Chicago Jazz Fest...

[jc4prez]

Hopefully someone else made it to jazzfest yesterday. I admit I was simply too fatigued to venture down and decided to save my energy for Ornette tonight. So it goes...you can't do everything.

 

LouieB

 

 

hey lou did that have the fence up blocking seats or could you just mosey on up like last year?

[LouieB]

hey lou did that have the fence up blocking seats or could you just mosey on up like last year?

Sort of a combination of the two. Initially on Friday night you could just wander in anywhere, but when it got really crowded around the next to last act they had it roped off so they weren't letting in anyone except those obviously that had seats. It filled nearly up for Eddie Palmieri so I guess they figured they had best keep it together. I have no idea about last night, and I am not sure how many folks Ornette will attract; Palmieri attracted lots of non-jazz folks since he also plays salsa and is popular in the hispanic community, since he has played with everyone over the past 60 years. I would not go too late tonight, but then again I have no idea. Tonight is kind of the far out stuff so perhaps it will not be so crowded, but then again Ornette is famous so you may get others who would not normally go. Who knows.

 

 

LouieB

[jc4prez]

Sort of a combination of the two. Initially on Friday night you could just wander in anywhere, but when it got really crowded around the next to last act they had it roped off so they weren't letting in anyone except those obviously that had seats. It filled nearly up for Eddie Palmieri so I guess they figured they had best keep it together. I have no idea about last night, and I am not sure how many folks Ornette will attract; Palmieri attracted lots of non-jazz folks since he also plays salsa and is popular in the hispanic community, since he has played with everyone over the past 60 years. I would not go too late tonight, but then again I have no idea. Tonight is kind of the far out stuff so perhaps it will not be so crowded, but then again Ornette is famous so you may get others who would not normally go. Who knows.

 

 

LouieB

 

 

I have a feeling it will be crowded for the first half hour or so then it will thin out. Are headliners only getting an hour or are they going till 10?

 

I am super excited for tonight.

[LouieB]

I have a feeling it will be crowded for the first half hour or so then it will thin out. Are headliners only getting an hour or are they going till 10?

 

I am super excited for tonight.

Palmieri went over 10 minutes to about 9:40 or so. This will not go late. The stage manager is very strict.

 

LouieB

[jc4prez]

Palmieri went over 10 minutes to about 9:40 or so. This will not go late. The stage manager is very strict.

 

LouieB

 

 

man thats pretty disappointing, but I guess an hour with Ornette is better then none at all.

[LouieB]

man thats pretty disappointing, but I guess an hour with Ornette is better then none at all.

Who knows, maybe it will be slightly longer. Even Sonny with the stage to himself played short of 2 hours. This isn't a Springsteen or Wilco show.

 

LouieB

[mountain bed]

I'm extremely jealous here. Have a good time you all - I hope Ornette reduces your brains to a smoldering cinder.

[LouieB]

I'm extremely jealous here. Have a good time you all - I hope Ornette reduces your brains to a smoldering cinder.

Frankly I believe most of the audience's brain will be reduced to that long before Ornette hits the stage. See the Petrillo line-up tonight. I am sure the ICP Orchstra will be pretty far out and I know 8 Bold Souls is solid AACM (they played Pitchfork a couple years ago to a nearly empty tent on a hot day...) so the remaining audience by Ornette will be either ready or gone. I am pretty sure I saw this line-up (his son on drums) a few years back and they are not as far out as one would at first imagine, but they aren't playing straight ahead either....

 

Even an hour with Ornette is pretty special. He rarely plays Chicago at all and he is no spring chicken anymore either.

 

LouieB

[calvino]

Thanks for your reports Louie.

 

I fucked my ankle up 'real good' Thursday, that left me pretty motionless since. Missed Fri and Sat, hoping the swelling and bruising will subside a bit so at least I could make it down tonight, but it's still not as good as I hoped it would be.

 

It would be nice if WBEZ were still broadcasting the fest like they used to do, for a while there at least. I need to hobble down to my storage space and find some of my old tapes of the broadcasts.

 

Anyway thanks again for the reports.

[LouieB]

It would be nice if WBEZ were still broadcasting the fest like they used to do, for a while there at least. I need to hobble down to my storage space and find some of my old tapes of the broadcasts.

 

Anyway thanks again for the reports.

This is frankly the biggest fuck up by BEZ ever. Of course they don't play hardly any music anymore, but it used to be great to be able to listen to the fest and the interviews with the musicians between sets, etc. on BEZ. I don't know how much it cost them, but this lack of programming is inexcusable frankly.

 

LouieB

[calvino]

This is frankly the biggest fuck up by BEZ ever. Of course they don't play hardly any music anymore, but it used to be great to be able to listen to the fest and the interviews with the musicians between sets, etc. on BEZ. I don't know how much it cost them, but this lack of programming is inexcusable frankly.

 

LouieB

 

 

Couldn't agree more.

[LouieB]

Last time around for this thread....

 

I only attended the Petrillo events, but what events they were. The night opened with Ron Dewar and a bunch of musicians originally from Champaign who performed a competent if uninspired set, which was all that was called for really. Good low key tunes.

