Saturday, July 14, 2007

Uptown Waterloo Jazz

I've enjoyed (with one exception) the parts of the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival that I've seen so far.

Friday night it was Soul Suppliers, followed by Levon Ichkhanian and ending with Ivana Santilli. You can follow the link above for their bio.
  • The Soul Suppliers were great... some fun, lively, jazzy funk. They're a fun band with lots of energy.
  • Levon Ichkhanian is a great guitarist. His world / jazz stylings were great. Not as much stage presence as Soul Suppliers but still a great concert.
  • Ivana Santilli. We left early. She didn't connect with the crowd. I got the impression that every movement was choreographed. She has skill as a musician, but it seemed to be more about her than the music.
Saturday, I only had time (& the will... it was raining) to catch Cimarron.
  • What a contrast with Santilli. These guys were having fun. Luis Mario Ochoa's band did a great job. It truly was jazz. Four band members, including Luis Mario Ochoa, trumpt, alto sax and congo were late because of a flat tire. The rest of the band: piano, drums, electric bass, drums, tenor sax and trombone started the set. They then brought on a drummer from a band who played earlier and as part of one song he and Cimarron's drummer, now playing congo, did a great duet. Even though the crowd wasn't big at that time - they had a start time of 5:30 and it had just stopped raining. But they were very appreciated.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I thought you might be headlining - giggle ~8)

But rumours are about that your were caught noodling on the clarinet and occasionally banging the bongos in Ochoa's band.

RoG