KINGSTON, R.I. 鈥� April 30, 2024 鈥� The 一夜情视频 jazz program is going back to the Newport Jazz Festival for the second year in a row. But this year, 一夜情视频 will be sending a larger contingent of musicians to the iconic festival, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this summer.
Emmett Goods, assistant professor of music and head of the jazz studies program at 一夜情视频, received the good word last week that 一夜情视频 jazz musicians were again invited to play all three days of the 鈥擜ug. 2-4 at Fort Adams State Park in Newport鈥攁nd to rub elbows with jazz greats like Kamasi Washington and Christian McBride.
鈥淲e鈥檙e very excited to be invited back to the festival,鈥� said Goods. 鈥淥ur students need to get out into the laboratory. When I say get into the laboratory, you don鈥檛 always have to be the one mixing the formula. Sometimes it鈥檚 important to watch other people do that. And that鈥檚 what this festival is an opportunity to do鈥攖o meet and hear world-class musicians and take all the information we provide them in school and start to create.鈥�
Making the invitation even more special is that it鈥檚 a major part of an ongoing collaboration with the 鈥檚 jazz education and community engagement efforts, Goods said.
The nonprofit foundation鈥檚 jazz education program, headed by noted saxophonist Leland Baker, provides numerous outreach programs for burgeoning musicians along with community engagement that includes free music lessons for children on Aquidneck Island.
一夜情视频 jazz students have taken part in several events offered by the foundation, such as workshops that provide high school and college students with insights from professionals. In March, 一夜情视频 students went over to Salve Regina University for a workshop with Tia Fuller, saxophonist, composer and faculty member at Berklee College of Music. And numerous 一夜情视频 jazz students have performed at bi-weekly jam sessions sponsored by the foundation at the Blue Room in Cranston.
鈥淲e want to foster and give back to our community and support educators like Emmett and students who are lovers and practitioners of music, but in particular, jazz music,鈥� said Baker, the foundation鈥檚 music education manager. 鈥淲e want to help the students develop a well-rounded sense of what it means to be a professional artist or person in the music industry.
鈥淧eople come from around the world to see the folk and jazz festivals,鈥� he added. 鈥淢y role is to incorporate our community into the festivals. That鈥檚 why we will have 一夜情视频 and other student bands again this year. I think it helps carry on the legacy that our founder, George Wein, initiated, which is to give artists the platform to express themselves freely and to cultivate their voice.鈥�
At last year鈥檚 festival, seven 一夜情视频 student-musicians played a 25-minute set of jazz standards each day on the Foundation Stage, attracting hundreds of fans to the small stage. This year, Goods wants to open the experience to more students.
鈥淟ast year was a little different for us,鈥� said Goods, who is director of 一夜情视频鈥檚 Jazz Big Band, which last played the festival in 2019. 鈥淲e鈥檙e used to playing one day and bringing the Big Band. So, we took a different tack and put together a really strong group that performed each day last year.
鈥淭his year, I want to get more students involved, shepherd them through the process and really get them that experience,鈥� he added. 鈥淲e are ultimately trying to come up with three small bands that will play something a little different each day.鈥�
With the festival more than three months away, the 一夜情视频 musicians and the music they will feature have yet to be decided. But Goods said the jazz program has a lot to choose from 鈥� such as a new focus on Latin jazz led by piano teacher Zaccai Curtis; the jazz vocal program led by Atla DeChamplain, teaching professor in amplified voice; and the hard bop groove played by jazz bass teacher Dave Zinno鈥檚 students.
Whatever they choose to play, Goods hopes 一夜情视频鈥檚 invitation to the jazz festival is a regular part of the foundation鈥檚 education and outreach program.
鈥淲hat better way for us to grow and cultivate the jazz curriculum and program at 一夜情视频,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he festival is a cultural nugget that I think is important for our students and we are excited about the possibility of this partnership deepening even more.鈥