Now that you have had a moment to read Day 4 here comes Day 5 – and it is beginning to feel about that fast.  We are past the midpoint and it has just kept getting better.  We just had to hear Alfredo Rodriguez again, this time at Hatch Recital Hall.  He was wonderful solo.  Less glitz and more solid musical performance.  He played almost without interruption for 45 minutes, pausing long enough to tell us what he had played and would be playing and to thank us for the warm reception he had received.  In my estimation the best description of his playing was lyrical.  There was almost no turnover in the audience once he began and the hall was sold out.  We quickly moved on to Max to Michael Wollny Trio while I dined on Max’ chicken Caesar salad.  Carol took a pass on food for the time being.  We enjoyed the performance but were not wildly enthusiastic.  At the end we quickly moved on to Christ Church to catch the last half of Julian Arguelles Quartet.  They had setup rather deep into the performance area and the sound, always a problem in Christ Church in any event,was more lost than usual.  It seemed a shame as the group sounded pretty good despite the loss of sound and echo.

We stayed to the end and then headed for Lutheran Church where Eero Koivistoinen Quartet was playing (I dare you pronounce that or the names of the rest of the Finnish performers).  Carol dropped off on the way to pick up dinner at Ludwigs on Jazz Street.  Eventually I continued on to the church and Carol caught up with me a bit later, blessing on simple technology – texting (or should that be txtng).  Much to our surprise this group from Finland played some wonderful straight ahead jazz.  The melodies were new to us, but the performance style was straight forward with none of the usual quirkiness of Nordic performance.  If I get the count right that was our fourth performance and it was only 9 PM!

Onward to Xerox Auditorium.  We had not been there yet this year.  It is large, the doors bang whenever someone leaves or enters and sometimes it is cold, also it tends to swallow sound, all reasons to stay away unless you really, really want to hear the performer.  We REALLY REALLY wanted to hear Anat Cohen play clarinet and sax with her great piano, bass and drummer.  So did a lot of other people.  I don’t think anyone got locked out, but the hall was packed.  So far this is my favorite of the first five nights and may go down as the best performance overall.  In fact if there is a better one I hope I don’t miss it.  Anat and her group chose a wonderful mix and the Brazilian works she chose were, to use her words, high energy.  After they left the stage and the house lights came up, the audience refused to leave and took up rhythmic clapping.  Clearly thrilled, Anat retook the stage and gave a wonderful slow, quiet performance that left us wanting yet more.  I have never heard a clarinet played so quietly, I have never heard an audience so silent.  We were thrilled.  We tried to buy a CD for her to sign, but the last one was snatched up as we reached for it. We left the hall to find it raining.  We had already been to Max and Kilbourn and the Big Tent is way loud and out of the way from our apartment from Xerox, so we called it an early night and were drying off in the apartment by 10:30.

Tonight’s route looks like Goldings, Stewart and Bernstein (NOT a law firm) at Montage then Max for a wrap on that show – Aaron Goldberg – then on to Lutheran for Jacob Kartzon.  Xerox to hear Trio Globo and a wrap at Kilbourn for Gretchen Parlato.  I’ll let you know what actually happen tomorrow.