Sunday, June 26, 2005

Jazz festival, part 5: Post review of Friday's show

As much as I wanted to see Los Hombres Calientes, I couldn't attend the US Bank Saint Louis Jazz Festival on Friday night because I had a gig. However, the Post-Dispatch has a review of Friday's show here.

Though there are no precise figures cited, it would seem that Friday's crowd was less than expected/hoped for, with the heat and humidity as likely culprits in holding down attendance. And it seems odd to me that the review is uncredited, at least in the online version. I can't ever remember the Post running a review of anything without a byline, so perhaps it's just an oversight that will be corrected later. I plan to buy the dead tree verion of the paper later today to compare to the online version. But in the meantime, it's interesting to consider this comment about Peabo Bryson that closes out the Post story:

"No, what Bryson was performing wasn’t jazz. But there’s no denying it pleased those who came to hear him. He’s an R&B singer, plain and simple, and he wouldn’t claim otherwise. But if festival producers present his music under the banner of jazz, and audiences accept that perception as reality, what’s next in the “brave new world” of jazz fest programming?"

I wonder if the the author of this review could be one of the (unnamed and unquoted) critics who prompted the quotes from Festival organizers in Kevin Johnson's story from last week? The plot thickens.

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