As I started walking home for lunch today, the trusty iPod randomly brought forth Miles Davis' "Blue in Green" from the Kind of Blue album. Seemed fitting, following this past weekend at Moscow, Idaho, where my daughter had gone to participate with other students in the annual Idaho Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho. I made it up in time only to see the final evening performance, which featured some incredible piano by Eldar Djangirov, a 21-year-old or thereabouts pianist from Kyrgyzstan, the Lionel Hampton New York Big Band, bassist (and festival art director John Clayton), vibe virtuoso John Locke, amazing tap dancer Andrew J. Nemr and more. Daughter Ivi reported that the live appearance by Bobby McFerrin on the previous evening brought down the house, and went far beyond what she had expected based on the sole Bobby McFerrin CD we had at home. But the bell-ringer of the evening for me was Gretchen Parlato. Here is a taste (not from this festival), thanks to YouTube:
Heck, let's check out some earlier stuff from Eldar while we are at it:
And since the Idaho Jazz Festival honors Lionel Hampton, how about "Hey-Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" from 1945:
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