Jazz On The Track
Fantastic music overcomes crappy location
EVAN JOHNSON STAFF
On Thursday, August 17, the third annual Smartpark Summer Night Jazz Fest offered a night of brilliant, beautiful jazz, enjoyed by jazz-aficionados and jazz-philistines (like myself ) alike. The enthusiastic crowd, bringing their own chairs as instructed on the tickets, streamed into Max Bell Centre’s “fieldhouse” to witness the strange juxtaposition of world class jazz performances surrounded by indoor track-and-field facilities.
The outstanding band, comprised of both local and international talent, featured headliners drummer Terreon Gully (hailing from East St. Louis), vibraphonist Stefon Harris, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, and piece-of-jazzhistory trombonist and sea-shellist Steve Turre.
Also helping out were trumpeter Richard Gillis, saxophonists Ken Gold and Janice Finlay, pianist Will Bonness, guitarist Larry Roy, vocalist Anne-Lisa Kirby, and director of Jazz Studies at the U of M, bassist Steve Kirby.
After several rounds of applause for chief sponsor Smartpark, charming local favorite (and superb bassist) Kirby got the night rolling with a rambling, improvised introduction, before declaring that rapid opening number “11th Hour” “is going to sting a little bit.” The song stung so much, in fact, that the band had to take it down a notch to play some slow, seductive blues.
Later, Anne-Lisa Kirby took to the stage to sing an adapted version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” Kirby made the song beautifully her own and was accompanied, at first, only by Larry Roy’s melancholy guitar. Soon the band kicked in to provide an elegant backdrop to Kirby’s sumptuous vocals. Needless to say it was much more moving than the version I do at home in my underwear with my Casio.
A highlight for me was vibraphonist Stefon Harris’ composition “And This Too Shall Pass” which featured an ambient, rumbling introduction before kicking into a tasty groove. Drummer Gully led the song home with some fantastic rhythmic shifts.
Throughout the night, the band played both original and standard numbers, all of which offered ample opportunity for the audience to witness firsthand the musicians’ exemplary skill. As expected, the headliners were particularly impressive: Miguel Zenón looked quite casual but still performed blistering solos, and Stefon Harris’s enthusiastic and very physical vibraphonery was energetic and infectious. Really, though, every musician involved deserves the most ardent kudos.
Now to get grouchy, if only because “criticism” is part of my job: I think it’s misleading to call your concert Summer Night Jazz Fest, encourage people to bring their own lawn chairs, then deposit them in the middle of an indoor fieldhouse/ gymnasium surrounded by “1992 Bison Men’s Track and Field Champions” banners. I expected a refreshing summer breeze, but they didn’t even turn on the industrial-strength ceiling fans! It should have been called Smartpark’s Indoor Summer Night Jazz Fest in Gymnasium With No Chairs. Still, better in Max Bell Centre’s indoor track than nowhere at all. The music was great, that’s the important thing.
