IMN : Updates for Jason Moran

Jason Moran: Letting It All Bleed

IMN

May 15th, 2012

From The New York Times

Art, Ancestry, Africa: Letting It All Bleed
By: Ben Ratliff

Alicia Hall Moran is an operatic mezzo-soprano, and Jason Moran is a jazz pianist. They met at the Manhattan School of Music and married in 2003. Since then they’ve made a lot of their work separately. Mr. Moran has toured and recorded for 12 years with his trio, the Bandwagon. Ms. Moran has performed as a singer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and is now the understudy to Audra McDonald in the role of Bess in “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” on Broadway. But they have worked together steadily, too, more than many people know.

From last Wednesday to Sunday on the fourth floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art, from late morning to evening each day, the Morans unspooled an extended collaboration, called “Bleed,” as a limited residency that was part of the museum’s Biennial. (Ms. Moran left every afternoon to report to the Richard Rodgers Theater, as she does six days a week.)

“Bleed” was neither about jazz nor about opera, per se, though it contained some of both, and much else: film, video, dance, poetry, lecture, diary, journalism and alternative medicine. It offered 26 performances, including Ms. Moran’s doing a version of Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls),” with Japanese taiko drummers, and singing operatic arrangements of Motown songs backed by harp, piano, guitar and percussion; a talk on “phenomenal listening” by the scholar Radiclani Clytus, who’s working on a film about the Morans; a series of voice-and-piano art songs dedicated to visual-artist friends; an open rehearsal by the Bandwagon, with each musician miked so the audience could hear the conversation; a solo-bass performance by Esperanza Spalding; Charles Blow, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, reading a recent column he wrote on bullying; and Ms. Moran’s receiving acupuncture while talking, sometimes tearfully, about why she makes art. (“I’m looking for the story of me and you,” she said, supine, both to the acupuncturist and by extension to everyone in the room.)

To read more click here

Jason Moran Documentary

IMN

May 10th, 2012

From Kickstarter

Grammar: A Documentary project in Brooklyn, NY by Radiclani Clytus

SYNOPSIS

As a 2010 MacArthur Award recipient and triple-crown winner in Downbeat Magazine’s 59th annual critics poll, Jason Moran is by far one of the most talented musicians working in jazz today. A graduate of the acclaimed jazz programs at the Manhattan School of Music and Houston’s High School of the Performing and Visual Arts, Moran currently presides as the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Advisor for Jazz and serves on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory. Moreover, while his trio The Bandwagon (bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits) is routinely lauded for its innovative musicianship, it’s quite clear that what matters most to this pianist is the preservation of the creative legacy imparted by his legendary mentors Jaki Byard, Andrew Hill, and Muhal Richard Abrams.

Since January 2011, Gregg Conde and I have been documenting Moran’s rehearsals and performances in order to reveal the ways in which the inherently improvisational and amorphous nature of jazz music is implicit within the language of creative and artistic expression. Because much of Moran’s ongoing oeuvre blurs the boundaries between jazz, rap, and performance art, our documentary, Grammar, will not only explain how his eclectic style of playing is informed by his coming of age during the emergence of electro music, 80’s funk, house, M-Base, and the culture of hip hop but it will also demonstrate how Moran’s hybrid sense of musicality portends a foundational shift in how we define jazz music. Coincidentally, Grammar purports that jazz never truly ceased to be America’s most popular art form. As our interview footage of pioneering rap producers and MCs from the 1990s will reveal, jazz, like its kindred genres soul and funk, migrated into the genetic structure of hip hop music through the inventive practices of sampling and beat making.

Watch a video about the project below and click here to learn more.

On Jazz Day, Jason Moran Makes The Case For Relevance

IMN

April 30th, 2012

From NPR

On Jazz Day, Jason Moran Makes The Case For Relevance

Some of the world’s most renowned musicians recently gathered in Paris and New Orleans to celebrate the first annual International Jazz Day. UNESCO recently set April 30 as a day to raise awareness of jazz music, its significance, and its potential as a unifying voice across cultures.

