Jazz Fingers

A couple years ago, I wrote a review of a JazzErie performance at Gannon University. Students got in for free and the public had to pay $25 or something. It was phenomenal. I remember giving it a rave review and suggesting the school bring more eclectic music to campus - not just the programming board's few attempts at coffeehouses and "big concerts." I don't think Fabalous is quite big enough to draw a huge crowd. Jazz is an experience you have with your body, not just your ears. It's a sound that reaches down in your stomach and tells you to sway, to love the wind through the trees and appreciate. Jazz is like butter - smooth and subtle when used right.

My friend will be interning with Jazz Central in Syracuse this fall. Tonight we went to a Jazz in the City performance in Little Italy on North Salina Street. It was outdoors, it was the perfect temperature and the average listener was probably 60. (We got hit on a few times, more because we were the youngest girls there than our beauty. Though we were a good-lookin' trio.) I'm glad to see that because it's considered gospel that people don't like to come downtown for anything, though I don't know if the crowd was from the suburbs or the city. Anyway, the turn out was pretty good, despite the lack of young people. What was really interesting was the number of young people helping, though. A few sat behind tables and we chatted with a current intern at Jazz Central who is in his mid-20s. Obviously, from the way he talked about it, jazz isn't just for those that lived through Miles Davis' glory years. 

The playing was great, of course. The flutist really impressed me, maybe because I play the flute and maybe because he was just that good. The guitar-player spun through runs and the drummer had some wailing solos. Those are the best words I can use; I don't know jazz terminology. I can't tell if it's improv or on paper. But I can tell a tight band. And I can react to the music itself and feel the reactions of those around me. With jazz, good jazz (the kind Guy Patterson likes), you feel it. I don't think I need to know the proper terms for that.