In Its Own Backyard: A Conversation with Newport Festivals Foundation’s Music Education Manager Leland Baker on his Role and SUNDAY JAZZ

It is all too easy for a misguided person to view the Newport Festivals as events that attempt to be isolated from the outside world to some degree. The Festivals occur in a city many see as the backyard of the rich and powerful because of its summer cottages. The Jazz Festival was also co-founded and initially sponsored by the Lorrilards, socialites who were among the top of the City by the Sea’s social scene. And the Festivals have even called a fortress – a building specifically designed to keep others out – its home for the last forty-three years. While these facts are indisputable, the perception of the exclusionary nature of the Festivals is misguided. George Wein and his successors have always aimed to provide experiences that appeal to everyone. Further, like any truly iconic institution of enduring relevance, the Festivals keep evolving to further open them up to others. Leland Baker plays a significant role in these continued efforts.

First, Baker represents a local music scene historically underrepresented at the Jazz Festival. Newport is known for its incredible performances by big-name artists. However, far too often, it has failed to include artists from its own backyard; those who are not the iconic figures most think of when they hear the name of Newport but are nevertheless incredibly talented and worthy of recognition. A Providence-based saxophonist who has studied with John Ellis and George Garzone, Baker is firmly rooted in this Rhode Island music scene. Over the last few years, he has brought these connections to the Festival, whether his quartet’s performance at the Foundation tent last summer or the scheduled set for SUNDAY JAZZ this year.

Perhaps even more importantly, Baker serves as the Newport Festivals Foundation’s Manager of Music Education. In this role, he helps plan and facilitate the Festival Foundation’s various educational initiatives, from providing free instruments and lessons to local students to hosting workshops and jam sessions. Such efforts are not without precedent at Newport. Jam sessions and workshops date back to both Festivals’ early years. And for a long time, Jazz had a Festival Youth Band. However, in recent years, these programs have magnified in both volume and importance. The Newport Festivals fully understand that the continued vitality and vibrancy of a music of the people – whether labeled “folk” or “jazz”- requires the knowledge of its elders to be shared with future generations. In making massive investments in music education, the Festivals ensure that their legacy is more than just fading memories of incredible performances and fantastic records; it is continuing to create environments through which the future Duke, Dylan, Miles, or Joni Mitchell can emerge.

We sat down with Baker to discuss some of these initiatives, his role as Music Education Manager, and what SUNDAY JAZZ brings to this summer’s lineup.

PostGenre: Thanks for taking the time to talk. Do you get especially busy like everyone else on the Festivals’ team this time of year even though the education outreach programs occur year round?

Leland Baker: Yeah, the teams in charge of putting on the Festivals are obviously swamped right now. But me and my colleague are pretty busy as well. But you’re right, we’re busy year round more than most people on our team. During the Festivals, we do have a role too though because we work with the student bands that are playing at the Jazz Festival. Also, we help with some of the local artists who are playing at our Foundation Stage. And we coordinate artist workshops on site and interviews for educational content we later release on the Festivals’ websites. 

PG: How did you become the Music Education Manager for the Festivals? 

LB: It’s funny because, obviously, I knew of Newport. I’ve been going to the Newport Jazz Festival since 2008. But I didn’t even know the Festivals were run by a nonprofit. 

Anyhow, a friend of mine does work for the Festivals for one of the programs we have called the Newport Jazz Assembly Band. The band is mostly made up of professional musicians in New York City who come up to Rhode Island throughout the year to play for kids at schools as a way to expose the students to the music. The assembly band fosters jazz appreciation and also teaches some of the history of the music. The bass player in that band, Alex Tremblay, is my best friend. Alex got wind from the Director of Programs and Development, Dan Swain, that they were creating this new role to focus on music education efforts. Dan was doing that work and between that and his other roles, it was too much. Alex mentioned my name to Dan and got him in touch with me. And it came from there. 

PG: What do you enjoy most about that role? It seems like the job is somewhat removed from playing and making music to some degree. 

