The North Sea Jazz Festival is not for the weak or the meek. More than 200 concerts in the sprawling Congress Centre featured top jazz musicians as well as blues, soul, R&B, crossover and world-music artists, plus numerous student ensembles. Navigating routes to 16 stages of simultaneous performances amid a crowd of 23,000 daily, I was body-slammed often enough to empathize with lady wrestlers.

The 29th annual festival offered 23 hours of music played by 1,200 musicians on three afternoons and evenings, followed by jam sessions until daybreak at a nearby hotel. My most memorable experiences were in smaller venues of several hundred listeners, compared to thousands in larger halls where the best views were via gigantic video screens. A three-decade era will end next year, the festival scheduled to move to Rotterdam in 2006.

Friday, July 9

By pre-planning and staying on the move, I heard segments of eleven performances in eight hours, plus three hours of the jam. I started out in a subterranean venue with the mainstream mode of the Los Angeles-based Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. The set launched the band's European tour and featured John Clayton's luscious arco bass, his brother Jeff's luminous alto and riffs from octogenarian trumpeter Snooky Young, The 75th birthday of Horace Silver was commemorated in an original titled "Silver Celebration," propelled by drummer Jeff Hamilton.

After an ear-peek of pop star Elvis Costello fronting a philharmonic orchestra, I entered a small hall that was SRO for an intense McCoy Tyner Trio set. A more intimate setting showcased Benny Green and Russell Malone entrancing with contrapuntal duo readings of American standards.

Needing to assure a place for the Dave Brubeck Quartet concert, I had to skip Buddy Guy, Pat Martino, John Scofield, Gary Burton-Makoto Ozone, Santana, Martial Solel and even Roy Ayers. The octogenarian time-traveler rewarded strongly on both bop and stride styles. I had to leave before it ended to catch balladeer Andy Bey's mesmerizing renditions of evergreen ballads.

Segueing to Lee Konitz's set, I attained jazz nirvana when he called "Moon Dreams" from Miles' seminal Birth of the Cool album. The nonet later seared through "Cherokee" before I shifted to the artful duo of trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and pianist Fred Hersch.

Joining another full house for the Joe Lovano Quartet, I was treated to piano icon Hank Jones and a bevy of enduring ballads. Too soon my self-imposed schedule found me climbing six flights to the roof-terrace for the New Cool Collective, a big band from The Netherlands playing film classics such as Lalo Schifrin's charts from "Mission Impossible and "Dirty Harry." The set was one of today's themed stages, including duo settings, an all-piano venue and an electro-fusion locale dedicated to Jaco Pastorius.

Closing the day in the main theater, Michael Brecker's Uzi-speed tenor fronted an exciting quindectet (15 including strings), although I felt better satisfied in his later combo settings. As this year's artist-in-residence, Brecker was scheduled for multiple concerts throughout the weekend, from solo and quartet to quindectet and orchestra, plus several clinics.

At 2 a.m., scores hurried down the street to the BelAir Hotel jam where mostly locals and aspirants performed, although Jeff Hamilton graciously took a turn on drums before I left three hours later at daybreak.

Saturday, July 10

Although I hoped not to run myself as hard as the first day, I still heard major parts of nine performances, beginning with the incredible Ahmad Jamal. The hall was at capacity an hour before the music started, with 100+ waiting outside, but I gained entry with my media badge. Jamal rewarded with a masterful mix of fluid runs and muscular attacks as he inventively explored perennials and introduced charts from his new CD, In Search Of.

Most of us stayed for the James Carter Quintet, an exuberant combo playing velvety ballads and super-charged swing, the leader a dapper figure in pin-stripes. On the move again, I caught a portion of guitarist Larry Carlton's set on the courtyard big screen before I again climbed to the roof terrace to hear Chris Potter handle the diversity of Strayhorn's "Lotus Blossom" and Beck's "Little One."

I remained for a full set by Kenny Barron, including Wayne Shorter's "Footprints" and excerpts from the pianist's new CD, Images. The quartet featured assertive vibraphonist Stefon Harris and the debut of two recent graduates of the Manhattan School of Music where Barron teaches: flutist Anne Drummond performed with fluid grace, and female drummer Kim Thompson played with authoritative force, although sometimes too loud for a piano-flute-vibes configuration.