The Melbourne International Jazz Festival has finished for another year, this year bringing some of the superstars of the genre to our shores.
Although it must be said much of the internationals were built on the fact that they once played with Miles Davis and/or John Coltrane, from legends like Chick Corea, the uber-commercial Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner and Dave Liebman to more obscure artists like the Danish legend Jens Winther.The festival began with shows at the 2000 plus seater venue Hamer Hall from Miles Davis pianists (and since solo legends) Herbie Hancock on opening night, followed by two very special performances from the incredibly diverse Chick Corea.
Corea's first performance was part of his current world tour with vibraphone legend Gary Burton (Vibes players will be familiar with the "Burton Grip" - a method of holding two mallets in each hand) and was well received with students and music nerds alike.
His second performance featured a one off (if you missed the secret shows at Bennett's Lane) performance from a newly assembled band featuring the incomparable Australian guitarist Frank Gambale, the staggering Mexican drummer Antonio Sanchez and 21 year old Sydney born Tal Wilkenfeld on bass.
Two hours and six songs later and audience was left astounded as the skills of each musician in a set that achieved Jazz's main goal - it pushed the limits of what you know as music.
Gary Burton performed his first solo show since 1972 at the new(ish) BMW Edge theatre at Federation Square creating a completely different mood to his performance nights earlier as eager vibraphonists had the chance to get a closer look at their hero.
Contrary to the larger theatre style performances, Melbourne's famed jazz club Bennett's Lane hosted nightly concerts from the out-there styles that could only loosely be described as jazz, such as Brazil's Yumandu Costa Trio to those who have played with the greats, such as Denmark's Jens Winther Quintet.
Winther's audience was made up almost entirely of people wearing "artist" passes who were completely in tune with his virtuosic playing and his brilliant band.
The end of the festival brought with it what was intended to be a very special double bill performance from jazz legends Pharaoh Sanders Quartet and the McCoy Tyner Trio featuring Dave Liebman.
The night was a tribute to John Coltrane, who Sanders, Tyner and Liebman had all performed with before his death 40 years ago.
It was this show that attracted some of the more curious outsiders to see what this "jazz" thing is all about, but sadly it was the first show in the festival that I had attended and felt nothing.
The jazz festival brought life changing experiences for some, whether it was someone seeing live jazz for the first time or something seeing their hero up close and while yes, total jazz snobs might have scoffed at the "commercialism" of the lineup, the festival did a good job of promoting jazz culture in a rock 'n' roll country like Australia.
