In its fifth year, MATI (formerly the Music at the Intersection festival) staged its biggest iteration yet. Expanded to three days, the festival stretched beyond its usual Washington Avenue footprint, stretching east and west to include 19 different stages and venues, including a mini-carnival complete with a ferris wheel and other rides, food trucks, clothing and jewelry vendors, art museums and galleries, poetry readings, a Shakespeare play, conferences and symposiums, outdoor bars galore, and more simultaneous nonstop music than fans could possibly take in. But I gave it my best shot, despite a summer-weather comeback that saw heat indexes in the triple digits both Saturday and Sunday, making for challenging stage-hopping conditions. Still, I got to every act on every stage, and here is this year’s “best of the fest.”
Best Trippy: K Kudda Muzik
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Just before showtime, they were still putting the final touches on the brand-new venue The Sovereign, a 1200-person-capacity concert space with a dance floor the size of one-and-a-half tennis courts and a second level for balcony viewing. Pianist/producer K Kudda kicked things off, center stage on the Nord, directing a six-piece band on the kind of genre-curious jazz-steeped instrumental neo-soul that represents St. Louis fusion. Bathed in red light and anchored by the rolling five-string bass of Bobby “Beary” Jay, who wore a new winter hat with bear ears on top knitted for the occasion, the Kudda grooves were dreamy and slow-burning throughout, decorated with some mid-set vocal embroidery from singer/artist Noel Spiva.
Best Second Line: Saint Boogie Brass Band
Stalwarts of the vibrant St. Louis brass band scene, Saint Boogie were the first band in The Big Top on the fest’s first day, an occasion they used to show off their energetic, celebratory second-line dance party. Clad in matching grays with seven horns up front and with a roving bass drum plus a full drumkit, SBBB packed a wallop. For this set, the band hit their liveliest call-and-response brass-funk to erase the line between the band and audience, peaking with their signature song, “Keep It Moving,” a fitting order for the weekend.
Hottest Timbales: Pirulo Y La Tribu
Vocalist and timbales player Pirulo led his 10-piece band (clad in matching black T-shirts and camo pants) on a dizzying 90-minute set of salsa, mambo, and Latin jazz. With horns (a trombone and two trumpets), backup singers, and percussion all over the place, it was a layered, high-energy wash of Puerto Rican bomba rhythms and driving grooves. Pirula likes to improvise, so it was a jammy set with plenty of extended solos and songs stretching past the 10-minute mark, resulting in a scene at The Sovereign that felt more like a street party than a concert.
Best St. Louis Showcase: Dave Grelle’s Playadors
Billed as the St. Louis Superjam, the colossal Playadors blowout at The Big Top was one of the most impressive collections of elite St. Louis musicians you’ll ever see. A rotating cavalcade of talent, all curated and directed by St. Louis piano luminary Dave Grelle, the Superjam at times had more than 15 musicians on stage offering more highlights than your central nervous system is designed to withstand. A Playadors show is always a showcase of some of the city’s best singers, and this time Emily Wallace soared on a psychedelic version of Curtis Mayfield’s “Check Out Your Mind.” Other highlights included Grelle-penned Playadors originals: Sya Collins was superb on Grelle’s slinky “Fearless Love” (with Ben Reece on the flute); Taynka Mimi turned the crowd on with the dubby “The Breaks”; “Farfusa” featured extended percussion solos from Matt Henry and Isaac Johnston. And the band paid direct tribute to St. Louis throughout: the great Neil Salsich put his buttery spin on Ann Peebles’ “I Can’t Stand the Rain”; acrobatic soul-belter Dakota Pagan laid waste to Donny Hathaway’s “Love, Love, Love”; and guitar hero Jimmy Griffin even showed up to sing Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell.” Not sure we’ll see the likes of this all-timer again, but here’s hoping it becomes a MATI tradition.