Despite the celebrations, though,in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger generations.

It’s Jason Moran’s job to help change that. As the The Kennedy Center’s artistic adviser for jazz, Moran hopes to widen the audience for jazz, make the music more accessible and preserve its history and culture.

NPR’s Neal Conan talks with Moran about the challenges he faces and about restoring jazz as one of the great American art forms.

To listen click here

Gulf Coast Blues and Jazz: Johnny Winter & Jason Moran

IMN

April 11th, 2012

From American Routes

Gulf Coast Blues and Jazz: Johnny Winter & Jason Moran

A visit with two native sons of the Texas Gulf Coast. Guitar slinger Johnny Winter grew up listening to the blues in Beaumont, Texas and took his talent for playing to the world. We talk with Winter about his Texas youth and his blues milestones. Jazz pianist Jason Moran started out in Houston playing classical music, but found his way to jazz through Thelonious Monk. We’ll learn more about his adventures in the NYC jazz scene.

To listen to the broadcast click here

Jason Moran On 'Piano Jazz: Rising Stars'

IMN

March 30th, 2012

From NPR

Jason Moran On ‘Piano Jazz: Rising Stars’

Jason Moran is one of the most talked-about pianists and composers of the past decade. In 2010, he was made a MacArthur Fellow and is now the top jazz adviser for the Kennedy Center, picking up where Dr. Billy Taylor left off. Moran opens this session with a song from his latest album, Ten, called “Blue Blocks” — a commission by the Philadelphia Museum of Art for an exhibition of quilts from Gee’s Bend, Ala. The way Moran describes the quilts to host Jon Weber sounds very much like Moran’s own music.

“It’s quite fascinating, because there are quilts that one might say are similar to something that Piet Mondrian might paint. It’s very architectural,” Moran says. “But what they use — old clothes, or even old quilts or old swatches of fabrics, and then weave them together and the lines just come out a bit askew.”

Moran epitomizes a modern approach to music, regularly employing sampled loops as a “fourth band member” in live performances. Here, Moran performs a broad and exciting set of 21st-century jazz piano tunes.

Listen to the session here

Kennedy Center Announces Moran's 1st Season as Advisor

IMN

March 8th, 2012

From Capital Bop

Kennedy Center announces adventurous 2012-’13 season, the first of Jason Moran’s tenure
By: Giovanni Russonello

From the Kennedy Center’s well-appointed vantage on the banks of the Potomac, jazz has never seemed so accommodating, so open-armed, as it does this week.

The center on Tuesday announced its 2012-’13 jazz season, the first under the curation of Jason Moran, the institution’s new artistic advisor for jazz. The lineup is bursting with variety, including names as divergent as Mulgrew Miller, Anthony Braxton and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

The 36-year-old Moran, an award-winning pianist and composer, isn’t out to erase the music’s vaunted history from our present conversation. Note the long-shadowed presence of Dr. Lonnie Smith, the Heath Brothers and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band on the schedule. But there’s no doubt this season — which begins in October and runs through the following June — represents a fleet fast-forward for the center, long considered an artistically conservative institution.

If comparing this itinerary to the Kennedy Center’s previous season doesn’t drive the point home enough, maybe a look at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s upcoming schedule, also announced earlier this week, will throw things into high relief.

To read more click here

Jason Moran Promotes the Abstract in Jazz

IMN

February 29th, 2012

From PBS NewsHour

A New Voice at the Kennedy Center, Jason Moran ‘Promotes the Abstract’ in Jazz

An emerging jazz innovator and the new artistic director at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, musician Jason Moran uses song to promote thought, therapy, consciousness and creativity. Jeffrey Brown speaks with Moran about his efforts to create more appreciators of the arts in his new role.

