I went into Sunday with no clear agenda in mind, so decided to join the gang at the Montage for Howard Alden (if you're just catching up the “gang” = Greg, Seth, and Jane). Alden impressed with his guitar virtuosity; perhaps my favorite piece was his opener, Cole Porter's “It's All Right With Me.”

After that, we sprinted over to the Reformation Lutheran Church for some solo piano by Jacob Anderskov. This was definitely the most cerebral music I've heard so far. In part, it reminded me of some of Keith Jarrett's solo work, “The Köln Concert,” for example. I really liked about a third of his music, especially the passages where his right hand worked melodies over the almost Steve-Reich-like ostinatos from his left. Unfortunately, the third day of the festival was catching up with me and I mostly drifted away with the other two-thirds of his music (although not a bad experience in itself). Check out Seth's musings on the under-appreciated genius of Anderskov.

For something completely different, we the caught the beginning of an energetic JazzKamikaze, before the sprinkles of rain chased us away. These guys let it all hang out, and maybe it was the contrast to Anderskov, or maybe it was just me, but I felt they let it hang out a bit too far. They definitely had the crowd going, but with the sky about to open up, we timed our exit well and headed over to the after hours jam session for a couple of sets with the Bob Sneider Trio. Lucky for us, we got to see Howard Alden sit in for a couple of tunes. He was magical at the Montage earlier in the night, but his interplay with Sneider was at times breathtaking.

Day 4 was a early night for me as I had a work project that I needed to finish up for the next morning. Still, I was glad I made the effort to get out and catch Cindy Blackman. She wasn't quite what I expected after hearing of her work with Lenny Kravitz--maybe if more people hadn't had similar expectations, she might have drawn a bigger crowd for her first set. But what a set. She's a definite monster on the drums, but she also has a subtlety and intelligence wen playing in support of her other talented band mates.

We decided that food would be our next priority and our discussion of the various options intermingled with more high-minded philosophical topics as we meandered back to Jazz St and eventually to a table at The Golden Port. Mmmmm, edamame...

I wrapped up my early night with just a couple of tunes by the Todd Londagin Band. Mr. Londagin aims to please: he'll sing, play trombone, tap dance, swallow swords, and do your taxes. I frankly would have liked to hear more trombone myself, but I didn't stay long enough to form a fair opinion before running home to tuck the kids into bed.

Day 5...Well, Day 5 was a day off from the festival. I'll be back for Day 6.