So, I'm walking past the Garden Stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival last year when a sound and a voice, literally, stopped me in my tracks.
It was the sound of The Blues and voice of Catherine Russell.
At the time, the word that came to mind to describe what I was feeeling was, "exhilarated."
To quote, Muhammad Ali, "it's important to come out swinging." So Champ, we took your advice to stage this year as Jazz on the Plazz 2013 opened last Wednesday, June 26 with Blue Wednesday.
The concert featured the incomparable Russell, a vocalist of rare pedigree. Her father was Louis Armstrong's longtime musical director and her mother a graduate of Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music.
She has backed up the likes of David Bowie and has been featured on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. She is one of those rare vocalists equally at home with the music of Hoagy Carmichael or Rosetta Tharpe.
Russell doesn't just sing the Great American Songbook, she opens it wide and pulls out treasures which have been overlooked for far too long.
Hoping everyone felt welcomed during round one of summer's main event ...
Next Wednesday, July 3, don't miss Halie Loren at 6:30 p.m. at Town Plaza Park.
Jazz tonight ... jazz tomorrow.
Michael Jacobi is the executive producer of the Jazz on the Plazz concerts in Los Gatos.
