DC Jazz festival

A brief hiatus - for which I apologise. A few words on music today.

Washington DC, the home of Duke Ellington, is currently awash with jazz men and women as part of DC Jazz festival. As a classical pianist trying to teach himself the jazz language it's great to go out and see people do it so effortlessly, and there are plenty of great musicians performing this week and next.

So here's a little on what I've been to and what's coming up.

The National Gallery of Art, located just off Constitution Avenue is running a series of free concerts in the sculpture garden, one of which I went to last week - to see a Brazilian 4 piece called Origem. Looks can well deceive as what was purported to be Brazilian jazz turned out to lack any of the pulsing syncopation and brilliant harmonic inventiveness you find in the good stuff. Instead a fairly tame exposition of some very middle of the road jazz ensued, deflating stuff. It didn't really matter too much, as nobody seemed to be listening anyway. Indeed such is the nature of these events, make it free and they will come, and come they did in their droves. Blankets carpeted the grass and pretty soon you couldn't move for pots of humous, strawberries and half empty bottles of Prosecco. It is safe to say the jazz was playing second fiddle, so not an event for the aficionados, snobs, keen amateurs or indeed anyone with a vague interest in jazz.

However there is plenty else on offer, a few big hitters and some lesser known groups in the smaller clubs. Outside of the festival DC has a very healthy jazz scene, so its pretty geared up for jazz musicians descending en masse. There is also jazz happening in some interesting and unexpected places. The Phillips collection, a private gallery near the Dupont metro,  is hosting a range of different events, one of which I went to yesterday. Called 'Phillips after 5' the gallery puts on jazz, drinks, and food and you can mooch around gawping at the collection. It draws a pretty mixed crowd, and testament to DC's transient reputation, lots of young people. This time it was the Matt Winkler Trio, a three piece led by a talented 16 year old pianist. The music? Ok, well executed but lacking drive and focus. I was in two minds really - you can either marvel at how accomplished a pianist is at 16 or wait until he's in his 30s, hope he doesn't fall off the rails, and see what he has to say then. That's a long time to wait.

So no doubt I've labelled myself as a grumbling snob, not true! Outside of the festival I saw an outfit called Ramzy and The Brothers Handsome at Twins Jazz on U street last week. A really tight group led by Ramzy Suleiman, a brilliant pianist and resident of DC who mixes blues, bop, jazz and funk into a style uniquely his own - definitely worth seeing.

To continue forays into the DC Jazz festival there are a few options for tonight - a band called the Brass-a-holics are playing at the French Embassy, another unusual venue for jazz music. Well perhaps so but the french are somewhat at the forefront of cultural endeavor in DC, more on them in another post sometime soon. Otherwise there are a plethora of options, I'll blog on anything of note.

For those with a vague interest more can be seen on the DC Jazz festival website and If you intend on being in DC in the next week or so take a look and get ready to shake your jazz hands.

If you do take a look on the site and you're wondering who Bobby Mcferrin is, know the tune 'don't worry be happy'? well that's him and yes, he's here too.

Chin Chin.