“…the best” – The New York Times
“…both old school and cutting-edge at the same time” – The Wall Street Journal
“…a genius” – Legendary Latin Jazz icon Eddie Palmieri
“…a legend” – Robert Glasper
“…the greatest” – Jon Batiste
“…a one-man jazz festival” – Times-Picayune
From August 14-17, 2025, Grammy-nominated NEA Jazz Master Big Chief (Congo Square Mardi Gras) Donald Harrison will serve as Artistic Director presenting some of the top musicians from New Orleans on the stage at the Borghese Vineyard and Winery in Cutchogue (North Fork) as part of NOLA2NOFO sponsored Second Annual Quantum Leap Music Festival—a genre-defying celebration of New Orleans sounds curated by Harrison himself.
This four-day event, running August 14–17, presents funk, jam band, soul, jazz, brass band, hip-hop, tribal, and Latin with Long Island wine country’s artisanal culture, showcasing over two dozen artists in a setting where musical dimensions collide into a danceable music and cultural extravaganza.
But if you know anything about Harrison, you know this festival isn’t just a concert series—it’s a statement. It’s a living archive of music influenced by New Orleans music, a platform for future sounds, and a bridge between tradition and evolution. Harrison doesn’t just play music—he expands its boundaries.
A proud New Orleans native, Harrison rose to prominence in the 1980s as a saxophonist with Art Blakey’s legendary Jazz Messengers. He quickly earned recognition as a torchbearer of tradition and a fearless innovator. His signature sound—an elegant fusion of bebop, funk, soul, second-line rhythms, and Afro-New Orleans cultural practices—would later evolve into a genre he named Nouveau Swing.
Harrison took the heartbeat of the Big Easy and layered it with influences from classical to hip-hop, quantum physics to Afro-Cuban percussion.
Perhaps one of the most surprising chapters of Harrison’s journey is his influence on hip-hop. In the early ’90s, while living in Brooklyn, Harrison mentored a teenager named Christopher Wallace—better known to the world as The Notorious B.I.G.
“I showed him how to think about phrasing, rhythm, storytelling—like a jazz solo,” Harrison once said. That cross-genre mentorship became a little-known foundation for Biggie’s future cadence and flow. You could say Harrison helped shape hip-hop history, not just through saxophone solos, but by planting seeds of improvisation and narrative power in a young emcee’s mind.
Harrison’s mentorship didn’t stop there. He’s helped guide a new generation of artists including Jon Batiste, Trombone Shorty, Esperanza Spalding, and Chief Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah—each one a genre-blurring innovator in their own right.
Over the years, Harrison has been a prolific recording artist, with standout projects like Indian Blues, Congo Square Suite, and 2024’s The Art of Passion.
His upcoming project, The Magic Touch, is a bold experiment: one song performed in nine different genres—including hip-hop, salsa, blues, soul, and second-line—culminating in a blended modern jazz finale that defines Nouveau Swing. It’s jazz as quantum physics, a theory he’s explored with physicist Dr. Stephon Alexander in their groundbreaking work on “quantum improvisation.”
Donald Harrison wears many crowns—literally. He’s Big Chief of Congo Square in the Afro-New Orleans tradition, and also a Chief in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In that cultural role, as in his music, he bridges ancestral heritage with modern expression.
And now, with the Quantum Leap Music Festival, he’s curating a live experience that feels more like a cultural awakening than a summer festival. Artists to highlight
The festival will include: The Quantum Leap All-Star Jam Band with Big Chief Donald Harrison, Will Bernard, Wil Blades, Raymond Weber, and others; The Headhunters; Preservation Hall Legacy; The Dirty Dozen; Cyril Neville; Zaccai Curtis; and Vasti Jackson.
Also performing Long Island native–she attended Five Towns College–Syndee Winters, who portrayed “Nala” in the Broadway production of “The Lion King.”
Whether he’s jamming with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band or sharing a stage with funk legend Leo Nocentelli of The Meters, Cyril Neville, Fred Wesley of James Brown’s JB’s horn section and others, Harrison ensures each note played is rooted in tradition but looking to the future.
Sponsors include News12LI. Supporters include Policy Titans, BulLion, Greenhill Kitchen- Greenport, L.I., Open Show (host Doctor Bob Lee -WBLS), Bronxnet Cable TV Network.
For more information on the festival and Donald Harrison, please visit https://www.nola2nofo.com, email annbrownmedia@yahoo.com, or call (917)-833-2693.