Monday, June 29, 2026

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Jazz fest day four; I decided to attend a later set of shows as the weather is getting hotter and I wanted to avoid being in the Sun and at least have some of my time at the festival be during and after sunset.


The first show I went to was Son Little, he sang songs a bit reggae sounding, he had a woman bass player who also did backing vocals and in an interestingly minimal way, just a word here, a phrase there. A facet of their playing in quite a few of their songs would have a crescendo build to a dramatic level.
Next I went to see D.K. Harrell, a rhythm & blues singer, performer of large size. He had great showmanship and interacted with the crowd, getting us involved in some of the songs.
Finally I went back to the main TD stage for a show that would start half an hour later. Already there were many thousands of people there, but I managed to snake my way in where I found an empty spot for me to stand. The performance was from Kamasi Washington and his band. It was the most avant-garde jazz I've seen so far with a reliable rhythm only some of the time, arythmic sound most of the time, generous 5-8 minute solos from every player in the band. I'd have left this performance earlier, but leaving from that thick crowd was a challenge and I wanted to give Washington's band a chance. Eventually I did come to enjoy the show. This band too, like Son Little, would use crescendos in their songs.
I decided at this show to take a photo backwards to show how big the crowd was; as it was dark when I took the photo, it is hard to tell, and the green tinge is because there are some lights above us shining green light upon us. The crowd goes all the way back to those joined towers you see in the background as there is another screen back there that shows by video what is happening on the stage.

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