REVIEW

mood and delivered tons of superior bass work. They came back for an encore and did their rendition of “Valdez In The Country”, ending a great show.

In the evening, pop singer Javier Colon appeared, branding his music acoustic soul, but to my ears, it was pure pop and folk, which became apparent during the show when he did a few James Taylor covers, one of his biggest idols. Among the songs performed were covers of “I Will Always Love You” and “Purple Rain”, he accompanied himself on the acoustic guitar, plus members of our trusty house band. Despite his style of music was an oddity for this festival, it was well received.

After the intermission, things got serious again with saxophonist Kim Waters appearing, he was backed by band a, laying down a thick carpet of grooves, allowing Kim to soar and deliver his sharp sax playing. He was in fine form, doing songs like “Waterfall” and a tremendous rendition of Rose Royce’s “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” where he pulled all the stops, a true highlight of the show. For “Go-Go Smooth”, he invited his daughter Kayla to the stage to play the keys with him, another winner. At the end, every member of the band got some solo space, showing off their skills. This was one of the best shows of the whole festival, and after 35 years in the business, this man shows no signs of slowing down.

Sunday morning was opened by Canadian trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach, accompanied by band b, but with Orefo on bass. He went through several songs of his vast catalog, often playing the muted trumpet, but occasionally switching to the flugelhorn and flute. He did songs like “Recife”, a nice latin track ft. the flute, “Mulberry Street” and “Starpixie”, a hit song originally done with Jeff Lorber, the groovy “Rockin’ The Ribjoint” and more, leading through an entertaining program