By Paul Robicheau

Kamasi Washington, Herbie Hancock, Flea and a lively new generation showed how the festival is stretching jazz’s boundaries without losing its center.

Khn of Angine de Poitrine at Newport Jazz. Photo: Paul Robicheau

The Newport Jazz Festival struck a crazy balance this past weekend in taking a step back toward its jazz roots while bringing the music forward. America’s oldest jazz festival (founded in 1954 by the late George Wein) has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, now selling out way in advance, if not as quickly as its Newport Folk sibling a week earlier. Part of that could be due to crossover acts that appeal to younger audiences, peaking last year with Janelle Monáe, Jacob Collier, and Raye.

Naturally, that has also sparked age-old grumbling over what’s happened to the real jazz artists, much like when older Newport Folk attendees wonder why that fest has become a bastion of indie-rock. Meanwhile, both events have delved into hip-hop as well. Some of that evolution is generational, of course, though Newport Jazz really wrestled with the crossover dilemma at the dawn of the ’70s when Wein booked rockers like Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers Band, creating problems with overflow crowds that sent the Rhode Island fest packing to New York until 1981.

Kamasi Washington and Chief Adjuah at Newport Jazz. Photo: Paul Robicheau

This 72nd edition of Newport Jazz showcased a Kamasi Washington-led centennial celebration of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, in addition to sets by jazz masters Billy Hart, Charles Lloyd, and Herbie Hancock.

Hancock and Lloyd have become regular fixtures at Newport and other area venues, even into their late 80s. Yet Lloyd spent much of his set blowing his earthy, spiritual tenor without depending on the lauded pianist Jason Moran and bassist Larry Grenadier to fill out the spaces in his Sky Quartet. Hancock, who closed Sunday after rain finally broke at the end of six days of excellent weather between the folk and jazz festivals, rode slow funk grooves with his crack band — featuring guitarist Lionel Loueke and bassist James Genus — and moved across the stage with his oversized keytar like a rock star.

Mohini Dey at Newport Jazz. Photo: Paul Robicheau

However, when it came to peak rock-star-level buzz at this year’s Newport Jazz, one couldn’t imagine more bizarre bookends than the costumed Quebec duo Angine de Poitrine and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, who sported pink hair and brandished a trumpet for Miles Davis-styled jazz with his Honora Band.

Few acts of any genre have become both so hot and so divisive so quickly — factors that seem to go together — as the weird, anonymous Angine de Poitrine. That may be due largely to their polka-dotted trappings and frankfurter-shaped noses. Khn looped his guitar and bass parts on a double-neck with extra microtonal frets for uneasy, Eastern-like tonalities, while Klek slammed expanded beats in odd meters. Making their U.S. debut on Friday, the two wove a tight knot of math rock, prog, and surf rock (or jazz for Mars?) that proved entrancing, yet at times redundant. That made it easier to run over to a concurrent short set by the genre-blending Anoushka Shankar, who led a sharp jazz quartet, playing sitar in a traditional manner while also resting it horizontally for light downstrokes like a guitar.

Flea blazed on Sunday with his versatile, edgy jazz combo, wearing a red plastic kimono before stripping down to his tattooed bare chest, dancing and ranting as he alternated busy bass lines and moody trumpet stanzas. Still, while it was fine to hear him play “Wichita Lineman” on trumpet, one should really hear Nick Cave sing it on Flea’s Honora album. Flea also pulled a fast one on the weekend crowd by joining joyful pianist Jon Batiste’s trio set with Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith for a surprise jam opposite Kamasi Washington’s Saturday finale.

Marcus King and MonoNeon of Atomic Habitz at Newport Jazz. Photo:Paul Robicheau

Otherwise, apart from the blustery blues-rock of guitarist/singer Gary Clark Jr., the crossover action at Newport Jazz seemed more subtly — or tastefully — integrated this year. It spanned soulful jazz-pop from Lake Street Dive, with an added horn section; bubbling, minimalist sound collages from SML; and clean funk-fusion from Vulfpeck. That frisky outfit, which did double duty at Newport Folk, shuffled through guests topped by drummer Bernard Purdie, famed for his Purdie Shuffle, whose own combo earlier covered “Home at Last,” which he recorded with Steely Dan.

