2004 Vancouver International Jazz Festival Diary
Commodore Ballroom
Crash w/ Dr. Lonnie Smith
Crash and me go way back. I've always liked Crash, even though we fell out of touch a few years ago. But when we get together we always have a good time. Like the Fest Launch party at the Commodore the other night (feels like days ago now). Alto saxer Cory Weeds had been regaling me with tales of the road, specifically just how damn much fun the group was having on their dates with the Doctor, that my expectations were rather kind of high going into this one. I love it when those expectations don't doom you and you actually get what you'd hoped for: in this case, funky-assed dance music played by people who are clearly loving it. What goes around… The Doctor's got this positive-vibed Buddha energy that draws the listener in and doesn't disappointment when you take him up on it. Good good times on the dance floor, too… all coming full circle.
O'Doul's Jam Session w/ Mike Allen Trio
Joe Lovano Trio Fascination
Jillian Lebeck Quintet
Ok. We're gonna try something a little different this year. Just because it's 1:43am (Saturday morning, June 26) and I'm not yet ready for sleep. More importantly, I hate writing in the morning. Writing mojo rather be sleeping then. And anyway, change is good. (It'll sink in eventually.) Ok. So let's see how we do. Oh, and we're going backwards tonight, too.
I've just left O'Doul's Jam Session with the Mike Allen Trio, and it wasn't a bad first night, all things considered. Lots of folks, mostly students eager to get it out there, instruments at the ready when the nod came. When I left just before 1:00am, a certain Joe Lovano, tenor sax 'giant' had recently entered the premises and all eyes turned, presumably looking for a horn slung over his shoulder. If it was there, it was invisible, and it certainly didn't look like he was going to take his turn on the stage. Then it occurred to me that if he had, I didn't actually care. I'd been to his concert at The Centre earlier in the evening and, like the last time I heard him a few years ago at the Cultch, I just didn't 'get it'. Oh, I can hear that he's got power and a very defined and confident sound, but the music just hovers around my head - it never gets inside the gate to head down to where it really matters. And, in fact it drives me crazy how well you can connect with some music and not with others. Music and people: I guess you can't like everyone you meet. Or their music, apparently. Anyway, I've tried yet again to get something out of Joe Lovano's obviously popular music, and I am glad report there were brief moments - I think our relationship will have to be rooted in ballads (Dizzy Gillespie's "I Waited For You" being the highlight), but they were fleeting. That said I know I will try again another time. You never know where your head and - more importantly as far as I'm concerned - your heart is and especially where it might be down the road. And I am, after all, a glutton for punishment.
No punishment to hear Jillian Lebeck's great Quintet and see them on that big stage at The Centre. Lebeck's seeming shyness and subtleties in her singing draw you in further to try to better hear what she's up to, and what she's up to is usually well worth straining for. They started out with Harry Connick Jr.'s "The Other Hours", a moody, heartbreaking cry of desire to connect (!) that each player (and at least one audience member) seemed to blissfully disappear into. The subsequent three original pieces were written with the late bassist Chris Nelson in mind and were appropriately subdued and obviously meaningful to the musicians. The Lebeck original "Starlight" began with the cinematic score-like repetitive-few-bars piano melody soon joined by long horn tones that hovered and then began to climb and ring as the piano explored, all building to a crescendo then slipping back out to clean piano and those long horn notes. Probably the best sequence heard this night or in a while, for that matter, was the always lilting and dreamy sound of Jon Bentley's tenor sax fluttering high or rumbling low, followed by an intense piano solo from Lebeck that knocked up the tension factor, juxtaposing the two soloists. The only (and very minor) unfortunate part of the proceedings was the lagging energy by the fourth tune, which was redeemed by a nice finish: a sweet cover of Jesse Harris' "You The Queen". Otherwise, a highly enjoyable, heavy emotion content, great solo-filled set.
A helluva start to the 2004 Fest. And now to sleep. Big day in Gastown
not that many hours away anymore.
Got your own opinion on what went down? Visit the Jazz Forum.
Day 0
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Day 1
Friday, June 25, 2004
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Writer/Photographer Josephine Ochej is a regular contributor to The Jazz Review, the Westender, Planet Jazz, and Coda Magazine.