Feeling more festive

Until last Saturday, I saw very little of the jazz festival. Earlier in the week, most of what I did catch didn't turn my crank all that much, regardless of the reputation of the performers. And there were qualifications on the things I did like. As a ferinstance, family commitments kept me from staying for the whole of the very engaging Chadbourne/Lovens show at the Front.

I enjoyed Kate Hammett-Vaughan's gig at O'Doul's, but even that was marred by a mediocre sound system. There was some lovely vocal duetting between Kate and bassist Adam Thomas that deserved to be better heard.

What's the deal with that? One would think that at least during the festival, they could put in a decent PA. There was a nice piano upgrade courtesy of Mike Allen, but when you can't clearly hear the singing, even if you're sitting 10 feet away, it's a disappointment. And O'Doul's is always too noisy. The only way to counter the constant chatter is to have a clean, clear sound system. Is that asking for too much?

Coming off the roller coaster ride that was Friday evening, I finally had some time to catch some music at the Roundhouse, after I took Marianne down to Tsawwassen to catch the ferry to Victoria for her gig that night.

I walked into Festival Hall not knowing who was on. After hearing just a few notes, I knew one of the tenor players had to be George Garzone. Andrew Rathburn is a very talented sax player and has to be commended for the confidence in bringing his mentor along on tour. Garzone must live on another planet - his total conceptual approach to the horn was incredible. More than manual dexterity, this was the whole package. Between these two guys, there was some seriously heavy playing.

Zipping over to Vinny Golia's workshop, I was very stimulated by listening to his approach to playing multiple winds.

I had to race over to 1067 to pack up and load out the rest of my gear. Still shaken about the previous evening's wild swings, I had elected to split the loading out over two days. Then, it was back to catch Garzone and Rathburn's workshop. The banter between these two was entertaining, and there was some very significant information being served up about how to play the saxophone, some very advanced concepts. Garzone figured it was something anyone could pick up as long as they practised their asses off the the next 10-15 years.

From there Bruce Freedman and I went over to the Cultch to see the ICP Orchestra. After one set, the consensus was that it was not rocking our worlds. I wanted to hear more of Tobias Delius, which I could do on Sunday. Garzone had blown away the both of us for the day.

I was back at Festival Hall the next afternoon in time to catch Marianne's set. It sounded great and was well received, and all of her cds quickly sold out at the merch table. I was really happy to reconnect with my Banff buddy from last year, Jon Stewart. He sounded great with Marianne. Kelby McNayr was fantastic on drums, with a light, inventive touch. It could only have been better had it been in a slightly more intimate venue.

As that was wrapping up, Lisa Miller was garnering attention outside, hobbling around on crutches. Fortunately she had been wearing some pretty skookum boots when the car ran her down. Turned on its side, the boot sole had actually supported most of the weight of the car. So instead of a broken foot, or even a sprain, there was damage to her foot, but nowhere as bad as it could have been. It was her pedalling foot, but she thought she could make it through her gig well enough later that evening.

After doing a few errands, I had a chance to hang with Vinny over at Clyde's place before his gig that evening. It was very cool and conversation turned to the late Bill Green, who was the master multi-woodwind player in LA, and mentor to Stan Karp. All of the LA guys seem to have a Bill Green story.

I had to make a difficult choice about what show to catch. Lisa was at The Roundhouse, Rathburn/Garzone at Iroworks, or Vinny at The Cultch. I drove him over for the sound check and that sealed the deal. We heard the Indigo Trio do their sound check and they were killing. I had the pleasure of working with Nicole Mitchell at VCMI a few years back, and this time she was fronting a killer group, with Harrison Bankhead on bass and Hamid Drake drumming. So the Cultch it was, and I planned to finish off the night at Performance Works with the Kate Hammett-Vaughan Quintet. Perfect.

Vinny's set was most interesting. I've always been a fan of his playing, but the real suprise was bassist Ken Filiano playing on a bass borrowed from Clyde. This guy was absolutely rivetting, so musical, such chops, always surprising and supporting. In my opinion, this was not the case for the drummer. Of the people I spoke with afterwards, half loved him and half hated him. I thought his playing lacked transparency. It was so dense that it didn't let any of the rest of the music come through. I felt it forced Vinny to continually match that density, and Bobby Bradford just seemed to pull back from it all.

In stark contrast, Hamid Drake was absolutely awesome, living up to his reputation. Despite being a constant whirlwind over the kit with unbounded power, he was able to play in such a way that there was lots of room for the bass and flute. These three gave us a full-on dose of Chicago-style energy, grabbing the crowd by the throat and not letting up for the whole evening. Nicole was fantastic, getting more from her flutes than anyone I have ever heard. The bass was absolutely relentless, despite some sound glitches early on. These guys kicked ass, kicking long and hard. They did not let go until after 11:00pm, perhaps a bit long, but a most satisfying pummelling nonetheless. After I said my goodbyes to Nicole, it was too late to get over to Granville Island, much to my disappointment.

Plan B was to go to Ironworks to see Tobias Delius, and he was a treat. His tenor sound can fill a room, even when he's playing quietly. The band was crazy and great, perfect for the wrapup of the festival. Marianne worked the room like a fiend. On her crutches, Lisa was testament to the fact that no mere carload of yahoos was going to spoil her evening. I managed to drag Marianne away sometime after 2:00.

The next morning we had a brunch for everyone in the house plus Marianne's band, just before they split for Montreal. As a birthday present for me, I could not have asked for anything more than to have everyone around the table.

The festival was done for another year, and though I may have seen less acts than in previous years, I managed to catch the right ones.