Hello, hello.

Good evening everyone.

I am Paris Alston, and welcom to GBH Music Presents JazzNOW.

Happy Black History Month, everybody.

Happy 100 years of Black history What a wonderful way to be celebrating a hundred years of that history with our musical traditions.

Tonight we are so fortunate that Godwin Louis is here in the Fraser Performance Studio with this fabulous band.

[applause] ready to take us on a musical journey So, Godwin, before we get into this, I do want to, set the stage here What can we expect tonight?

So the music that you're going to hear tonight, is a combination of some new material So, a lot of it comes from my latest album, entitled Psalms and Proverbs that features actually, some of the musicians in here And, I think that's it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Excellent.

Well Were in for a treat, yeah.

without further ado, take it away.

Thank you.

[applause] And now we're going to play some music for you.

So briefly again, as I mentioned the music that you're hearing is from my latest album, the first tune that we're going to play is a tune that deals with, the concept of literacy and alphabetization.

So my uncle wrote this number.

I was really shocked to find out that he wrote this number.

My uncle, his name is, was the late, great Reverend Bernard Saint-Fleur.

He was a Haitian pastor, spent most of his life living in Bridgeport, Connecticut But this song, people like Johnny Mercier whos also first, second generatation Hatian American We grew up hearing that song so that when my uncle passed awa I found out he wrote this song.

I was proud and a featur I figured I would deconstruct it jazz style so that people don't recognize it and hate it.

Since thats the stereotype when we Jazz-ify tunes and so hope you enjoy and, and draw a little journey.

We'll talk to you very soon.

Thank you.

Godwin Louis, it is such a pleasure to have you here this evening.

Thank you so much for sitting down to chat.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Paris.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you to GBH.

Yes.

And so, of course this series is called JazzNOW, which implies that it's urgent.

It's breathing.

Living, Alive.

What does that mean to you?

JazzNOW, I think jazz music.

As I like to refer to it, America's premier art form have always been, I guess, present.

So I like the title JazzNOW because throughout our history, especially in the 20th and 21st jazz seemed to always find its presence So JazzNOW meaning today, this is what it is.

So I think that's what it means to me.

Some people might think that jazz is of the past, because it is such a such a historic art form.

But how do you like to remind people of the present day innovatio that's happening in the art form Right.

Jazz, again, is all around us, When we look at artists up and coming artists like Laufey Im...pronouncing their nam right and doing incredible work on the TikTok platforms.

People like Samara Joy, yo know, they're still very popular The Grammy Award winning Samara People like, Jon Batist from New Orleans still winning, he managed to fin that kind of the essence of jazz throughout his, Americana phases whether he's exploring whatever genre, it's always jazz and it's now.

So I would say that jazz is very present now.

Now, you were telling m that you kind of split your time between Harlem and Boston around the world, of course.

Right.

But we know Harlem as the birthplace of jazz Boston has its own jazz lineage But how do you think the two places compare?

Harlem and Boston?

Wow.

The two places are absolutely different.

to be honest.

Musically?

Specifically in terms of music, yes But each have, you know, rich music history, you know, for example, I can think of one maestro that I got the chance to study with when I was a student at Berklee who was one of the pioneers of the jazz scene here.

I'm talking about none other than the great late Herb Pomeroy was a trumpet player.

Got to play with Charlie Parker.

You know, people like that.

You mentioned Harlem.

Of course.

People are aware of the Harlem Renaissance and its contribution to music in general We must also acknowledg New Orleans as the birthplace, because that's very important.

You don't want people come after us, So New Orleans!

Especially not nobody from New Orleans.

Exactly, so absolutely New Orleans and, Harlem But I would say each one of the scenes have, you know the intersection becauase musically, we always playing homage to the pioneers of the music.

So that's the great thing about this music, whether it's, you know, i Boston, Harlem or New Orleans, you always find that mutual understanding and mutual connection, you know, for the betterment of the art form in general.

Whether its connecting that music from the northeast to the bayou, so to speak, or to audiences around the world How do you connect th African diaspora through jazz?

