2013 Rosslyn Jazz Festival

2013-0907 Rossylyn Jazz Festival-9070294, a photo by NoVARon on Flickr.
James Carter joining Pancho Sanchez during his set at the 23rd Annual Rossyln Jazz Festival capped a wonderful day of Jazz on a late summer day at Gateway Park in Arlington, Virgina. After opening with three wonderful samples of Latin Jazz (including a dedication to Willie Bobo), Sanchez was joined by the great saxophonist Carter on some songs associated with John Coltrane that started with a spicy rendition of Duke Ellington's The Feeling of Jazz.

This collaboration ended an afternoon that opened with trumpeter Kenny Rittenhouse's Sextet for some strong hard bop (to use a weak analogy). Rittenhouse's band included a marvelous trombone player, Reginald Cyntje, along with saxophonist Lyle Link and pianist Allyn Johnson. Link was exceptional in this excellent company as the band played selections from Rittenhouse's 2013 recording New Your Suite. 

After Rittenhouse set, Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens came from Brooklyn to take us to church a day early. It was enjoyable change of pace. The Soul Rebels came on for a set of New Orleans Brass band music that had the crowd really up and dancing. It was a Crescent City party for an hour with that brash and funky sounds.

What an afternoon, with the music even better than the glorious sunny weather.  Congratulations to the Rosslyn Business Improvement District, all the staff and volunteers who made this Festival happen and Arlington County, Virginia for its support of this event and the arts.

Pancho Sanchez's mixed soul-latin jazz effort

I wrote the following for Jazz & Blues Report at the beginning of 2008, but I am uncertain whether it appeared in print.

Raise Your Hand (Concord Picante), the latest recording by Latin jazz master, Pancho Sanchez, is kind of a schizophrenic recording as it has several special guests joining him for some funk as well as hot latin jazz. Four of the selections have in a classic soul-funk groove while the remaining numbers have strong latin grooves. The album is bookended by a couple of Eddie Floyd classics, Raise Your Hand and Knock on Wood, with Sanchez handling the lead vocals but his band joined by Floyd, Steve Cropper and Booker T. Jones. The result are solid renditions that are not that removed from the Stax classics, but outside of some added percussion, not as intriguing as might have been suggested. The same is true with the remake of Junior Walker’s Shotgun as well as Maceo’s House, on which Maceo Parker adds his saxophone but which one wishes they was more stylistic fusion. The remainder of the album is strong latin jazz with Sanchez also handling the vocal on El Aqua De Belen with his terrific band that includes organist David Torres, trumpeter Ron Blake and George Ortiz on timbales, but these sides sound like a completely different recording than the other four tracks. The playing throughout is excellent, and if the four soul numbers had been a bit more imaginatively performed this would certainly have excited this listener more.