Confirmation: Weekly News & Notes

*Norman Brown, the Elders, Vincent Ingala, Mindi Abair, Bobby Watson, Eldar Djangarov, Angela Hagenbach and Lauren Braton are the performers at this year's Jazz In the Woods festival.

*Writing about the ongoing divisiveness in the Kansas City's jazz community, KC Jazz Lark suggests that "(i)t’s time we get along with each other."

*Kansas City's most popular blogger asserts that the city's connection to jazz is "one of the most tiresome and overly exaggerated nonexistent local legacies."

*Bob James will appear in a taping of 12th Street Jump at Broadway Jazz Club on May 15.  Tickets are $15.

*The Pitch notes the reunion of Trio ALL.

*The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will perform at the Lied Center on Wednesday, September 24.

*St. Louis Jazz Notes assesses the Sheldon Concert Hall's
2014-15 season.

*Tweet o' the Week: ABC Jazz- We're celebrating @IntlJazzDay today @ABCJazz @herbiehancock @UNESCO #BirdLives #JazzDay (link)

*The Kansas City Jazz Calendar has been updated for May.

(Original image by Plastic Sax.)

Here's That Rainy Day

I blame Shay Estes.

Impeccable weather greeted the start of the 2:45 set by Shay Estes and Trio ALL at Saturday's Prairie Village Jazz Festival. The performance of Estes, Zach Albetta, Mark Lowrey and Ben Leifer demonstrated that the band is a legitimate player in the sophisticated space also occupied by Melody Gardot and Erin Bode.

I didn't think much of the ominous clouds to the northeast of the Kansas City suburb. After all, the sun was shining and butterflies were dancing in Harmon Park. Then Estes, lost in the music, began dancing during a lively rendition of Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes."

Wholly unaccustomed to such a bewitching spectacle, the Prairie Village sky couldn't contain itself. Within moments, a torrential downpour ensued, scattering the audience of about 300. Although the sun reappeared an hour later, the damage was done and the full slate of premier locally-based talent was cancelled. (Here are reports from the PV Post and The Star.

I hope you're happy, Shay.

(The original image, taken the moment the storm hit, is by Plastic Sax.)