Anthony Tidd mentors a new generation of rising Philly stars in his unique blend of jazz and hip-hop

None of the young musicians filing into the studio at WRTI on Monday evening had even been born when bassist Anthony Tidd released The Child of Troubled Times, the debut album by his band Quite Sane, in 2002. For this generation, that album’s fusion of jazz and hip-hop is second nature. Asked about their influences, each one shrugged and said something like, “All genres,” before listing off artists ranging from Prince to Herbie Hancock to Queen to De La Soul.

That’s not to suggest that they don’t have plenty to learn from a veteran genre-mixer like Tidd. As the five Clef Club students rehearsed, Tidd wandered between them, clapping out the tempo he was desperately urging them to maintain. “You sound like you’re riding a runaway horse,” he critiqued in soft but stern, London-accented tones. “If you want to fuse styles, you have to learn to play in different moods.”

On Saturday night at the Clef Club, the ensemble will get the chance to showcase what they’re learned as they open for Tidd as part of the institution’s Jazz Cultural Voices series. From a larger class Tidd and WRTI DJ J. Michael Harrison selected pianist Justin Griggs, 18; bassist, singer, and dancer Ahyashah Wimberly, 17; guitarist Andre Harris and his twin brother drummer/percussionist Andrew Harris, 16; trombonist Henry Koban Payne, 14; and drummer/percussionist Shadrach Carter, 14, who was not present for Monday’s rehearsal. The band has been dubbed DSOP, a reference to the classic MFSB hit “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” as well as Harrison’s penchant for onion pizza (the name stands for “Don’t Sleep on the Onion Pizza.”)

Even in 2002, Quite Sane’s blend of jazz and hip-hop wasn’t exactly a new idea; Guru had released his landmark Album Jazzmatazz Vol. 1 nearly a decade earlier, in 1993, and jazz icon Miles Davis had collaborated with producer Easy Mo Bee two years before that. A Tribe Called Quest had been incorporating jazz elements into their music since the dawn of the 1990s.

But Tidd’s take on the hybrid sound is uniquely his own, influenced by his own eclectic meld of influences and experiences. He had spent his formative years in a thriving London scene where jazz, hip-hop, R&B, drum and bass, grime, and other diverse genres rubbed shoulders. He’d come to Philly in 1996 through his work with The Roots and saxophonist Steve Coleman’s intricate style of avant-garde jazz. He’s continued to play in Coleman’s band Five Elements, produce artists like The Roots, Common, the Black Eyed Peas, and Jill Scott, and compose film scores at his studio in Brewerytown.

“For me, it’s kind of a masterpiece,” said Harrison of The Child of Troubled Times. The DJ was an early champion of the album and urged Tidd to revisit the band for its 20th anniversary.

“When Tidd gave me a demo on a burned CD, I had to drive right past my house,” he continued. “It was beyond a driveway moment. He carved out his own space. It hits me on multiple levels and it resonates with where we are right now, so today it’s still fresh. His approach is reminiscent of what Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder were doing from a thematic standpoint — very conscious.”

The bassist has set all of those outside projects to refocus on Quite Sane for the first time in two decades. The band’s long-awaited second album will be released this fall, celebrated by a Sept. 22 performance at the Boot and Saddle with some of the original members of Quite Sane followed by a pair of concerts at New York’s Jazz Gallery. The series of events kicks off on Saturday with an improvised gig featuring Tidd, saxophonist Greg Osby, pianist Orrin Evans, and emcee Kokayi.

“I and many of my peers are of the belief that hip-hop was heading in a very creative direction until it got hijacked,” Tidd explained. “At the time, emcees like [The Roots’] Black Thought emerged who were improvising on an amazing level, touching on the same kind of creativity that we saw [in the era of] John Coltrane or Charlie Parker. As the music became more popular and more money got put into it, the negative side — gangsta rap and that kind of stuff — got pushed, and we ended up where we are today. But if you go into any Black community in Philadelphia today, that creativity is still there.”

Through a series of workshops over the past several months, Tidd, Harrison and Kokayi have been trying to share those possibilities with a gifted new generation of up-and-coming musicians at the Clef Club. “The goal of these classes is to look to jazz and beyond to develop universal skill sets that come from [the students’] particular cultural place, particular to their own generation..,” Tidd said. “You don’t have to sound like Duke Ellington or Jelly Roll Morton; you can take those skills and shape them in a way that’s relevant to you.”

Tidd honed that educational approach for most of the 2010s directing the Kimmel Center’s Creative Music Program and hosting the monthly Sittin’ In jam sessions. He laments the loss of those efforts, through which he strove to bring diverse and underserved audiences into the Kimmel’s spaces. When the Clef Club invited him this year to appear as part of its Jazz Cultural Voices series, he seized on the opportunity to add an educational component to the event.

“I already think outside the box when I play,” said Griggs, who will enter Temple University this fall. “Mr. Tidd opened up whole new, inspirational ideas that I didn’t know I had. It’s given me a different perspective on how I view music.”

“I’ve never written a song for a full band before,” said Andre Harris. “Having to write parts for other people and then hearing my own ideas played by other people has been really mesmerizing.”

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20, Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts, 736 S. Broad St., $25, 215-893-9912, clefclubofjazz.org