So, some people are going to be in Des Moines this weekend, but if you’re staying around Iowa City, it won’t exactly be settling. The fine folks with Iowa Ctiy Summer of the Arts have gotten three of the biggest names in contemporary jazz for this year’s Iowa City Jazz Festival: Medeski, Martin & Wood, John Scofield, and the Joshua Redman Trio. For those uninitiated in living jazz artists, you don’t get much bigger. You have to look to the handful of dudes that played with Miles and still giggin’ (oh wait, Scofield was in Davis’ band from ‘82 - ‘85). And like always, the music is free.
John Medeski, Billy Martin, and Chris Wood, headline the first night of the festivitie (i.e. kick off your 4th of July Weekend with a bang). Medeski Martin & Wood have been straddling the line between jam band and jazz band for 16 years, and in many ways, it is that particular friction that keeps them exciting and popular. Loved by dead heads for long, funky jams (or “crunchy grooves”) and equally loved by the jazz set for their avant-garde leanings and incessant exploration, MMW have just enough funk in their trunk or the casual jazz fan and just enough moxy for the snobs.
John Scofield (an occasional MMW collaborator) and his Trio have headlining duties on Saturday night. Scofield has embraced a more rock and funk-oriented style of playing, the riffs will sound comfortable and familiar to all of those raised on ’70s rock radio, but Scofield’s success lies in his ability to spin away from that familiar core. The transcendent moments come when he slides into a scale unknown to FM radio or sends out a shard of distorted dissonance. And I just want to throw out the wet-dream everyone’s having…pray that either Scofield shows up a day early, or MMW hangs out a day later for a “surprise” on stage collaboration. Maybe if we’re all wishing and hoping and praying it might just happen
Finally Joshua Redman will send us off in style on Sunday night. Redman has been on a sentimental streak as of late, his latest record, Back East is a collection of sinuous bop, hard-bop, and post-bop tunes featuring his sax work above a steady stream of bass and drums. And that’s just the vibe Redman is bringing to Iowa City this weekend. Thank goodness we can still smoke outside, cause this is fair meant for smokey dives, that goes down smooth with whiskey on the rocks.
Look out for local favs Grooveship on Friday afternoon, Euphorqestra on Saturday and keep an ear open for Jenny Scheinman’s violin on Sunday. She’s not exactly Iowan (California’s where she was born), but it sure feels like home.
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