The 19th annual Berks Jazz Festival had a little something for everyone. Whether your taste in jazz leaned toward smooth, contemporary, fusion, or straight ahead, there was jazz for all types of jazz lovers. There was even music for the non jazz aficionados as well, in the form of blues and R&B. This festival definitely has a lot to offer.
The festival opened with a stellar concert featuring smooth jazz favorites Peter White and Mindi Abair. Playing to a very appreciative audience, Peter and Mindi did not disappoint, scoring high marks with some of their popular songs, including “Promenade,” “Who’s That Lady,” and “Bueno Funk,” from Peter, and, “Smile,” “Save the Last Dance,” and “Bloom,” from Mindi. One of the benefits of pairing Peter and Mindi is hearing them play musical arrangements together that you won’t hear anywhere else, like the very lovely acoustic version of Mindi’s “Everytime,” which was performed as a duet; Mindi on vocals and sax and Peter on acoustic guitar, sans band.
The first week of Berks is also when Gerald Veasley holds his very popular Bass Boot Camp. This was the ninth year for the boot camp. Bass players of every skill level convened on Reading, PA from far and wide just to get a master class education from some of the most talented bass players on the scene. This year the instructors included Victor Wooten, Bryan Beller, Chris Farr, David Dyson, Andrew Gouche, Adam Nitti, T.M. Stevens, Richard Waller III, and Anthony Wellington, as well as Veasley himself. The boot camp is several full days (and nights) of intensive education, practice, and performance led by this bass talent pool.
With all of these players on hand, you can imagine what happens when they all get together and jam. Victor Wooten headlined a late night show that not only showcased his talent, but also those of his young children. The apples really do not fall far from that tree. Victor also invited some of the bass talent onstage to jam with him and the band. There were lots of great performances that night, but the one that stood out for me was Gerald Veasley, Mr. Berks Jazz Festival himself, that amazed me. I didn’t know those sounds could come from a bass. Veasley is a true master of his craft.
Next up was Kirk Whalum and Gerald Albright in their show, Sax for Stax. These two easily blended genres, playing jazz, R&B, and Memphis blues. They made it seem so effortless and natural. Albright and Whalum have great chemistry and their styles mesh well together. One of the highlights of this show was when they played tribute to other saxophone players: Cannonball Adderly, Grover Washington, Jr., David Sanborn, John Coltrane, and Maceo Parker.
Brian Culbertson is always a crowd favorite, and he delivered when he brought his act to town. He was joined by his dad Jim on trumpet. It’s nice to see Jim back in the band. (Jim, we understand all too well how those pesky “day jobs” can get in the way sometimes.) Brian lived up to the title of his last CD, Bringing Back the Funk. To me, this tour is somewhat of a throwback to the early days of funk/soul music when the musicians went all out and the performances were big; lots of players, a good horn section, and lots of movement on stage.
Gerald Veasley paid homage to musical great Stevie Wonder. With the help of Joe McBride (another Berks Jazz Fest favorite), Nneena Freelon, Najee, and the Berks Jazz Fest horns, the band performed many of the Stevie Wonder hits we all know and love.
This is a tough time period at Berks because in the 7pm/7:30pm timeslot, you have three concerts going on in three different venues. They always make you choose. Smoothviews split up so we could have more concert coverage. Here was an interesting combination; Bobby Lyle and Paul Jackson Jr. Their show leaned more towards the traditional and straight ahead sides of jazz with Bobby Lyle on the Hammond B3 organ and Paul Jackson Jr. on guitar. These are two musicians who we don’t get to see very often, so it was a treat to hear them perform. The crowd was very appreciative of renditions of classic songs like “Baby, its Cold Outside,” and “Bumpin’ at Sunset.”
The Sax Pack took the stage for the late show in the ballroom. Jeff Kashiwa, Steve Cole, and Kim Waters are not only very talented saxophone players, but pretty good comedians as well. They opened their show with a video presentation then went right into the music, playing together, as well as songs from their own individual catalogs. “In the House,” (Waters) “Curtis” (Cole) and “When It Feels Good”, (Kashiwa) were the opening tracks. The three musicians had great harmony.
Late that night after the Sax Pack show ended, we heard a rumor about a jam session being held at the Jazz Base sometime after midnight. Festival manager John Ernesto confirmed that it was indeed true. When you’ve got a bunch of musicians sitting around, music is bound to happen at some point. This was one of those classic Berks moments that I’ve come to appreciate over the years. This was an impromptu, unscripted, totally off the cuff concert event. (I’m talking about passing the hat around to take up a collection for the sound guy!) It began with Mitch Forman on keys, Brian Bromberg on bass, Rick Braun on trumpet, and Evan Stone on drums. The club was packed. You could not squeeze one more person in the venue. They opened with a song called “Sugar.” Throughout the set, other musicians joined in, including Richard Elliott on tenor sax, Jeff Golub on guitar and Maysa on vocals, who absolutely blew the roof off the place with her rendition of “Summertime.” (Jeff Golub was actually sitting in the audience when someone said he should go get his guitar and join in.) They also traded off – Ricky Lawson took over on drums, and Bobby Lyle manned the keys. Hearing this group play “Cold Duck Time” was unforgettable. The talent and experience these musicians possess allow them to come together and play in the moment like they did. Yes, it took them a minute to come up with a song they all know, and then choose a key to play it in, but they worked it out. Actually, that is an understatement, they threw down.
