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Arun: This is All Of It. I'm Arun Venugopal, filling in for Alison Stewart. The Montclair Jazz Festival kicks off this Saturday with the Block Party in 10 hours of live music. The festival is now in its 14th year and it's billed as the largest free jazz festival in the region, features this weekend's opening concert and the grand finale on September 9. To preview the festival, I'm joined by Melissa Walker, the founder & president of JAZZ HOUSE KiDS, the music education organization that presents the festival. She's also a vocalist herself, has performed with my other guests, the virtuosic bassist, and her husband, Christian McBride, who serves as Artistic Director at Jazz House, welcome to All Of It.

Christian: Thank you.

Melissa: Thanks for having us.

Arun: Melissa it's the 14th Montclair Jazz Festival, take us back 14 festivals ago, what was the inspiration for founding a jazz festival in Montclair?

Melissa: It's really related to our mission. We were doing the very first Jazz House summer workshop. That is a program for youth across New Jersey, and now, it is a program that attracts young people from across the United States and the globe, but we needed a place to perform the final concert. It was going to be a Saturday, and it was going to be a gorgeous day in Montclair. A board member and myself got in the car and started driving around Montclair.

We said, "Let's go to all the parks, and let's find the park to hold this festival." Or actually, it wasn't a festival at the time, but let's hold this concert, and so we did. We ended up in Nishuane Park, which is in the south end of town. I had a program for our 40 or so students. Now, we have 160. We didn't even know we needed a permit. We just went out there with our instruments and sat on the grass. Chris and I looked at each other as we started to see people in the neighborhood come out and play it forward a little bit.

The next year, we went back. I think by then, I maybe knew I needed a permit, and 1,000 people showed up. We said, "Hey, I think we've got something." We then called it the Montclair Jazz Festival. 25,000 people later 14 years. It is the largest free no tickets required Jazz Festival in the region.

Arun: Christian, what's the argument for Montclair as a jazz town?

Christian: Well, I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and then after I left Philadelphia, I moved to New York City. I've always been a big city guy my entire life, but the musicians who I looked up to, and really respected, if they didn't live in New York City, most of them lived in Montclair. As far back as 1989, 1990, people like David Murray, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, the late Tony [unintelligible 00:03:25], Jeff Keiser. All of these people lived in Montclair, and I thought, "What is it about Montclair?"

When Melissa and I started dating, I still live in Manhattan. She lived in West Orange. She said, "I don't like living in the city." I said, "Well, I don't like the suburbs." We have to come to a happy medium here, and there happy medium was Montclair, and so many musicians live here. It's like a second artists' colony.

Arun: Wow. You think he's just one of those like draws, like sort of situations that it's just that somebody started, and then other people are like, "Well, I'll go there since they're there."

Christian: Yes. I think that will happen.

Melissa: It's 12 miles west of the city. It's really creative. A lot of writers, a lot of creators live and creatives live in this community. You just feel it in all ways. Montclair film is here. There's a museum. There's so many elements. We used to have a jazz club, we're hoping that we're stepping in for that. It's a really wonderful place where all these artists who need a little bit more room, want to get out of the city or have to get a happy medium with their partner, they'll end up in Montclair.

Arun: Melissa, how much of the audience do you think it's from New Jersey versus people who are crossing the Hudson to come and check out the festival across the river?

Melissa: About 20% of the festival goers are coming in from New York City, and others, about 10% are coming in from other states, and then the rest are really coming in, 70% from New Jersey, all across New Jersey.

Arun: Every festival has its challenges, Christian, what's the hardest part about sustaining a jazz festival for over 14 years? Is it getting people to come and attend? Getting talent, they're always competing. Are they going off to Europe this week or the next year, whatever it is? What for you has been especially hard?

Christian: I don't know if I've ever seen a major challenge. The usual challenge is finding musicians who are available, finding a space that we can secure, but I have to say that, the festival has gotten larger little by little every single year. The challenge is how to maintain that and to keep growing. That's the challenge that we welcome.

Arun: Melissa, the festival, it's spaced out between now and early September. Other festivals, sometimes tend to be just a weekend, a couple of days. Christian was just at the Newport Jazz Festival, right? Why do this way, where you're spaced out?

Melissa: Again, I think that's a bit of a function of wanting to show up with a couple of sound. We call them soundcheck series, those are evening concerts that are held at our jazz annex in Montclair. Then we have the Block Party, which is that second week, this weekend. That is the end of the jazz how summer workshop. One of the challenges that we have had is just the weather and we wanted to take the biggest piece and reinvent the festival, which we did during the pandemic and we created a new day called The Downtown Jamboree.