To me, that's very important because the history of jazz itself, I've spent the last I would say, 16 years now.

For me, it started when I got the chance to live in New Orleans to attend, the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute.

So I got the chance to live there between 2009 and 2011.

And in addition to that, when I was young, between the ages of eight till ten, eleven, I got the chance to live in Haiti And to me, that's when I realized that you know cultures are connected And then I started learning the history of New Orleans, tracing some of that connection through Congo Square, that a lot of Creole, what you call free people of color They call Affranchi the Frenc term got to move to New Orleans, you know, settle in the Tremé neighborhoods and throughout New Orleans and then forming this unique culture So then you have, first of all, New Orleans.

A lot of times they like to refer to New Orleans as the northernmost part of the Caribbean because of its Spanish and French influence.

A lot of people are not aware of the Spanish influence.

So then that Caribbean culture, in terms of rhythmically, because we know historically the drums were not allowed in the United States.

met with the blues, that bayou, that delta blues forming this unique art form that we know from the from the tresillo you know, to the bomba to, oh, when the saints... and you know the blues met with this rhythm.

So for me, in my music personally and in my musical philosophy, I've always believed in the connection of the diaspora Furthermore, not just that, but I think it goes beyond that, because when we talk about the American continent, we talk about three leading cultures that come together, whether we accept it socially or not, to form this unique experience which is the European influence the African influence and the native influence.

So for me, I'm always personally you didnt ask for that but Im adding it but I love it though, so I always consider myself, representative of that, the American, the continental American sound.

And in my project Global, that' why we talk about because its all througout and, the art form.

Again, I think that it's very important for people to understand that you know and especially people from the African diaspora to understand that, okay, this is you know, there's a major connection from the Caribbean to New Orleans to Port au Prince to Salvador, Dubai, and Brazil to you know, parts of Afro Colombia you know, Esmeralda, Ecuador.

You know, that connection.

It's very important culturally and musically.

Yeah.

What do you hear from people when you bring your sound to those places?

What do I hear from people?

Some people have referred to it as gospel music.

It depends on where I am.

Sometimes people will be like, oh, is Haitian music because o my Hatian background and lineage Sometimes people will refer to it as African music, depending on, you know, what we're playing.

But, it's always a fusion kind of title.

So like, oh yea that's that fusion kind of thing Yeah.

Like some good gumbo or so Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So yeah, I respect that I gues that whatever people think it is I accept it 100% [applause] You.

You mentioned Global, and obviously you've traveled all around the world with your music And you've been to some places where the resistance foundation that jazz was built on That energy of resistance isnt guaranteed all over the world I'm thinking about places like Russia or China.

What are how is jazz received there especially when you think about that revolutionary aspect.

You know, what's ver interesting, I was just thinking about this exactly ten years ago I got to do, I want to see a 40 city tour of Russia So whenever I look at the Russian map, Im always like oh, I went to this part, that part all the way to Siberia.

Its a real big country.

And I will say tha every single show was sold out.

And I remember it was during the election of our current president President Trump.

So it was a very interesting climate to see the climate in the US.

I remember that day I was in Saint Petersburg, you know, and the next da everyone wanted to interview me, looking for maybe some click click bait or whatever.

But I think I beat them in that so all to say that in my travelings to China people always love this music Jazz, you know, it' kind of like classical music and you always see the genre being practiced by musicians.

I've met a lot of incredible Russian musicians that never traveled outside of Russia or never traveled to the US and that i I was shocked by their knowledge and understanding socially, musically of the blues.

I don't think I've experience that anywhere outside of Russia.

Maybe.

I guess of course you have this in like places like Israel and Japan That connection is there.

There's something about the blues that I think that they understand And that's why sometimes you find some of, the highest level of jazz quot practitioners from those places.

So that was my experience.

in China and Russia, music is very Jazz musi particularly is very much alive.

And maybe it's a bit of a quiet resistance that they're able to channel in some ways.

Um, It didn't seem like that.