After a full day and a late night, we were back at it again for another round of concerts. Joyce Cooling and her band started the show. This was our second time seeing Joyce at Berks. Her previous show was an acoustic show with Jay Wagner accompanying her on keys. This was the full band. I have to say that I enjoyed this show much better. She had a lot of percussion for this show, and it gave the music a little something extra. Joyce played some of her familiar tunes, like “Daddy-O,” “Come and Get it,” and “Revolving Door,” but she also introduced new music from her latest CD, “Cobra,” “Grassroots,” which would be released about a week after the show date. Those fortunate enough to attend that show were able to purchase it right there, pre-release.
East Bay Soul was the second half of this double header show. East Bay Soul is lead by Greg Adams, and features Michael Paolo and Phil Perry. Of course, Greg Adams had to play his rendition of “Smooth Operator.” It’s one of his signature songs. Other songs included “Metro,” “Moon Over Palmia,” “The World is a Ghetto,” and “Call Me.”
Again, the festival organizers made it difficult to choose between the three offerings for 7pm/7:30pm shows. And again, Smoothviews divided coverage and chose wisely. Boney James played to a sold out crowd at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. He opened his set with “The Total Experience,” a solid song choice to begin a concert. He played many of his most popular songs, “All Night Long,” “Stone Groove,” “Let It Go,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” and “Sweet Thing.” Boney is on tour to support his latest CD, Send One Your Love, and played material from that as well: “Stop, Look, Listen,” “I’m Gonna Love You,” and “Butter,” his homage to cholesterol, as he says. The crowd loves Boney and showed their enthusiastic appreciation.
The second late night jam session proved to be as engaging as the first one. (Once again, the hat was passed for the sound guy.) This one had more of a fusion sound to it. Tonight’s session was led by another Berks Jazz Fest favorite, guitarist Chuck Loeb. Chuck played alongside Gerald Veasley on bass, Mitch Forman on keys, Dave Weckl on drums, and Bobby Fransceschini on sax. They began with a Metro tune, “Low, Low, Shuffle,” then went into “Footprints.” At this point, Nelson Rangell joined the band. Song after song, as more musicians joined in, others were switched out. Jeff Kashiwa, who apparently was with everyone that weekend (more about that later), and flutist Ragan Whiteside joined the band. Wallace Morris replaced Weckl on drums, Brian Bromberg replaced Veasley on bass, and East Bay Soul keyboardist Joey Lavelle replaced Mitch Forman. There was even a third drummer switch as the night went on, Evan Stone replaced Wallace Morris. These guys jammed to a very appreciative audience for over an hour.
By far the best show we saw that final Sunday was the 2pm David Benoit show. I’ve seen him perform several times over the years, but the heavens aligned for Benoit that day. Everything fell into place and he had an amazing concert that afternoon. David was joined by his longtime band mates, Jamey Tate on drums and David Hughes on bass. The gravy was the added talents of Jeff Kashiwa on sax. I really enjoyed hearing Kashiwa play with the David Benoit trio. I’ve always heard him play within the smooth jazz realm, so it was nice to hear him go outside of those confines and play more of the straight ahead, jazzier material. David began his set with a tune called “Wild Kids,” written for his Charlie Brown Christmas show. He then played a few favorites, originally made popular by other performers, Dave Grusin’s “Mountain Dance,” Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature,” the Doors My Fire,” and Burt Bacharach & Hal David’s “The Look of Love.” Benoit and the band soared on some of his original tunes, “Yusuke the Ghost,” “Every Step of the Way,” “Kei’s song,” and his ever popular, “Freedom at Midnight.” The high point of the afternoon’s show, and one that brought the audience to their feet was “A Twisted Little Etude,” and Dave Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” Absolutely amazing!
The final concert of the festival was the trio called Jazz Attack – Rick Braun on trumpet, Richard Elliott on saxophone, and Jonathan Butler on guitar. These three polished performers played many of their hits that their fans have come to know and love. It’s always a pleasure hearing Rick play “Cadillac Slim,” working his way through the audience, and watching Richard Elliott make his saxophone purr on “People Make the World Go Round,” and witnessing Jonathan Butler take everyone to church with spiritual rendition of “No Woman No Cry.” (If you’re lucky, you’ll catch these three on tour this summer.)
There were more shows than we could fit in this review, but, unfortunately, we could not get to all of them. Blame it on those prior commitments and those previously mentioned pesky day jobs that seem to interfere with our musical endeavors. (One day we’ll win the lottery and won’t have to worry about that.) We’re already counting down the months until the 20th anniversary festival. If this year’s festival is any indication, then next year I’m sure they’ll pull out all the stops.
