Sep 1

Sep 1 Chicago Jazzfest--Day 4

Chicago, Chicago Tourism, Festivals, Jazz, Musicians, Performance

The final day of Jazzfest 2019 was a wet one. Those who stayed home made a huge mistake, but that simply meant there was more music for those of us who braved the elements. One thing is for sure, this was possibly the best day of the four-day festival, offering something for everybody.

In terms of the nightly headlining performances at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, it was heavily weighted toward Latin Jazz, with elder statesmen Eddie Palmieri closing out the festival. He was preceded by Miguel Zenon and Melissa Aldana teaming up to headline Latino-America Unida, and before them, Chilean guitarist Camila Meza brought her Nectar Orchestra to Chicago.

In terms of those headliners, Zenon, who I’ve seen many times before, was by far my favorite. He is a tremendous saxophone player, and the program reflected his intellect. Chilean-born Melisa Aldana ably joined him in exploring jazz with Latin rhythms and sensibilities, particularly with a Puerto Rican focus.

My least favorite performance of the day was Eddie Palmieri. He won me over 25 years ago when I saw him at Ravinia during a Saturday afternoon of jazz. In my memory, he offered up a solid set of Latin jazz supported by a large band. Tonight, we heard a musician long past his prime, who is phoning it in. He was long on the gesticulations and short on piano chops, as is evidenced by my photographs, which are representative of what transpired during his set.

For me, the standout performance on the main stage came from the opening act, which was simply billed as Rempis/Flaten/Ra + Baker. As I have written before, Avreeyal Ra is one of my favorite drummers. Outwardly, Ra seems to move about with what could be construed as random strokes. In fact, every stroke is carefully thought out and forcefully articulated. With him was Jim Baker, who is Schroeder-like (Peanuts) in appearance and demeanor. I have seen him when he is on piano, but this was my first experience time seeing him play synthesizers. Add sax player Day Rempis and Scandinavian bassist Ingebright Hãker Flaten to the mix, and you have some challenging, but highly listenable music.

By far, my favorite performance of the day came from Ben Lamar Gay, who is a member of the AACM. Last year, during one performance, he said (paraphrasing), “As you can see, I like to do weird stuff with my instruments.” And he does, today playing keyboards and a trumpet. With him was Will Faber, who was simply on fire as he wildly rocked and rotated while playing his guitar. The guy was having a ball. The music was not traditional in any sense of the world, but is was highly enjoyable and accessible—some Art Ensemble of Chicago, modern electronic, and folk sensibilities all stirred into an endearing mix. When I got home, I checked to see whether these guys had an album out, but I couldn’t find one. Hopefully something will be forthcoming.

I also finally had the chance to see Madison-based Ben Sidran, who somewhat surprisingly, I had never see before, but long ago, I read his book, Black Talk. He performed a straight-ahead set of music that had elements of Mose Allison in it.

I started the day with Joan Collaso, a Chicago-based singer, who has performed around the world, provided backup vocals for Stevie Wonder, and worked with a number of other pop luminaries, including Alicia Keyes, Susan Boyle, and Tim McGraw. Today she was out front, with her husband Larry Hanks on piano and her daughter performing background vocals. In addition to a number of jazz standards, Collaso performed a tribute to the Aretha Franklin and a Stevie Wonder selection.

Over the course of the day, I also saw Russ Johnson perform with Chicago stalwarts Dana Hall, Clark Sommers, and Greg Ward; Brazilian guitarist Paulinho Garcia take on 50 years of Bossa nova; and Julie Wood and Rajiv Halim take on a number of hard charging jazz standards.

As I said, it was one terrific day of jazz.

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