{"id":6305,"date":"2023-07-31T14:28:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T19:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=6305"},"modified":"2023-08-02T09:13:37","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T14:13:37","slug":"tide-witness-cautious-clay-newport-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/tide-witness-cautious-clay-newport-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Tide is My Witness: Cautious Clay Previews his 2023 Newport Jazz Festival Performance and New Blue Note Album"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jazz music has long had an interesting, albeit complicated, relationship with more popular musical forms. Swing bands were the pop music craze of the 1930s and 40s. With the emergence of bop, particularly during the postwar era, the lines between artful improvisation-based music and more commercial sentimentality became increasingly stark. But many artists – Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin among them- still found success in exploring the middle ground between ideas of jazz, pop, rock, soul, and R&B. These artists, often dubbed \u201cjazz adjacent\u201d also have a long history of performing at the Newport Jazz Festival. In many ways, Joshua Karpeh, under the nom de plume of Cautious Clay, continues this tradition in both his forthcoming Newport Jazz Festival debut and his soon-to-be-released album, KARPEH <\/em>(Blue Note, 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last six years, Cautious Clay has found great success in pop, alternative R&B, and indie rock. In addition to working with Billie Eilish, John Mayer, John Legend, Khalid, Kavinsky, Melanie Martinez, and Remi Wolf, his work was also sampled by Taylor Swift, on Lover <\/em>(Republic, 2019). Even more impressive, however, is that Karpeh has garnered this attention largely as a self-made man. He writes his own compositions, performs them on several instruments ranging from woodwinds to vocals and guitar, produces them, and releases them himself. This self-direction has allowed Karpeh to slip jazz and other influences into his music, even as it gains more widespread approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his sophomore album, KARPEH<\/em>, digs deeper into his jazz influences than Cautious Clay\u2019s prior works. No one would mistake the album for a straight-ahead jazz recording, but the influences are clear. The sharp yet soulful saxophone solos, atmospheric flute, and relaxed grooving guitar and vocals all combine to create a unique work that is not fenced into a particular style, even when evincing a clear nod to jazz. The presence of guest artists at the forefront of improvised music – Ambrose Akinmusire, Julian Lage, Immanuel Wilkins, Arooj Aftab, Joel Ross, and Julius Rodriguez – who also maintain expansive musical scopes bring this angle further to the forefront. Our conversation with Karpeh makes his love of jazz music even more obvious. Add the audio clips of his family members and a narrative of his family history, and the result is an album of indefatigably catchy tunes with substance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat down with Karpeh to discuss the forthcoming album, his upcoming performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, and his place in the Festival\u2019s history of both jazz and jazz-adjacent artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PostGenre: This will be your first time at Newport, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cautious Clay: Yeah, my first time performing at Newport. I’ve known about it, obviously, for many years. My grandfather, whose voice starts off KARPEH<\/em>, actually, is a huge fan of the Newport Jazz Festival, so it’s kind of full circle to play it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: So, the Newport Jazz Festival is not just another gig?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CC: No. There is something special about the fact I will be playing at Newport. I tend not to psych myself out of anything. But yeah, I recognize the significance of the Festival and its history. It feels very cool to be performing there. I\u2019m very excited to be able to perform my music there, especially given the context of this album and what I’m trying to accomplish with it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: How did you find out you would be playing at Newport?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CC: Oh Man. So, I think my booking agent had let me know a few months before it was announced. Playing at Newport has been something we had been trying to do for a while. At one point, the Newport Folk Festival was interested in booking me. But with this album the Newport Jazz Festival made a little more sense. It was a little bit of a surprise when the Festival asked me to perform, but it was also really cool.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: And, since you mentioned it, KARPEH<\/em> is certainly a lot-more jazz focused than your other work, which is maybe a little more R&B influenced. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CC: Yeah, R&B with folk and rock elements.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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PG: The Newport Jazz Festival has a long history of presenting artists who the organizers call \u201cjazz adjacent\u201d; music that may be a little outside the traditional category of \u201cjazz\u201d but certainly influenced by it. Jazz adjacent over the Festival\u2019s history has included everyone from Ray Charles and Nina Simone to James Brown and the Roots. Do you see yourself as a continuation of that lineage?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CC: I mean, if you saw me that way, I’d be honored. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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