Young Jazz Musicians Bring Talents to Arts Center at Duck Creek Concert Series

The late Frank Zappa once quipped that “jazz isn’t dead, it just smells funny,” But at the Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs, jazz music is alive and thriving thanks to the Thursday night jazz concerts the center puts on each summer.

Every Thursday night at 6 p.m. from July through September, attendees are treated to a wide array of free performances by jazz artists showcasing vibrant young talents sharing their music. The musicians perform inside the Duck Creek barn or on its adjacent outdoor platform stage, while audience members can choose to either sit inside the barn on provided folding chairs or bring their own seating (and picnic) to enjoy the music from the property’s expansive lawn. In the event of rain, concerts are moved totally inside the barn.

The Duck Creek concerts are dedicated to giving jazz artists a platform for their music and they offer local residents who may not be familiar with it an opportunity to see what jazz is all about in a relaxed setting.

“Jazz is an incredibly innovative, experimental art form where the interest in it ebbs and flows depending on the culture,” explained Jess Frost, co-founder and executive director of Duck Creek. “And we saw an opportunity to present something that was out of the ordinary.”

The jazz concerts at the Arts Center at Duck Creek first began in 2019 with East Enders, a two-weekend festival that was the brainchild of Peter Watrous, a jazz guitarist and New York Times music critic. The concerts were a success, so the center launched a fall series called The Shoulder Season, in which jazz concerts were held inside the barn at Duck Creek.

With the onset of the pandemic in spring 2020, the center organized a series called “COVID Commissions,” where artists were paid to record themselves playing at home to post online. This was done to help Duck Creek support musicians in any way they could, which is a main goal of the center.

“A big part of what Duck Creek does is try to support artists,” said Frost. “So all the programming that we do is in part to try and provide artists with funding and the platform.”

Later that summer, in-person concerts returned to the center. Frost explained that since some older musicians didn’t want to travel due to health concerns, they filled the shows with younger and more experimental performers and that moved the direction of the concerts away from traditional jazz.

“It basically shifted the context of the jazz series into a more experimental space and with a lot more younger artists who were doing some more innovative work,” said Frost.

Since then, the Duck Creek’s summer concert series has featured the talents of a diverse array of young, up-and-coming jazz musicians bringing their sound to the East End. Among the young talents who have performed at the center in recent years are Joel Ross, Kaoru Watanabe and Grammy Award winner Samara Joy.

One of the unique aspects of the concerts is the selection process used in designing the schedule. After 2021, Watrous wanted to focus on his own playing, so the center decided to bring in different jazz musicians, including those who worked with the center before, to have them curate the jazz series and find the artists they wanted to bring to Duck Creek.

This summer’s lineup was curated by Kassa Overall and Iris Ornig, two jazz musicians with ties to Duck Creek. Overall is a drummer who had previously performed at the center. Ornig is a locally-based bassist who is the founder of East End Jazz, a nonprofit organization dedicated to jazz education on the East End. There are also two concerts this summer that were organized in collaboration with The Jazz Loft of Stony Brook.

Both Overall and Ornig selected a few different artists and ensembles of their choice to perform in this year’s concert series. Ornig explained that the artists she selected have an overarching view of jazz that incorporates various themes into the music, including love, generosity and environmental awareness.

“They’re really young musicians who have a theme and think about jazz in a conceptual way to integrate the whole world,” said Ornig.

Among the artists performing in this year’s series are the Rachel Therrian Latin Jazz Project, a four-piece that played at Duck Creek on July 11 and incorporates various Latin styles into the music, and Tomoki Sanders, who performs July 18 and incorporates hip-hop into their brand of jazz.

Ornig said that hosting these concerts is important because “jazz is the American heritage, which is totally underrepresented” on the East End. Other than the Hamptons JazzFest, which presents concerts at a wide range of venues across the South Fork, many local summer concert series don’t feature jazz artists despite the genre’s rich history in the United States.

The concerts also serve as a platform for jazz artists to perform more experimental, envelope-pushing material that they may not have the opportunity to present in other settings.

