Montavilla jazz festival forefront creative expression Montavilla Jazz Festival 2017

Montavilla jazz festival forefront creative expression The Montavilla Jazz Festival (in the Montavilla area of Portland, Oregon) is in it’s fourth year (unbeknownst to me, since I was out of the country), and it’s got this old jazz cat about as excited as a 70-year-old reviewer can be lol!  I will be there for both days, doing LIVE SHOW reviews, meeting some the folks I’ve known only through the US Postal service for these many years and maybe even taking a picture or two with them!

As many of you know I’ve been reviewing folks like Rich Halley, David Friesen, Ezra Weiss, and Rebecca Kilgore for many MANY years now, but this is actually the first time I will get to watch them perform live… those readers who “live, eat & breathe” jazz will understand how much better a live performance is… a recording can be excellent, of course, and if it’s recorded in front of a live audience, it can (if well recorded) be even better than a studio recording… but NOTHING, I repeat nothing can take the place of being right THERE, where the real jazz action is happening!

You can review the festival schedule, get location, etc., on the FACEBOOK event page for Montavilla jazz festival… in event you’re in a rush (like so many of us are these days), though, I’ve copy pasted the lineup in below:

19 August, 2017 Saturday (doors open at 1:00)

2:00 – Ron Steen Quartet
3:10 – Trio Subtonic with Dan Balmer
4:20 – PJCE with Jasnam Daya Singh
5:40 – Joe Manis Double Drums Quartet
6:50 – David Friesen Quartet
8:00 – Rich Halley 5 with Vinny Golia

20 August, 2017 Sunday (doors open at 1:00)

2:00 – Quadraphonnes + Andrew Durkin
3:10 – Ezra Weiss Sextet
4:20 – Andre St. James Sound Ensemble with George Sams
5:40 – Rebecca Kilgore
6:50 – Blue Cranes
8:00 – Essiet Essiet IBO with Sylvia Cuenca

All of this great music will be happening in one venue, Portland Metro Arts… I surely hope to see you there!  My LIVE SHOW reviews will appear in this same post (or be linked in here, if it turns out to be too much for one post) as soon as I finalize them next week.

I’ve decided to write a separate post for each group that I was able to watch… just click on their NAME in the show listing above to go to their post, please.  Why did I do it this way?  Because there was just so much talent and energy on display that it wouldn’t do to just “lump” them together into one gigantic review post.  Please be sure to catch some of these Portland-based artists on their local gigs…