Pictures tell the best stories. Here's a video of Jeff Golub soloing during the Guitars and Saxes set. You can hear the crowd going crazy. Then Euge Groove and Jessy J went off the hook. 

Jacksonville Jazz Festival v 3.0. That's the best way to describe this latest stage in the evolution of the event as it approaches its third decade. It started out in 1980 in the little seaside village of Mayport, where they expected 300 and got more like 3000 on a Saturday afternoon in October. A few years later the festival moved downtown, to a river side park with a tented stage that became the festival's home for the next 25 years or so. This year they announced that the festival was moving to Memorial Day weekend and headed downtown, with stages on street corners, in a downtown park, and at the Jacksonville Landing - a restaurant and shopping complex that features live music every weekend and has been used as a satellite stage by the festival for several years. Skeptics raised their eyebrows. If it ain't broke don't fix it. The festival in the park has become part of the city's cultural heritage. But the city had staged an impressive party in the streets the year the Super Bowl was here and it was fun walking around and seeing live music on all those different stages. Maybe they were onto something. They were. Jacksonville Jazz Festival 2009 was one of the best, and I've been to every one since 1986.

The setup created an easygoing atmosphere that was the perfect way to give budget-crunched fans a chance to see their favorites for free and introduce newcomers to this music. You didn't have to go indoors or stay stuck in a chair, you could move closer or further away and come and go as  you pleased. The street that served as a walkway between the three stages was lined with food stands and artist's displays. Downtown restaurants and merchants had special events going on throughout the three days. You could slip into a cafe, have a discounted meal, and still hear the music from the stage. Kids played on the side streets and dog walkers stood at the edge of the crowd. Some of the smaller concerts were held in an historic church and the public library hosted Q&A sessions with some of the musicians. There was a wine tasting and a late night jam that let some of the area's young musicians take the stage with festival participants.

They announced the festival lineup at a press conference on a sunny day a month before the event. Boney James, Chris Botti, Jazz Attack, Mindi Abair, Guitars and Saxes, Stanley Clarke Trio with Hiromi and Lenny White, Roberta Flack, Joe Sample and Patti Austin, Dr. John, The Latin Jazz All Stars, Bill Frisell, and more. It was  a wish-list of national, regional, and local musicians playing all facets of jazz. That day was followed by almost a month of sunny days then the week of the festival a Nor'easter settled in over the state and did not budge. It started raining on Sunday and didn't let up through the week. Workers set up a massive stage at a major intersection and a smaller one a few blocks down. The rain kept coming and people started stocking up on ponchos and making contingency plans. Fortunately the producers were able to move most of the Friday night concerts to an indoor venue.

You have to make a personal itinerary when there are multiple stages and multiple artists. Friday night was Warren Hill, Boney James and The Stanley Clarke Trio. Two different stages but close enough and scheduled so I could catch them all. Hill's set was delayed because they had to move everything from the outdoor stage to the indoor stage. It was thrilling to see the crowd in the lobby get bigger and bigger and he gave them what they came for, a powerful, entertaining and energized set. Due to the delay it ended up overlapping Clarke/White/Hirom's set though and, having a long history with Clarke and White and witnessing Hiromi's magical presence and artistry on YouTube, this was a must see for me. The presence of this group of musicians was so electric that they could have stopped the drizzle. The other noticeable thing is that the area in front of the stage wills filled with people college-age and younger who were watching with rapt attention. How could you not? Hiromi has this presence that just draws you to her and she plays like the piano is an extension of her body. She smiles, stands, dances, bangs on the keys then shifts to the lightest nuance effortlessly drawing flurries of notes and powerful chords. This group was playing the material from their brilliant CD but it was fluid and improvisational, the three musicians rarely losing eye contact with each other, their chemistry seeming to lead the music wherever it wanted to go. The audience was hushed with their eyes glued to the stage, clapping and screaming enthusiastically when any of them let loose with another impressive set of chops then shifting back to amazed silence. Boney James was next and the skies opened up. The courtyard was packed, people standing in every available space and Boney turned what could have been a dripping mess into one big party in the rain. Leaning mostly toward the high-energy side of his catalog he played to a colorful sea of umbrellas bobbing up and down and ponchos throwing raindrops as the people under them danced to the music.

