• Bourne's Mohonk: Jazz on the Mountain 2013, Day Three

    January 28, 2013. Posted by Michael Bourne.

    Add new comment | Filed under: Jazz Alive, Live Music, Live Music Blogging, michael bourne, Mohonk Jazz on the Mountain

    This is the third of four posts on this year's Jazz on the Mountain festival.

    Incapable of being anti-climactic, Scott Robinson stole the jazzfest on Sunday morning. He played mostly with Martin and Matt, but Frank and Fred also joined in.

    mohonk-sunday morning 5
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    He was funny, telling stories about his dad. He was dramatic, playing a harrowing theme from his album inspired by pulp hero Doc Savage. He played a growling bass sax and more of his heartful tenor sax. He remembered playing with Chet Baker and played "But Not for Me" on a cornet.

    Photo by Marilyny Catasus
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    Scott's finale featured a clarinet-like Hungarian instrument called the tarogato. He inherited the brown-ish horn, somewhat chubbier than a clarinet, from Joe Muranyi, clarinetist with Louis Armstrong. He remembered his friend with "The Old Miss Blues." Scott's concert was a favorite of the Mohonk multitude, and he sold more CD's than any artist ever at the jazzfest.

    mohonk-sunday afternoon 7
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    I've always wanted Fred Hersch to play what I think of as the "Horowitz slot" on a Sunday afternoon. He played several of his most evocative pieces. "Whirl" -- which it does. "Stuttering" -- which bounces like a ball down stairs. "At the Close of the Day" from his setting of Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

    mohonk-sunday afternoon 4
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    Anat Cohen joined in a lively and lovely duet.
 Anat's album called "Claroscuro" and Matt's album called "An Attitude for Gratitude" were my favorite albums last year.

    mohonk-sunday night 10
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    Matt's Arts and Crafts group featured Mike Rodriguez on trumpet, Gary Versace on piano and organ -- "He forgot the accordion," said a teasing Matt -- and Martin Wind playing on Sunday evening.

    Photo by Marilyn Catasus
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    Goofy and swinging, they played a musical kaleidoscope. Gary was especially edgy, sometimes with one hand on the piano and the other playing an organ that sounded like a sci-fi soundtrack. Martin's "Cruise Blues" was especially lyrical.

    mohonk-sunday night 16
    Photo by Marilyn Catasus

    Matt's "Bubbles" was inspired by (and included him touchingly speaking) a poem of Carl Sandburg. And along with a call for the audience to join in Matt's mass-sway, Anat, Scott, and Joe joined Arts & Crafts for a fireworks finale of Duke's "Blue Pepper."

    ...Michael Bourne

    Up next: Monday highlights with Parlor Games and the Mohonk Nuclei

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