Jazz (Fest) in America

With summer comes a host of seasonal delights: sunshine, fresh air, taking time to enjoy the finer things in life. Mix those together with some incredible music and you get one of the best parts of the summer: the music festival.

This week, Jazz Night becomes Jazz Fest in America, with VIP access to a selection of great live music curated from our archive of recordings of some of the world's best summer jazz festivals. Host Christian McBride brings you sets from vocalist Gregory Porter at the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival in 2019, and Gabrielle Cavassa from the Exit Zero Jazz Festival and Cory Wong & The Wongnotes at the Newport Jazz Festival, both from 2021.

Set List:

Gregory Porter live from the 2019 Saint Lucia Jazz Festival

• “Liquid Spirit” (Gregory Porter) / “No Love Dying” (Gregory Porter)
• “Free” (Zak Najor, Gregory Porter)

Gabrielle Cavassa live from 2021 Exit Zero Jazz Festival

• “Do Something" (Sam H. Stept, Bud Green)
• “The Things We Did Last Summer” (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne)
• “Vanity” (Guy Wood, Jack Manus, Bernard Bierman)

Cory Wong & The Wongnotes live from 2021 Newport Jazz Festival

• St. Paul (Cory Wong)
• Click Bait (Cory Wong, Michael Nelson)
• Cosmic Sans (Cory Wong, Marti Fischer)

Musicians:

Gregory Porter, vocals; Chip Crawford, piano; Jahmal Nichols, bass; Andre Jay, organ; Emanuel Harrold, drums; Tivon Pennicott, saxophone.

Gabrielle Cavassa, vocals; Ryan Hanseler, piano; Lex Warshawsky, bass; Kobie Watkins, drums.

Cory Wong, guitar; Sonny Thompson, bass; Kevin Gastonguay, keyboards; Nêgah Santos, percussion; Petar Janjic, drums; Kenni Holmen, tenor saxophone; Sam Greenfield, alto saxophone; Sly5thAve, baritone saxophone; Jay Webb, trumpet; Jon Lampley, trumpet; Michael Nelson, trombone.

Credits:

Trevor Smith and Sarah Geledi, writers and producers; Ron Scalzo, episode mix; Steven A. Williams, executive producer; Suraya Mohamed, executive producer at NPR Music; Keith Jenkins, vice president of visuals and music strategy at NPR; Christian McBride, host.

2019 Saint Lucia Jazz Festival recording engineer, Cory Carson; audio mix, David Tallacksen.

2021 Exit Zero recording engineer, Tyler McClure; audio mix, Corey Goldberg.

2021 Newport Jazz Festival live music recording and mixing, Steve Remote, Aura-Sonic Limited for Newport Festivals Foundation LLC; location audio engineers, Graham Tobias, Steve Kolakowsky; Recorded media wrangler, Ken McGee