Crossing the midpoint of the Festival. We have looked forward to this since we bought the tickets while traveling in China last Fall, at least the Chinese had not blocked access to that site. Actually we started looking forward to this Festival on June 29 as the last one was wrapping up and here we are almost half way through and counting last nights 4 concerts we have attended 22 concerts. But I am ahead of myself.
When we left the apartment to get the elevator with one of our new lightweight chairs on my shoulder a glance out the window showed it was dry out. As we walked out the door it it had rained, but the sky was clear. The elevator is slow, but not that slow. We intercepted the same couple as we walked and then split at East and Main as they were headed to Hatch and we on our way to Montage to hear Tessa Souter, again. We arrived in line at about 3:30 to find two people ahead of us and the direction of the line reversed to clear the door of the office building and gym after 10 years of complaints about the line obstructing the door. We waited patiently, ducking under the marquee for shelter from the rain only once. At 5:15 as the sky threatened a major storm they opened the doors to let us into the hall to wait in the dry and cool. It did storm while we were inside. Tessa sang beautifully, as we expected, opening with “Eleanor Rigby”. Our only objection to the performance was that she sang less than we wanted and gave more time in her arrangements to her excellent sidemen on bass, trumpet and drums. We most likely will not choose to hear her again, if there is a choice next year.
We left before the last number and crossed the street to Christ Church to hear Sophie Bancroft & Tom Lyne Trio.
It was not raining as we crossed the street, but as we settled into our seats it began to pour again. They are a wonderful duo. She has a pleasant singing voice and his bass playing is delightful. The focus was on jazz/folk blend with many songs written by her. We enjoyed the show thoroughly and stayed through to the end wishing it would go on longer.
We had no great desires for anything that might be on immediately following that show so we wandered up East Ave stopping at Rochester Contemporary to see the 6×6 show where Carol has several Panda pictures among the 1,000 or more submissions. Then we continued on to Golden Pond for a real sit down meal in 20 minutes. As we were leaving we spotted the Hermans at a table with friends and stopped to chat. They confirmed our decision to head to Xerox to hear Laila Biali a Canadian transplant to NYC and her Canadian sidemen on drum and bass. As we seated ourselves in the center of the 2nd row we found ourselves next to Pat and Ed who were in the same seats we had seen them in the night before. Between us was a man who was back to hear the group again, having bought all the CDs after the first show, good indications. This was a highlight performance, John, BRING THEM BACK er, well, I couldn’t speak when they were done, I could barely move. Her use of her glorious voice is wonderful and her coordination with her sidemen was exquisite and her piano playing was most enjoyable.
I know, Carol would have dumped this blurry picture and never used it, but I want to have some visual memory of the performance here.
We exited into a streaming rain that let up just as we got all our rain gear on. We headed to Kilbourn to hear Louis Hayes and the Cannonball Legacy Band only to find a Show Cancelled sign on the door, apparently someone had been taken to the hospital. Across the street at Max the doors had been closed as the house was full and there was a line in the rain, it was already 10:30. There is always a way to get into the Big Tent and Bonerama was there. The group is three trombones, who also sing, guitar, bass and drums. They make plenty of great noise and people were up and dancing. They are always an enjoyable group in the proper setting, the night before they were at Montage and we could not imagine that much sound in such a small venue, actually as I think about it imagine is the wrong word, we have heard it in past years, it is a terrible venue for them because there is no room for the music to spread. As they moved into the “Saints” almost always a closing number, the people dancing got out there umbrellas and danced holding them over their heads, no it wasn’t raining in, they just needed to use everything they had to express their joy. Carol and I were rocking in our chairs near the back, the sound pressure up front is impressive.
Tonight we start in line early for Dianne Schuur in Kilbourne Hall. The other groups we want to hear are Warren Wolf & the Wolf Pack in Max, Ivan Jansen and the Aruba Project in Xerox and Luck Petersen, Featuring Tamara Petersen in the Big Tent. It doesn’t seem likely we will get to all, much less the Yellow groups we have highlighted (four more).
To let you all know we are really “with it” here is a “selfie” shot in Christ Church:
Next time I’ll find some light 🙂
