I had a great title for this post last night as we were walking home in the drizzle, but I forgot it. My mind is a bit scattered as I made the mistake of looking at Facebook and learned that a friend who has been battling for her life for months, lost the battle, and no longer has any pain. Add this distraction to a couple of performances that were less thrilling than we hoped and at least one find we did not expect and it was a strange Jazz Festival night. We ended up attending 6 different performances, not because we had a goal or anything just because we walked out on a couple early.  That puts the count at 28 through Wednesday.

We lined up at 3:30 for the 6 PM performance and were just around the corner from Jazz Street in the alley, under the cover in case of rain. We had one of our new seats with us and put it to good use. We made new Jazz Fest line friends who we found ourselves standing next to at Max at the very end of the evening, very typical.

Taking photos or videos during performances in Kilbourn is verboten, but the temptation is so great that I couldn’t resist this shot:

Kilbourn Stage before Diane Schuur Performance

 Diane came on stage with her assistant guiding her to her seat, she bowed deeply to the audience putting her hands flat to the floor. She got settled on her stool and began to sing, and she can still sing and belt it out and sing it soft and everything we expected even though it is clear she has aged. She sang mostly standards and mixed in a fair amount of scat.  She talked just enough to bring us in and not so much that she cut into performance time.  After the set was concluded, or so it appeared, the extraordinary group backing her left the stage and she was seated at the piano where she delivered two more songs accompanying herself on piano, what a treat!

The extra fifteen minutes rendered a run to Xerox to catch the last half of Ivan Jansen, Aruba Jazz Project out of the question. Listening to others and checking the time we headed over to Harro East where Mike Stern & Bill Evans Band Featuring: Steve Smith and Ted Kennedy were about to burn the place down. We entered as the introduction was finishing and settled ourselves at a table so I get some food and drink – our dinner – as the band started. We had no idea what to expect so were prepared to move on.  This was the great surprise of the evening, we couldn’t sit still, nor could the others in the hall, the music just kept building. I’m sure that at one point the guitar was routed through the Korg so that it sounded like an organ, the drummer did a scat number scatting against his drums in a manner I don’t remember hearing and the sax was just phenomenal.  We left the hall soaring after the last notes reverberations were dying out.

Where to? We stopped by The Big Tent to hear Lucky Peterson Featuring Tamara Peterson.  They were good, but couldn’t hold us as we really wanted to hear Ivan Jansen Aruba Jazz Project. We stayed for two numbers and left. Sitting up front, the sound at Xerox was disorganized and never seemed to come together. I’m not sure whether to blame the soundman or the way the group was situated on the stage. A further distraction was Ivan kept fussing with the knobs on his amp and guitar and never seemed to get into the music. The beat had very little of the Caribbean we expected so off we went. But where? We had heard a great review of Jamey Haddad Group at the Rochester Club so off we went. It was our first time this year and two things we had forgotten about greeted us at the door; it was COLD; the menu is great! We had eaten so the menu was of interest for the future and we just shivered. The group was fine lounge music, we were hoping for some extraordinary drumming given the writeups and fact that the leader is a drummer who has developed his own cymbals. Nope, just very good lounge music with a hint of tropic beat.

Where to? Warren Wolfe and The Wolfpack were at Max. When we got there at 10:30 ish there was a short line at the door, but having no place else to go (the line for Diane at Kilbourn was much longer and who was going to leave that show?) we waited. It turned out we waited about five minutes before they opened the door and we found leaning room behind the band. Worth the wait, worth the lousy location! Wolf is wonderful on the vibes and his group was super.

Not sure what tonight will bring. Funeral at 3PM means we get in line for Joey DeFrancesco late and maybe get in for the first show. We have some Greens and Yellow and will play it as it comes once again.