Yesterday marked the close of the 2010 Vancouver International Jazz Festival. I have been attending a few select shows from the festival pretty regularly for years, and always enjoy it. I'm impressed that the organizers, the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, have really turned this into an international-level festival. Not living right in Vancouver, I tend to only hit a few specific big-name shows most years.
This year's shows for us included George Benson and Nikki Yanofsky. Or at least those were the names that caused me to buy the tickets. Both shows were at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and our seats for both were in the front 10 rows or so, centre section. Therein lies what I think must be the best secret of the Jazz festival... if you donate a certain amount to the Coastal Jazz organization, the perks of being a Jazz Friend include access to awesome seats to major shows. My experience last year was that I was able to get 5th row tickets to shows that were virtually sold out, and I got them only a few weeks before the festival. It seems to me if you're going to blow a bunch of money on expensive shows, the extra $100 to ensure you get really good seats for the shows you want is well worth it.
George Benson
The George Benson show was opened by Kellylee Evans. I wasn't really familiar with her, but really enjoyed her set. Kellylee's singing was solid, but not spectacular, and I enjoyed her stage presence. Her band was very good, particularly the guitarist, Dave Thompson.
George Benson's performance was really solid. I think the audience really enjoyed it, and my wife did as well. I enjoyed it, but wouldn't rank it in the top 10 shows I've ever seen. I'm sure part of my problem was jet lag, having returned from the UK the previous day. Some of my dissatisfaction was probably just his stage presence... it felt to me like Benson was acting like Tom Jones, as if he's a sexy fellow that the ladies are swooning over. I wasn't swooning.
Benson's playing was really solid, though I found his style surprisingly limited in variation. I guess as with most of us, he seems to play a specific style very well, but doesn't stray far off that... or perhaps that's driven by where he's had most commercial success. The set included all the most popular of his songs, I think. I'm not a major fan, having his Breezin album but no others. I liked his Ibanez guitar... it looked good and sounded pretty excellent through most of the night, though I found the tone a bit harsh at times. Maybe we were too close to the stage... I wondered if the sound might be a bit more balanced farther back in the room.
Nikki Yanofsky
The Nikki Yanofsky show was opened by John Pizzarelli. I wouldn't have known he was the opening act from the tickets, which showed his name in large type, and hers in smaller text below it. Regardless, unlike last year, I bought the tickets for Nikki this time. At last year's jazz festival, I bought tickets to see Michael Kaeshamer, and the then-unknown-to-me Nikki was on the bill... in that case he opened as well, so perhaps she was much bigger in the jazz world than I realized. She blew me away last year, so I had to return.
I wasn't familiar with John Pizzarelli before the show, though his name was vaguely familiar. I really enjoyed his set. He's a fun, entertaining showman, with a really nice crooner voice, and tasty and interesting jazz guitar licks played really well. The repertoire was mostly jazz standards, particularly from the Gershwin brothers. Overall, a really fun set, reminiscent of a great set in a smaller jazz club. The big room was completely silent and the set felt very intimate. The rest of the band was very solid, all exceptional players. I most enjoyed pianist Larry Fuller, who really ripped up the keys, though the tone on the Steinway grand piano was pretty weak in the bass end.
Nikki Yanofsky's set was a bit delayed due to technical problems, apparently with the (same) piano. In the end I have to wonder if they really never got the miking right on the piano, as we couldn't hear it very well in the second set either.
Nikki came bouncing onto the stage in her very girlish way (she's only 16), and proceeded to wow us with her incredible voice. Her repertoire of jazz standards was displayed beautifully... her love of jazz music is clearly evident throughout, and was pretty much the only thing on her debut album Ella... Of Thee I Swing. This year she also has introduced some non-jazz numbers, as found on her new disk Nikki, which also re-recorded a number of the jazz standards on the first album.
There were two songs in the set that Nikki introduced as having been (co-)written by her, and both surprised me in that they were perhaps the most catchy and enjoyable songs on her new album. I hadn't realized they were her own creations [I really miss having liner notes with on-line purchases, though I see they're starting to happen finally]. Both of these songs were really great live... in fact her live performance is pretty similar to the recorded thing, but she's also fun to watch.
A couple of songs on the new album are more in the country style. I really didn't enjoy them as much, probably because that's just not my favourite music style. The funny thing is that Nikki's voice is very well suited to country music, and since that genre is much more lucrative than jazz, I could see her doing very well there. She has a couple of songs a bit more in the pop genre, and they didn't really do much for me... it just doesn't show off the amazing voice the way that jazz does.
Finally, I will note that I was a Granville Island yesterday and happened upon one of the Jazz festival outdoor free venues. There was a great, young electric jazz ensemble [apparently Ethereal Quartet] playing, and they were really great. I didn't get to hear enough of it, but it reiterated to me what the festival is really about... exposing people to jazz, and exposing up and coming jazz musicians to new audiences. What a great festival... I'm really glad to live in a place with such a rich music environment.