Crispy jazz tunes fill the air at the Northampton Jazz Festival

Published October 19, 2023 in Massachusetts Daily Collegian

By Ishani Roy and Erineah Quan

Rich Goldstein Quartet at the Jazz Strut, Sept. 29, 2023. Photo by Shanti Furtado

Vibrant harmonies and spontaneous improv solos filled the air on Friday, Sept. 29, as hundreds of people gathered in western Massachusetts to celebrate the uniqueness of the Northampton Jazz Festival. Founded in 2011, this event spanned the course of two days: a Friday night “Jazz Strut” and a Saturday “Jazz Fest Day.” The founders take pride in their mission of illuminating diverse jazz artists to a wide range of audiences. Further, they value the preservation of African-American cultures and traditions to emphasize the significant role jazz music has played in society for decades.

Ruth Griggs, president of the Northampton Jazz Festival, revived the thrilling African-American jazz tradition in 2017 with a new mission after a three-year hiatus. The majority of the bands that performed were led by women and featured predominantly Black artists, allowing the audience to recognize and appreciate the origins of jazz.

Griggs’ personal inspiration and connection to the festival comes from “collaborating between board members and the opportunity to bring in new visitors into Northampton.” It ensured that a diverse audience in each of the restaurants participating in the strut was exposed to jazz culture.

One of the main events of the 2023 Northampton Jazz Festival was the Max Roach Centennial Celebration set to take place the next evening, closing Jazz Fest Day. Roach, a prominent drummer and civil rights activist during the 1940s jazz era, is regarded as an influential musician.

“[We want to] carry his message through our performers during Jazz Fest Day,” Griggs explained.

As for the audience, the young musicians created an atmosphere that was “electric” and “contagious,” which made it “hard to not feel a sense of positive energy in your own body when you’re exposed to this kind of music and how happy people are to be hearing it.” Along with the other leaders, 10 months were spent planning and executing the two-day jazz festival. With much enthusiasm, Griggs says, “It’s okay. It’s worth it.”

This year’s Northampton Jazz Festival would be nowhere without the presence of Scout Opatut, the lead producer. After she and her husband moved to Northampton in 2020, Opatut expressed her desire to become involved with the festival. She described how her musical experience working as a venue manager and booking agent also played a large influence. Her role on the leadership team entails finding and contacting all the different performers.

Over the past year collaborating with the other members, Opatut and the board formulated their own dream “wishlist” of diverse artists to come perform. Much to their surprise, every group they contacted immediately confirmed their availability. It was a “dream come true,” Opatut said with a smile.

The celebration of diversity within the jazz scene is also an essential value for Opatut. “I agree with the late Max Roach that the word ‘jazz’ is a four-letter-word and really what we’re celebrating is Black American music, and so we try to follow the example of Max Roach and follow in foot with his ideals and his civil rights advocacy,” Opatut said.

Walking through the doors of Northampton Brewery, the syncopated and intricate polyrhythms of the Molly Plaisted Trio could not be ignored. Also known as “MP3,” the Trio consisted of eponymous drummer Molly Plaisted, keyboardist Michael Carabello and bassist Liam Kearny. Plaisted, a University of Massachusetts alumni, spoke about how the group came together back when they were undergraduates; Plaisted and Kearny were roommates at the time and would jam together. Now, the three have found their niche in Northampton’s thriving jazz scene.

“It feels so special that people are into this music,” Plaisted beamed. “A lot of people see it as a dying art form and that could not be further from the truth. It’s so steeped in everything popular music that we listen to today this is just kind of honoring where it came from.”

Jazz is essentially a conglomeration of blues and ragtime music that can be traced back to southern African-American communities in the early 20th century. The act of performing this genre of music helps keep that sense of culture alive and pays tribute to the influence.

Plaisted also describes performing jazz as a “drug,” explaining how the adrenaline of performing music combined with the ability to interact with the audience and exchange musical ideas is “something that’s really special.”

The Dwonztet, a band that ties from Hartford, Connecticut, took over Fitzwilly’s restaurant with some crispy tunes luring the audience in as they enjoyed their meal on a rainy evening. The saxophone plays a crucial role in the group’s jazz performance. The saxophone’s purpose has evolved over time, but it still commands attention and is typically front and center in the band. In actuality, the saxophone reigns supreme in jazz.

Kris Allen, saxophonist of the Dwonztet, says, “Part of what makes the saxophone great is that it’s very melodic and up front especially when you’re playing solos.” Allen claims that “the saxophone is a part of me,” making it such a personal sound to himself and many other jazz performers and listeners..

Sherman Schlar, a member of the audience who previously attended the festival, expressed his feelings towards the unique style that jazz encompasses. As an avid jazz enthusiast, he visited multiple different venues for the night and got a hotel room so he can enjoy the rest of the festival that continued the next day. Schlar mentioned that “an artist from the Philadelphia/New Jersey area is here and he doesn’t come around very often. It’s very special.”

He explains how jazz is rooted in other music genres, claiming “I think for young people, a lot of young people listen to hip hop, and a lot of hip hop artists are rooted in jazz, whether people realize it or not, and so it goes hip hop is sort of a branch of the jazz tree in my opinion. Jazz is like a drug. The more you have it, the more you want it.”

The Northampton Jazz Festival no doubt unified both citizens and tourists of Northampton that Friday night. The act of listening to live jazz among strangers in a bar setting is an experience unlike any other. Jazz music exemplifies the essence of cultural human collaboration around the world, connecting performers and listeners one improv solo at a time.

Erineah Quan can be reached at equan@umass.edu and Ishani Roy can be reached at iroyganguly@umass.edu.