Jason Moran + The Bandwagon
Finding a Line: Skateboarding, Music + Media
Led by trendsetter jazz pianist Jason Moran, athletes and artists dive deep into the fusion of music and skateboarding in this unforgettable festival opener. Picture this inside the Riverwalk: inspired pro and local skaters unleashing halfpipe tricks while three of today’s most elite jazz musicians drop live responses. Don’t miss this epic improvisation of flips, tricks and riffs for a community festival kickoff!
“In jazz, there are so many moving parts, and within a composition, there are obstacles in the form. Street skaters navigate a landscape finding ways to approach a rail in the same way a drummer approaches the beginning of a song. The mode of improvisation is paramount to how both skaters and jazz musicians approach life through different media.” —Jason Moran
“A startlingly gifted pianist with a relentless thirst for experimentation.”
The Los Angeles Times
ABOUT JASON MORAN
Pianist and composer Jason Moran has established himself as a risk-taker and trendsetter for new directions in jazz. Rolling Stone calls him “the most provocative thinker in current jazz.” It’s that incomparable talent and unyielding drive towards innovation that earned Moran a prestigious MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship and the title of Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz.
Since 2000, Moran and his trio The Bandwagon (Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits) have dazzled audiences at elite venues worldwide. Moran has also performed with many acclaimed artists such as Charles Lloyd and Dave Holland, he composed a ballet for Alzonzo King LINES Ballet, conceived a jazz and skateboarding collaboration, wrote the film score for Selma, and paid homage to two legendary pianists in his Blue Note album, All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller, and his multimedia program, In My Mind: Monk at Town Hall 1959. A prolific composer, Moran released two albums in 2018 – Looks of a Lot, which was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Center, and Music for Joan Jonas, a collaboration with performance artist Joan Jonas containing excerpts from three of their major collaborations.
