Jason Moran, the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director for Jazz, will perform tomorrow alongside the Center’s Composer-in-Residence, Mason Bates.
Jason Moran is in the midst of his fourth season as the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director for Jazz, and the 41-year-old composer and pianist has had far more hits than misses during his tenure. But he still feels the need to push the limits of the kind of programming that such an institution can undertake, while also tying his efforts as curator into his own personal interests.
To that end, he and the Kennedy Center launched a concert series they dubbed Jason +, with six events scheduled for the ’15-’16 season.
“They’re deeper than passions, they’re also experiments,” Moran said of these collaborations during a recent interview with DCist. “It’s a lot of the work I’ve been trying to develop outside the Kennedy Center walls. I work deeply in the jazz field, but I also work with other arts as well.”
The series started last fall during the Finding A Line festival, in which Moran and his band improvised behind a group of freestyle skateboarders. He then developed a program with choreographer Ronald K. Brown.
On Saturday, Moran will co-lead a performance with Mason Bates, who is currently serving as the Kennedy Center’s composer-in-residence, a post he will hold through the 2017-2018 season. The 39-year-old Bates is known for his innovative orchestrations in large ensembles, as well as his willingness to incorporate electronic elements into symphonic settings.
Earlier in his career, Moran often held residencies such as the one Bates currently retains. Now, that he is on the institutional side, he clearly sees benefits for both parties.
“For the artist, it’s kind of a play area. You can imagine things that you may not be able to do with one institution that you’re with for a long period of time,” Moran said. “As an institution, we can focus on the various ideas of one artist. We need that thematically because the way I program the jazz season, it’s theme-less.”
Saturday’s program will begin with Bates behind the decks, where he will occupy his DJ moniker, DJ Masonic. The set will include a big band piece by Bates; playing on that composition will be the Bohemian Caverns All-Stars, a group of ace local musicians that was assembled with the help of Omrao Brown, the storied jazz venue’s proprietor. Percussionist Svet Stoyanov will also be a featured soloist.
The Jason + series continues next month in a duo performance with Moran and Charles Lloyd, who was named a 2015 NEA Jazz Master. The 77-year old saxophonist has collaborated with Moran on-and-off for several years and the two released an album, Hagar’s Song, in 2013.
“Charles is from Memphis. He never lets any of that Memphis root go,” Moran said of his colleague. “He never stops being inside the music. He’s always actively a part of the music, even when he’s listening.”
That tie to one’s roots is something Moran is actively exploring these days. He regularly works with schools in his native Houston and also explores that part of himself musically.
“It’s asking ‘What the blues is?’ I also wonder a lot about ‘what is excellence?'”, he said. “For African Americans, we have to display excellence so frequently. There’s no time for mediocrity. There’s never a time to do that, even when I want to slack off.”
Jason +: Jason Moran and Mason Bates takes place on March 5 at the Kennedy Center’s Crossroads Club. 8 p.m. Tickets $30.
