Take five
Snappy dressers playing the Newport Jazz Fest sound off about fashion
The flappers of the Roaring Twenties. The sharp suits of the bebop era. The Afrocentric dashikis and other garb of the 1970s. The quintessential American music, jazz has reflected popular culture not only with sound but with pageantry. From sartorial trademarks like Lester Young's pork-pie hat to Miles Davis's restless reinventions, jazz style has, like the music itself, crystallized that seductive combination: transgression with elegance. With the Newport Jazz Festival coming up Aug. 10-12, we asked a few of the most distinctive dressers in the lineup to share their elements of style.
Roy Hargrove
Instrument: Trumpet
Latest album: "Nothing Serious" (2006) and "Distractions" (2006)
Describe your fashion style: I just try to stay neat. I wear skinny ties, French collar shirts. Right now it's hot, so I'm wearing a lot of linen. I like old-school jazz fashion, suits that are tailored nice.
Favorite designers? I'm wearing shirts by Mobolaji. He's this Nigerian guy who makes great shirts. I also like Ben Sherman, Banana Republic, Armani. . . . There's a vintage store in New York called Flying A that has very nice stuff.
When did you start paying attention to how you looked? Not until high school. My best friend in high school, Sheldon Wright, turned me on to being kind of GQ. But I had this girlfriend, she wasn't really tripping, but her mom dogged me for how I dressed. I was wearing sweats and gold, and she was like, who is this little thug? I said, I gotta change this up!
Paquito D'Rivera
Instrument: Clarinet
Latest album: "Funk Tango" (2007)
Describe your fashion style: It's very eclectic. I'm a tropical man, so I like guayaberas a lot. I love white pants and two-tone shoes. And I love straw hats, I used to wear those all the time.
What's your view of jazz fashion today? We have lost a lot of style, musicians in general. In the old days when you'd play a nightclub, everybody knew that you had to dress like a person. And if you're going to dress [horribly], do it all the way, like Mick Jagger or Jimi Hendrix. Don't wear the same thing you wear to go to the grocery store.
Nnenna Freelon
Instrument: Singer
Latest album: "Blueprint of a Lady" (2005)
Describe your fashion style: I look at fashion, the way you drape yourself and what you choose to wear, as an extension of your personality. I like fun, comfort, bright colors, and things that move.
Who were your biggest fashion influences? Billie Holiday was such a sharp dresser. People like Sarah Vaughan and Lena Horne always looked wonderfully elegant. And Nancy Wilson was truly a fashion leader. At a time when there were not many images of black women in print, they gave young girls something to look up to and say, "She looks great!"
How about non-musicians? I was raised in the church in Cambridge actually, I attended St. Paul's A.M.E. People really took that praising the Lord seriously. You had to look your best. And I have an aunt in Cambridge who's the fashion queen. She's the
Marcus Miller
Instrument: Electric bass
Latest album: "Silver Rain" (2005)
Who are your favorite designers? I like the Levi's out of Japan. They make a lot of jeans for me. It's wild. They measure how far from the ground my knee is, so that the faded part falls right at the knee.
Who were your biggest fashion influences?
When I was working with Miles, he used to call me to his house, and I thought it would be to talk about music, but instead we'd try on clothes for three hours.
What about other people than Miles?
I really liked Marvin Gaye's stuff, like the leather jacket on the "What's Going On" cover. And before that, the R&B singer Jackie Wilson. I think my first influence was the Jackson 5, all those colors that weren't supposed to match.
Marie Daulne
Instrument: Lead singer, Zap Mama
Latest album: "Supermoon" (out next Tuesday)
Describe your fashion style: I'd say I'm Afro-European. I mix African roots with European, Paris fashion elegance. I'm attracted to '70s elegance: something funky, different, with a personal touch. I love high heels but I like to run from one side of the stage to the other, and that's impossible in heels.
Who are your fashion influences? One of my best friends is a fashion stylist. And then Erykah Badu, she invited me to her home in Dallas, with some of her friends and her little baby, and we spent three days just trying styles. She's really good at that.
