By Forrest Bryant
While the Ibex setting was a bit disappointing, another indoor stage was much roomier — and provided some of the festival's top performances. The San Jose Repertory Theater hosted an ace lineup of local pianists, assembled to honor the memory of Smith Dobson. Dobson was a true leader of the Northern California jazz family, a good-natured man with deep local roots who, among other things, ran the ongoing jazz series at San Jose's Garden City for nearly 20 years. He died in an automobile accident this past April at the age of 54.
The hushed theater space was a magnet for the senior crowd, and it was near capacity for an appearance by Al Plank's quartet. Plank leads a classic straight-ahead bop group that serves as the house band at Pearl's in San Francisco and held the same position at the 2000 Monterey festival. There's no atmosphere like that created by a talented working band: at once spontaneous and seamless, full of musical conversation that sometimes borders on gossip, joyful, confident, and most importantly, swinging. Plank was dignified but restless — soaring, swooping, and diving into the depths of every song. Bassist Michael Zisman took command of the house on Cedar Walton's "Bolivia," a quick, lighthearted tune that soon launched into total abandon. Veteran drummer Vince Lateano was also in top form. Lateano didn't just keep time; he wove little tapestries out of it, and added to the buoyant jubilation of the group.
Along for the ride was Andrew Speight, a rising firebrand from Australia who's been burning up Bay Area stages all summer. Speight's allegiance to Charlie Parker was obvious, and he was at his very best on two Parker compositions. Listening to the lines tumble out of his horn into the atomic bebop blast of "Moose the Mooche", one couldn't help but imagine it was what Bird himself might sound like in the post-bop universe.
Dick Hindman, another Pearl's regular, provided a completely different approach with his trio later in the afternoon. With local pillar Seward McCain on bass and Scott Morris on drums, Hindman gave his audience a deeply personal and emotional set that often shined with a relaxed wit. It isn't just any musician who can play an uplifting song of the spirit about Gonzo the Muppet ("Fly"), or who can follow a song like that with a deep-funk opus called "Bad Daddy Dick's Boogie Dog", but Hindman managed both. Also outstanding was a deeply moving piece for Hindman's wife ("Sheena's Song").
Missing from this year's festival was the Big Band Stage, supplanted by an expansion of international sounds. In addition to the usual Latin Jazz area, the festival added a Salsa stage and a World Music stage. While these additions were a big hit with the younger crowd, the loss of the big bands caused quite a bit of grumbling among older fans and several longtime supporters of the festival. And some legitimate questions were raised about the dilution of jazz content in general, since these stages and the long-running blues area took up half the festival schedule.
In any case, the Latin Jazz stage provided the expected heat. Drummer Josh Jones fronted a fine sextet, serving up a steady stream of dance grooves to a multi-ethnic crowd of modern hipsters. With percussion making up half the band, including Jesus Diaz on timbales, the impulse to get up and move with the beat quickly proved irresistible to all assembled. Fun, to be sure, but after a while the call of the Dobson stage pulled me back indoors.
On to part 3 of San Jose Notebook