LB: Right, right. I was starting to move in that direction anyways in terms of becoming more interested in doing educational work, whether at a college or some kind of institution where I had a little more artistic freedom than working in an elementary school as a music teacher. It all worked out that the opportunity to be Music Education Manager came along and it’s been great. It’s for a nonprofit. A lot of it can be done remotely. We do have two offices, but I get to work from home. And, as an artist, it’s a salary. It’s the first time I ever got a salary. And I still get the freedom to make my music on the side. 

PG: What do you think is the biggest challenge that you have faced in that role? 

LB: I would say that as much freedom as it gives me, I still had to get used to working for someone else. I’ve been my own person for a while and knowing that I have deadlines to get something done is an adjustment. I also get swamped with emails that I can’t put off. Getting  into that flow of working consistently was a little difficult at first, even if everybody on the team is great. 

PG: To ask you about one initiative that you have been involved with, every second and fourth Wednesday of the month, the Newport Jazz Festival hosts jam sessions at the Blue Room in Cranston, Rhode Island. How did these jam sessions first come together?

LB: Dan and I do pretty much all of the education stuff for the Festival. We were trying to think of a community engagement initiative and came up with the jam sessions. Jam sessions have a huge importance in the history of this art form but there wasn’t really anything like that consistently happening in Rhode Island. Certainly not in the Providence area. 

The timing was perfect when we started them because the Blue Room was a new venue that had popped up a few months prior. I had played there with my band and the owner was very sweet and pro-artist. The vibe was pretty dope. So, we helped a local establishment and now she has Newport Jazz backing her. We’re bringing people and patrons in the community to her venue. And, at the same time, we’re able to curate something where, especially young artists can come and cut their teeth, learn, and network. 

Another thing that is really great about the jam sessions is that the people who go to them are incredibly diverse. We want everybody to engage, both young and old. That age diversity is important. I didn’t really get that growing up in Rhode Island but within the history of jazz, everybody had a mentor, and the younger cats  would hang out with the older ones to learn. While there are a lot of great older players in Rhode Island, they often never really extended themselves like that before these sessions. Anyhow, that’s what we were trying to create and it’s been beautiful since we started it. 

PG: Another project you have been involved with is the Foundation’s donation of instruments to schools. Now, you’re giving free music lessons to certain students as well. 

LB: We started the free music lessons program last year with the goal of supplying eighty to a hundred students with free music lessons on Aquidneck Island – where Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth are located. It is a commitment that we have been making to the local community. And it was a huge success. 

PG: And it seems it is not only musicians who have benefited from the Foundation’s focus on the local community. Last summer, all seniors at Rogers High School were given free tickets to the Sunday of the Jazz Festival.

LB: I mean, there has definitely been a well established connection with Rogers High School from before I got there. I guess since it is the only high school in Newport, we have consistently helped them out and directed funds towards their band program. The ticket program was partly an extension of that. 

PG: The Foundation also hosts the Newport Jazz Summer Camp at Salve [Regina University].

LB:  Yeah, that’s also another great program. I got to be a part of that last year as well. I was brought on in April of last year so got thrown in the middle of everything with the festivals coming up and the camp. But it’s a cool camp. 

It’s a week long. We extended it for a day this year so students could get there and settle in. They’ll have a week where they’re engaging with the other students doing ensemble work, master classes given by different instructors, and concert performance opportunities. The students even get to play at the Newport Jazz Festival. 

And this year, I was able to score Chief Adjuah, formerly known as Christian Scott, to work a full day with the students. The Chief is dedicated and knows the importance of giving back and shaping the next generation. We’re happy that he’s able to come and share his energy with us in that kind of way. I’m excited. I’m happy with how everything has panned out for this year. It’s a good time. 

PG: Earlier you mentioned that you have been going to the Newport Jazz Festival since 2008. Do you remember what brought you there that year? 

