So Thursday night, I got in line with Seth and Jane outside of Max of Eastman Place just in time to watch Greg, in the Kilbourn Hall line, filing in with the crowd to see James Moody. We were waiting to see the Zapp String Quartet, a group from Amsterdam that I had been really looking forward to after hearing some of their music clips online. The plan was to make sure that I caught the early show rather than risk nodding off during the late show. After hearing them, I don't think there would have been much danger of that. Based on what I remembered of their sound clips, I expected them to sound kind of Steve-Reich-y, but they were more John-Adams-y, or rather, Zapp-Quartet-y. Their incredibly engaging performance was truly breaking new ground as they played an entire set of original music, some written by the group's members and some recently commissioned works that were receiving premier performances that night--one of the composers was even in attendance (Seth's got those details).

With brains still buzzing, we headed over once again to the Lutheran Church and some Nordic jazz, this time courtesy of Norway's In the Country. I'm having a hard time describing this group. If Wednesday night's Ilmiliekki Quartet was thoughtful and introverted, this group was thoughtful and extroverted. The music would build into a crescendo and subside like rolling waves of sound carrying the listener along for a beautiful ride.

We continued in typical fashion from the church to the party tent to hear a few tunes by innovative blues guitarist Corey Harris before continuing on to a 10PM show, this time landing at the Montage for the Jason Moran & the Bandwagon. This was one of the surprise performances for me as this group blew my socks off. To work off my previous metaphor: if the music of In the Country was like rolling waves, Moran's group was like an unpredictable tempest. They would shift from intricate, delicate interplay to an explosion of rollicking jams and then back again. This was heady music that concluded one of my favorite nights of the festival so far.