I think they're looking at it more from like, wow, this is very unique, the improvizational aspect I don't think they're looking at socially.

And China as well.

I'm sure you understand why.

You know, it's not very you know, it comes with consequences It's like, okay, the next title tune is entitled Kick Them Out.

Yeah, yeah, we dont do that.

In Russia I see It's more like we're going to pay homage to Charlie Parker a great Black American hero that we love.

and so yes.

So in terms of resistance, I didn't quite see that in the arts because, in both places, it's kind of set up, you know, culturally from inception that yeah, the arts doesnt do that.

The art.

It's.

Yeah.

Do you think we could learn from a little bit here in the US?

I mean, we're always making things political but, Absolutely not because, th history is different, you know, Jazz, and the inception of the genre itself come from hambone, people working and saying ‘wade, in the water gods gonna that's people arriving to the US you know, you have things like that or sometimes I feel like a motherless child you know, the history of the music is different.

And the way in addition, the way we practice the music is different And this is something we always deal with when we present masterclasses overseas Because well hear someone like, you sound great, but what this music is not about is that ide of what you think is perfection.

There is some kind of like social call, a different philosophy, a different psychology that comes with this music, the idea of forward motion and yada yada yada.

So this is all to say, no, we cant And I'm not speaking about in terms of it doesnt have it doesn't always have to be political but to me it's beyond just kind of like as we mentioned in, you know, in Russia it's like perfect time perfect cadence.

I don't think Americans would even buy that.

Expect that from any of their practitioners, from the most popular music to, you know, the most sophisticated music.

You know, we're kind of expect I think we look at musi a little more socially, you know You know, you talk about Kurt Cobain to Mariah Carey to Louis Armstrong.

Yeah, to Kendrick Lamar to Bad Bunny, right?

The list goes on.

And to that point, I mean, we know that the foundations of hip hop, for instance are in jazz, I don't know if you're a big connoisseur of hip hop music?

All music.

All music.

Excellent.

Yes, do.

Where do you look for jazz in other music?

Do you look for it in other music?

No.

Not necessarily.

I think, the way we tell the stories kind of vary and the audience vary as well And so, I do believe that the lineage is the same.

This is why, the great maestro Nicholas Payton started referring to this music as kind of like Black American music and not from a divisive order, but more from I understand it.

A lot of people don't.

They think, oh, there you go, dividing America again.

But I think it's simply looking at it from like historically If you look at it from this point, check it out.

When we talk about soul music, Jazz, R&B, hip hop.

Theyre, to me the same theyre, just the Black American experience It's not taking awa from anybody else's experience.

And I think this is why sometim so-called jazz lack an audience because people don't acknowledge this connection.

A lot of the listeners of jazz today come from that Soul Generation They might have seen Stevie Wonder and then today they're like, well jazz seem like I can relax and listen to it They have the ear and the wisdom for that Ella Fitzgerald, you understand what I'm saying?

So later on, this generation today, our generation in 70 years are going to to go back to Louis Armstrong because the business is set up like that The social order in terms of hey, let's go to a jazz festival with our grandkids, like, oh, this music is kind of cool.

So this is all to say to me, they're all connected, so I don't look for one here and there, I just sometimes Im soloing and I can think of Mozart, Bach or Kendrick Lamar or I don't know, anybody.

How about it for Julian Miltonberger on drums.

Again.

You're listening to maestro professor Billy Buss on trumpet.

Billy Buss, maestro Johnny Mercier on organ.

Maestra Dabin Ryu on piano.

The wonderful, brilliant maestro Or Bareket on bass.

My name is Godwin Louis.

Thank you for coming.

A special shout out to this amazing series shout out to this amazing series JazzNOW Please check it out.

Please support GBH.

Make sure you go online, donate all the money you can.

If you've donated, donate some more.

Special shout out to Paris to Kathy, to Sarah The whole staff.

This is an amazing space.

Shout out to you all.

Shout out to all my students I see you, I see you, shout out to you all your beautiful faces Big shout out to GBH one more time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you and see you very soon.