June 30, 2025 – Hoke's Jukebox

Review: Saratoga Jazz Festival – Day 1 of 2

For all its stylistic variety, the 48th Saratoga Jazz Festival was maybe most “jazzy” in music urging social justice.

Festival producer Danny Melnick introduces Saturday’s first act at the Saratoga Jazz Festival

Saturday of the weekend-long two stage festival opened with the String Queens. The violin-viola-cello trio medleyed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” anthems for equality. They also blended Pachelbel’s Canon with the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and swung together 90s R&B and hip-hop; also “Summertime” with “Human Nature,” then “Isn’t She Lovely.” Most was, flowing smoothly, but pizzicato cello punched up “My Favorite Things” as violin and viola bowed hard, making fiery sound of the classical-into-jazz philosophy violinist Kendall Isodore called “putting some stank on Mozart.”

The Striing Queens – From left: Kendall Isidore, violin; Sharp, cello; Dawn Johnson, viola

The first of six acts on the Charles R. Wood Jazz Discovery Stage (hereafter the Wood) they set a daylong tone for free-range repertoire and music as social justice message; as singer Gregory Porter and blues guitarist-singer Gary Clark Jr. later followed.

Can’t recall seeing so many Sun Ra T-shirts anywhere; artists who came closest to that beyond-free-jazz icon were post-bop saxophonist Kenny Garrett who opened on the Amphitheater Stage (hereafter the Main) and Texas bluesman Clark, who closed there 11-1/2 hours later.

Kenny Garrett, center, saxophone

Parker-and-Coltrane disciple Garrett blew straight-ahead with confident force and free imagination, balancing spicy post-bop fire with the sweetness of Flora Purim-era Return to Forever fusion via Melba Santos’s vocals, an effective mix.

Kenny Garrett and Melba Santos

Yo-yo-ing back to the Wood, I found Julius Rodriguez igniting a thrilling debut set, augmenting his trio with Artemis tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover in her best ‘Trane mode. The young pianist noted, “Kenny must be done; y’all are over here!” He then made it the place to be, to hear the most impressive new-to-me keyboard talent since Emmet Cohen, with blinding velocity or a tender touch, fertile melodic and harmonic imagination. Ballad-poignant in “Love Everlasting,” he also captured the late Roy Hargrove’s playful spirit in “Like You Dig.” He later guested with Veronica Swift while Glover played with her regular band, Artemis – “two paydays,” joked a fan.

Julius Rodriguez, piano, left; and Nicole Glover, tenor saxophone, center

Julius Rodriguez

For another pianist to follow Rodriguez could have seemed unfair, but veteran Latin-style virtuoso Michel Camilo held his own on the Main. Speed and soul in his explosive, pounding opener yielded beautifully into the gentler Argentine “A Place in Time.” But he mostly played spry and brisk, hands often rising shoulder high to pound the keys.

Michel Camilo

Michel Camilo Trio – From left: Camilo, piano; Ricky Rodriquez, bass; Mark Walker, drums

Saturday featured strong singers Nicole Zuraitis (on the Wood), Veronica Swift and Gregory Porter (both on the Main). Another newbie, trumpeter Keyon Harrold also sang as did his young sister Mayala, while Zydeco star C.J. Chenier (both on the Wood) sang as much as he played accordion.

Nicole Zuraitis, left; with Alex Busby, bass; Dan Pugach, drums; and Idan Morim, guitar

Like the String Queens, singer-pianist Nicole Zuraitis strayed from the jazz book, aiming her rich croon at Dolly Parton’s country hit “Jolene,” joking around in “I Like You a Latte,” goofy Valentine to the barista days of drummer-husband Dan Pugach, and medleying her own “20 Seconds” into “Wichita Lineman.” Guitarist Idan Morim closed her set with a blues, out of step with prior songs, but strong.

Idan Morim

Keyon Harrold, second from right, in fabulous pantaloons, with, from left, Shedrick Mitchell, piano; Andrew Renfroe, guitar; Dan Winshall, bass; and Charles Haynes, drums

No one capitalized more on the better-than-forecast weather than trumpeter-singer Keyon Harrold who brought a sunny vibe to the Wood. In billowing MC Hammer pants, he played agile trumpet, said “jazz lets the sunshine in” and sang in what seemed extemporaneous praise of the beautiful day. Singing sister Malaya duetted most persuasively in “Forever Land,” before Keyon’s trumpet Valentine’d the tender “Her Beauty Though My Eyes.” He’d brought the fierce earlier.

