The quick review, we adored Tessa Souter and Raul Midon, we enjoyed Kneecap and found Nils Berg Cinemascope a bit cliche. We dropped in on Montage, Three Guitars and would have preferred the three guitars without the vocalist, not that she was bad just a distraction from the guitars.

We have heard Tessa Souter at four of her now five appearances at Jazz Fest and will keep coming back if she is invited again. I think our biggest mistake of the evening was not returning for the 10 PM show. She was far better than what we did get to in the 10 o’clock time slot. Her group was excellent and Dana Leong on cello may have been the finest surprise, to us, of the evening. In his hands the cello performed the role of bass, percussion and multi-toned instrument. Souter maintained a “conversation” with the cello as well as the drummer, Keita Ogawa who used his hands as much or more than the sticks and also wielded something that looked more like a whisk broom for a couple of numbers. Her music was as mostly her own composition and arrangement and held us rapt for an hour and 20 minutes – just a slight over run.

On to Lutheran Church for Nils Berg Cinemascope. The concept of using video from YouTube is a modern update of what we saw at Visual Studies Workshop in the 1990’s. It was interesting then, we found it a bit cliche` today. Maybe we were not in the mood for the music or maybe the distraction of the video was too much for us, we walked half way through the performance and stopped outside the Big Tent for some food, Wegman’s Sushi for me, edamame for Carol, before moving on to Xerox for Raul Midon. While eating we met friends from “other life” and people we have spent time in line with over the years and shared experiences.

Raul Midon is a very special performance. There were a guitarist, hand drummer, trumpet, sax and pianist on stage. All of them were Midon, often several at the same time. His opening number featured guitar, hand drum, and trumpet as well as vocalist.  This blind from birth performer played the drum with his right hand and the guitar with his left, hammering on the notes on the neck and vocalized the trumpet parts. In another number he played a straight rock beat on the guitar while also playing a wandering bass line and using the body of the guitar as a bass drum all while vocalizing on top of it. His explanation for how he can do this is he “has nothing but time all day to practice” I doubt that many in the audience bought that explanation. If he had kept going for another hour, I do believe most of us would have stayed put to listen. He will perform again today at 4 at Lyric Theater, do consider going there  if you missed him last night.

On our way back to Jazz Street we stopped at Montage, our first stop there this year, for Three Guitars. We arrived in time to hear too much talking and then Evergreen which was lit with garish green LED lights facing the audience, UGLY, but then much of Montage is pretty ugly. We really enjoyed the number and were less happy when they brought out their vocalist for what they said would be the rest of the set. She is good, but after Souter and the vocalists we have been hearing she is nothing special and we left after one number to see what Kneecap was all about. If anyone is counting (I am), that was our fifth venue for the night. They play with a lot of intensity and a lot of repetition. I wondered how long the saxophone player could keep up his cycle without breaking to “really” breath. In the end, Carol suggested an early departure and I said I wanted to wait for the end of the number to see how they resolved it. to our surprise there was no resolution, they just stopped and that was the end of the set.

We called it quits for the night, electing not go to the Plaza for the Jam Session, we are already getting a bit tired.

Tonight we are planning on hearing Kat Edmonson at Montage then possibly on to Tito Red at Christ Church and on to Blue Highways at Squeezers and wrapping at Kilbourn with Joe Locke. If we do that it will be five venues again. I will report in the morning.

So far we have been in 13 venues, I am counting!