Of the four performances I expect to be straight-aheadish, three were good: Kenny Garrett coltraned through most of his set before showing what real funk jazz should sound like; the Ben Williams quintet demands more than the 45 minutes it was allowed & should be brought back by someone soon to show how good it is; & Alan Hampton & Gretchen Parlato went against the grain with a quiet set of self-penned acoustic tunes that didn't fit the rest of the Festival but was fine with me.
Kris Bowers unfortunately hid his light under a bushel basket; his playing was a souljazzrock muddle with a smash-ing drummer with no great finesse. Disappointing.
How about you? If you were there, what did you see? How was it?