Best Dancehall King: Barrington Levy
Q: Which MATI artist this year made Rolling Stone’s list of Greatest Singers of All-Time? A: Reggae legend Barrington Levy, the Mellow Canary himself. (He ranked 119 out of 200 singers.) With a four-piece band behind him, Levy unleashed his full-bodied tenor and his trademark yodel on Levy standards like “Prison Oval Rock” and “21 Girls Salute.” The keys were set to steel-drum mode on “Black Rose,” and Levy slowed things down for “My Time,” flexing the raw power of his voice. It was a thrilling display of charisma and stamina, and the floor of The Sovereign was suitably filled with folks who showed up to see one of reggae’s most influential living legends.
Best Scatting: Anita Jackson
St. Louis’s own Anita Jackson played two sets on Friday night at Jazz St. Louis, a MATI venue this year for folks who prefer the courteous confines of table seating and close listening. It’s an ideal setting to hear Jackson hold forth in her inimitable way, flanked by the phenomenal combo of Phillip Graves (piano), Jordan Brewer (bass), Demarius Hicks (drums), and Kendrick Smith (baritone sax). Jackson has the unique ability to find new ways to reconstruct old melodies, and highlights Friday included a cool-jazz reading of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and a swinging version Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” on which she broke out into an extended scatting blitz, and nobody does it better.
Best Stoners’ Delight: Weedie Braimah & the Hands of Time
It was a hometown show for Weedie Braimah, world-renowned East St. Louis–raised djembe master. For Weedie, percussion isn’t the background, it’s the main element of the music, so Weedie and his djembe sit up front and center. As a result, Weedie’s Big Top blowout was less of a concert and more of a communal event, at once a drum circle, a ceremonial ritual, and a jam session with friends. Those friends included fellow world-class percussionists Pedrito Martinez and Brenda Navarrete, who flanked Weedie on congas (Martinez) and dunun (Navarrete). And trumpet stud Keyon Harrold, serving again as MATI’s artist-in-residence (he made a dozen cameos across the weekend), showed up to blast his horn in a collaboration where ancient West African rhythms met jazz improvisation. It was one of the weekend’s most raucous throwdowns.
Best Double Vision: Coco & Breezy
Over in The Sovereign, two of the coolest-looking gals you’ll ever see, Coco and Breezy Dotson, held forth behind the wheels of steel. They are identical twin sisters, DJs, and fashion designers (Beyoncé and Lady Gaga wear their designer glasses), and when the pair takes their place on the dais behind their DJ rig, they strike quite the fashion-forward figure. The girls blended house, disco, deep groves, and global beats, all while dancing (some of it in sync), turning in circles, and hugging each other. With seamless mixes, they kept the pulse going well past their scheduled stop time with selections that indicated that they knew they were playing to a festival crowd, some of whom may be unaccustomed to live techno spins: An early crowd-pleaser was a remix of Prince’s “1999.”
Best Winging It: Marquise Knox with Funky Butt Brass Band
In what had become a MATI tradition, St. Louis’s electric-blues champ Marquise Knox, backed by the versatile jazz-rock brass attack of the Funky Butt Brass Band, would close the festival on Sunday night. This year, they moved to opening night and the pristine sound of The Grandel. Either artist can slay a crowd on their own, so when they team up it’s electrifying. It can also be an exercise in daredevil improvisation since Knox prefers to work without a setlist and change directions without notice, so the Funky Buttsters have to make wildcat adjustments on the fly. Such was the case Friday as Marquise pulled out some of his Knoxiest moves—playing with hand over the top of the fretboard, telling lengthy stories and jokes, leading shout-alongs, dipping into deep blues ballads, and strut-dancing without the guitar. Late-set crowd-pleasers included Theodis Ealey’s “Stand Up in It,” Clarence Carter’s “Strokin’,” and Rufus Thomas’ “Walkin’ the Dog.” The Grandel isn’t much of a venue for dancing, but Knox and Funky Butt did what they could to get fans on opening night to boogie down the aisles.
