I don’t have a plan for tonight, yet. Carol and I need to get our heads together and come to an agreement and I want to get this posted and she is busy with other things. My picks are The Yellowjackets, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Arstidir, Christine Jensen, and Chatham County Line. It doesn’t seem likely we will get to all of them, but after last night, you never know.

Day 7 we pretty much followed our plan until 10 PM. We really enjoyed Theo Crocker in Kilbourn Hall. Once again we found ourselves sitting next to Ron Netsky chatting about the Festival and the process of writing these blogs and how it differs from other types of writing. Of course he has the advantage of an editor and a deadline (not sure that is an advantage) I just write to please me and Carol sometimes. This also functions as my personal journal so I am inclined to ramble on sometimes – I guess that is what I am doing now. Back to Jazz. The group with Theo were well matched and they all provided excellent solos as well as group performances (I’m reaching for a word that is eluding me). Carol had her heart set on hearing Mama Corn at the Little. Nothing like charging out of fine Jazz to a rambunctious Bluegrass group whose use of corn in their name tells you something about the level of their humor. Their playing and singing were really marvelous and we stayed through the show enjoying every minute, even the corny jokes.

Our plan was to get some food after this act and then head to Xerox to hear Stanley Clarke Band. The food part was easy as Java Joe’s has extended their sandwich hours and they still had some choices in the case when we walked in at 8:20. Carol had brought her food from home and we took a table just inside the door where the sound from Soul Stew on the Jazz Street Stage was muffled down to a tolerable level. Walking past the stage the sound level was painful. We then trotted over to Xerox, well we trotted once we waded though the full body massage next to the stage. At Xerox we joined a steady stream of people headed to the same destination. I asked the volunteer with the clicker at the door what the count to that point was and she said 544. The hall has a big sign “Max Capacity 700”. By the time everyone was settled they were at that capacity. Stanley Clarke is a big draw even with a band of very young performers. The drummer was incredible, Carol says he was inventing new sounds as he went. I won’t argue (wouldn’t win anyhow). I am not sure I ever remember hearing a drummer maintain double time on the bass drum for such an extended time while blending in everything else at his command. He took one ride that went more than five minutes (remember Take Five) and the audience and the band were ready for him to go longer. Stanley Clarke played a couple of numbers with the group on bass guitar and then switched to stand up bass and took off on a solo excursion that must have lasted 25 or 30 minutes – I was not checking my watch. So after Wednesday night when Omer burned the place down with his bass on that very stage, Clarke finished the job. There was no energy left in the audience until the rest of the band took off to fill us with the desire for MORE!

What followed was really anticlimax and we were not able to sit still for long. We stopped in to Montage for Hallie Loren and I know she had a great voice and the sound was fine even in the outer bar – we couldn’t get into the music room, but the number we heard was a standard and we had no desire to stay for more. We moved on to Max where Ali Jackson Trio were doing a marvelous performance, but again it was tame for the mood we were in. The only group that seemed likely to hold our attention was Sonny Knight and the Lakers in the Big Tent so that is where we closed the formal part of the night. Carol got her Abbots Chocolate and I had some popcorn to go with the mood.

We dropped our stuff at the apartment and walked over to the Plaza. This seemed to be a night for vocalists and not all of them were very good. We had fun sitting at a table talking until some time after 1 when we called it a night and headed across the river.