To read the transcript click here and watch a video of the show below:

Watch Jason Moran ‘Promotes the Abstract’ in Jazz on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

PBS NewsHour Conversation with Jason Moran

IMN

February 24th, 2012

From PBS NewsHour

Conversation: Jazz Musician Jason Moran
By: Jeffrey Brown

Jason Moran has made a name for himself at an early age as a jazz pianist and composer. And that name is growing to a wider public; last year, Moran was awarded a MacArthur genius fellowship, and he was recently made the artistic adviser for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., a position held for many years by the great jazz musician and educator Billy Taylor.

I spoke to Moran in 2010 after he won the MacArthur Fellowship, and I caught up with him last week:

Watch Conversation: Jazz Musician Jason Moran on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Jason Moran Performs at Smithsonian Groundbreaking

IMN

February 23rd, 2012

Jazz pianist Jason Moran performed in DC yesterday as part of the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Actress and singer Phylicia Rashad led the ceremony as emcee, with featured speakers including President Obama, former first lady Laura Bush, US Representative John Lewis of Georgia, and the museum’s director Lonnie Bunch. Watch a video of the ceremony, including Jason’s performance, below:

Confirmed Tourdates As Of February 10th, 2012

IMN

June 1st, 2012: Symphony Center Chicago, IL USA [Tribute to Fats Waller featuring Jason Moran]
August 4th, 2012: Fort Adams State Park Newport, RI USA [Jack DeJohnette All-Stars guests: Lionel Loueke, guitar; Jason Moran, piano; Christian McBride, bass; Tim Ries, saxophones; Luisito Quintero, percussion; George Colligan, piano and drums; Jason Palmer. trumpet]
August 5th, 2012: Fort Adams State Park Newport, RI USA [Jason Moran and the Bandwagon]
August 6th, 2012: Martha's Vineyard Jazz Festival - Deon's Restauran Oak Bluffs, MA USA [Jason Moran and the Bandwagon]
October 24th, 2012: Maurice Gusman Concert Hall Coral Gables, FL USA [Jason Moran and the Bandwagon]
October 26th, 2012: Kennedy Center Jazz Club Washington, DC USA [Jason Moran and The Bandwagon with special guests Bill Frisell and Alicia Hall Moran]
November 1st, 2012: Stateside at the Paramount Austin, TX USA [Jason Moran and the Bandwagon]
November 9th, 2012: Tuckerman Hall Worcester, MA USA [Jason Moran and the Bandwagon]
November 20th, 2012: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
November 21st, 2012: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
November 22nd, 2012: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
November 23rd, 2012: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
November 24th, 2012: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
November 25th, 2012: Village Vanguard New York, NY USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
November 26th, 2012: Kennedy Center - Millenium Stage Washington, DC USA [Jason Moran & The Bandwagon]
April 26th, 2013: Kennedy Center Jazz Club Washington, DC USA [Jason Moran and the Bandwagon]

Moran & Holland: Jazz Royalty

IMN

January 30th, 2012

From The Cornell Daily Sun

Jazz Royalty Captivates Barnes Hall
By: Daveen Koh

Darn that dream. You know there’s something great stirring when an audience maintains an awestruck silence (punctuated only by rapturous ovations) throughout a performance. Even before pianist Jason Moran and his special guest, bassist Dave Holland, could play one note, the effusive audience rolled out a red carpet for the duo. The affable and unassuming pair truly earned every inch of applause they received, holding nothing back as they took the audience through sprawling soundscapes and hypnotic tangoes. This intimate evening in Barnes Hall was infinitely better than a dream.

These titans never clashed. Holland’s philosophy of “playing it all” (on advice from another legendary jazz musician, Sam Rivers) was evidently shared by Moran. From Rivers’ “Beatrice” to Moran’s “Gummy Moon,” Moran and Holland were first-rate co-captains, eagerly and leisurely taking turns to steer the ship. Their partnership shone in “Gummy Moon,” Moran’s composition inspired by the many nights he spent reading “Goodnight Moon” to his small children. As Holland played a persistent and steadily comforting bass line, Moran’s soothingly-rendered notes gently crafted a dazzling narrative that sometimes leapt in surprise.