Most Eclectic Stage: The LazJazz Tent
Hosted all weekend by David and Jeff Lazaroff, the Laz Jazz Artist Lounge, a tent next to Urban Chestnut Brewery and Biergarten, offered up-close views of some of the weekend’s most diverse and unusual musical pairings. Early birds on Saturday were treated to a drum clinic courtesy of Pedrito Martinez, Brenda Navarette, local thumper Matthew Henry, and Yuni Romero (of Cuban rumba legends Los Muñequitos de Matanzas). It was a frenzy of congas and tumbadoras, Afro-Cuban and salsa rhythms, as Navarette took the floor to dance hip-to-hip with the small but joyful crowd, taking turns with Martinez on the microphone with traditional chant-like Cuban vocals. Later, the tent was full for the Antonio Foster Trio, which turned out to be a quartet, featuring the crazy drum-and-keys syncopation and the funkiest bass keys of the whole fest. Other highlights included the indie-desert freak-folk-funk of guitar/drum duo Joe2Morrow, an orgastic Sunday-night percussion party hosted by Blvck Spvde, and the Brothers Lazaroff themselves playing a captivating set on Sunday featuring a packed stage of all-star St. Louis musicians.
Best Free Stage: Strauss Park
The expanded MATI offered three levels of attendance pricing—the main stages, the MATI Spaces auxiliary venues and events, and free performance spaces such as Strauss Park, a small green space across the street from the Fox Theatre. There, I caught local underground rapper Branden Michael Lewis, who was determined to make the most of his short set, taking his mic into the crowd to make close eye contact with everyone as he ripped his expressive, conscious lyrics. Things got even hotter with a guest verse from rapper and krump dancer Girl Bravo and with the ballet-inspired jazz-dance moves of The Last Princess. And in a nice addition to the fest, members of the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival performed a 90-minute version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Saturday afternoon, giving the play a modern, sexy flair, making for a fun juxtaposition to the cars honking on Grand.
Best Indie-Pop Piano Prodigy: Whitworth
A few years ago, constantly smiling musical egghead Owen Ragland was a student at Webster Groves High School, at that time already making backing tracks for rapper Mvstermind. Fast forward to Saturday, and Ragland was on the main stage at MATI performing under the moniker Whitworth. Wearing a pink cowboy hat and light-blue work-style jumpsuit, Ragland moved between guitar-chimed indie-pop and piano-based yachternative tunes. He’s a phenomenal, fleet-fingered pianist with a gift for jaunty melodies, and his two 7-year-old nieces on stage with him added to the whimsy. Best song: “World War,” pretty enough to suggest that if Whitworth dials down the quirk, he could be writing Coldplay-style smashes.
Proudest Mary: Drea Vocalz
She may not be subtle with that surname, but she earns the moniker with an abundance of laryngeal control and clarity. At The Big Top, she also commanded a crack nine-piece band dressed in all white. Drea (pronounced “Dree-uh”) also knew she was playing a hometown show, opening with “Proud Mary,” complete with Tina Turner’s phrasing and dance shimmies. Later, she turned to more tropical sounds with the Brazilian-inspired “Rio” and “Costa Rica Floral,” on which she was joined by chill-pill rapper Jerei, interpolating parts of Outkast’s “So Fresh, So Clean.” Later, she was joined by vocalist (and husband) The Gold Giraffe on the latter’s “If St. Louis Had a Beach” to cap a fun guest-packed set from one of the area’s most versatile and entertaining singers.
Best Local Rapper: T-Dubb-O
St. Louis rapper T-Dubb-O delivered a hard-hitting set in The Sovereign backed by DJ Muda (“on the vibe”), live drums, bass, trumpet, and sax. With such a musical backdrop, T-Dubb’s verses flowed over a set of dense, forceful soundscapes, and he had to work hard to break through the sonic wash. Working the wings of the stage, Dubb (in a Cardinals cap) was bathed in menacing stage lighting, complementing his clipped, gritty vocal tone and the sharp insistence of the prolific rapper’s street-anthem lyrics. Fiercest cut: “Talk of the Town.” Bonus: TDO’s brother, G the Singer, was on hand with the hooks and the hype.
Best Party Starter: Leela James
R&B belter Leela James was all about getting the people up and dancing at the Field Stage, and she welcomed the diversity at the heart of MATI crowds. “Black people, raise your fists!” James shouted, “White people say, ‘I love everybody!’” James sounded great on her own material, especially the smoldering “Don’t Want You Back” and the G-funk soul of “Complicated,” but she was most interested in growling at the audience to have a good time. And it was impossible not to as James and her dancers led the crowd in singalongs of Snoop’s “Who Am I (What’s My Name)?” and V.I.C.’s “Wobble,” prompting spontaneous line dancing on the lawn.
