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Performing last Monday June 29 on the main outdoor stage of the Montreal Jazzfest, Grammy-winning trumpeter and vocalist Keyon Harrold is touring his genre-bending record Foreverland with a stellar core band: Nir Felder on guitar, Shedrick Mitchell on keys, Brad Adam Miller on bass and Charles Haynes on drums, plus the remarkable participation of a female singer, Ogi (born Ogi Ifediora), Nigerian-American R&B and soul beautiful contralto.
She was joining the jazz band at some points of its performance, and that was the real thing! Where jazz meets actual african american actual R&B and hip hop. Of course, Keyon Harrold is one of the most renowned trumpet soloists in the jazz-pop world, highly acclaimed by a large audience but also respected by purists. Which means a high cred. We of PAN M 360, by the way, have been lucky to interview him a few hours before his MTL set.
This set could have been entitled « Miles and me » by its leader, read this interview to understand how Keyon Harrold is paying tribute to Miles Davis, born 100 years ago.
PAN M 360 : We know you for a while now. The big break for you was more or less a decade ago, and now we jazz lovers follow your career carefully. And you’re back in MTL after you came a few times at this festival. We know as well that you’re involved in many pop or hip-hop or R&B soul recordings for superstars. So many stars! That being said, you’re not in between pop and jazz. You do your own stuff. So how would you describe the last distance of your own path?
Keyon Harrold : I would describe the last couple years as me coming from the back of the stage to the front of the stage. Again, I’ve worked with so many incredible artists and so many different projects, from Raphael Sadiq to Jay-Z, Beyonce, Maxwell, Common, Mary J. Blige, etc.
It’s always amazing and great to do collaborations and be a part of certain things, but it’s also great to basically make my music the focus and to make my art the vehicle for expression. So to have my own messaging is a special thing. I don’t really take it lightly that I respect that process of what it took to get to it.
So the last few years have been basically me saying yes to myself more so than anything. And there’s an issue with being good at many things. It’s because it’s easy to put yourself on the back burner.
So for the last few years, it’s been an orchestrated approach to basically push myself forward, do my own music, do my own shows and prioritize my own objectives and my own music.
PAN M 360 : let’s talk about your own music, the way it’s built right now. So what are you going to offer this summer?
Keyon Harrold : I mean, for this show specifically, we’re celebrating the centennial of Miles Davis. As a trumpet player, I’ve kind of been tapped as the heir of the, you know, I work with the Miles Davis estate, Vince Wilburn, shout out to Vince Wilburn and Aaron Davis, Miles’ son. So we do a lot of work.
So this year we’ve been doing a lot of stuff with the Miles Davis electric band and I’ve been doing tributes, celebrating the centennial of Miles Davis. So I’m infusing some Miles Davis, showing the love that I have and appreciation for who I am as an artist that I’ve taken from Miles Davis. And I’m using that into some of my own music and I’m going to weave it in a very special way. I’m talking, you know, music from Bitches Brew and other things. And we’re just going to, you know, interweave it. And I kind of call it, you know, kind of Miles and me as to the presentation that I’m going to present today.
It’s my music, but also with hints of, you know, the classic Miles Davis stuff, just giving a nod to him. I mean, we did a show at Carnegie Hall, which was, you know, similar to that. So again, I can’t forget about myself when I’m, you know, presenting music, but at the same time, you know, shouting out, you know, the great Miles Davis.
PAN M 360 : So we understand that there are a few tribute concerts on tour; Marcus Miller is doing one, Butcher Brown & Nicholas Payton are doing another tribute to name the ones coming at the MTL Jazzfest.
Keyon Harrold : Yeah, there are others like John Beasley, so he’s doing a presentation called, I think, Limitless Miles. That’s with Sean Jones and Marcus Strickland and a few other guys. So we see that there are a few.
PAN M 360 : Because you’re a great trumpet player, let me ask you what you draw from Miles’ styles? You’re a trumpet player. What do you draw from his style? I know you don’t sound like Miles, you have your own thing. So you take the inspiration and make it your own
Keyon Harrold : You know, you know, again, I’ve, you know, worked on the Miles Davis film with Don Cheadle, basically, you know, which won a Grammy and nominated for a bunch of different things. So Miles, again, was an integral part of who I am as a musician, as an artist, as a trumpet player specifically. That’s important to me.
What I’ve taken was, you know, different concepts, different ways to arrange bands and put people together and trust the process. Basically not doing too much and putting yourself in circles where the musicians can actually add to the music. You know, I don’t want to overwrite different things.I want the artists to be artists.
So the program is an interweaving presentation of my music with Miles Davis inflections on it. You know, I’ll play stuff from Birth of the Cool. I’ll play stuff from Bitches Brew. I’ll play stuff from, you know, some of the classic quintet stuff. The canon of Miles Davis. And again, it won’t be something that dominates my program because it’s my music from my album Foreverland.
PAN M 360 : Like Miles did in a way, because he was a huge artistic director. More than anything. Yes, he’s like more than a player, more than a composer. I think he was the ultimate artistic director.
Keyon Harrold : So, you know, again, it’s just like the point guard or like to, you know, some like a, I don’t want to say a puppet master, but a person who can really foresee these different people together. Like my band, you know, today, Nir Felder, Cedric Mitchell, Charles Haynes, and Dan Mitchell. I know, you know, what they can add to the music that I bring to them.
I know that, okay, I’m going to give them this and they’re going to make it, you know, go this way. They’re going to stretch it this way. They’re going to make it groove this way. They’re going to, you know, stretch the harmonies this way.
PAN M 360 : So you build on their personality.
Keyon Harrold : Absolutely. So, you know, if it was a different group of people, I would do different music. You know, I don’t try to force, you know, force a circle into a square. I allow the people to be themselves and I just float over the top of that. Yeah.
PAN M 360 : Since more than one century, jazz has been a hybrid, played everywhere in the world. It became an international language from African American roots as a starting point. So how do you see yourself in that?
Keyon Harrold : Man, in the canon of really dope music, you know, from the African diasporic traditions, I feel like I fit in it really, really, really, really well. So there’s no doubt about that.
You know, again, culturally and just understanding, you know, the idea of the groove, understanding the idea of, you know, the soul that must be a part of each song, that must be a part of each show. You know, the truth that I must bring to it comes from, you know, it’s built on a struggle. But at the same time, that struggle turns into a certain level of joy.
So I don’t take that for granted that I’m using, you know, my gifts, using my stories, using my energy to basically uplift the community, uplift anywhere I go in the world. It’s not, you know, I don’t take it for granted that I get a chance to, you know, basically uplift people. And it’s a beautiful thing.
Photos by Frédérique Ménard-Aubin
