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Jazz Fest Diary, Day Three

Day Three

• David Weiss Sextet
• Dov Hammer
• Willem Breuker Kollektief

Just back from the Sunday night shows and all I can muster by way of summary is, "Holy crap!"

Tonight was the night I didn't care so much about. No "must-sees" on my list, I was open to anything, and, man, did we stumble into it.

Just this afternoon (yesterday afternoon actually, it's now after midnight) I figured out that David Weiss of the David Weiss Sextet also played in last night's Night of the Cookers. So Seth (who's getting lots of links from me this week) and I decided to check out his group at the recently-back-in-business Montage Grill (although their website doesn't seem to be open for business yet). And lucky for us, Craig Handy (playing alto sax tonight) and bassist Dwayne Burno were also doing double duty as part of the sextet. The group played a set of Weiss compositions, which combined with Handy's formidable presence, made for a truly enjoyable performance.

After feasting our ears on Weiss' old-school jazz, Seth and I ventured back toward Gibbs St. to grab a bite to eat and to also check out a couple of Dov Hammer tunes at the free stage. Hammer, along with a couple buddies, cranked out some decent harmonica/guitar/slide-guitar blues for the people. But Seth and I were in search of more jazzy fare. So by 8:15, despite the sweltering weather conditions, we started waiting in line to catch Paradigm Shift in the big tent, but we were turned away due to the tent already being filled to capacity.

And again, how lucky for us. This allowed us to grab some prime seating at Milestones for the Willem Breuker Kollektif. About whom, all I can say is, again, "Holy crap!" They were truly amazing. Take one part George Clinton, one part circus music, one part Coltrane, one part...forget it. Here's a better description than what I can come up with:

The Kollektief's approach combines jazz and 'serious' (i.e. classical) music with many popular genres, from marching band and circus music to latin dance steps and music for film and theatre. The result is both humorous and surprising, full of false stops and starts, clean breaks, sudden shifts in musical mood, and above all, a fine sense of irony. At any given moment, the Kollektief can be churning out hot jazz, European Style, and the next moment they're tearing through a classical repertory with all the irreverence of Spike Jones.

A jazz version of Spike Jones. There. That's an excellent six-word summary. This is a band that can have an audience laughing and crying almost at will. Truly a complex and remarkable group.