LB: It was a friend of mine, actually. I went to college starting in the Fall of ‘07 at Loyola University in New Orleans. Before college, I wasn’t really into jazz. I started playing saxophone when I was fourteen, but I wasn’t really versed in straight ahead jazz. A lot of the stuff I listened to was R&B. And as I played more sax, I was getting deeper into people like Kirk Whalum, Boney James, and Grover Washington Jr. But once I got to New Orleans, my peers hit me with people like Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Joe Henderson.

When the Jazz Fest came around, my friend’s dad – he always got free tickets – asked me if I wanted to go to a premier festival with all these incredible musicians there, including Sonny Rollins. I went and I still remember Sonny’s performance to this day. It was an impactful moment. Fast forward to 2013, and I played there as part of the University of Rhode Island’s band while I was working towards my Master’s degree there. It was the first year URI played at Newport and we were on the big stage right before Joshua Redman’s set. Joshua was a really sweet dude to meet.

There have been so many impactful moments for me that have happened on those grounds. And then obviously it has a historic legacy and the line of incredible albums made there. There is a lot of magic at Newport and that is what kept bringing me back. 

PG: Since you mentioned playing at Newport in 2013, you also played at the Foundation tent last year. And this year you will be performing with SUNDAY JAZZ. What can you share about SUNDAY JAZZ? 

LB: SUNDAY JAZZ started as a weekly series at the Cortland Club, a cocktail bar, in Providence. Courtland opened in 2018 and I went there with a friend to grab a drink and check out the vibe. It was pretty unique. It was different and had that speakeasy vibe cocktail bars used to have before they started becoming a big thing. I ended up going there frequently. 

At one point, I ran into a friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a while. We started talking and I told him the place was dope but should have some live music. He agreed and said he was good friends with the owner, Jay Shechtman, and that I should meet him. He ended up bringing the owner down to a gig I did elsewhere and Jay and I hit it off. And we ended up starting to have performances there in 2019. I’ve been there for five years now, and we have always done it on Sundays so we were promoted as Sunday Jazz and it kind of became how we were identified. 

For the set at Newport, we went through many different names for the group. We wanted to call it the Courtland Club Septet but there were legal issues with using Courtand’s name at the Festival. At one point we also considered calling it the Leland Baker Septet but I didn’t want to put my name on it. 

PG: Why?

LB: Because that’s not what I’m trying to do. Since I work for the Foundation, I really didn’t want to seem like I was using the Foundation just to get my name out there. Our focus with this group is instead to highlight local establishments, local artists, and the thing that Jay Schectman did at the Courtland Club to make it an incubator for live jazz. 

PG: What do you feel SUNDAY JAZZ adds to the festival lineup this year? 

LB: It was a push – I won’t say it was a hard push though – for me to prove why we should be playing at Newport. I had to make a proposal that made sense for my team at Newport.  I think what it adds to the festival is that as legendary as Newport is – it is as a cultural institution –  it has never really highlighted local artists; the people in its own backyard. Even today, we do a lot of work on the nonprofit side in Newport, which is awesome but we don’t present local artists much. 

I think part of why I was brought on is because I have a huge connection to the community in Providence, especially in the inner city areas around the capital. We’re trying to  extend a hand to folks in that area as well. I see SUNDAY JAZZ as a great opportunity to let people at the festival, both other artists and concertgoers, know what we have here in Rhode Island. We have aspiring young artists. We have very gifted musicians. There’s a movement that we’re a part of and it too is a part of the bigger picture of the jazz community. We’re all practitioners of this art form. And with a group like SUNDAY JAZZ, we let people know that it’s no different here in Rhode Island. I hope that will be impactful to audiences as well.

You can donate to the Newport Festival Foundation to support its incredible educational work by clicking here. You can watch SUNDAY JAZZ at the Newport Jazz Festival on Sunday, August 4, 2024. More information on the Newport Jazz Festival is available on the event’s website. We will be providing live coverage of the event. You can read more about Leland Baker on his website.