The duo certainly made working together look like a walk in the park. Well, actually, they did take the audience “Once Round Central Park.” The song, composed by their late friend Paul Motian and played in his honor, saw Moran and Holland conversing light-heartedly traipsed around the park. The pair displayed a startling ability to sketch out scenes and emotions, alternating between tranquil introspection (perhaps as they passed a lush field or paused by a magnificent fountain on their stroll) and effusive excitement.

To read more click here

"Genius" and Jazz Legend Open Cornell Concert Series

IMN

January 26th, 2012

From The Ithaca Journal

‘Genius’ and jazz legend open Cornell Concert Series
By: Stephen Kimball

The first installment of the Cornell Concert Series’ 2012 season, which takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, will feature a rare meeting of gifted performers — a “genius” and a jazz legend.

Pianist Jason Moran is the genius, having been a recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, commonly called a “Genius Grant,” in 2010.

Bass player Dave Holland is the jazz legend.

Holland got his start playing with Miles Davis in the 1960s. A few years ago, Holland made an appearance at Cornell University; to read an interview with Holland from back then, visit www.waitingforsuperman blog.com and click on Interview Archive.

Saturday’s concert, to be held in Barnes Hall on the Cornell University campus, promises to be a very special evening of music, as it will be the first time Moran and Holland have performed together as a duo. This newspaper caught up with Moran recently while he was on tour.

To read more click here

Jason Moran Takes the Before & After Challenge

IMN

January 19th, 2012

From JazzTimes

Jason Moran Takes the Before & After Challenge
By: Thomas Conrad

Nobody sounds like pianist Jason Moran. Yet his jagged, percussive, expansive piano language, with its hard-edged lyricism, has proven adaptable to many musical situations. Besides the Bandwagon, his longstanding working trio with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, Moran’s projects as a leader have included solo programs, orchestral Monk and small ensembles with such major horn players as Greg Osby and Sam Rivers. His own curiosity, and the high demand for his services as a sideman, have led to diverse collaborations. He has done Fats Waller with Meshell Ndegeocello and ballet with choreographer Alonzo King.

Moran’s most important, most transformative contributions as a sideman have come in Charles Lloyd’s New Quartet. He has made three highly regarded albums with Lloyd on the ECM label: Rabo de Nube (2008), Mirror (2010) and Athens Concert (2011). It was with Lloyd’s band that Moran came to the Belgrade Jazz Festival in Serbia in October 2011, and this B&A was conducted before a live audience at that event. Moran, 36, was relaxed and confident and instantly immersed in the process. He moved to the front row of the audience in order to better hear each track. Usually he kept listening long after he knew who was playing.

1. Jaki Byard
“Charles Mingus Medley: Fables of Faubus/Peggy’s Blue Skylight” (from Sunshine of My Soul: Live at the Keystone Korner, HighNote). Byard, piano. Recorded in 1978.

BEFORE: So … majestic. The pianist is Jaki Byard. I’m very bad with titles of songs, but this is a Mingus piece. Jaki Byard was also my teacher, so there are things I relate to his sound: these out-of-the-blue stabs of chords—boing! When I was studying with him, this is the thing that I took from him: how to spike the sound, how to punctuate everything. This is a great example of solo piano playing, the way he phrases the melody over and over again. This is a lesson I’m always talking to my students about: Where’s the melody? He never gets tired of playing the melody, in the same way that Thelonious Monk never gets tired of playing a melody.

That was really a little emotional for me for a half-second, because this was a man who helped break down a lot of doors, a person who was totally at ease with tradition and totally at ease with throwing it all under the bus at the same time. The true test of a pianist’s power is how they function when they’re alone. Thanks for playing that.