“We’re trying to give people that are putting together ambitious projects and pushing the limits [of jazz] who maybe don’t have opportunities to do that in a commercial venue,” said Frost.

Additionally, the intimate setting of the concerts allow the audience to talk to the musicians and see them perform up close as they weave their musical tapestries. This year, Ornig has been doing interviews with the performers as the crowd comes in to talk about their background and jazz as a whole.

The Art Center at Duck Creek is at 127 Squaw Road in East Hampton. Admission to concerts is free, but space is limited, so arrive early. Visit duckcreekarts.org for details.

The Art Center at Duck Creek Summer Jazz 2024 — All concerts begin at 6 p.m.

Thursday, July 18 — Tomoki Sanders (Quintet), selected by Kassa Overall, features Tomoki Sanders (tenor and soprano saxophones, vocals, sampler), Mwanzi Harriott (guitar), Bobby Hall III (keyboards) and Michael Decen (electric bass). Rising star Tomoki Sanders, who uses they/them pronouns, is the child of the legendary saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and a multi-instrumentalist, producer and artist who defies categorization. Their music blends vapor wave, fusion, jazz, and hip-hop, infused with elements of digital production. Sanders started playing drums and percussions at age 4, and is a 2018 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, having studied performance and music production with world-renowned musicians, such as Ralph Peterson Jr., Billy Kilson, Neal Smith, Tia Fuller, George Garzone, Frank Tiberi, Jackie Beard and others.

Thursday, July 25 — In collaboration with the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Duck Creek, presents Jackson Pollock & Jazz (Quintet), the first of two summer concerts inspired by the record collection of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. The quintet features: Ray Anderson (trombone/vocals) with Tommy Campbell (drums), Steve Salerno (guitar), Sam Dillon (saxophone) and Tom Manuel (cornet). Original arrangements inspired by the work of Jackson Pollock will be performed, offering a fresh perspective on the artistic vision of the abstract expressionist master.

Thursday, August 1 — Arcoiris Sandoval Sonic Asylum (Quartet) was selected by Iris Ornig and features Arcoiris Sandoval (piano), Mimi Jones (bass), Kenneth Salters (drums), Jonathan Beshay (tenor saxophone). Sandoval is a jazz pianist and composer who lives in New York City and leads her own trio and quintet project called Sonic Asylum. She is also co-director of The D.O.M.E. Experience multimedia orchestra along with Mimi Jones. She also tours with acclaimed vocalist Allan Harris and occasionally performs with the Mingus Big Band.

Her debut Sonic Asylum Trio album released in 2018 and entitled “First Voyage” featured Marty Kenney on bass and Duck Creek Alum Allan Mednard on drums which won a Global Music Award.

Thursday, August 8 — J. Hoard (Quartet) was elected by Kassa Overall and features J. Hoard (composer, vocals, loop station), Sean Richey (guitar), Daniel Winshall (bass), Dom Gervais (drums) and a keyboardist to be determined. J. Hoard interweaves genres to articulate his vivid songwriting. This eclectic approach has yielded songwriting collaborations on two Grammy-award winning albums (“Subconsciously” produced by Black Coffee which won 2022 Best Dance/Electronic Album Grammy and “Coloring Book” by Chance the Rapper which won the 2017 Best Rap Album Grammy).

Thursday, August 15 — In collaboration with the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Duck Creek, presents Lee Krasner & Jazz (Quintet), the second of two summer concerts inspired by the record collection of Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. The quintet features: Grammy-winning vocalist Nicole Zuraitis, Dan Pugach (drums), Miki Hayama (piano), John Marshall (saxophone), Tom Manuel (cornet). This concert features original arrangements inspired by the work of Lee Krasner by Dan Pugach.

Saturday, September 7 (rain date September 8) — New Jazz Underground (Trio) selected by Kassa Overall with Abdias Armenteros (saxophone/composer), Sebastian Rios (bass/composer) and T.J. Reddick (drums). The music of the young American trio New Jazz Underground signals a merging of traditional sensibilities in jazz with the modern influence of swing, hip-hop, house/Afro-beat, and Afro-Cuban music. Listeners were introduced to the trio’s fresh sound through viral videos of the band performing in their living room.