have, within the last decade, carved out unique stylistic approaches that continue to animate jazz as a vibrant musical genre. They both will perform on the last day of the festival, which is sponsored by Natixis Investments Managers.
The festival — which is among the better produced yearly large jazz events in the nation — is laced with a diversity of talent. On day one music legend Herbie Hancock, at 79, will perform from his songbook that traverses the terrains of bee-bop and fusion. Hancock, nearly 6 decades into a career as a jazz luminary, is a UNESCO global ambassador and is credited with creating the International Jazz Day.
Listeners will also be availed to sets by the Sun Ra Arkestra, Alphonso Horne and the Gotham Kings, Laurin Talese, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and Common, the rapper and movie persona. More than three dozen acts will be spanned across the weekend festival.
