On Saturday we celebrated my father’s 80th birthday. Things are going pretty well for him, health wise, and otherwise. My cousins from Kansas City and my half brother and his wife came, so the occasion was made a bit more special. This afternoon my dad gave me the pleasant surprise that we would be attending the 11th annual Vail Jazz Festival. I attended the 9th annual festival, and it was probably the best jazz that I’d seen in my life. For more info about this weekend, check out http://www.vailjazz.org/jazz/laborday.htm

The first set was played by the Clayton Brother’s Quintet, which I saw last time I went. This time, they featured Stefon Harris, on vibraphone. My favorite song of the evening was one of his arrangements of If I could keep time in a bottle, by Sting. I told Stefon after he performed that for someone so young, he was able to express a real depth of feeling, which was better than 95% of the people out there, and that he really made the vibes sing. I also referred him to Corazon De Oro, by Canaro, as something that he should consider doing an arrangement of. Unlike technique, feeling can’t be learned, although it can be cultivated.

Here's a pic of Stefon, in front, from his album Blackout:
















The second set included singer Roberta Gambariani, accompanied by piano, bass, and drums. Roberta has a strong Italian accent when speaking, but her singing voice is damn near perfect, and reminded me of Ella Fitzgerald. At one point, she was scatting with her mouth near the mic, and she sounded almost exactly like a muted trumpet. She has a really good sense of musicality, and was basically leading the band.

The last set was the Lewis Nash quintet. John plays drums for the Clayton Brother’s, and in the first set he had this amazing solo where he played bare handed, used normal sticks, brushes, and tympani sticks. In this set, there was an amazing duet with Steve Wilson on soprano saxophone. They played an arrangement of a Duke Ellington song, Mooch.

One thing to mention about the Vail Jazz Festival is that it is oriented towards teaching up and coming high school jazz players. The week preceding it is composed of workshops. There were too many good moments to mention, it was tied with the 9th annual fest for the best Jazz concert I’ve seen. Now, I'm anticipating the late night milonga in Denver, I'll keep you posted.