Friday night was more of the same: incredibly beautiful music of various flavors. We started out enjoying Don Byron’s Ivey Dyvey, including Jason Moran on piano and Billy Hart on drums. Moran was a little less explosive, but no less impressive than he was on the previous night, while Billy Hart anchored things on the drums like he has for years and Don Byron fronted the group with with gorgeous melodies emanating from his tenor saxophone and clarinet. Seth and Greg and I arrived early enough to get good seats while Jane caught up with us afterward.

Once again, we hurried to get to the church on time to see another Nordic act, the Andres Pettersson Quartet. This was a very interesting set of music. Pettersson, on guitar led his band in arrangements of several Gershwin tunes, giving them a jazz twist. This band really knew how to swing and they let it all hang out for the capacity crowd in the Reformation Lutheran Church.

We skipped the festival tent in favor of reggae legend Toots & the Maytals on the East Ave & Alexander Street stage, another of the new venues at this year's jazz fest. Greg, Jane, and I hung out within striking distance of the beer truck while Seth waded into the thick of things. After a few songs, we abandoned Seth to the reggae groove and headed to Max of Eastman Place to grab some seats for the next show.

And we're glad we left when we did, because the place was filling up in eager anticipation of Omar Sosa. Seth joined us just in time to see the set begin as the musicians walk through the crowd chanting and beating a rhythm on some tamborine-like insrument. After settling in, they launched into music that was a dizzingly complex melange of Middle Eastern and African and other influences that would morph and shift around a solid Cuban base. I was alternately leaning forward in my chair in fascination and leaning back, eye-closed, wobbling to the rhythm. I could see that the crowd was similarly captivated.

Still going strong, we made our way to the jam-packed jam session at the Crowne Plaza Grill, led by Bob Sneider and his trio (including Mike Melito on drums and Phil Flanagan on bass). Seth, Greg, and I were able to record the fourth “Da Jazz” podcast on the outside deck (actually it was our fifth, but the epic podcast we had recorded the previous night was sacrificed to the gods of technology). One by one, we cut out of the jam session a little early to prepare for the final push through the last day of the festival.