Best Rizz: Brenda Navarette
After sitting in with Weedie and during a Saturday morning percussion clinic, Navarette got her own solo turn in The Big Top Saturday evening. A full half-hour after her scheduled start time, Navarette was still sound-checking, but with the band vamping all the while, much of the crowd thought the sound-futzing was the real show. Finally, a tall dude in the crowd wearing a tunic and turban and carrying a long staff walked down to the stagefront and handed Navarette a bouquet of flowers. “He’s in love,” she sang improvisationally over the band. Most of the other men in the crowd wished they would have thought of it. Navarette is a charismatic beauty, and she kept things loose, continually playing with the crowd, coaching call-and-response parts, only 20 percent of which was in English. When she played the congas, three positioned horizontally in front of her, she was all hair and smiles and rhythmic flourish. It was a more languid set that we had come to expect from her high-energy cameos earlier, but whatever she’s doing, Brenda the Bomba is among the most charismatic performers on any stage.
Best Local Jazzmasters: Adam Maness Trio
The sensational trio of pianist Adam Maness, bassist Bob DeBoo, and drummer Kaleb Kirby rewarded folks at Jazz St. Louis on Saturday night, as these masters played a set that was both elegant and full of surprises. Maness is a marvel, with crystalline expressions on the upper keys and the lightest of touches when exploring dynamics. And nobody plays deBass like DeBoo, continually seizing on Maness’ cues and contrapunting the songs forward, while Kirby sneaked in unexpected cross-rhythms amid the three-way conversation. Best tune: An impressionistic reading of “It’s a Hard Knock Life.” Best seat: up in the balcony with the jazzbos.
Most Melismatic: Lucky Daye
“Where my day-ones at?” buzzy neo-R&B singer Lucky Daye asked the Field Stage crowd, and by the reaction from the audience, they were present in droves. They were there to hear the young star emote all over the stage in his smooth, expressive tenor, filled with plenty of aughties-era R&B melisma. And Daye’s falsetto, an impressively wielded instrument, was met with squeals across the lawn. He’s not stingy with his vocal application—sometimes embellished with heavy vocal effects—at pains to equate vocal maximalism with intimacy. It was all backed by arrangements that tilted toward low-end frequencies, as Daye had just a rhythm section augmenting backing tracks behind him, and the drummer brought more pieces in his kit than any other drummer of the weekend. It worked for the half of the audience familiar with songs like “NWA,” “Over” (he sat for that one), and “Floods,” by which time he’d shed his oversized gold jersey for a white tank. He later opted for shirtlessness—after all, you can’t expect a young, lean, slow-jam specialist to stay shirted for long.
Sweetest Nostalgia: The S.O.S. Band
The Big Top was where Gen Xers (and their parents) gathered to take in The S.O.S. Band’s romantic, danceable R&B hits, popular back when ‘70s funk ran into ‘80s R&B. Sadly, lead vocalist Mary Davis has retired; she’s now replaced on stage by a couple of neon-clad surrogates who injected some youthful energy into the party. But vocalist/trumpeter Abdul Ra’oof is still here. Singing and dancing in a bright orange fedora, Ra’oof paid tribute to Davis on stage, as well as recently departed S.O.S. guitarist Reginald Ward. And despite the personnel turnover, the group’s vibrant, sax-heavy (Sultan Muhammad, what a blower) versions of classics such as “Tell Me If You Still Care,” “No One’s Gonna Love You,” and “High Hopes” (“We need a lot of that today,” Ra’oof said), and the band’s trademark old-school R&B sway choreography, guaranteed that the S.O.S. set was one of the weekend’s most heartful and rapturous experiences.
