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Live At Newport Jazz 2017
Description
## The Philadelphia Experiment - Live At Newport Jazz 2017
There are ghosts in every Philadelphia studio, and The Philadelphia Experiment conjured a particularly spectral one. Recorded in September 2000 and released in 2001, the trio's debut album merged three distinct musical lineages: the hard-bop tradition embodied by bassist Christian McBride, the keyboardist Uri Caine's jazz-fusion sensibility, and the hip-hop rhythmic mastery of then-Roots drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. The result was neither fusion nor mere collaboration-it was something older, something elemental. Seventeen years later, they returned to Newport to perform their fifth live engagement together, capturing a moment that felt both inevitable and miraculous.
This live rendition from the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival offers more than a simple reunion; it documents the living, breathing evolution of a sonic architecture built on mutual respect and shared DNA. The performance is notably leaner than the studio work, stripping away production layers to reveal the core tension between jazz's acoustic purity and hip-hop's rhythmic urgency. Questlove, who had been juggling The Roots' Grammy obligations and D'Angelo's Voodoo tour, stepped into this project with surprising minimalism-a style honed by Voodoo's minimalist aesthetic but rooted in the drumming traditions of his West Philly youth. McBride anchors the performance with the same authoritative grace that defined the 1980s and 90s straight-ahead renaissance, while Caine's keyboard work bridges the generational gap with effortless sophistication.
Only 1,900 double vinyl pressings exist of this particular live edition, pressed at RTI and packaged in gatefold jackets by Stoughton Printing-a collector's item for those who understand that true rarity lies not in scarcity but in the rarity of musical chemistry. The recording captures what Newport always delivers: those intimate, unexpected moments where two musicians make references simultaneously, laugh, and continue playing as if nothing happened. On "Call For All Demons," you'll hear it in McBride's bass solo-where he and Questlove spontaneously make the same musical reference, a shared love language that only musicians can understand. It is, ultimately, a testament to Philadelphia's enduring jazz spirit: the brotherly love that transcends genre, generation, and genre boundaries.
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[The Philadelphia Experiment - Newport Festivals](https://shop.newportfestivals.org/products/newport-jazz-the-philadelphia-experiment) | [The Story of The Philadelphia Experiment - Newport Jazz Festival](https://newportjazz.org/the-philadelphia-experiment) | [The Philadelphia Experiment (album) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Philadelphia_Experiment_(album))
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