Reviews

Vision Festival Celebrates Jazz, Both Past and Future

The pianist and singer Amina Claudine Myers, working in a duo with the bassist and violinist Henry Grimes, began her set on the outer margins of tonality and slowly moved toward the center. There was spiky abstraction in the first half of the set, along with some poetry by Mr. Grimes, delivered with authoritative clarity by Ms. Myers.

The saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell. Paula Lobo for The New York Times

Eventually Ms. Myers corralled Mr. Grimes into a sure-footed walking blues. Then she applied her commanding voice to a pair of standards: Billie Holiday’s abjectly carnal ballad “Fine and Mellow” and the Isaiah Jones Jr. spiritual “God Has Smiled on Me.” Both tunes were rousingly performed, with no evident fretting over the juxtaposition.

Roscoe Mitchell, a saxophonist and composer of rigorous disposition, closed the program with some of its strongest music. He appeared in three ensembles: two separate trios that then merged to form a larger unit. The first trio, with Hugh Ragin on trumpet and Tyshawn Sorey on trombone, suggested a controlled bloom of growly intrigue, moving slowly and with enigmatic purpose.