Loudest Doom-Funk: The Budos Band
Over in The Sovereign, The Budos Band, the libation-loving New York–bred psych-rock instrumental nonet, turned things all the way up, the horns blasting and the organ swirling into a penetrating sonic wall. On songs like “Black Venom” and “Chicago Falcon,” the band, stacked with three percussionists, created a dark cinematic doom-funk and hypnotic rhythmic swirl that pulled the audience into a horn-heavy urban inferno. Vintage organ deepened the ‘70s groove, as did trumpeter Andrew Greene’s Staten Island–tough dialect on his song intros, but it was hard to take your eyes (or ears) off of graybeard bassist Daniel Foder, who plays spleen-rattling lines while facing his axe upward-and-outward like he’s showing you a painting.
The Pros’ Pros: Common and Pete Rock
The MATI crowd packed the lawn at the Field Stage to see Common, who delivered a tightly paced convivial set defined by Common’s crisp verbalism, inclusive vibrations, and bright backing tracks (courtesy of DJ Dummy). It was an old-school review as Common leaned on throwback covers (Black Star’s “Respiration”), boom-bap neighborhood nostalgia (“The Corners”), solo cuts (“Universal Mind Control”), and collaborations with legendary producer Pete Rock (“Wise Up”). Rock showed up a third of the way into the set to run through some of his greatest production hits, like Nas’s “The World is Yours” and a mashup of Run-DMC’s “Sucka M.C.’s” and “Down With the King.” Common continually threw out hometown references to “The Lou,” citing 1995 as the first time he played here, and to prove he’s a man of the people, Common brought up a 4-year-old named Juliana and her mom to frolic around on stage. By show’s end, Common was wading out into the middle of the crowd. And only in St. Louis: Common brought out Keyon Harrold for a virtuosic improv solo over Smurf Smith’s piano figures, a killer moment during the most sonically pristine set of the weekend.
Worst Organ Failure: John Medeski’s Mad Skillet
If the Common set supplied the best sound quality of the festival, the most frustrating tech trouble goes to John Medeski’s session in The Big Top, where Medeski’s organ crapped out halfway through the set, and Medeski spent most of the remainder of the band’s time crawling under the organ, wiggling cables, and looking around angrily. Dynamite drummer Terence Higgins (so powerful a player he threatened to overwhelm the rest of the quartet) and sousaphonist Kirk Joseph were forced to provide cover with lengthy solos, as Medeski eventually gave up and switched to piano. It was a shame; after all, when everything was working, the Skillet demonstrated that they are among the most genre-sprawlingly talented ensembles on the jazz scene.
Best Late-Night Jam: Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
Denson and his six-piece KDTU hit the Sovereign stage 20 minutes late but held on to hardy jazz and jam revelers at The Sovereign until deep into the night. The 69-year-old Denson was in a playful mood, dancing around, asking us to scream, playing flute loops early in the set, toggling between the tenor and alto saxes, and hitting a cowbell with a tambourine. It was a jammy, frenetic, largely instrumental show, even by Denson’s standards of unpredictable setlists, and guitarist Ricky Giordano was given considerable room to stretch out. Mid-set, Denson sang the funk-rock fave “I’m Your Biggest Fan,” and things took a more soulful turn with the arrival of vocalist Danielle Barker, whose silvery upper register sounded like a third brass instrument on stage. Later, Keyon Harrold—he was everwhere—strolled out to join Ricio Fruge in a twin-trumpet attack. It was a suitably hot ending to a long sweltering day in Grand Center.
Best Trumpet Orgy: Miles Davis Tribute
Next May will mark Miles Davis’s 100th birthday, and the celebration came early in The Big Top on Sunday as some of the finest trumpeters in St. Louis played a series of Miles covers. Kasimu Taylor led a lissom reading of “Milestones” (the older version) while Danny Campbell, Brady Lewis, Dustin Shrum joined forces on a second “Milestones” (the newer one). And there’s damn sure no trumpet party this weekend without Keyon Harrold, who hopped on stage, as did the purple-haired Dawn Weber (of Vargas Swing fame) for a six-horn blast of “Two Bass Hit.”