By the time Jazz Attack hit the outdoor stage early on Saturday afternoon a thunderstorm had passed through, giving fans a break from the rain and the California musicians a taste of steamy, humid Florida in the summertime. They drew a crowd that filled the seating area and several blocks surrounding it. Elliot, Braun, and Butler treated the growing crowd to fired up versions of their most recognizable songs with a lot of old-school funk in the mix. Elliot threw in a few from his new release, Rock Steady, which had been out for a week at the time. All three are masters at showmanship and the crowd swelled as passers-by stopped to watch and stayed till the end of the set. By then Lao Tizer and his group were cooking up something very special at the Jacksonville Landing stage. Joined by Chieli Minucci and violinist Karen Briggs (best know for her work with Yanni during his mid-90s career peak) he was creating some very powerful music that veered off the beaten smooth jazz path and into contemporary, fusion and world beat flavors. Not being a household name in the genre, the crowd was pretty thin at the start of their set but the music drew people in, they slipped out of the stores and restaurants or changed their minds about going back to another stage. Tizer's latest release is a bit more meditative but his live show is a powerful sonic journey. Briggs commands the stage when she plays and Minucci pulled out his Jeff Beck influenced version of "Because We've Ended As Lovers," his rock chops in full effect. Meanwhile Patti Austin and Joe Sample started their set a few blocks down the street. What can anyone say about either of these artists? Sample's artistry and presence held the audience captivated through a jazzy set that was driven by musicianship more than showmanship and spiced up by his storytelling skills. He's been a lot of places, done a lot, he's not afraid to speak his mind and that makes for a fascinating narrative connecting his repertoire of songs that have become contemporary jazz standards. Austin held the audience hushed and amazed whether she was singing one of her hits or a standard. She brings the standards to life with her voice and creative arrangements as well as her ability to almost get inside the original writer/singer's head and tell their story in a way that makes it timeless. 

Saturday night's headliner was Roberta Flack but there was a real treat on one of the smaller stages too. Sax player Paul Howards was the buzz of the weekend years ago when he stole the show from the local stage and was on the verge of "breaking" as a smooth jazz artist. Location and his showmanship and love of all kinds of music called. He is based in Orlando and when the "O-town" sound broke with the Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, etc he was right in the center of it. He toured with both those bands and has recently toured the world with Julio Iglesias. Meanwhile he remains a best kept secret in the contemporary jazz universe, as powerful and charismatic as our big name stars fronting a smokin' band. When Flack's set ended and people headed back to the parking areas the majority of them stopped cold when they heard him and stayed until the end of his set. The seating area was completely full by then and he got a big standing “O” and had quite a line for CD sales in spite of the late hour.

If there was one set in this star studded weekend that summed up the vibe of both the festival and music fans in North Florida it was Guitars and Saxes. Chris Botti, who has a lot more multimedia exposure, was playing on the other stage at the same time but the Landing was packed long before this show started. It was a rock crowd too, more beer and margaritas than wine, and flip flops and baseball caps in full effect It was amazing to see because although Euge Groove mentioned something about us not having a Smooth Jazz station, the one we did have played oldies and covers, rarely giving Lorber, Groove, or especially Golub any airplay love and they flipped before Jessy J hit the scene so people didn't have that reference point. YouTube? The Beach series? Word of mouth or history? Whatever it was they were there and ready to rock and G&S delivered! The band just cut loose. Lorber pulled out his fusion chops, Groove wailed with amped up power, Jessy J was on fire and then there was Golub. If you are in the "smooth jazz demographic," a boomer, and you have been around this town long enough, your heritage goes back to the formative years of the Allman Bros and then Lynyrd Skynyrd. Jump ahead and you have Limp Bizkit and Yellowcard and now, the Black Kids. We like to rock and we love the blues. When Golub whipped out a tasty number from his forthcoming blues/rock CD the crowd went from mesmerized to wild. Uh? Smooth? Why bother when the crowd is on their feet and screaming for more of this. If the videos I've seen from other shows are representative the G&S crew cut loose a little more than usual and gave this wild crowd exactly what they came for. This lineup is energized and powerful so when they take it up another notch look out!

Special "props" to the City of Jacksonville office of Special Events for finding a way to make this event larger than life in the face of budget cuts by tying in the downtown merchants, for booking such a well rounded roster, and for being fast on their feet when it came to moving the Friday performances indoors. They work hard, putting on a lot of events throughout the year, and have found new ways to make this one special since they took it over in 2003.

Jacksonville Jazz Festival 2010 is already in the works. It's going to be downtown on Memorial Day Weekend again and it's the most affordable and fun getaway you could possibly plan. Lots of reasonably priced accommodations close by, totally family-friendly with lots for the kids to do, and you don't have to be stylin' or upscale, just bring some comfy hot-weather clothes, lots of sunscreen, and a multi-colored umbrella in case we do have to party in the rain. The festival's official site is www.jaxjazzfest.com. Check out the comments from people who attended it this year, then look at the lineup and surrounding events. Make your plans to spend the holiday weekend with us next year.