Great to see this review in the German jazz magazin JazzThing:
“It was back in 2003 that trumpeter-composer and label head (Greenleaf Music) Dave Douglas started up his Festival of New Trumpet Music (also referred to as FONT) to discover and encourage aspiring trumpeters. In its earliest incarnation, the festival took place at Tonic, the experimental Lower East Side venue where musical renegades like John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp and bands like SexMob and Medeski, Martin & Wood often performed. In subsequent years, FONT relocated to other venues such as the New York Baha’l Center, the 14th Street YMCA, Makor and finally the Jazz Standard, where it remained (along with other satellite venues) until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced FONT to go strictly online. Over the years, FONT has not only presented new trumpet talent, including Ralph Alessi, Keyon Harrold, Kirk Knuffke, Jeremy Pelt, Matt Lavelle, Peter Evans, Nate Wooley, Shane Endsley, Axel Dörner, Giveton Gelin and Jaimie Branch, it also honored trumpet elders like Bill Dixon, Lester Bowie, Butch Morris, Woody Shaw, Tomasz Stanko, Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler, Dizzy Reece, Baikida Carroll, Charles Tolliver, Eddie Henderson, Randy Brecker, Tom Harrell, Jimmy Owens and Wadada Leo Smith. This year’s festivities, which took place Sept. 9-15 at venues across New York City, Queens, Brooklyn and even Buffalo, honored trumpeter Jon Faddis with a Lifetime Recognition Award, presented at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Corona, Queens on the very spot where Satchmo resided with his wife Lucille from 1943 until his death in 1971. Other highlights of the week-long celebration included a performance by festival founder Dave Douglas with his three-trumpet ensemble Alloy (with fellow trumpeters Dave Adewumi and Alexandra Ridout) at The Jazz Gallery, Ben Neill playing his futuristic three-bell interactive mutantrumpet at Brooklyn’s Public Records, veteran trumpeter James Zollar at Sista’s Place in Brooklyn and rising star trumpeters Julie Acosta and Grace Fox at Fotografiska. Virtual performances were also delivered online by trumpeters abroad, including Canada’s Rachel Therrien, South Africa’s Feya Faku, France’s Yoann Loustalot and Finland’s Kirsi-Marja Harju.”
by Bill Milkowski, JazzThing, February 2025