Biggest Star Turn: Eldraco
It was a breakout star day for Eldraco and their band Freenation, who went big on the Field Stage. With Sunday temperatures liquifying bodily organs, it was too hot for most fans to stand out on the grass and listen to, say, a bass solo. But a few of the hardiest music lovers braved it for Eldraco. Eldraco is glammy (the whole band was in gold lamé) and campy, but that voice is no joke, which they proved on “Glitter,” the title track of their new EP, a snippet of Patti LaBelle’s “Somebody Loves You” in tribute to the night’s headliner, and a gorgeous cover Brandi Carlile’s “The Joke.” Later that night, Eldraco was on stage with LaBelle herself, seizing the moment by professing their love for Patti, dancing wildly, and singing a skyrocketing sample of “Lady Marmalade.”
Best Blues: Matt “The Rattlesnake” Lesch
It was high time for Rattlesnake Letsch’s solo career after being a journeyman guitarist for everyone else, and during a sizzling set on Sunday he proved why his sideman days should be over. Sticking to standard blues forms, most of his songs (“Feels So Good,” “Blues Cut Like Glass”) were an excuse for Lesch to cut loose on the guitar, and the cat has the kind of blistering leads—think SRV—that won over the blues true-believers (and others just desperately seeking air-conditioning) at The Sovereign. Plus, with a trumpet and saxophone in the band, this five-piece hit with both blues muscle and Stax punch.
Best Vocal Chameleon: Leon Thomas
Leon Thomas had plenty of screaming fans on the Field Stage lawn, and every time Thomas shifted voices, from a classic-soul croon to a floating falsetto to pinched rapping nasality, the ladies shrieked with appreciation. He led a tight four-piece that, with hard-hitting drums and heavy-groove bass playing, combined alt-R&B with hip-hop and funk-metal. The best moments were when Thomas strapped on a Stratocaster, demonstrating that he’s as much musician as vocalist, particularly on the late-night midtempo jam “Slow Down.” It was oppressively hot during Thomas’ set, but most fans still thought the hour-long set was too short.
Best Chemistry: The Baylor Project
Married couple Marcus (drums) and Jean (vocals) Baylor were downright adorable on the Big Top stage during what felt like a homecoming. Marcus grew up in St. Louis, and his 91-year-old mother was in the audience. She got to see her son play one of the weekend’s most sportive, unusual drum solos; it was like watching a Curly Neal dribbling routine. And Jean is a singer of great style and grace: “Tell Me a Story” was all dreamy and smoky-toned; “Happy to Be With You” was bright and swinging. The band weaved in praise songs—it was Sunday after all—and the Project’s other four musicians (piano, flugelhorn, soprano sax, bass) were all uniformly first-rate.
Best Solar Music: Butcher Brown
For the reverb-dunked bebop-rock lovers on hand, Butcher Brown laid down the thick atmospheric grooves and sidewinding jams they were looking for. The Virginian quintet calls its sound “solar music” because the group plays “everything under the sun.” Thank god, however, they were in the dark, cool confines of The Sovereign. But, yes, their set veered from straight-up jazz fusion (“Frontline”) to psychedelic funk (“Tidal Wave”) to hip-hop (“DUKWYD”), at other times shifting to flanged-out guitar rock and capering bossa nova. These mood shifts kept things interesting for the audience, just as the MATI crowd let bands stretch out stylistically, hanging in there even during a lengthy electric-bass meander-jam.
Best Soul Antennae: De La Soul
It was all smiles at the Field Stage for De La Soul. Now a duo, Posdnuos and Maseo honored the memory of Trugoy (who died in 2023) early in the set. “He’s still here with us, just not physically,” Posdnuos said. De La made good on the promise to honor him by giving the crowd an energetic, nostalgic, well-designed set of one classic track after another. Maseo comes out from behind the DJ table now and then to take some of Turgoy’s lines, but the big surprise for many came when Black Star legend Talib Kweli materialized a third of the way into the set and stayed for the remainder, recreating the old De La trio format. Kweli is famously political, which he touched on a time or two—turns out he’s against fascism and genocide—but it was an overall sweet hour-long set filled with old-school beats and technicolor rhymes. Would it surprise you to know that we were asked to put our hands in the air a few times? “A hand up is like an antenna,” Plug One told us. “It receives energy. It means you’ve got a soul.” “Me Myself and I” came at the end of the set, of course, and even though they revived the old “we hate this song” bit, it was a jubilant enough affair that no one in the crowd was buying it.
