The quality of the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival puts similar provincial events to shame Our trip to Fredericton was a funky good time
This year, I was a volunteer with the Saint John Jazz and Blues Festival. It was an opportunity to see how such events are put together. Although I'm grateful to have had the chance to help out, it was a decidedly unorganized set-up, even according to the volunteers I spoke with. When I took tickets at one event, I had to turn people away because there was no sitting room. I didn't understand why people couldn't just stand and watch, because there was no mention of fire regulations either. One gentleman in particular was very mad there was no chair for him inside, but he was probably an exception to the rule. We even ended up turning away people with festival passes, which made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. So, despite all the great music and encouraging number of volunteers, I can only hope that next year the planning goes a little smoother.
I also hope some of the organizers went up to Fredericton last week to see the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival. It was one of the best run outdoor events I've been to in a while. Every show was contained within a 5 city block radius and no people were turned away at the doors to overcrowded venues -- even when they probably should have been. This is what is needed for jazz and blues though. Without a large crowd to applaud after a long and creative saxophone solo, and without groups of people to take the initiative and bounce up in front of the stage and start dancing, a wall goes up around the music and it simply fails to reach its audience. The more people you pack into a tent, the better the chances of breaking down that fourth wall and dodging the stigma that comes with the word "jazz".
On Thursday night, I went up to the capital city with three friends (Jiggling Julie, Lovely Lysbeth and Lusty Lisa) to catch the New Artists Showcase. The first slot was Fredericton's Shayde. These guys sound great and did mostly original stuff (there was a fair cover of "Come Together"), but they were really more of a rock and roll band than anything remotely to do with jazz or blues. The nomination for them to be finalists performing in the showcase was its own reward. Next up was a trio from Bairdsville, New Brunswick. The name is Flat Top, and they are definitely a group to watch for. It took maybe all of 20 seconds into their first number to get the crowd going with their unique blend of oldtime blues and gritty swamp sound (it also helped that the entire town of Bairdsville had travelled up to Fredericton to cheer their homeboys on). Flat Top would go on to win the Showcase, and I certainly hope they put the prize money towards making a CD, because their original material is fantastic. Next up was Jennifer Power, backed by the Richard Kidd Quartet. Jennifer did a wonderful job of nailing her songs and the band was pretty tight. I think her chances of winning the Showcase were harmed because: 1) The town of Bairdsville decided to cast their votes for Flat Top then left the tent, causing a drop of numbers in the crowd, 2) she was jazz and she had to follow up a blues act, 3) she performed covers, and 4) two of the members of the band actually had sheet music in front of them for help. True, these are all minor details but they probably factored into the scoring. Jennifer should still be very proud though, because she definitely entertained the crowd. After that, I saw one number by Digdeguash's Eddy Gouchie, a Smashing Pumpkins cover, and then left for the night. All in all, the Showcase was definitely worth the price of admission.
The next day, me and good friend Dan headed back to Fredericton with evening passes in hand. At noon, we caught the Scott Marshall Trio, which is comprised of two guys from Toronto and one from New Brunswick. Their gimmick is that they perform without a drummer or percussion of any kind. Marshall plays sax/woodwinds, Marcel Aucoin is on piano, and Wes Neal plays the standup bass. These guys had some awesome original material, and did some fine Duke Ellington covers. Their show was in the King Square food court, so a lot of people were either on their lunch break or simply passing by for a minute then moving on (at one point, Marshall exclaimed, "Thanks for letting us play at McDonald's"). One guy, who was approximately 136 years old, requested "As Time Goes By" from the movie Casablanca. Without flinching, Marshall went into his raggedy book of sheet music, yanked out the melody, and the three jumped into it, groovy improvised solos and all. In retrospect, these guys really impressed me.
Next, we headed to the Blues Tent to see Harvey Millar & Freedom Jazz Band. These guys cook! Millar is a Halifax university professor who plays a mean guitar. He's joined by bassist Bruce Jacobs, Gary Steed on drums, and on keyboards is Silvio Pupo, whom I had the pleasure of seeing a few months back at the Saint John Jazz and Blues Festival when he played with Linda Carvery. Millar's vocals are great, and the band fuses a lot of reggae into their jazz. At one point, Pupo and Millar were dueling solos onstage and got the crowd into it. After that, we stayed for El Fuego, a Moncton-based sextet specializing in salsa music. I really enjoyed their enthusiasm, but calypso and salsa aren't really my thing, so I watched with interest whenever the vibes and bongos were being played but never really immersed myself 100% into their set.
Probably my favourite act of the entire festival was when San Francisco's Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne hit the Mojo Tent. Accompanied by the Twisters, out of Vancouver, Wayne was the quintessential showman and musician for his entire performance. He entered from the back of tent and walked straight down the centre aisle through the crowd wearing a pimp outfit. He was blowing on some kind of air-operated Casio keyboard or something, and it was too cool for words. He stumbled onstage with one of his own tracks, "My Nadine" (which features a line about Nadine posing for a men's magazine), and from that point onward he never let the audience go. I even bought his CD.
J.P. LeBlanc, the young Bathurst guitarist who could, was our next stop. LeBlanc seemed a little less energetic this time around, but a lot of that could have had to do with a drastic reduction in cover tunes. With a new full length CD getting a lot of buzz, he was definitely using the festival as a chance to drum up new potential customers, once it gets released that is. LeBlanc often gets a lot of kudos, but his bandmates are no slouches either. His drummer had an electrifying solo during the last song, and a couple of the other members had some impressive solos too. Once the teaser about his young age has fully run its course, LeBlanc may want to consider renaming the group.
We next headed back to the Mojo Tent in the hopes of catching Sherman Robertson. His opening act turned out to be the Twisters again, so we went in to wait for Robertson. We found out the Twisters were just getting going but we stayed for most of their set. I was worried at first it would just be a rehash of their set from earlier that afternoon, but I'm pretty sure all of their stuff was new and it was all really good. It also helped that the show was being recorded for an upcoming live CD they will be calling Live at the Harvest. Obviously I'll need to look out for that one as good friend Dan and I were dancing right in front of the stage for a good portion of that show. Didn't hurt that Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne returned for a stint on piano to keep things rocking.
Although we'd purchased tickets to the All Night Jam, we were too exhausted to go to that, which probably only got going around 1:00 or 1:30. The next day we went to the Afternoon concert and saw a bit of Marrón Matizado, another salsa jazz band from Toronto. They were pretty funky, but I only caught 2 or 3 songs, so I only have a bit of a feel for the band. After that was a real treat. Big Mark and the Blues Express from Montreal hit the stage, and they had it goin' on. The six-man band has a sound that borders on swing, but there was definitely a lot of blues in the mix too. Big Mark Legault was on guitar, and he was on fire. The next artist was Sonny Landreth from Lafayette, Louisiana. With intricate guitar techniques, it's clear that Landreth has talent, but a lot of his material was avant-garde and "out-there". He never really connected with me, which is a shame because a lot of the volunteers seemed to think he was one of the best acts of the festival.
So, that pretty much sums up our thorough exposure to a lot of great jazz and blues. Regrets? Only two: I would have liked to have seen Sherman Robertson, who was described in the programme as a "monster blues force... about to unleash his sweat-drenched swamp lightning blues"; and, believe it or not, I would also have liked to check out the gospel tent to hear some power soul... but I can always check that out next year, because I'm definitely going back. Even now, I can hardly wait.
P.S. The trip would not have been a success without the gracious hospitality of Bodacious Brian, who accompanied us on some of our jazz and blues excursions and was a truly awesome host. Thanks, B!
