The following is from the Newport Jazz Festival's website, describing Jason Moran and the Fats Waller Dance Party band.

Pianist and composer Jason Moran has established himself as a risk-taker and innovator of new directions for jazz as a whole. For more than a decade, Moran and his trio The Bandwagon have dazzled audiences at elite venues worldwide, including the Village Vanguard in New York, the Newport Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Jazz Festival. The Los Angeles Times hails Moran, “a startlingly gifted pianist with a relentless thirst for experimentation.”

It’s that incomparable talent and unyielding drive towards innovation that earned Moran a prestigious MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship and the title of Kennedy Center Artistic Director for Jazz. In his Fats Waller Dance Party, Moran presents a contemporary celebration of Waller, revisiting his legendary sound and deftly showing how Harlem stride piano resonates today. The rapturous performance played four consecutive sold-out nights at Harlem Stage for its world premiere and Jason later released All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller on Blue Note to critical acclaim.