Best B-3: Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio
The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio ended up with a tough draw having to play opposite De La Soul. So The Big Top was largely empty for their set, a shame given the warm tones and infectious rhythms the band was pumping out. No one in the trio looks like they would be in the same band, but they nonetheless link up with tight instrumental synergy, from the loungy soul-jazz emphasized early to the perkier funk that came late. The band tried out some new material and swirled through some 12-bar blues workouts as guitarist Brice Calvin countered Lamarr’s organ with a series of clean, funk-fueled guitar figures. It was enough to satisfy the crowd—indie-rock hipsters and serious jazzheads—and the energy in the crowd gradually increased until the band’s funkalicious final crescendo.
Best Bartender: Arooj Aftab
When Arooj Aftab first stepped out—black dress, long straight hair, black sunglasses, partially hidden in blue-light shadows—it looked like we were in for an Ozzy tribute. But then it got much more Mazzy Starr, with spare, haunting instrumentation behind the Pakistani-American singer’s floating melodies. The audience was silent during the meditative “Suroor” and “Diya Hai,” after which Aftab lightened the mood by joking about how she might not fit the MATI lineup: “There’s not going to fucking be a lot of crazy jazz playing,” she joked. But she wasn’t altogether correct, as the band’s double-bass and guitar parts provided plenty of jazz-inflected harmonies and phrasing around Aftab’s ethereal vocals. And you’re not going to believe this: Before playing a song called “Whiskey,” she had an assistant hand out free whiskey to the fans in front of the stage.
Best Jazz Education: Branford Marsalis
When Branford Marsalis was here in 2024 playing for a Jazz St. Louis benefit, he was an ensemble player who was often overshadowed by his brother Wynton’s trumpet and oversize personality. So it was nice to see Branford lead his own combo, an incredible group of players at the tippy-top of the jazz field. Pianist Joey Calderazzo was a wonder, and his “The Mighty Sword” was one of the set’s highlights, a song that sounded like all four musicians were playing a different song until they locked in with exact precision. And Justin Faulker is one of the most enjoyable drums to watch work, often going ballistic on the kit while the other players are provided simple space and texture. Marsalis whispered deliberately with finesse and emotional depth on the soprano at some points, but let it rip at others, shouting on the sax through a gorgeous run through Fred Fisher’s “There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears.” The thump of Patti LaBelle’s headline set bled a time or two over The Big Top, but the small but rapt crowd there were certain they chose the right show.
Biggest Star: Patti LaBelle
The weekend’s biggest crowd crammed onto the lawn at the Field Stage for Patti LaBelle. The 81-year-old looked great in flowing kimono-style outfits, layered jewelry, her hair in soft waves, her nails painted white and as long as you’d expect. (Diana Ross, who played The Muny last month, is the same age. Both ladies set a new standard for aging pop queens.) Why isn’t Patti LaBelle in The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame yet? She certainly has the hits and the staying power, and her calling card—that piercing stratospheric soprano (or, yes, scream)—was still there on Sunday night. There were signs of fatigue, of course, as LaBelle continually mentioned the heat (“I didn’t know it would be like this!”) and asked for cold water and ice. But the old pro soldiered through with commanding stage presence and that electrifying tone, even if she relied heavily on her backing singers on “On My Own” (the singer who handled Michael McDonald’s lines came close to stealing the show) and another McDonald classic “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near),” during which she broke out into the closest she came all night to dancing, which earned her a spontaneous “Go Patti!” chant. The sense of humor is still there too: During “Love, Need and Want You,” she followed the line “I got this burning desire” with a cry of “Menopause!” Sixty-five years into her career, LaBelle still does bring the fire. Before singing “You Asked Me To,” she mentioned that Celine Dion also recorded the song. “But don’t get it twisted,” LaBelle said. “I did it first.” It was an exuberant way to cap MATI 2025, the festival ending, just as Patti LaBelle always does, on a high note.
For more images from MATI 2025, check out bit.ly/MATI25cz.
