Wednesday, July 01, 2026

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Jazz Fest day six had me attend only two shows as there was a very high risk of heavy rain during the Willow show that started at 21h30, so I ended up leaving at around 20h40 as I had listened enough to Mei Semones.

The first band I saw was Alfa Mist at the big TD stage. I am kicking myself as I arrived a half hour early and stood at the 4 o'clock slightly behind a young woman. Throughout that half hour I could have been chatting with her, asking her if she knows about Alfa Mist, or has she attended any other shows, but I didn't know if she was alone (she was) or if she was waiting for someone, and I didn't know what language she spoke. Anyhow, if this situation presents itself again, I will act. 

In the photo below it is very difficult to see the painist at the grand piano on the left, but he was there and he was the only one who spoke to us, not very much. This band played true jazz, with arrythmic beats, taking turns of each player to get solo opportunity, brief syncopated connections among all members for a short ryhtmic section and then back to complex or sole player performance. The drummer in particular was spectacular.

Here is a video that I took:

The next band I saw was Mei Semones and her band. She sang songs with cute lyrics, the violin and viola on the left added excellent backing sounds and did have a well rehearsed duo performance for perhaps a two minute stretch during one song. Mei herself did a lot of individual note picking up and down the neck of her electric guitar, it was kind of fun how she played, but a full hour of it was too much, so I ended up leaving before the show ended.


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