Daahoud Salim Quintet Performs at SAC in Jazz Collaboration

Hamptons Jazz Fest heats up the New Year this weekend with the next offering in its second annual Winter Jazz Series, which hosts monthly concerts on the East End throughout the off-season. On Saturday, January 14, at 7 p.m., Hamptons Jazz Fest in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center On The Road Series presents the U.S. debut of the Daahoud Salim Quintet performing at Southampton Arts Center.

Salim, a pianist and composer, leads this international quintet which was created in Amsterdam in 2015. Since then, the group has performed in leading concert halls and at festivals across Europe. Their music is based on compositions by Salim and his father, Abdu Salim, who sometimes accompanies the quintet on stage and is a pioneer of jazz in Spain, founder of the first school of jazz of Andalusia and a source of inspiration for the group.

Having the opportunity to bring world-renowned musicians like Salim and his quintet to the East End in the quietest months of the year is quite a treat for local audiences, and one that is possible only through the collaborative effort with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s On The Road Series.

“This is a good one,” said Claes Brondal, executive director of the Hamptons Jazz Fest, of the upcoming concert. “It’s important because we want to nurture our relationship with Jazz at Lincoln Center. They are great collaborators and their On The Road Series is with up and coming artists from around the world who we would never get otherwise.

“Lincoln Center has the means and infrastructure to do that,” he continued. “We have the infrastructure to do shows out here. We’ve been collaborating with them for a couple years now.”

Being able to see top-notch jazz locally in January is, indeed, quite a privilege and one that wouldn’t be possible without the Lincoln Center connection. Especially since, as Brondal notes, there are a limited number of truly local jazz musicians available.

“In terms of local jazz musicians, there are only so many, and we have lost half a dozen in the last few years,” Brondal explained. “There are probably less than 10 who live out here. Many have passed on and many have moved away. We also had COVID and the high cost of living. One musician moved to Italy, where it is a fraction of what it costs to live here. So we import the musicians we need and use who we can locally.

“It’s scary to bring artists out here in the dead of winter and we’d be reluctant, but it’s a Catch-22. You have to present in the off-season to make it viable in the off-season next year,” he said. “It’s part of our five year plan, the first year we had low attendance, but it will catch on.”

Because the mission of Hamptons Jazz Fest is to present a wide range of jazz styles, working with Lincoln Center is an ideal way to tap into that talent from around the globe.

“Jazz at Lincoln Center has tentacles all over the world. There is a long roster of musicians they work with and collaborate with,” said Brondal. “Daahoud Salim’s band is based in Europe and Spain, and ironically, they have their own take with strong Spanish roots and heavy Middle Eastern roots. It’s a very interesting Spanish/Middle Eastern jazz performance. It’s not your typical 1940s jazz club style.

“Opportunities come along and sometimes relationships work out right and this one is working out very well,” added Brondal of the Lincoln Center collaboration. “Their mission is to promote jazz and the broad range that’s available. It’s a much bigger organization than we are and we’re happy to have an alliance here. Otherwise we would not have access to Daahoud.”

In addition to bringing great jazz to local audiences, another of Brondal’s primary goals with Hamptons Jazz Fest is to also nurture the next generation of music lovers. He points to an upcoming January 18 Bobby Sanabria Quartet concert at The Church in Sag Harbor as an example of the kinds of opportunities that should be encouraged for local students. Sanabria and his players use jazz music’s history and methodology as an inspiration for making visual art and the concert is being offered to Pierson High School students thanks to the efforts of retired art teacher Peter Solow through the school district’s Reutershan Trust.

“It’s about the language of jazz and art and how that’s closely related,” said Brondal. “Bobby Sanabria is a Latin jazz musician and educator and he talks about New York in the 1920s through ’50s as a melting pot of jazz and Caribbean music, which is a whole other side of jazz, Afro-Cuban as well.

“Getting through to young adults is extremely difficult, but it’s such an important experience for them,” he added. “It would be a shame if they are 21 before they hear jazz for the first time. We’re trying to create a cultural shift and bridge the gap between the music today and the roots.

“I see jazz as world music and Daahoud Salim is a wonderful representation of multi-cultural jazz from Europe, and it’s all made possible by Jazz at Lincoln Center On The Road,” he said. “It’s so important. Talking to young people at Pierson over the years, they have no experience with this kind of live music because they’ve had no access to it. Hamptons Jazz Fest is founded on the premise of making this kind of music accessible.”

Daahoud Salim Quintet performs on Saturday, January 14, at 7 p.m. The concert at Southampton Arts Center is presented by Hamptons Jazz Fest in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center On The Road Series. The quintet includes Daahoud Salim on piano, Bruno Calvo on trumpet, Pablo Martínez on trombone, Hendrik Müller on double bass and Andreu Pitarch on drums. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 ($15 members) at hamptonsjazzfest.org. In addition to a beer and wine bar, available for purchase will be a South Indian Ayurvedic meal by Corey De Rosa’s Tapovana Lunch Box. Southampton Arts Center is at 25 Jobs Lane, Southampton. Visit southamptonartscenter.org for more details.

Daahoud Salim Quintet in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center On The Road Series — Southampton Arts Center, Saturday, January 14, 7 to 9 p.m.

Carolina Calvache Trio — Parrish Art Museum, Friday, February 24, 6 to 8 p.m.

Fabian Almazan Quintet — Preshow “Jazz Fest 2022” exhibition by photographer Ric Kallaher, Southampton Arts Center, Saturday, April 22, 7 to 9 p.m.

Robin Verheyen Quartet — Southampton Arts Center, Saturday, May 13, 7 to 9 p.m.

The March concert at Southampton Arts Center is still to be announced.