To read more click here

Jason Moran: Kennedy Center’s Jazz Man

IMN

January 9th, 2012

from Loop 21

Meet the Kennedy Center’s New Jazz Man
By Keli Goff

“Genius” Jason Moran talks Jay-Z, President Obama and The Roots with The Loop

For many, watching The Kennedy Center Honors, the annual celebration of the world’s greatest artists hosted by the President and First Lady, has become a holiday staple, right up there with relaxing and watching “It’s a Wonderful Life.” While Jason Moran was among those who enjoyed this year’s Honors he was not among those relaxing and taking it easy.

Instead Moran was gearing up for his greatest professional challenge, what one might call his very own Kennedy Center “honor.” He was recently named the new artistic adviser for jazz for the Kennedy Center, one of the world’s leading artistic institutions. The designation caps off a stellar few years for Moran, who was awarded a coveted MacArthur fellowship in 2010. The awards are known colloquially as “Genius Awards” because of how competitive the $500,000 fellowships are to receive.

Both honors have firmly established Moran as one of the most influential jazz musicians in the world. His accomplishments — all before the age of 40 — mean it is quite possible that Moran will find himself seated alongside the President and First Lady as a Kennedy Center honoree one day. The 36-year-old Houston native spoke with Loop 21 about his favorite musicians and what he would suggest President Obama add to his iPod. [Also read about Moran’s wife “Broadway’s Next Big Star: Alicia Hall Moran”]

Loop 21: What was the last song you added to your ipod?

Jason Moran: The Roots record that I got yesterday, “Undun” their conceptual album about the life and death of someone.

Read the full article here

Jason Moran Jazzed to Promote the Arts

IMN

January 2nd, 2012

From The Washington Post

He’s jazzed — Jason Moran’s mission is to promote the “arts as part of the American diet”
By: Matt Schudel

During an afternoon sound check at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, pianist Jason Moran was asked if he could play “Auld Lang Syne” as a promotion for NPR. He didn’t quite remember the melody and wanted someone to hum it for him.

In the next three minutes, as he sat at the piano, Moran wove improvised beauty, transforming the familiar New Year’s Eve war horse into a gentle jazz hymn. He created new harmonies, shifted to a different key, added a touch of abstraction without departing from the song’s melancholy melody.

It was a subtle demonstration of how the 36-year-old Moran is ringing in a new era of jazz.

He is perhaps the country’s most influential jazz musician under 40. He’s got plenty of street cred on the music scene, but he is quickly gaining institutional validity as well, most notably with last year’s award of a $500,000 “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation. In the latest confirmation of Moran’s rising cultural stature, the Kennedy Center last month named him its new artistic adviser for jazz.

To read more click here

Jason Moran, Curator

IMN

December 18th, 2011

From A Blog Supreme/NPR Jazz

Jason Moran, Curator
By: Becca Pulliam

The 2011 edition of the annual holiday special A Jazz Piano Christmas is now playing on public radio stations and at NPR Music. One of this year’s performers was pianist Jason Moran — making his first performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after being named its artistic advisor for jazz. WBGO’s Becca Pulliam, who produces the program JazzSet, recently caught up with Moran via telephone to talk about his new job — and combed through the JazzSet archives for Moran’s first Kennedy Center appearance.

When I managed to catch Jason Moran on the phone, he was working through his lunch hour at New England Conservatory. He was preparing to guide his student ensemble through In My Mind, his multimedia reinterpretation of Thelonious Monk’s 1959 Town Hall concert. He, his working trio The Bandwagon, and his student ensemble will perform the work in February. Later that day, he would also give some private lessons.

Jason first learned he was being considered for this leadership role at the Kennedy Center via a personal phone call — the same way he learned he was a 2010 MacArthur Fellow. I asked him: What are your initial feelings? “I’m thrilled at the possibility to promote great music and great art in the nation’s capital, at a time when we need it most,” he said.

Almost 15 years ago, Moran was one of about a dozen young musicians in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead residency program at the Kennedy Center. He remembers Ms. Carter’s directive clearly: “Make new things.”

To read more click here