JazzReggae unifies fans, diverse genres

Music fans who enjoy walking around a field in the sun amid tens
of thousands of other fans, like this past month at Coachella, will
get another chance this weekend.

This Memorial Day weekend, the Cultural Affairs Commission will
present the 18th annual UCLA JazzReggae Festival, with Jazz Day
being Sunday, and Reggae Day on Monday. Over 30,000 fans are
expected to attend one or more days of the festival.

Traditionally, Reggae Day has attracted more fans due to less
competition with other festivals. This year, emphasis has
specifically been placed on increasing attendance for Jazz Day.

“This year, we decided to build up on Jazz Day.
We’re trying to bring in more names that are known to a
younger age group. We wanted to really emphasize how diverse jazz
is,” said fifth-year psychobiology student Lester Baron,
co-director of the JazzReggae Festival.

Adding Latin jazz percussionist Poncho Sanchez, smooth jazz
saxophonist Everette Harp, Caribbean jazz vocalist Michele
Henderson, poet Dr. Billy Ingram and hip-hop DJ Madlib to the bill
was a way to express this diversity.

The inclusion of Madlib in this year’s festival adds an
interesting dynamic. One of the elite producers in underground
hip-hop, he released “Shades of Blue” last year, a
remix and interpretation album resulting from free access to the
archives of the historic jazz label Blue Note.

Diversity has indeed been the focus of the festival for many
years now. Jazz and reggae may be very different styles of music,
but have been paired together due to their shared message.

“Jazz and reggae are two different genres of music with a
common theme of unity, and we want to bring cultural diversity to
campus and bring people together,” said Baron.

Sanchez, who heads one of the most popular and influential Latin
jazz bands around, and who used to assist percussion classes at
UCLA with Professor Steve Loza, agreed that musical diversity was
among the strengths of this kind of festival.

“People can learn about all different types of
music,” Sanchez said. “Just with our band you can hear
combinations of soul, black jazz, the jazz theory sophistication of
the melodies and harmonies as well as salsas. You have all these
roots and lifestyles coming together, and you can learn a great
deal from it.”

But the various performers refuse to be boxed into the
respective sub-genres they represent. 

“People like to call my stuff smooth jazz,” said
saxophonist Everette Harp. “There’s not very much
that’s smooth about it. We have a high energy style of
playing urban and funky rhythms.”

The message of diversity carries over to Reggae Day as well, as
artists from a variety of countries and genres will be
represented. Caribbean Xchange, whose members are Belizian,
are now performing for the third year in a row.

“I feel the love from the whole reggae team every time we
go there,” said Lova Boy of Caribbean
Xchange. “They give local artists a chance. That
was our first big concert before our CD, before everything. People
have seen us go from the bottom up.”

But the bottom line is that the JazzReggae Festival should be
hugely entertaining to even the most casual of fans.

“Not only can you learn something at these festivals, if
you’ve had a hard week you can just release and have a good
time,” said Sanchez.