We are at Day 4 and just barely warmed up.  Well the weather has actually cooled off.  We were at George Eastman House for a couple of hours yesterday and as we prepared to walk the rest of the way to the Festival (GEH is about a third of the way from our townhouse to the Festival) it started to rain.  We turned around and headed for the house to get the car while calling our friends the Goldman’s who live inside the Festival area for permission to park in their driveway.  Permission received and we had our car as close to the venues as it is possible to park.  Although it rained again, it happened while we were in Max listening to Brandi Disterheft and it cleared before we left to walk to the car.

Last night we heard Ninety Miles at Kilbourn and had no desire to leave even when they ran 20 minutes over.  Great performance and wonderful sound.  Look for the disk by that name if you are interested.  The name refers to the distance from the US to Cuba where the disk was recorded.  On from there to Hatch where Kristian Blak played a straight through set on the solo piano, drawing on Faero Island hymns and folk tunes as well as his compositions for Yggdrasil.  Had he taken a break, we might have left, but we were sitting front row center maybe 10 feet from him.  We enjoyed the music and the performance,  but it was a bit esoteric (that is saying a lot coming from me).  On from there to Christ Church and Breach.  After the guitar player got to twiddling his knobs and playing with his delay lines and loops we had had enough.  There was not much music in what he was doing to keep us interested.  On to Max, finally!  We arrived about 40 minuted before the show and they had already let people in.  There was no line and we were able to walk right in and find seats to hear Brandi Disterheft give the bass a real workout.  The jazz was pretty straight and the performances were a pleasure to listen to.

Only four shows and only two that were really a joy to listen to, but hey where else can you get to make so many choices in an evening and get two of them right?

Tonight looks like a bit of a mixed bag.  We are going to start at Harro with Jeff Lorber Fusion and maybe jump to either Kilbourn, Terrence Blanchard Quintet or Rochester Club – we are bringing winter clothes to stay warm there – Mike Cottone Quartet.  After that Lutheran Church, Sunna Gunnlaugs, Christ Church, Fraser Fifeld (he plays bag pipes and saxophone among other instruments) and we are still undecided whether to go to Kilbourn, see above, or Abilene for Kim Lenz & the Jaguars.  We might end up doing all of the above, in which case we may try to sleep in tomorrow – until 7 – really late for us.