The Metropolitan Museum of Art has been working hard to pivot away from it's reputation as a sober repository of artistic masterpieces to a fun, friendly place to hang out. This is especially true on Friday nights, when the museum stays open late and offers a variety of performances, many of them free.
This past Friday, the Met was filled with the sound of jazz when ten ensembles, positioned at strategic points throughout the galleries, played two sets of music, all playing the same list of jazz standards. Dubbed Jazz & Colors: The Full Spectrum Edition, this was actually the fourth edition of Jazz & Colors, which started in the fall of 2012 as an outdoor event played amidst the autumn leaves of Central Park.
While the concept was designed to sound like a continuous set of music as you wandered through the museum, each ensemble's take on these standards was so varied, it felt more like walking from the Egypt galleries to the Asian galleries immediately upstairs. Several groups – such as Sam Newsome and Meg Okura and the Jovan Alexandre Trio – played off of charts, sounding fine, if a bit uncertain. Others, such as pianist Marc Cary, drummer Kimberly Thompson, and especially tenor JD Allen had so thoroughly absorbed this music that the originals morphed into something altogether different. And brilliant. This was the second edition of Jazz & Colors at the Met; here's hoping it becomes a regular feature.
More pics on the photo page. Complete set lists below.
Set 1
- Sweet Georgia Brown by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard
- Bye Bye Blackbird by Ray Henderson
- Blue Skies by Irving Berlin
- Mood Indigo by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard
- Honeysuckle Rose by Fats Waller
- Deep Purple by Peter DeRose
Set 2
- Tangerine by Victor Schertzinger and Johnny Mercer
- On Green Dolphin Street by Bronisław Kaper
- Blue Train by John Coltrane
- Blue in Green by Miles Davis and Bill Evans
- Green Chimney’s by Thelonious Monk
- Orange Was the Color of Her Dress, Then Blue Silk by Charles Mingus