Sean came to NY for a visit and we drove down to Newport RI for the 55th Newport Jazz Festival produced by George Wein -- it was a gorgeous sunny day and there were 3 stages of continuous, non-stop wonderful jazz!
The first band we heard on the main stage was the fabulous Esperanza Spalding playing bass, singing and directing her own band which she wrote all the charts for -- what an incredible voice she has and is also a fabulous bass player.
Then Joshua Redman played with a double trio (2 basses, 2 drummers and Joshus) --- The double trio sound was nice and it was really interesting the way the 2 basses & 2 drummers accompanied each other & fed off each other during solos and on the tune itself.
Then Brandford Marsalis came out and after 2 boring songs we decided to check out the side stages -- thank god as we found Hiromi, the fabulous Japanese pianist about to start her set with her band, SonicBloom -- She brought down the house with her incredible chops, amazing fusion music and incredible ability to go back & forth between the grand piano & 2 synths without missing a tiny beat -- and then playing right hand solos with her LEFT hand on the grand while playing chords with her RIGHT hand on the synth! She was really amazing and had a great band backing her up --
Hiromi and Esperanza were the highlights of the entire festival for me -- What a great day of incredible jazz!