On that day, which is September 9th, we closed down in partnership with the County of Essex and Montclair Township in the Montclair Center BID. We closed down half a mile of the main artery of Montclair, and we will bring out five stages, 200 artists, close to 200 vendors, and just activate the entire area. We wanted to do that when we knew people were back from school, back from the summer, getting ready for school, I should say. You've got this Block Party, which is really all of our students performing all day long.

Some incredible artists that I think Chris will talk about, and then DJ Brother Mister dancing in the street, just celebrating the height of the summer. Then let's now celebrate coming back together as a community right after Labor Day with the Downtown Jamboree. It's really been a wonderful reimagination of this festival, which has actually doubled because there are two full days that we JAZZ HOUSE KiDS is presenting.

Arun: Let's hear a clip from one of the performers who will be performing at this Saturday's Block Party. This is Endea Owens, and her song is called Where The Nubians Grow.

MUSIC - Endea Owens: Where The Nubians Grow

Arun: That's Endea Owens and her song Where The Nubians Grow. What else should we know about Endea Owens, Melissa? [crosstalk] Go ahead, Christian.

Christian: Oh, sorry. I'm sure you have heard and seen her on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, who incidentally also lives in Montclair. Endea is an incredible band leader. She's an incredible personality. I first met her over a decade ago when she was a student at Michigan State University. She studied with my dear friend, the Great Rodney Whitaker. Even then we knew that she was going to make some strides in this music and she has become one of the most popular young musicians on scene right now. We're very excited about having her at our festival. She also played Newport last weekend.

Arun: Christian, you'll be doing a set as DJ Brother Mister at the Block Party, tell us a little about DJ Brother Mister.

Christian: It was a total accident. I did a gig in New Orleans about 10 years ago, and it was for our friend DJ Soul Sister, who is a great, well-known, legendary DJ in New Orleans at WWOZ. She opened for us and I heard her do her set and she only had two turntables and vinyl. She was doing it old school and the place was absolutely rocking. She had hundreds of people in that club just dancing like you wouldn't believe. It was so inspirational. I was on the side of the stage and I thought, "I could do that."

That one performance inspired me to start trying to DJ and it got off to an extremely rocky start but I think I have a little better grasp on what I'm doing now.

Arun: Melissa, the festival is presented by JAZZ HOUSE KiDS, the organization that you founded and are president of. What do you want people to know about JAZZ HOUSE KiDS?

Melissa: Every day of the week, we lift up this great American music called jazz, and we put it in the hands of young people in four distinct ways. We call ourselves an instrument for change. We provide access. It means we are making sure that schools that don't have programs, we're there to lend a hand. If you don't have an instrument, we're there to put an instrument in your hand. If you need scholarship support to attend, we're there to do that. Transportation, access, you can't get started if you can't even get in the game.

Then learning, world-class education, we're really proud that all of the faculty are professional musicians that we are employing so they can give their talent to these young people. Then career building and then community building. Those are the hallmark of what we do every day. This festival, the Block Party celebrates and puts on stage this weekend, 163 young people from ages 8 on through their high school. You'll hear them in 8 ensembles. These are large, big bands, Latin ensemble, a jazz vocal choir, and people will be astounded by the level of artistry coming from these young people.

They're off the heels of a date at Dizzy's at Lincoln Center, just this past Monday. Really what I think we're very proud of is that through this work, our young people are just rising and improvising. We're an instrument for change for them, helping them navigate these important years, and show them that they can use their gifts to build community. That's what we are, and that's what we believe in as an instrument for change. It's really been a joy, but it is all about them and this music, which they soak up so well.

You will see a lot of the young musicians that are on the scene today have come from the Jazz House. They're like the North Star for our young people. That's why they work so hard because they want to get there.

Arun: Last question, Melissa, how can people find out more about the festival?

Melissa: Please visit us at the montclairjazzfestival.org. There's ways to get involved in so many ways, become a friend of the festival or upgrade to the Take 5 VIP club, volunteer. We'd love that as well. Then if you want to know more about JAZZ HOUSE KiDS and what we're about, because we now are in Lower Manhattan, through a partnership with Trinity Church Wall Street, providing free jazz education every day of the week, we basically replicated our program in New Jersey, thanks to them, so visit us at jazzhousekids.org and get involved. Sign up your kids, even adults. We have a very robust adult program.

Arun: Melissa Walker and Christian McBride telling us about the Montclair Jazz Festival, starts this weekend. Both of you, thanks so much for joining us today.

Christian: Thanks for having us.

Melissa: Thanks for having us.

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