Vulfpeck mainstay Cory Wong also performed with his own band, augmented by saxophonist Joshua Redman, who blew high-powered tenor to match Wong’s hyperstrummed rhythm-guitar lead. Yet that main-stage band drew a smaller standing crowd than the one surrounding the mid-sized Quad stage for Snarky Puppy, which, like Vulfpeck, is an expandable group that specializes in technical proficiency through a revolving set of musicians who plug into its more deliberate jazz-rock fusion.

With Zach Brock’s violin, a horn section, and guest Isaiah Sharkey pairing with Mark Lettieri on guitar, the 10-piece edition of Snarky Puppy offered casual yet sporadically rousing orchestration. And the band’s fans made their choice. It’s hard to catch everything around the fest’s three stages at Fort Adams State Park.

Joshua Redman with Cory Wong at Newport Jazz. Photo: Paul Robicheau

One of the weekend’s most intriguing crossover collaborations came from Atomic Habitz. The all-star trio managed to click with the country-soul vocals and jammy guitar licks of Carolina rocker Marcus King, the throbbing bass of funk iconoclast MonoNeon, who wore a fluorescent green-and-yellow quilted outfit and a knit facemask, and the hip-hop-inspired rhythms of Chris Dave on drums and shaped cymbals.

Bass players made a particularly strong showing at Newport Jazz, from the electric virtuosity of Thundercat and the badass-to-watch Mohini Dey, who slayed with her fleet, spidery fingering and tightly energized fusion band on the small Harbor stage, to the acoustic work of Linda May Han Oh and elder master Dave Holland.

Like Dey, who played in Willow’s band at the 2025 fest, Oh made the move from supporting roles to bandleader. Her body swayed in sync with her upright bass as she centered a free, chordless trio with airy trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, while Holland joined fellow Miles Davis alumnus and guitarist John Scofield, trading compositions in sparse, cozy duo interplay.

Charles Lloyd with Jason Moran and Larry Grenadier at Newport Jazz 2026. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Burgeoning sax titan Kamasi Washington and trumpeter Chief Adjuah combined forces to pay tribute not only to Coltrane, Davis, and, upon his recent death, Sonny Rollins, but also to Washington’s longtime trombonist Ryan Porter, who died in an April car crash. The setup for Saturday’s closing program made it especially engaging: Washington’s band combined two iconic songs in each mash-up.

From its aggressive opening salvo of Miles Mosley’s harshly stroked upright bass and the double-drumming of Ronald Bruner Jr. and Tony Austin, the band’s pairing of Coltrane’s “Ole” and the Davis classic “All Blues” proved difficult to distinguish. But Coltrane’s “Acknowledgement” resonated with the crowd, particularly when Washington picked up its “A Love Supreme” riff on sax and singer Patrice Quinn took it home with affirmation, before a slide into “Little Church,” a Hermeto Pascoal tune from Davis’ Live Evil, where Adjuah stepped forward with rich, echoey trumpet. And a mix of Rollins’ “Tenor Madness” and “Oleo” found Washington stretching out on tenor over swinging, slamming drums and a solo by Anthony Coleman on electric keys.

Snarky Puppy at Newport Jazz. Photo Paul Robicheau

Drummer Nate Smith, the new artistic director of Newport Jazz, likewise found himself in the middle of channeling talents from the festival lineup, from his own band, including Snarky Puppy bassist Michael League and SML saxophonist Josh Johnson, to an “Off the Cuff” jam after Sienna Spiro canceled her slot due to an infection that left her unable to sing. But Smith’s real challenge will be creating Newport Jazz’s 2027 lineup from the ground up, balancing the “jazz” of the past with that of the future

Paul Robicheau served more than 20 years as contributing editor for music at the Improper Bostonian, in addition to writing and photography for The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He was also the founding arts editor of Boston Metro.