Malaya sings; Keyon Harrold, right, plays

Having admired and enjoyed Artemis at A Place for Jazz last fall, I opted instead for Veronica Swift and stayed for her full set in part to see if she spontaneously combusted.

Veronica Swift

“Animated” doesn’t come close: she dramatized everything with a Broadway diva’s intensity that would have seemed overdone if the music hadn’t worked. With the chops to be any kind of singer she wants, she seemed at times aspiring to be the next Patti Lupone, whom I once spotted in a Grateful Dead SPAC show; but I digress.

While her “Strangers in Town” true-tale torchy ballad and the Latin shuffle “The Sports Page” brought out her musical theater brass, Swift also sang, strong and rocking, “Sing” by her drummer Brian Viglione (Dresden Dolls) and Queen’s “Dreamers Ball” and “Just Stay Alive.” She went autobiographical with “Born in a Trunk” about touring with her singer parents, Stephanie Nakisian, in attendance, and Hod O’Brien, RIP.

The contrast couldn’t have been greater between Swift’s powerhouse theatricality and the laid-back buttery croon of Gregory Porter who followed two acts later on the Main after a deliciously relentless funk-fest by Lettuce.

Lettuce – From left: Eric “Benny” Bloom, trumpet; Ryan Zoidis, saxophones; Nigel Hall (obscured), keyboards and vocals; Adam “Shmeeans” guitar; Erick “Jesus” Coomes, bass and hair; unidentified camera-person; Adam Deitch, drums

The Boston sextet jammed in soundcheck, “til we get it right,” then flowed straight into their set. Festival producer Danny Melnick went to the mic to introduce them, smiled and waved them on. In an earth-shaking riff explosion, Eric Coomes’s seismic bass hit like the thunderstorm that mercifully never happened Saturday. Groove melted into groove, like a P-Funk show; storming from sonic overwhelm to simmering at less heat, and surprising late with Tears For Fears’ pop hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

Per tradition at the Wood, Louisiana accordionist-singer C.J. Chenier closed with dance music that got the crowd up and happy. Their Zydeco zip had substance, though; they made dance-y music with veteran skill and conviction. Like others Saturday, they medleyed songs in jaunty jigsaw fluency, stacking “Bring It On Home To Me” with “It’s Alright” and “I Got a Woman.”

C.J. Chenier

Gregory Porter agleam in white, with band, from left: Chip Crawford, piano; Jahmal Nichols, bass; Tivon Pennicott, saxophone; Ondrej Pivec, organ

Cancelled flights consigned Porter and band to driving eight road hours to hit the Main 20 minutes late. They finished on schedule; less professional/more egotistical cats might have demanded their full set. Porter noted a sore backside at first but left the stage so happy he came down front first to shake fans’ hands. In between he crooned love songs; everything was a love song from the pathos of “Holding On” and “If Love is Overrated” to the universal compassion of ”Liquid Spirit,” the anti-poverty “Take Me to the Alley” and deceptively soft-spoken “Musical Genocide.” He wrapped this around a classic soul medley, “My Girl” and “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” then everybody sang “Keep Your Head to the Sky” in shared hope. Generous with voice and feeling, Porter, as always, was distinctly un-showy, apart from dancing Motown steps dance break.

Gregory Porter

Gary Clark Jr.

A change to more-dramatic stage lighting signaled bluesman Gary Clark Jr.’s Saturday-closing set, a rousing blues-and-beyond riff blitz. Adding three women singers to his combustible quartet of guitarist King Zapata, bassist Elijah Ford, drummer JJ Johnson and keyboardist Dayne Reliford sweetened his bracing blend of forceful guitar blasts and fervent vocals from baritone to sky-scratch falsetto. Guest trumpeter Keyon Harrold also boosted the high end.

Clark sang persuasively of romantic angst in “Fall for That” and contentment in “This Is Our Love,” and rage at injustice in “Don’t Owe You a Thing” and the mad-sad “What About Us.” He earned attention, as well as demanding it, in “The Guitar Man,” a mantle his playing deserved, big time.