Jazz & Blues Springfield

the incomparable Hal Melia

After hours jazz jams worth the trip! Once again, the Springfield Jazz and Blues Festival made Springfield the place to be in early August. Between Mother Stewart's Brewing and the newly dedicated Johnny Lytle main jazz stage in Commons Park Plaza there were two stages of music and a brewery in between. Sign me up!

I admit to missing most of the first day's offering on Friday but made a point to catch the last performance of the day, the Carmen Bradford Trio. Knowing that the Bobby Floyd Trio would be backing Carmen I wanted to hear what they had to say. To my surprise, Reggie Jackson was on drums. As they say these days, it had been a minute. But the wonderful surprise was that Hal Melia was special guest on saxophone! Hal is amazing and it was a delight to hear him play. Carmen knew how to deliver a jazz song and she had some great stories, one of which was about Ella Fitzgerald and one of which was about Ray Brown.

But the after hours jazz jam was what I came to hear, although I gotta say, I was ecstatic that I was able to hear Hal Melia playing with a combo, a treat for sure. The after hours jam was held at the State Theater just up the road. Managed by bass player George Delancey and his gang of Columbus expatriates, it was quite a jazz jam. The place was packed and people were still coming in as the music came to a close at 12:30. There were lots of jammers and for the first time in a long time there were actually three trombone players, yes I said three trombone players. It was disappointing to me that only two of them jammed together at one time but all three showed their chops.

Saturday got started around 2:30 with the Columbus Youth Jazz Orchestra and this group was very talented, very well directed and highly enjoyable as they highlighted jazz musicians from Ohio. It was here that I learned that Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross actually wrote one of my favorite jazz tunes, Centerpiece. It was a very enjoyable performance. Keigo Hirakawa fronted his usual excellent combo and this iteration of his combo included a killer sax player from Detroit.

One of my favorite jazz instruments that you don't get to hear all that much is the vibes (are the vibes?) and Dayton area native Josh Strange and East Coast import Warren Wolf played a tribute to Johnny Lytle that was sensational. Imagine, TWO vibes players playing their hearts out to the vibraphone icon Johnny Lytle. Hard to beat. I will take this opportunity to mention that I saw yet another vibes player on the slide show that played throughout the day and that was Springfield native Mark Smarelli who helped open up the concert the night before. Vibraphone players everywhere! Three tenor sax players were up next with a B3 organ. All were masters of their instrument but for me personally, it was great to see Eddie Bayard up close and personal in a live setting. I want to do a shout out to Laura Gentry, Cincinnati jazz organizer extraordinaire for helping make the three tenors possible.

The big act of the day and really the entire festival was jazz vocalist Kurt Elling. He was quite the performer and the Springfield Symphony Jazz Orchestra, directed by Jazz at Lincoln Center education director Todd Stoll, backed Elling masterfully. This jazz orchestra is simply outstanding, every singly member highly accomplished in their own right. Hal Melia plays in this band as well and this night, Scott Belck played a trumpet solo that brought the crowd to its feet! Kudos Mr. Belck. For me personally, I really enjoyed the way Kurt Elling did "Going back to Chicago" - what a great rendition. All I can say is that if you were not there, then you really missed a rousing performance. And now for a bit of serendipitous evening unexpected interaction. Walking across the parking lot to the late night after hours jazz venue at the State Theater, I looked up and a lone figure was making his way past the theater and heading towards the performers motel on the corner..."Kurt?" I called out...he stopped in his tracks and turned to say, "Yeah, man!" I told him I enjoyed the way he did going back to Chicago and he smiled and said, "Thanks man, I enjoy singing." And as Paul Harvey used to say, "And now you know, the rest of the story." On to the after hours jazz jam!

Once again the much anticipated after hours jazz jam at the State Theater was quite an experience. This night was managed by bass player Connor Smith and his drummer compadre, Noah Ramirez. There were lots of jammers from the Springfield Symphony Jazz Orchestra that made the jam just that much more enjoyable. Shout out to Tim Blackmon & Pharez Whitted! Chris Andrews on alto sax was a major mover & shaker this night and helped keep things jammin'!