Exceptional Jazz on an Exceptionally Long Night

In many ways, the most radical moment of the 2026 Jazz Foundation of America Annual Gala was the most traditional. A scaled-down version of a New Orleans Brass Band marched down the aisle, playing a popular street parade theme. And this wasn’t just a brief episode as they worked their way to the stage; rather, they planted themselves in house left and stayed there for a whole number. It was a memorable high point of an exceptional evening at Jazz at Lincoln Center, or at least one in which the music was consistently excellent even if we often had to wait a long time, through speeches, awards, and just plain stage silences, to get to it. In all, there were six different bands, each playing for about 15-20 minutes, with the NOLA group as kind of a bonus. Which is partly why the marching band was there, to fill the time while the stage setup was changed for the next group. There were many of these pauses throughout the night, and this was the most clever way in which one of them was filled, thus turning another potential dead spot into an absolute pleasure. In the end, it turned out to be a very long concert, three hours without an actual intermission, although the audience felt free to come and go, to hit the restrooms or the bar, during the non-musical interludes. It also was an evening of extremes, from the very traditional to the very modern, and from the very young to the decidedly senior. In fact, the evening started with the youngest participant, 17-year-old guitar prodigy Marel Hidalgo, paying homage to the eldest, the 93-year-old Jamaican music pioneer Ernest Ranglin, who was on hand to receive an award, but, alas, didn’t perform. Master Hidalgo got the evening off to a great start with roughly six short tunes: a rather dark, modern jazz number, an old-school Sonny Rollins-style jazz calypso, and a few more in the styles that Mr. Ranglin helped create — ska and reggae. His group co-starred two very young keyboardists, organist Ava Petrova and the prodigious pianist Leonieke Scheuble, as well as veteran percussionists Mike Camacho and Winard Harper and star bassist Will Lee. For the second group, we relocated to a different part of the Caribbean, for a Latinate set that served to honor both the legacy of Afro-Cuban jazz as well as the 70th Anniversary of Verve Records. Conga master Sammy Figueroa led a salute to Verve’s two most prominent Cubano stars, vibraphonist Cal Tjader and percussion great Willie Bobo. It was early in the evening, but we were already bouncing up and down in our seats through “Guachi Guaro” and “Spanish Grease.” Buster Williams performs at the Jazz Foundation of America’s annual gala. JFA.One of the evening’s primary honorees, bassist and bandleader Buster Williams, then led his impressive modernist group Something More, co-starring sax giant Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist George Colligan, and drummer Lenny White. They started with “The Triumphant Dance of the Butterfly” and wound up with “In the Middle of a Rainbow.” This turned out to be more fanciful in that it featured the leader singing his own words and music, and sounding even better than the fine Jean Baylor does on the band’s 2022 album “Unalome.” Jimmy Owens, who, at 83, is still one of the more formidable trumpeters playing today, was called upon to deliver two slow, sad tunes in memoriam for the jazz greats who left us in the last 12 months. He found a unique way to reanimate “‘Round Midnight,” essentially splitting the melody with vibraphonist Monte Croft. Then, joined by bassist James Genus and Mr. Jordan on drums, they laid down a moving, major-key blues. In between, he delivered an eloquent, if long-winded, eulogy to the recently departed and already much-missed uptown piano master Danny Mixon. Another high point was a set dedicated to the Miles Davis Centennial starring the consistently creative and externally expressive Gary Bartz. He covered at least two of the many sides of Miles, playing curved soprano sax on “If I Were a Bell,” one of the Dark Prince’s signature show tunes, with Patrice Rushen on piano, plus Mr. Genus and Mr. Jordan. He then switched to his more familiar alto for “Directions,” a vintage 1970 slice of highly electrified Miles, with Mino Cinelu joining on a full set of congas, and the keyboardist and bassist switching to plugged-in instruments. The producers could have easily assembled quite a formidable Miles reunion group, with Messrs. Bartz, Cinelu, White, and Williams, but Mr. Bartz’s mini-set was well-nigh perfect as it was. One downside of the program going on so long was that it felt like we were running out of time before the climactic artist, the fantastic Norah Jones, was able to take the stage, accompanying herself on piano along with guitarist Smokey Hormel, and, once again, Genus and Jordan. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly 25 years since her debut album, “Come Away with Me” (2002), although at 47, she’s hardly an elder stateswoman, especially by a jazz metric. Back then, her highly individual mix of jazz and country music caught all of us off guard, but on Thursday the lady and her music sounded better than ever. Her set was short but superb, with her original, “Long Way Home” and then her breakthrough “Don’t Know Why” preceding Ann Peebles’ soul classic, “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” As a wise man once observed, no one ever left a gala concert complaining that there weren’t enough speeches; at least once, the teleprompter flashed “Please wrap it up” for virtually everyone in the house to see. There was a lot of talking and even more waiting while a veritable army of stagehands made the transitions, but everything was well worth waiting for.

Exceptional Jazz on an Exceptionally Long Night

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