With passion, determination, and unwavering faith in art and its purpose – which belong to art itself – Patricia Nicholson Parker has run the Vision Festival for twenty-nine years, a bastion of the American free-music avant-garde with occasional European or Eastern offshoots. Those of us who have followed the festival annually since its inception and reported on it in these pages since 2005 have shared in its joys and sorrows, fervor and disappointments. We are sustained by an unshakable confidence in the sincere loyalty of those who embody the reasons for the festival’s existence.
An unstoppable dancer and wife of William Parker, the double bassist and central figure of New York’s downtown avant-garde, Patricia is also the director of Arts for Art, the organization that produces Vision. It is a cultural association whose very name indicates faith – even a kind of unshakable dogma – in a world that is creaking and eroding the confidence of those who have always believed in pure creative expression, not only in the arts. This alone would make Vision an iconic point of reference and Patricia a heroine, a pasionaria to be admired unconditionally.
However, if we recall Goethe (“There is no surer way to escape the world than art; but there is no surer bond with it than art”) or Janis Joplin (“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”), the escape, the bond, and the freedom of musical art have become increasingly confined to an ideological sphere over time. This has brought the risk of its proponents becoming ends in themselves or being cited only within an ever-narrowing circle of “adepts.”
The audience that continues to follow the festival with perennial enthusiasm has inevitably shrunk and is now easily identifiable as the faithful defenders of this Fort Apache of free music. Those of us who aspire to be the Davy Crocketts of the situation defend and respect this audience and its favorites. We allow ourselves only the necessary exercise of irony where we deem it useful and praise where art deserves it.
This year’s edition featured a series of notable concerts, above all the tribute to Roscoe Mitchell, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The recognition is certainly well deserved by the Chicago saxophonist, who over his sixty-year career – both with and without the Art Ensemble of Chicago – has written some of the most beautiful and rigorous pages in the history of contemporary jazz.
The motto of this year’s Vision was “heArt to Resist,” an obvious play on words reflecting the complex political and cultural climate in the United States. In its program, the organization noted that the annual subsidy from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington had been canceled – a move that, sadly, was not surprising. Yet the art of resistance finds its own ways and paths, which are often bumpy. Precisely for this reason, they can heighten collective creative experience, as every good musician knows.
During the six days of Vision there were no outright failures, though the artistic results naturally fluctuated. For everyone – musicians and organizers alike – it was worthwhile. At events of this nature, the audience is particularly engaged in a kind of creative osmosis that can be exhilarating.
Roscoe Mitchell performed as best he could on the opening day. Turning eighty-five this August, he understandably no longer has the stamina he once had. He played soprano sax sparingly, in short bursts, and experimented with small percussion instruments. Three concerts in one evening may have been too much, even with such distinguished companions: Dave Burrell, William Parker, Thomas Morgan, Immanuel Wilkins, Micah Thomas, and Scott Robinson – two quartets and one large ensemble.
Mitchell clearly placed his highest expectations as a composer and conductor on the concert with the large ensemble, Metropolis Trilogy. Yet despite its rigorous structure, the music struggled to rise above its own constraints. Even the strings could not fully envelop or move the audience. We cannot expect more from an artist who has already given so much and become an icon of contemporary music. Jazz now appears in his work as just one of many languages, no longer the dominant one. His ambitions seem directed toward something more encompassing, with improvisation relegated to the margins.
The performance by flutist Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble the following day was of a completely different nature – more open and deeply connected to African musical roots. Mitchell’s instrumental skills are universally recognized; there is simply no one like her. At Vision, she also excelled as a bandleader, supported by outstanding soloists: the dazzling and incisive tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, alto saxophonist Caroline Davis, pianist Marta Sanchez, and electronic percussion “magician” Val Jeanty. These young artists stand at the forefront of today’s new jazz.
Here, at last, was jazz again – mobile in structure, rich in improvisation, and built on the harmony between soloists, something that has at times seemed lost amid fragmented approaches. Mitchell’s concert with her band was probably the highlight of the entire festival.
Other performances added further luster to Vision 2025. Guitarist Ava Mendoza in particular proved to be a musician with something new to say through her instrument. Her trio, featuring Joe McPhee on tenor sax and Chad Taylor on drums, was electrifying. Mendoza’s exploration of the electric guitar was striking; if she possessed the phrasing and compositional inventiveness of Hedvig Mollestad, she would be unbeatable. But time is on her side – we shall see.
She was counterbalanced by Mary Halvorson, currently the most acclaimed name in American jazz. Ever eager for new challenges and projects, the guitarist appeared with a new quartet called Canis Major, featuring trumpeter Dave Adewumi, bassist Henry Fraser, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara.
Their music reflected Halvorson’s signature style – complex in structure yet lucid in design, with well-defined solo spaces and finely wrought harmonies that make the intricate seem effortless. This rare quality reveals her deep study of rhythm and, above all, of the trumpet’s voice, which serves as a masculine counterpoint to her feminine subtlety and attention to detail.
Among other concerts, it was a pleasure to see the Fringe trio once again, with saxophonist George Garzone, bassist John Lockwood, and drummer Francisco Mela. Garzone still commands a beautiful tenor tone – lucid in improvisation and never redundant, delicate and enveloping in a ballad such as Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood,” which remains a joy to hear.
The same cannot be said of another prominent saxophonist, David Murray, who periodically tries to shake things up with projects that feel unfinished. At Vision, he appeared in a quintet clearly seeking new directions in his style, but he failed to recognize that his true strength lies in his mastery of the tenor saxophone. When he is inspired, he is overwhelming; when not, he risks slipping into monotony.
As every year, the festival closed with a new large-ensemble project by William Parker. It was entertaining but not entirely captivating. Three dancers – including the indestructible Patricia Nicholson herself – gave the orchestra, Healing Message from Time & Space, a visual and spiritual dimension. Its title expresses a message of healing from the many wounds the world has endured in these difficult years.
I would like to symbolically close with the festival’s only solo concert – a refined, profound, and impeccably shaped performance that stood out as a true gem. It was offered by a pianist who is no longer young but still has so much to say, one who helps us resist the harshness of the times and lifts us above our worries: Marilyn Crispell.
