We attended from about 3:00 to 9:30
p.m. However, please don't consider this a review of the procedings. It was
our first visit back to Indiana in a couple of years, so we spent
most of the time talking with friends. We caught parts of four shows. What follows are some impressions.
Chuck Leavens of the Pittsburgh Jazz
Channel hosted the event. He brought a touch of gravitas to the
event that would not have been present with a local master of
ceremonies. I got a chance to talk with Chuck, and I'll have some comments about the Pittsburgh Jazz Channel in a future post.
I caught only a little of ChopShop, an
experimental jazz fusion group consisting of Joe Bad, trumpet; Nathan
Frink, saxophone; Ben Clifton, keyboards; Glenn Strother, guitar;
Marc Sterling, bass; and Julz Powell, drums. Western PA jazz fans
will know what to expect when I tell them that ChopShop features some
former members of the popular band Jazzam.
Jimmy Roach has been playing high
energy blues-rock in and around Indiana for at least 30 years, maybe
longer. In his latest band, the Jukehouse Bombers, he is joined on
guitar by his son Joe, along with Troy Laney on bass and Mark Kephart
on drums. The Albert Collins-style show we saw on the big stage is
only one side of Jimmy Roach. We wished we could have caught his
acoustic set later that evening at Spaghetti Benders. Jimmy and the
band paid tribute to our friend, local country bluesman Jeff Kelley, who died last year. Jimmy reminded the audience of Jeff's generosity, telling a
story about when Jeff gave him a guitar.
The largest crowd of the day heard
Louisiana-based guitarist and singer Sonny Landreth give a lesson in
slide guitar pyrotechnics. He played an audience-friendly mix of
instrumentals and vocals, blues standards and his own compositions.
Fortunately, a Landreth fan named “Natasha” has posted most of
his performance on You Tube. Here's an example. You can follow the
links to the rest.
Pittsburghers will get a second chance to see Sonny Landreth at a free concert at Hartwood Acres on Sunday night, June 22.
Through no fault of the organizers, the
show was about an hour behind schedule. This contributed to
a drop-off in attendance for drummer Poogie Bell's Band, featuring
trumpeter Sean Jones. In addition to Bell and Jones, the group consisted of Eric Lawrence, saxophone; (22-year-old) Brett Williams, keyboards, and Tony DePaolis, bass. The crowd made up for its smaller size with
greater enthusiasm.
This was more of a
jazz than an R&B set. Most of the songs were unfamiliar to me, some having been written by group members. I admit to not being a big fan
of Bell's bombastic style of drumming, evident even on songs that
would otherwise be considered “ballads.” (For one thing, if you
start out that strongly, how do you increase the excitement level?)
However, Sean Jones was right at home with it, dazzling the crowd (as usual) with his high-register lines. I wasn't familiar with Eric Lawrence,
but the next time I see him appearing at a Pittsburgh club, I'll take
notice. He matched Sean solo for solo.
A word of advice to future Westsylvania
festival-goers. Try to sit up front! The stage was set up on North
Seventh Street between two rows of brick buildings, creating an echo chamber in which the sound bounced back and forth between the buildings.
This seemed to increase the volume of the bass and drums, but made it harder
to hear vocals and solos on other instruments. This was a problem if
you were sitting in the back, but no problem at all if you were close
to the stage (as you can hear on the video). I'm not sure if future sound persons
can do anything about it.
This festival was a very risky venture
that could easily have fallen flat. Congratulations to Mike Powers
and the members of the steering committee for putting together a
great show. We're looking forward to next year.
You may also be interested in reading:
