Part 4: Idaho, Idaho, Go Go Go!

On Friday morning, we woke up and headed up to Idaho in time to attend a workshop in the mid afternoon. We tried to stop by the theater department and see if anyone was around, but no luck, so we headed off to the SUB Ballroom for our first workshop. Benny Green and a few other members of the house band reminisce about a deceased jazz great named Ray Brown. They played a tiny bit but mostly talked, and Sam ate up every second. Then we headed to main street for a second workshop with a piano prodigy named Eldar who was way way WAY more advanced than anyone in the audience but clearly genius and very interesting. After that we went back to Pullman to take my little brother out to eat, and I think he enjoyed spending more time with Sam.

That night we went to the Kibbie Dome for the most amazing concert that I have ever, EVER seen. The first half was good jazz of the sort that Sam likes and I try really hard to stay awake for. Because I acknowledge it is good but when I see it late at night in a darkened concert hall (or football stadium) I tend towards nodding off. But I did not nod off and it was good. And then, it was time for Bobby McFerrin. He is amazing. He is incredible. He is possibly the most magical performer I have ever seen. No he probably is the most magical performer I have ever seen. He made a football stadium of 4,000 people most of whom were punk ass high school students silent with rapt attention. I can't really explain how fantastic he was. He as definitely not the goofy don't worry be happy man you would expect. He was calm and very rooted and sharing his music with us rather than performing it. If you ever, ever have a chance to see him I would for SURE go. I certainly will. It was awesome. Also eclectic. He did more traditional sounding jazz, he played the audience as if we were the sound in a giant piano on the floor of the stage (think "Big" but there was no piano he just taught us where the notes were and we sang them--helped by the fact that the audience included a few thousand music students), and he did a one man mini-Wizard of Oz. It was so awesome. I was floored. Very rarely do you go see some art or performance or concert where you can tell that what you are seeing is someone truly genius, truly magnificent at the top of their game. He is that.

After the concert, we went to meet up with my friend Sally who was being kind enough to let us stay at her house. However, we got to meet up with her at a cocktail party for VIPs, donors, volunteers and our interloper selves. She was volunteering as an artist relations guru all festival, and she managed to snag Sam and I each invitations to the cocktail party. No open bars are nice, but even nicer was getting to see some truly fantastic jazz musicians just jam with other musicians. Sam's favorite living pianist was there and on the piano, and since it was a fairly small party in a hotel ballroom, Sam got to stand just a few feet from him watching him play and being in pure heaven. As the night progressed another jazz piano legend came over to join the jamming musicians, but as the piano was occupied Monty Alexander had to pick up the bass. Sam drew in a sharp breath and whispered to me, "I didn't even know he could play the base!" Even later, as Monty Alexander's hands grew sore from slapping that bass, he joined Benny Green (Sam's fave) at the piano playing forhanded and switching sides effortlessly. After they finished, Sam joined Sally and I at our table, he was flushed and a little sweaty just from witnessing something amazing. I asked him then if the trip was worth it, and he told me that is definitely was.

The next day we slept in a a little bit before having breakfast at The Breakfast Club and taking a nap. After nap time we met Sally and her husband for dinner and had a great time talking and just hanging out. I am so very glad that Sally and David will be moving to Chicago soon because they are such wonderful lovely people. That night's concert was half big swing band that I didn't particularly like and half people I did like. There was a really great jazz vocalist who was just totally in the wrong venue. She was the kind of singer you want to see in a dim club late at night perched at a tiny table instead of sitting in the bleachers watching her in a domed football stadium. That night there was more cocktail party, with more great jazz (better than that nights pay concert) and where Sam was encouraged to sit in at the piano. But he didn't. It was a good night, but the night before was just so much more magical that it had no choice but to be more of a denouement.

Sunday morning we drove the long drive back to Seattle, saw Sam's brother again and flew on back into Chicago with no mishaps. That actually was rather amazing because apparently the East coast was a mess travel wise, so we were quite lucky to have a perfectly easy flight from the West coast home.

In a postscript, next month both Monty Alexander and Benny Green will be performing here in Chicago and Sam and I will be sure to see each of them at least once. Go jazz showcase. If it isn't too crowded, I will probably mention to the artists that we saw them in Idaho and that they were marvelous.