A brief note to those of you who have joined the list in the past twelve months: XRIJF will be how I refer to the subject Fest from here on.  For the duration of XRIJF, through June 29, I will be posting a daily report on our wanderings through the Fest. This year there are 13 venues, within easy walking distance of each other and our apartment, open to holders of the Club Pass. Each venue will host two performances a night of mostly different performers each night.  That gives us the chance to hear 117 different groups, and that does not include several free performances each night on a variety of street stages and 6 major concerts in Eastman theater.  Finally, we will try to end each night at The Plaza Hotel, just across the river from our apartment, for the nightly Jam Session lead by Bob Sneider which continues on until 2 AM.  Needless to say we will be shifting our body clocks to PDT for the duration.

We are celebrating our 50th Anniversary today, June 21, with time at XRIJF. Click here to see Carol’s post What better way to share our love of each other and music than to wear ourselves out jumping from performance to performance as we seem to agree to the measure when we have had enough of one group and it is time to move on.

Last night, June 20, was extraordinary as we stayed through three performances in their entirety before splitting the 10 PM session in two, getting us to five performances on the first night.  We started the Fest by getting in line way too early.  Somehow we arrived at the entrance at 3:30, a mere 2 hours before the doors were to open for the 6 PM show and we were not first in line.

Outside Montage 2 Hours Before Doors Open

Having almost 30 minutes until the next planned performance on our schedule we elected to eat.  I had reserved a sandwich at Java Joes and Carol went to Ludwigs for a salad.  We regrouped with our food and then moved on to Lutheran Church for Sun Trio.  Far out! as one would expect at the Nordic Jazz Fest in the Lutheran Church.  Trumpet, Bass and Drums, oh yes and electronics.  We are well past the early days when live looping and effects were experimental and over used, even abused.  The use of effects was fully integrated and enhanced the experience.  The drummer made use of every part of his kit and for one piece played so quietly that sitting in the second row we were listening intently so as not to miss a thing.  Once again our plan to leave after a couple of pieces to go to Abilene to hear Nikki Hill collapsed as we could not think of leaving.  It turns out that that was a good thing as reports were that once the first people got into Abilene the line never advanced, no one left, thus late arrivals got to listen through the walls of the tent from the street.

Now it was time to hotfoot is over to Xerox to Lorraine Klaasen, South African Jazz singer and performer. We got second row seating so we could see clearly, hearing in that hall is seldom a problem, large as it is, but the stage is very low, maybe one step up from the floor.  Her group was all African, but from all over Africa. guitar, five string Bass, drum kit and hand drums. Her singing style is reminiscent of Miriam Makeba. Indeed she sang many songs she attributed to her, including what we call “The Click Song” (she gave it a name in its own language).  Again we were captured by the performance and could not bring ourselves to leave so we stayed on.  The only negative was the presence of “the dancer.” This guy is mostly at Abilene where his behavior is almost appropriate. He stands just off to the side of the stage and dances extravagantly and with boundless energy. In this case he was a distraction from the performance onstage.  Furthermore, his whistles of appreciation, are ear piercing and might be fine if they didn’t interfere with the music.  Oh, well I guess no one is prepared to restrict his freedom of expression.

I had been looking forward to hearing Holophonor at Max since starting my preview.  This group of mixed instruments with the leader playing vibes sounds good on Youtube.  Less great in person. Maybe our reaction was driven by arriving 10 minutes into the performance to a packed hall where security was being officious about standing against the wall if not seated. As a result we were sort of around the corner peering around the corner to see them. This was not the way to experience the group so after one number we moved on to The Big Tent where Mingo Fishtrap was onstage.  Usually we find performances in this venue to be overloud and overbearing.  Not Mingo Fishtrap, the eight players on stage were excellent, the balance was fine and we enjoyed the lively performance and audience from somewhere near the rear.

We went on to the Plaza for the Jam Session, but only lasted until a bit past midnight.  None of the out of town performers were in evidence so we crossed the pedestrian bridge to go to the apartment to get some sleep.

Tonights plan Includes Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet at Kilbourn (yes from THAT family), Two Siberians at Montage Snarky Puppy at Harro East, Woody Pines at Abilene and Flat Earth Society at Xerox.  There are a couple more on the list, but it is unlikely we will get to all of these.  You can listen to any of these groups by just putting their names into YouTube.  That is how we prepare in advance to know who we want to hear and what to expect before we get in line.

If you at XRIJF, see you on the street!  Otherwise watch here for a report of another day of music.