Jason Moran & The Bandwagon

Thursday, April 18, 2019 | 8:00 pm

The Fruit

Jason Moran is one of modern music’s most vital forces. Through a series of ambitious projects meant to bring jazz to a wider audience — such as the 2007 Duke Performances commission In My Mind, which reimagined Thelonious Monk’s 1959 Town Hall performance —  Moran has become one of the most sought-after pianists and bandleaders in jazz today. With frequent daring nods to funk, hip-hop, and contemporary composition, Moran has expanded jazz’s stylistic reach and given it new vitality. Now a label head and the artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center, Moran is the form’s “greatest young conceptualist,” as JazzTimes exclaimed.

In concert with long-running trio The Bandwagon, Moran and his bandmates, bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, display an onstage interaction that is seamless and wide-ranging. The Bandwagon plays Durham Fruit & Produce Co., a distinctive room whose character will complement Moran’s singular vision.

“Moran has his own sense of touch and rhythm and harmony, rounded and forgiving rather than pinpointed; it lets you in.”