I arrived downtown just in time to join Greg in line at High Fidelity to see Stephanie McKay. This was a last minute choice as I arrived too late for the Bad Plus' early show and the Robin McKell show was already SRO by that time. But what a fortuitous choice it turned out to be as McKay brought the house down with her soulful and funk-fueled vocals, backed by a mad rhythm section. I'm not a student of the genre, so I don't have any apt comparison at my fingertips, but I would say that in both the message and tone of her more melodic ballads, I could hear traces of Ani DiFranco. On the other end of the spectrum, she laid down the funk as thick and heavy as anything James Brown has done. Somewhere along that continuum lies the talent that is Stephanie McKay.

Perhaps it's a bad sign that on day 2 my music listening habits were being driven by the desire to find a place to sit down, but after the High Fidelity show, I found a quiet spot in the garden outside Max and enjoyed the weather, a beer, and a delicious chicken-cabbage wrap served up by the Aja Noodle Company booth. The sounds of The Buddhahood drifted down the street, sounding like a Rochester version of Ozomatli, which translates into: I'd like to hear more from them.

I wandered in and out of the big tent, catching only a couple of tunes by Saturday Night Fish Fry, an entertaining jump blues band. However, having bigger fish to fry myself, I soon joined Jane in line to see the Bad Plus. This one of my most highly anticipated shows, and I was not disappointed. Dave King was as crazy as ever at the drum kit (didn't see any cookware employed this time around, though), Reid Anderson was as solid and inventive as ever on bass, and Ethan Iverson played his piano with the same inscrutable virtuosity as ever.

The set started out with a series of BP originals, including “Let Our Garden Grow,” “The Empire Strikes Backward,” and “1980 World Champion.” I was a little distracted by the WXXI cameramen who were scrambling to get into position, so I didn't take as much notice as I should have of the mic stand that was being set up center stage mid-way through the set. So but then Ethan Iverson explained that a newly-cut, but not-to-be-released-for-another-year album by the band represents their first recorded collaboration. With that, vocalist Wendy Lewis joined the band on stage to complete the set. I was a bit perplexed and skeptical, but Lewis' warped and wicked rendition of Nirvana's “Lithium” showed that she fit in just fine. A Google search for “Wendy Lewis Bad Plus” reveals Jeff Spevak's take, (a required link since he includes a Bad Plus haiku).

Afterward, and i contradiction to the signals my stomach was trying to relay (I should have waited for that delicious chicken wrap until later in the week after my wonky tummy settled down), I headed to State St. for the after hours Jam Session with the Bob Sneider Trio, but unfortunately only made it through a half a set or so. But now it's time to head out for tonight's fun!