San Jose Jazz Festival Part Two

By now everyone should know that San Jose hosts the largest free jazz festival of its kind on the planet. It's a great hang and you can see a myriad of local talent as well as the elite of the jazz world. Since I'm a local yokel, I want to toot my horn for the locals today.
Open Path recording artist, my musical twin and fellow Novo Tempo compadre saxophonist Kristen Strom played one of the most inspiring sets I've seen in a long time. Her debut CD "Intentions" features players like Jon Shiflitt, Jason Lewis, hubby/ soul mate and producer Scott Sorkin and Adam Schulman. She also has singing with her Ed "Two Cell" Johnson and her La Familia.
From the first note, her melodic conception and lyrical singing tone lifted us all out of our seats into another world. Her choice of material is melody oriented and the way the band flowed thru them and improvised was second to none. What a great feeling, to close your eyes while listening to her set and see wave after waves of images brought forth by the beauty of her music. I know the crowd was hip to it because they were quiet. They listened and got it! The audience should get 5 stars for being so in tune. Congrats on the debut of "Intentions" and your masterful performance Kris.
The Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco also knocked me out. Led by sensei John Calloway, they showed us all why they will be the future stars of tomorrow. Wayne Wallace leaned over to me at one point and said, "These are the cat's who'll be taking our gigs someday". It's nice to know that the future is in such good hands! Trombonist Natalie Cressman, daughter of trombonist Jeff Cressman and vocalist Sandy Cressman was up there wailing. I hadn't seen her in a few years since we rehearsed at the Cressman manor for the Don Byron gig at Monterey Jazz Festival. She's all grown up now! I remember her when she was this tiny little baby hangin' on Momma and Poppa's pant leg. Keep up the good work Natalie!
I saw much more music while floating from one stage after another. I saw my friends and trumpeters Tom Bertetta and Randy Smith. Tom was playing with a salsa band and Randy was playing with Octobop. I met Bobby Watson, was mesmerized by Andy Nozaka's photo exhibit in the museum, hung out with Kye Palmer (trumpet w/Poncho Sanchez), hung with one of my best buds Kerry McCoy and ran around a bit with the love of my life, my loving wife Susan. She had her own event to go to so I had my hall pass for a moment to hang out and chill. Jayne Sanchez was her fun self hosting the Repetory Theater stage and I saw Rich S. and Maureen M. in the front row cheering on Kris. Tom K. was checking out the sounds here and there and Jack and Ellen Fasman watching little Dana Rose and Laura Fasman who were checking out their poppa Louis on stage. Terry Ross, ex-lead trumpeter from the Woody Herman Orchestra was at Gordon Biersch watching the salsa band from Santa Cruz do their thing.
I also had fun being a part of a jazz panel discussion hosted by Yoshi Kato. It was called "What Do You Know..Trade Secrets" My fellow panelists were Sonny Buxton, Jackie Naylor and Art Khu. We had a nice audience and the topics ranged from jazz education to what we did to develop ourselves into artists. It was a nice blend of folks. We all were players/writers/educators and shared stories about ourselves. We all walked away with feeling like we got to know each other a little bit better.
Thank you San Jose Jazz Society, for bringing such a memorable and vital contribution to the soul of our community. Thanks to Rob Roman and Steve Saperstein for their hard work and faith in the music and those who play it. Thanks to all of the staff, Marcia, Matt, Casey and everyone else who make it all happen every year. Ah...less than 51 weeks till it happens again!