Testing Those Limits

  A modest proposal for the organizers of the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which I reviewed last year and blogged about last week: how about some jazz? And no, this isn’t just another nagging entreaty from a disenfranchised corner of the musicverse. I spent three long days on site this year, and have no doubt that its lineup could have been improved with just a few further inclusions.

 Let’s be practical, though. No one is advocating a James Moody hit on the Xbox 360 Stage. What I would suggest is a strategy based at the tented Wildfower Center Stage, where New Orleans pianist Henry Butler tore it up last Saturday afternoon. This is the same stage where the Rebirth Brass Band and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band appeared, and props for that, by the way. But given the contemporary thrust just about everywhere else, this strikes me as the programming equivalent of a shrug. Where were the jazz (or “jazz”) acts that truly belonged on a bill alongside Bon Iver and the Dirty Projectors? Because trust me, they’re out there. And judging by the fans I spotted wearing Miles or Coltrane T-shirts, said artists will not play to an empty tent.

Given that ACL takes a proudly regional approach to much of its booking, allow me to suggest that next year’s edition feature at least three reasonably modern-minded groups with roots in Texas. For starters, Robert Glasper, the keyboardist pictured above, grew up in Houston. (To be fair, he couldn’t have made this year’s event anyway: he’s on tour with Maxwell, which should tell you what circles he runs in. Had he been free, I’m sure he would have been working with Mos Def, as he was in Newport this summer.)

Among the other eligible alumni of Glasper’s alma mater, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts: pianist Jason Moran, tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, guitarist Mike Moreno, and drummers Eric Harland, Kendrick Scott and Jamire Williams. Or if we look to Dallas, we get trumpeter Roy Hargrove. How about a provisional 2010 jazz lineup that includes Hargrove’s band, Moran’s Bandwagon, and either one of Glasper’s working groups? It’s a start.