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Higher Plains Music Festival is a Tulsa miracle

If describing Tulsa as a hip-hop and jazz stronghold sounds like a stretch to anyone, the first-ever Higher Plains Music Festival is likely to turn doubters’ eyes to what they’ve slept on. Sept. 21-22, local genre titans will support Slum Village and Thundercat in a Tulsa-only miracle that’s been a longtime dream for planners Chris Combs and Simon Aleman.

A member of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Combs traveled to Switzerland in 2013 for the eclectic Jazzwerkstatt festival, where the embrace of fringe hip-hop sparked his imagination. A week later, he played the Vanguard and spoke with Aleman, who owns the venue, about creating a similar fest here. A Tulsa musician “back when being young wasn’t a thing to do,” Aleman met Combs’ vision with equal enthusiasm. The idea dominated their conversation for years, until Aleman leapt at a chance to book Thundercat. Within a week, an opportunity arose to book Slum Village the preceding night. Knowing their moment had arrived, Combs and Aleman skimmed some cream from Tulsa’s hip-hop and jazz scene and put Higher Plains on the calendar. 

If the idea for this fest was to highlight genre-pushing jazz and hip-hop, it’d be hard to imagine a more perfect lineup. Headlining Monday, Slum Village is the rap group originally produced by legendary beat master and founding member J Dilla. Though J Dilla died in 2006 after leaving the group, Slum Village’s music is still largely built on his work. 

“For this hip-hop generation, J Dilla is their Louis Armstrong,” Combs said. “Everyone wants to sound like him.” 

Headlining Tuesday, Thundercat is an experimental jazz bassist known for his warp-speed ripping and epic collaboration with Kendrick Lamar—to be extremely brief. In this issue’s “Passing Through” interview, Thundercat told Combs that he introduced Lamar to the work of Miles Davis during the recording of To Pimp a Butterfly. 

Released in March to universal acclaim, Butterfly isn’t just the album of the year, it’s the first album in forever to so resoundingly receive the nomination. Both weeping and baring teeth in the shadow of Ferguson and Baltimore, Lamar’s album stuck its claws in our country’s racial nerve endings. For a man who helped shape Butterfly to play Tulsa—a city still divided by the 1921 massacre, lacking an African American Affairs Commission and reeling from the shooting of Eric Harris—is a sobering, but appropriate, honor. 

Tulsa has long been a city that defies genres, and Higher Plains highlights our revolutionary acts. Monday, the Oilhouse crew showcases six top Tulsa MCs and one of our best DJs; Combs and Jacob Fred bandmate Josh Raymer bring a bizarre electronic assault with Booomclap; and Verse, AKA Derek Clark (also of Oilhouse), returns to the stage with fellow soul virtuosos The Vapors. Tuesday, the genre-bending Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey and Branjae & the Filthy Animals open for Thundercat. 

The timing of the touring acts, and their import for the Tulsa music scene, are beyond serendipitous. Verse & The Vapors bassist Christon Mason expressed utter disbelief at the opportunity. A longtime fan of Thundercat’s fast-shredding playing (a style employed with world-class musicality by Mason himself), Mason also firmly advertised his respect for Monday’s headliner with his phenomenal March release, Dillafluence.

Despite the risk of booking big-ticket artists on weeknights, Aleman said pre-sales for Higher Plains have put him “past the worry point.” The only worry now is that the fest will sell out at the door. If so, Tulsans can expect annual installments of what is certain to be a groundbreaking and nationally envied festival.

For more on Higher Plains Music Festival, read Chris Combs' interview with Thundercat. 

For more from Mitch, check out his fall beer and film pairings and read his stories on touring with Verse and Tulsa's need for thoughtful development.