 

The ICP Orchestra from Holland was more energetic and very fun, with an eleven piece band including cello and violin (or was it viola), piano, bass, drums, three saxes (clarinets), trombone and trumpet. Fun offbeat stuff that ranged from raggy swing type material to totally free. At one pont the drummer played his face sitting at the edge of the stage (not much for the lawn to hear), which got big applause. Interesting, both highly arranged and loose.

 

8 Bold Souls was next and frankly knocked the Dutch out of the park, with their AACM centered, but very tight and well conceived tunes. Ed Wilkerson made sure he connected with the crowd as they played some new material and some older material (much from their Thrill Jockey albums) and featured both ensemble playing and a good amount of soloing. Toward the end of the set they did a couple numbers with Dee Alexander, a vocalist, which were stunning. This was all very accessable for the large crowd who was exceptionally quiet and attentive.

 

8 Bold Souls was a good lead in to Ornette. A capacity crowd filled Grant Park, something that has not happened at jazz fest for a few years due to uninspired programming. Even in the case of Ornette, who's set was nothing short of amazing, the crowd hung in, in rapt silence for the entire hour. I can only say that audiences are far more hip now than they were a decade or so back, when I saw people stream out of the bandshell when John Zorn came on or further back when they did the same for Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra. In this case seats were completely filled for most of the last set as Ornette spun out complex and relatively accessable peices with his son on drums and two bass players (stand up and electric.) What a great way to end the fest, with one of the true revolutionaries in music playing to thousands of people.

 

Okay so that is it for another year....jazz fest seems to have revived itself.

 

LouieB

[jc4prez]

I caught the end of 8 bold souls and Ornette.

 

Ornette was awesome, I was standing right behind the last row of seats and the sound was the best i'd herd in Grant Park, the audience was extremely quite in front of us, but behind us it got quite loud. I was amazed at how many people sat and took the whole thing in. I figured after about 15 min. people would have been heading for the hills.

[LouieB]

I caught the end of 8 bold souls and Ornette.

 

Ornette was awesome, I was standing right behind the last row of seats and the sound was the best i'd herd in Grant Park, the audience was extremely quite in front of us, but behind us it got quite loud. I was amazed at how many people sat and took the whole thing in. I figured after about 15 min. people would have been heading for the hills.

The lawn always holds more of the partiers than the listeners.

 

It is a real testimony to the audience in the seats that people didn't leave. I truly believe that the sophistication of the folks coming to see Ornette was at the highest level. A few left, but in general the seats were filled and those that did leave left quietly and respectfully and maybe wanted to beat the crowd. They were equally as rapt with 8 Bold Souls by the way.

 

I think the sound issues at Petrillo are overblown. I found the sound at Pritzker the other night not so hot, despite the so called state of the art system there. It was not mixed very well and was sort of quiet, giving Rollins a much more subdued effect than I think he deserved. Sometimes Petrillo is a bit harsh, but I found it fine for both nights I was there.

 

LouieB

[jc4prez]

The lawn always holds more of the partiers than the listeners.

 

It is a real testimony to the audience in the seats that people didn't leave. I truly believe that the sophistication of the folks coming to see Ornette was at the highest level. A few left, but in general the seats were filled and those that did leave left quietly and respectfully and maybe wanted to beat the crowd. They were equally as rapt with 8 Bold Souls by the way.

 

I think the sound issues at Petrillo are overblown. I found the sound at Pritzker the other night not so hot, despite the so called state of the art system there. It was not mixed very well and was sort of quiet, giving Rollins a much more subdued effect than I think he deserved. Sometimes Petrillo is a bit harsh, but I found it fine for both nights I was there.

 

LouieB

 

 

I've honestly never been that blown away by the sound at Pritzker, but its always been a bit better. The band shell is always way to quite, and usually sounds pretty thin from the lawn.

 

I was expecting Sonny to be a bit louder, but was really impressed by the sound at the band shell. Although i'd imagine the unusually low volume audience probably helped quite a bit

[WaronWar]

I ended up going down to Jazz Fest with a sax player from my college, and in reality I should not have gone (however; not because of the music) because most of the time I ended up just hanging out with the sax player's friends. I guess that's fine, but I had never met most of them before and I would've wanted to see most music but I only got to catch the acts at the main stage Saturday night, and to acts Sunday.

 

I mainly wanted to see Rollins and Coleman because I am sure they don't have too much time left, but the guy I was with wanted to leave early Sunday to get back since it's about a 3 hour drive. So in short I was just disappointed because the jazz I did see was pretty good, but wasn't worth the money I spent on gas, food, and parking for just a day and a half.

 

However, on Sunday, I did see Josh Berman (cornet) and a band that included Keith Jackson (tenor), Josh Abrams (bass), a vibe player, bass clarinet, clarinet, and a drummer (I was unsure of who the other guys were). I think I heard Josh mentioned that Jeb Bishop was supposed to play with them too, but had a personal situation he had to deal with. But the band's music was great! It was basically traditional style jazz mixed with avant-garde, and it worked really well.