Students dazzle in big-stage debuts at jazz fest

PORT TOWNSEND — The defining moment of Jazz Port Townsend was perhaps the one that was not planned.

On the last day of the jazz festival, a few hours before clouds and a sudden chill set in, a young woman in a floral print dress and white sandals, her toenails painted bright green, stepped onto the big stage with her acoustic bass.

Behind her was the festival big band, before her an audience of more than 1,200 who had never before heard of Kate Davis.

Plucked from one of the week's many student workshops, Davis, 17, a senior-to-be at West Linn High School in Oregon, sang "Sometimes I'm Happy." The arrangement was spare but perfectly balanced and suited to her talents. The song ended and the audience roared.

The professionals on the sideline mostly agreed: She could be a star someday. Davis was added extemporaneously by artistic director John Clayton after he heard her play the song in a class.

"I was floored and the wheels started turning," said Clayton, also a bassist. "I didn't want the audience to not know about some of the amazing things going on here."

Davis' three-minute solo represented what, over the years, has set the festival apart — homegrown talent coaxed to full potential alongside world-class performances by true legends and virtuosos who not only play here but coach students during the week. Many past students have gone on to become performers at the festival: Eric Alexander, Martin Wind, Doug Miller, Matt Jorgensen, Thomas Marriott.

"I was more excited to play than I was nervous," Davis said. "I did think about the possibility that I'd mess up. But once you start performing, it becomes OK, as long as you just think about sharing what you want to share."

Davis' debut was among a handful of organic moments over the weekend, when a listener could feel as if he or she stumbled upon something special and uncharted.

The Rose Theatre downtown was the site of two remarkably intimate opening sets Friday and Saturday night by pianist Benny Green and guitariststs Bruce Forman and Dan Balmer, respectively. Green was the only musician of the festival to play an entire set alone.

"It's really a kick to take a big leap like that in front of an audience," said Green, who appeared physically spent by the experience. "Playing alone, you're completely naked and exposed. Everything about your humanity is completely revealed. I also love the feeling of liberation."

One of the festival's true show stoppers, Green used the occasion to play his treatment of stride which few young players are able or inclined to master the way he has. He is with few peers in a solo set, displaying velocity and empathy, shouts and whispers. He took barely a breath between songs, pausing only at the very end, unable to remember what he played.

"Probably inconsequential," he said to the audience. Green played walking chords and elaborate runs, making full work of the entire keyboard, proving he is among the few players even at his level who can make the piano truly sound like an orchestra.

Forman and Balmer opened the Rose Theatre Saturday with an entirely improvised set of dueling guitars before one of the most rapt audiences of the weekend.

The endings of their songs tended to feel a bit indecisive, but the journeys their instruments took were near magic in their ability to surprise and tickle. They played everything from nasty funk to sublime torch, taking turns with the lead, sometimes sharing it. Their most mercurial number was an attempt at "Giant Steps," a challenge not only of time (Balmer and Forman took down the tempo a little for the sake of sanity) but of the leaping chord changes that give the song its name.

Among the club shows, the biggest draw was consistently at The Public House Grill. Alexander led a sextet Friday night, the same group that opened the Saturday-afternoon concert in McCurdy.

Saturday night's combo featured trombonists Wycliffe Gordon and Andre Hayward, who also played McCurdy Pavilion the opening night. That set was made up mostly of familiar, danceable standards with Gordon singing and scatting in the style of Louis Armstrong.

But for his club set, he rolled up his sleeves and let the spit fly, finishing with an up-tempo version of "Seven Steps to Heaven."

As it happens, the Public House bandstand backed up to a huge picture window. Outside, on the sidewalk, crowds gathered by the window each set. While the sound was a little muffled through the glass, the view was like sharing the stage with the musicians as many quickly came to realize, giving up seats inside to look over the shoulders of some of their favorite musicians.

The festival was not without some logistical challenges. Due to cost, festival organizers did not provide a shuttle bus for concertgoers as they did in years past. The lack of transportation seemed to hurt attendance at the Uptown Pub which is a long walk from the cluster of downtown clubs.

The pavilion proved a more pleasing venue during the day when a large side door was left open, allowing in light and softening the bounce of the sound coming off the building's steel walls. At night when the door is closed, the effect overall was cold and cave-like, not cozy the way a darkened, basement jazz club is designed to feel.

Nonetheless the main stage provided some of the festival's notable moments:

Latin jazz giant Paquito D'Rivera played saxophone and clarinet Saturday night, accompanied by pianist Alex Brown. The duo played jazz riffs over classical chord structures, and classical riffs over jazz chords, set to Latin rhythms. The concept is hardly unheard of, but the resulting sound was fresh. The arrangements took great dexterity for both Brown and D'Rivera, a fact not lost on the audience who rose to their feet for a final ovation.