MUSIC - Jazzman Jason Morgan's Goal to Enthrall New Jazz Listeners

"Jason Moran strikes up the band — and a conversation — to enthrall new jazz listeners" PBS NewsHour 6/16/2014

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Pianist and composer Jason Moran is one of today’s best-known younger jazz musicians.  Performing solo and with his trio around the world, he’s a true believer that his art form can transport and transform an audience.

JASON MORAN, Artistic Director for Jazz, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts:  Well, there’s a power that kind of starts to stir in the body.  The molecules start to, start to want to jump around.  It has a possibility to change how the body feels, how the mind feels.

And that is something that you can’t quantify.  And then, when the music hits the audience, and when it hits the space, the air, it has the possibility to change everything in that person’s being.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Now the 39-year-old has a distinctive public perch here at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where he’s been named artistic director for jazz, with a goal of both preserving a tradition and building new audiences.