Each year students, locals and tourists all gather along Columbus Ave. to satisfy their wide range of musical palettes; and each year the Berklee Beantown Jazzfest delivers. On September 25th from noon until 6 P.M., Columbus Ave. was alive with rhythm and blues. The sun was beating down, the street was packed from side to side, and bands were cutting fierce on stages all over.
Unfortunately two bands I was looking forward to had overlapping sets so I had to trek back and forth to catch both. First I stopped at the Beantown stage to witness the guitar stylings of Julian Lage and his trio. Jumping in and out of improvised melodic chaos and ultra-tight Latin-influenced rhythms, this group had the crowd in the right mood under the hot afternoon sun.
Eventually I had to pull myself away to run down Columbus and make the second half of Gabrielle Goodman’s set at the Target Family Park Stage. Gabrielle can really belt it out, and with a solid blues and funk band behind her, it made for a real entertaining set.
Along with these two standout performances, all the groups who played brought something new and great to the table. If you didn’t make it out this year, be sure to mark your calendars for Jazzfest 2011. Not convinced? Check the video:
-Johnny
- Out of the Blue… - April 15, 2011
- Joe Conner ’11 - March 8, 2011
- Berklee Gamers Should Play Dead Space 2 - February 18, 2011
becomeadj
JazzFest 2011, bring it on! Maybe some Jazz DJs??