Bijon Watson is a time traveler. When curating his Iconic Jazz Legacies music series for Rockport Music, the lauded jazz trumpeter (who just won a Grammy for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album with Steven Feifke) doesn’t just want to bring listeners back to a certain era. He wants to invite you to be a fly on the wall at a very specific time and place in recorded musical history, to watch artists sharing ideas and creating something new together. What really interests Bijon, beyond revisiting the fabulous music of course, is the interaction between the artists, or the “musical conversation” as he calls it. That conversation is where the magic happens. Of course, to recreate a mere facsimile of an iconic pairing is not the point. He wants to reimagine the conversation. Instead of a note-for-note recreation of a performance, Watson and his cohorts are more concerned with the tone and vibe of the interaction. The rest is up to them. After all, the bedrock of jazz is spontaneity, not mimicry.
Martina da Silva
The first in his series was back in April when he brought vocalist Maiya Sykes and saxophonist Bob Bowlby (along with a string and rhythm section) to recall the legendary pairing of Nancy Wilson and the Adderley Brothers (Nat and Cannonball), particularly the classic 1961 recording Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley. It was by all accounts an unforgettable evening that effectively reimagined that blessed musical pairing of the Adderleys post-bop soul jazz and Wilson’s magnetic and silky smooth vocals.
This July, Bijon’s Iconic Jazz Legacies series returns, this time bringing a Brazilian flair. The musical conversation to be re-interpreted is none other than the wondrously sympatico coupling of bossa nova composer Antonio Carlos Jobim with saxophone hero Stan Getz. It was this musical meeting in the early 60s which almost single-handedly launched the bossa nova craze and left us with standards like “Girl from Ipanema,” “Corcovado” and “Desafinado” among many others. For the concert, Bijon features the rising star Brazilian-American vocalist Martina DaSilva (assumingly taking the roles of Astrud and Joao Gilberto) and her quintet performing Jobim favorites from the beloved records Getz/Gilberto and Jazz Samba as well as music from other influential artists from the 60’s samba explosion. It will no doubt be a night to remember.
