Free Jazz & Roots Music Festival Happens This Weekend

As I’ve mentioned in past posts, my love for Jazz started at Temple University when I began my radio career. Not only was I learning about radio and broadcasting, but I was also learning a lot about America’s only true art form, Jazz. I learned about it and I learned to truly love it just as much as my love for just about every other genre.

That’s one of the reasons I appreciate Kean University’s Jazz & Roots Music Festival, and I'm glad to share that it’s returning to the University’s East Campus in Hillside this Saturday, September 21 at 3:30 pm. They're offering the public and Kean community a festive free, outdoor celebration of music.

It will be headlined by reggae band Third World, (My brother and I had their record “Try Jah Love” back in the day.) The Jazz & Roots Music Festival will feature leading musicians in jazz, blues, reggae, fusion, and more in an evening of entertainment on The Lawn at Enlow Hall. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own food or enjoy the food trucks.

Kean President Lamont O. Repollet shared, “The Jazz & Roots Music Festival is easily one of the most anticipated events on the Kean calendar, we take great pride in hosting the festival as part of the University’s role as a cultural hub and anchor institution for the region. We encourage everyone to come join us on our beautiful campus.”

The festival is produced by Kean along with musician and producer Mike Griot who pointed out that the number of attendees has grown dramatically since the Jazz & Roots Music Festival began in 2021 with close to three thousand people attending.

Mike added “With a marquee musical headliner like Third World and other terrific performers, the Jazz & Roots Music Festival has arrived. It will be a dynamic and fun festival experience, and I am honored to partner with Kean University in this extraordinary collaboration.”

The Kean University Jazz & Roots Music Festival on The Lawn at Enlow Hall, on North Avenue in Hillside is ADA accessible and will open at 2:30 p.m. No tickets are required; the rain date is this Sunday, September 22.

All guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating. Parking will be at Kean’s Main Campus at 1000 Morris Avenue in Union which is a short walk from the concert site. A shuttle bus service will also be available. Accessible parking will be available at the venue in Hillside for senior citizens and guests with disability parking privileges. 

Third World – Celebrating 50 years as ambassadors of reggae, Third World is one of Jamaica's most consistently popular crossover acts. The nine-time Grammy-nominated band performs its signature genre of reggae fusion – mixing elements of R&B, funk, pop, rock, and rap – for audiences across the world.

Stefon Harris & Blackout – The Los Angeles Times heralded Harris as “one of the most important young artists in jazz.” A vibraphonist-composer, Harris is developing what is expected to be a long and extraordinary career.

Solomon Hicks – The 29-year-old guitar phenom from Harlem is a renowned guitarist, blues and jazz singer, songwriter, and composer who has performed in venues across the globe. Hicks took his first guitar lesson at age 6 and has been recording since he was 14.

Prince Hakim – Influenced by music from the 80s to today, Hakim has traveled from New York to Tokyo sharing his passion and spreading his message to “celebrate life.” The son of Robert “Kool” Bell from Kool & The Gang, he has DJ’d at locations ranging from the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival to Carnegie Hall.

For more information on directions, parking, food vendors, and more, visit  kean.edu/jazz-roots.

Over the weekend, Kendrick Lamar announced that he is playing the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show. Kendrick Lamar played the Super Bowl Halftime Show in 2022 in 2022, as part of a performance that was led by Dr. Dre and also featured Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and 50 Cent. He performed a medley of his songs "M.a.a.D. City" and "Alright."

It seems likely that Kendrick will have guests join him at his headlining performance. Not that he needs the help: Lamar is a 17-time Grammy Award winner who knocks out classic album after classic album. 2012’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, 2015’s To Pimp A Butterfly and 2017’s DAMN. are some of hip-hop’s greatest LPs. He’s won a lot of other awards as well, including the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music: he’s the first musician outside of classical and jazz to be so honored. 

Lamar doesn’t rely on collaborators: some of his best songs are true solo efforts, like “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “Swimming Pools (Drank),” “King Kunta,” “i,” “DNA,” “HUMBLE,” and of course, “Alright.” And then, there’s his Drake diss track, which was one of the biggest jams of the summer, “Not Like Us.” 

But he’s also a great collaborator, having teamed up with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and in popular music in general, including Beyonce, Taylor Swift, U2, the Weeknd and Jay Z. 

He’s great at bringing people together, as he proved at his one-off concert, “The Pop-Out: Ken & Friends” that was held at the KIA Forum in Inglewood, California on June 19, aka Juneteenth. The show featured Ty Dolla $ign, Tyler, The Creator, Roddy Ricch, YG, Schoolboy Q, and Dr. Dre, among others. Beyond that, he united Bloods and Crips on the stage as well. (Ice-T posted, "A Potential Gang Truce in LA is like a Cure for Cancer for us…. Extreme Respect to @kendricklamar.")

While most of those guests (other than maybe Dr. Dre) are unlikely Halftime show collaborators, we thought that it would be fun to speculate on who, if anyone, Kendrick might invite to the stage. 

This is an obvious choice. Kendrick and SZA’s collaboration, “All The Stars,” from 2018’s Black Panther film, is one of his most well-known songs. It also feels like a perfect opening to a Halftime show. SZA is also one of the most exciting artists of the past decade: it wouldn’t be a shock to see her headline Halftime in a few years.

Dre had Kendrick with him at the Super Bowl in 2022 and now Kendrick can return the favor for “The Recipe.” “The Recipe” was Kendrick’s first commercial single. Of course, Kendrick is signed to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath label, so it was no surprise to see Dre on the track: however, he's been a bit less invovled with Kendrick than he was with his other protegees Eminem and Snoop Dogg. Kendrick and Dre could also do “Compton,” but that would seem a weird choice: that song would have made more sense in 2022.

Even though Rihanna didn’t have any guests at her Super Bowl Halftime show, that doesn’t mean that she can’t be a guest at someone else’s. (And hey, every guest would have been overshadowed by her pregnancy reveal during her performance.) A performance of “Loyalty” by Kendrick and Rihanna would be a huge moment.

Beyonce headlined in 2013 – one of the greatest halftime shows ever – and guested with Coldplay when they headlined in 2016, where she actually debuted a new song, "Formation," from her forthcoming Lemonade. A Kendrick/Beyonce performance would just about break the internet. “Freedom,” also from Bey’s 2016 Lemonade, has become a huge anthem. Alternatively, they could do Beyonce’s “America Has A Problem” remix, which featured Kendrick. That seems a bit confrontational for the NFL. But then again, "Formation" was pretty political too.

OK, yeah, it sounds crazy, given how heated their battle got this year. By all accounts, Kendrick was the decisive winner of that battle. And many hip-hop fans felt that Kendrick was baiting Drake in the video used to announce that he was playing the Halftime Show. When he said, “You know there’s only one opportunity to win a championship. No round twos,” it felt like he was declaring victory over his opponent. But the Super Bowl comes just weeks after the Presidential inauguration, and no matter who wins that contest, half the country will be upset. Kendrick and Drake could make a moment that’s bigger than both of them by officially ending their beef, and moving on. Sure, it sound unlikely, but no one ever thought that Jay-Z and Nas would come to terms, and they did. A Kendrick/Drake truce at the Super Bowl would not only be a great moment in music and sports history, but would also set an example for former adversaries to move past their conflicts. And that’s a lesson the whole world could benefit from today.