Montavilla Jazz Festival Day 1, Act 6 – Rich Halley 5 with Vinny Golia

Montavilla Jazz Festival Day 1, Act 6 – RICH HALLEY 5 WITH VINNY GOLIA: I was truly excited to attend this great jazz festival, if for no other reason than to meet with Rich… I’ve been reviewing his work for MANY years, most recently in issue # 166 of my IMPROVIJAZZATION NATION magazine!

So, I’m sitting in the musician’s “Green Room”, yakking it up with some of the players from today’s sets, and all of a sudden, in walks Rich, with Vinny – & even though we’ve never met before – it’s like “old home” week, lol!  I had reviewed Vinny’s fantastic reed work way back in issue # 58 (wow, THAT was a long time back) so I was very familiar with his solid playing.  After a round of handshakes & chitchat, I went back out to the auditorium to settle in for their performance.

Now, I’m gettin’ on up in years (ain’t dead YET, though, ha! ha!), and hadn’t read the festival booklet closely enough… if you look on the left side of the video below, you’ll notice a trombone player… that’s Michael Vlatkovich, & my latest review of his work is in issue # 160 – among many others, to be sure.  To be able to watch all of these players in LIVE mode (including Rich’s son, Carson Halley, on drums and Clyde Reed on bass) was a MAJOR treat… check out the video now, please…

I’m sure the festival organizers chose this group to perform in the last slot of the evening because they knew it was going to be the HOTTEST performance of the day… & they weren’t incorrect… full-bodied playing from jazz veterans of the highest caliber… pure pleasure to watch!  I will be keeping my eyes peeled for ANY performances these cats have coming up & will make the trek down that way to catch them.  An excellent display of high-energy jazz talent that revitalized me and made the trip down to Portland well worth it!  Rich & his crew are MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED – when it comes to volcanic jazz, it doesn’t get any better than this!