When Donald Harrison’s Quantum Leap Music Festival came into Cutchogue like a whirlwind in September of 2024, it seemed like it might be a one-off chance to see some of the best jazz musicians from New Orleans in an intimate setting at the North Fork’s first winery, now Borghese Vineyard.
The festival, organized by NoLa to NoFo, LLC is coming back to Borghese Aug. 14 through Aug. 17, with four afternoons and evenings of what organizers are dubbing “a mind-expanding, soul-shaking sonic experience.”
Pictured Above: Donald Harrison, Chris Severin, Vasti Jackson and Cyril Neville at the 2024 Quantum Leap Festival.
“I didn’t realize how magical New Orleans was, especially in terms of music, until I left and I realized that what we have here is something that you can’t get anywhere else, except if you come to the Quantum Leap Festival,” said Mr. Harrison, a NEA Jazz Master saxophonist and composer, in a late July interview with The Beacon. “We’re transporting a slice of New Orleans to Cutchogue. So you’ll get to feel that same magic there.”
Mr. Harrison is among the Young Lions, a group of musicians including the Marsalis brothers who brought new recognition for New Orleans jazz to New York in the 1980s. He has long considered New York a second home.
His abiding interest in quantum physics is the spark for the title of the festival.
“We musicians are living what I would deem entanglement,” he said. “We can all think of the same thing at the same time. It happens on the bandstand. And it even even happens when we’re just thinking of songs — sometimes we all think of the same song to play to play at the same time. So it’s crazy, but it happens.”
“I started looking at a way to integrate music and physics — I call it four dimensional quantum space time — it’s basically relativity. We’re dealing with relationships and how time operates in space,” he said. “I started working with a quantum physicist by the name of Stephon Alexander, and we’ve been discovering a number of incredible ways to look at science and music. It’s a great friendship and a great way to add new ideas to what we do already.”
The festival is a dream that Bennet Lapidus, an attorney with a love for New Orleans jazz who has had a home in Mattituck, has carried with him for decades. It came to fruition after Mr. Lapidus met Mr. Harrison through mutual friends and asked him to sign on to be the artistic director.
Mr. Harrison has gathered numerous highly regarded musicians from New Orleans, including CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, the Headhunters with Cyril Neville, Preservation Hall Legacy Band and many other artists — to come to the stage at Borghese Vineyard.
“I used to write lists of the kind of bands I’d like to come up with the hope of maybe one day making it happen,” said Mr. Lapidus of the festival. “That was without having a connection to any performers to make it happen. It was just a dream. When it comes to New Orleans, wonderful circumstances happen. There aren’t coincidences for me. It’s just wonderful things.”
Many of the musicians who are coming to the festival, among them Grammy winners and members of New Orleans music royalty, have been mentored throughout their careers by Mr. Harrison, said Mr. Lapidus, who initially met Mr. Harrison for breakfast in New Orleans, where he shared his quantum theories.
“I was asking how I, as a tourist in New Orleans, could acquire more of the DNA of someone that actually was born in New Orleans,” said Mr. Lapidus. “And he started going through this wonderful explanation, of how the more time I spend in New Orleans, the more I become actually New Orleanian. And he quoted me Max Planck, the quantum physicist, to back up the theory.”
“Some of the logos in the festival show roots to infinity, and that symbolizes that the roots of American music — jazz, the blues, rock ‘n roll, all basically came from New Orleans, and out of Congo Square — a place where, during slavery, on Sunday afternoons, the slaves were allowed to be free for a few hours and they went there and practiced and sung their music,” he added. “That became jazz and all the music we hear today.”
Mr. Harrison’s father, Donald Harrison, Sr., was a chief of the Mardi Gras Indians, and his son has followed in his footsteps as the Big Chief of the Congo Square Nation.
“I must have been there since I was a baby,” said Mr. Harrison of Congo Square. “My whole life, I’ve heard people tell stories of me playing there. Music is a calling — I loved it, so I stuck with it. I’m still here, at 65 years old, and still playing with the best of the best, and still learning and growing, and still finding new areas to work and play music in.”
He believes North Forkers who might not know much about jazz will find the festival transcendent.
“If you play music that’s inspired by humanity and people, then humanity and people will understand your music,” he said. “That’s always been what I’ve been inspired to do to have love as the foundation of what I’m doing. And I think that other people feel that. It goes around in a big, beautiful circle. Jazz encompasses your whole being, but it can be a dance music. It can be intellectual, it can be spiritual, it can be soulful. But the main thing that I think makes jazz different is that it’s about understanding as much as you can can understand and knowing as much as you can know.”
“This is a presentation of some of the greatest musicians from New Orleans, but it’s also a great place to come and chill, relax, party, and also drink a good wine, and enjoy yourself to the hilt,” he added. “I think, if we get people to come and experience this and they get to a place of transcendence, it’s heaven on earth. We have artists who do that.
This year, the organizers are being intentional about sustaining the leap from New Orleans to the North Fork for the long run, says Jocelyne Ninneman, Operations Director for the festival.
“This is not just this random New Orleans spaceship that is being plopped down on the North Fork,” she said. “This is a dream coming to fruition on the North Fork. We always wanted to do this in a way that merged New York and New Orleans connections. We hope this increasingly becomes more collaborative with the local community. In future years, we want the artist roster to continue to broaden, and include more New York artists.”
Ms. Ninneman said the festival is beginning to build local connections, including with Joe Lauro of The HooDoo Loungers, a bass player who has also co-produced a film about the history of New Orleans jazz. Braun’s Seafood will also be serving fresh local seafood at the festival, while Take Two Brewery will be selling 20 local craft beers from a mobile beer pop-up.
“There are people coming out of the woodwork, many who go to Jazz Fest every year,” said Ms. Ninneman of the local jazz lovers who are stepping up to support the festival.
Single-day tickets for the Quantum Leap Music Festival range from $45 to $85, while all-weekend passes are $250.
“The North Fork has not had multiple days of dozens of Grammy Award winners at a festival,” said Ms. Ninneman. “You just don’t get this level of talent in such an intimate setting very often.”
Tickets, a complete lineup, and more information can be found online at nola2nofo.com.
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