On Sunday, May 26, renowned drummer and bandleader Terri Lyne Carrington opened the 30th anniversary year of the Wells Fargo Jazz series at Spoleto Festival USA with an effervescent performance featuring works by female jazz composers, drawing from the songbook collection New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers, released in 2021.
In true Carrington fashion, she brought an all-star cast of friends and trusted colleagues composed of jazz veterans and innovators to stage a sublime start to the 48th annual festival, decidedly “celebrating women who have been a bit left behind and out of the jazz canon.”
The evening’s concert would be the first to successfully christen the storied Cistern Yard venue on the College of Charleston campus for this year’s festival, after two prior evenings’ concerts were moved to the alternate TD Arena due to inclement weather. Though the threat of a late spring shower loomed, a ready audience arrived and the show would go on. For an unwavering 90 minutes, Carrington and her band soared through the thick balmy air on their effectual breeze of a program.
The inimitable Dianne Reeves, now with her sixth Spoleto appearance, made her way to center stage for the second half of the only set, aptly easing into a rendition of Carla Bley’s “Lawns.” Her magnanimous voice and cool stage presence offered a palpable grounding force to a revivifying musical experience. She was gracious and graceful in her maternal energy, finding obvious joy in creating, while embracing the role of an elder.
What Reeves has given over a long and illustrious career, vocalist Christie Dashiell transmuted in equal measure with her salubrious, resonant voice. From her interpretation of Gretchen Parlato’s “Circling,” to her duo with Reeves on Abbey Lincoln’s classic “Throw It Away,” Dashiell’s contributions were uniquely her own. Bassist Linda May Han Oh and pianist Kris Davis equally shone on their respective instruments. Audio issues aside, their technical tenderness was felt.
Sidemen Matthew Stevens on guitar and Etienne Charles on trumpet and flugelhorn, held court on the predominantly female stage, providing tasteful texture to an already sensuous palette of sonic goodness. Stevens would become essential to navigating the band’s sound, often relaying technical needs between holding a perpetual groove on stage. Charles seemed right at home, supplying another layer of intricacy between unison horn and vocal lines and delicate conversational interplay between bandmates, all of it understated and every bit supportive.
Dancer Christiana Hunte would lyrically glide between physical movement and spoken word. Hunte’s blue-hued, buoyant afro and her simple, form-fitted celadon green pants and top on her agile brown body felt poetic, blending in like a young sapling from one of the grand oaks that framed the stage. Her narration harkened to a young female iteration of Gil Scott-Heron, as she interjected a clarion call for women, especially Black women, with words by Carrington.
There was a clear rapport between musicians and an obvious respect for sharing a singular moment in the music. All of the musicians, between genders, styles, and experience, found one other on common ground. Lucky for us, that ground was the Cistern Yard.
On Memorial Day, violinist Layale Chaker and her band Sarafand opened their 4-concert run at the Charleston Music Hall on John Street, a welcomed new core venue for Spoleto. Chaker, the composer for the Spoleto-commissioned opera Ruinous Gods, was also programmed for performances with her small ensemble. The 5 p.m. show featured compositions from their recently released album Radio Afloat.
The performance was a tonic for the spirit. Each musician played their uniquely sensitive part in lulling a captive audience into a hypnotic blend of musical worlds between predominantly Middle Eastern, Arabic, and Western styles of chant, folk, jazz, and classical traditions. The result was a mesmerizing, ethereal meditation.
To find meaning in the land of the living seems our most human duty. To be able to find that in music is a sacred privilege. At the heart of jazz is its ability to hold space for something new to emerge while honoring tradition, both its US-born history and the world traditions it carries.
There is inherent equanimity in its pursuit of truth and beauty. If Spoleto’s opening weekend performances of the Wells Fargo Jazz Series are any indication, there will be plenty of opportunity to enjoy the space between deeply rooted tradition and the hopeful promise of a world where everyone is celebrated. Rest assured, as Dianne Reeves declared, “we are in good and capable hands.”