Onion River Dixieland jazz=the cruise

By Colette

May 31-June 9, 2013
The 2013 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is over!  It ran over a whole week with most days offering music from noon till late.

Just to speak of the last Friday and Saturday, there were gigs by many different high schools, some fun with kids 11 to 14 years old and diverse talents.  Bellows Falls Union High school was quite good and mature.

The best was the VT All State Jazz ensemble. Because of the rainy weather, the Flynn Stage housed some of the events, it was a great venue.

Fairfield Center School

Fairfield Center School with 11-year-old sax, front, 3rd from left

At 5pm it was a WPTZ Block party for Channel 5 TV with the all women (7) Zili Misik… They were highly rated, may be the acoustics were bad… It was a disappointment.

Zili Misik

The jazz cruise at 7pm Friday was the only full Dixieland offering by the Onion River jazz Band, it was good despite the raw and foggy weather!

Saturday the weather being better the events were back outdoors. The Jake Whitesell Quartet was worth the uncomfortable chairs and the occasional drizzle!

Jake Whitesell, tenor sax

At the Jazz Lab (a worthwhile place to check out) the Luce Trio jazzed up Bach and other baroque music reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Rampal with a sax instead of a flute!

Definitely an event worth while to make an effort and a long drive to attend!