PITTSFIELD -- Now inscribed in the history books, the fifth Pittsfield CityJazz Festival will be remembered as the most engaging and successful of this series of annual events.
That Dave Brubeck was the principal headliner certainly brought distinction to the festival, but beyond the welcome appearance of this icon of jazz, the presence of talented fresh faces like Frank Vignola, the superb guitarist, and the spread of activities to the community's schools and clubs confirmed the solidity of the planning for this ambitious local phenomenon of music.
Brubeck, at 88, continues to be a marvel, with his consummate keyboard skills and harmonic and rhythmic instincts, and the other members of his quartet help further the legend of adventure in music etched in our hearts by this amazing ensemble.
Brubeck instructs us that a piano can vamp with the best of torch singers when the opportunity arises as it did Saturday evening before a cheering crowd that appeared to fill every seat at the Colonial Theater. Lena Horne might have felt the challenge as first Brubeck, then Bobby Militello taking over, plied his wiles on a sensual embrace of Harold Arlen's “Stormy Weather."
Bassist Michael Moore took bow in hand in joining Militello for a moving, but brief, revisit of Brubeck's brilliant “Brandenburg Gate," and the group turned Jerome Kern's normally moody “Yesterdays" into a lyrical tour de force with plenty of Baroque implications and cunning variations on the original theme.
That Dave Brubeck was the principal headliner certainly brought distinction to the festival, but beyond the welcome appearance of this icon of jazz, the presence of talented fresh faces like Frank Vignola, the superb guitarist, and the spread of activities to the community's schools and clubs confirmed the solidity of the planning for this ambitious local phenomenon of music.
Brubeck, at 88, continues to be a marvel, with his consummate keyboard skills and harmonic and rhythmic instincts, and the other members of his quartet help further the legend of adventure in music etched in our hearts by this amazing ensemble.
Brubeck instructs us that a piano can vamp with the best of torch singers when the opportunity arises as it did Saturday evening before a cheering crowd that appeared to fill every seat at the Colonial Theater. Lena Horne might have felt the challenge as first Brubeck, then Bobby Militello taking over, plied his wiles on a sensual embrace of Harold Arlen's “Stormy Weather."
Bassist Michael Moore took bow in hand in joining Militello for a moving, but brief, revisit of Brubeck's brilliant “Brandenburg Gate," and the group turned Jerome Kern's normally moody “Yesterdays" into a lyrical tour de force with plenty of Baroque implications and cunning variations on the original theme.
