Kilby Court Battle of the Big Bands

What a night! Plenty of (musical) fireworks leftover from the 4th as SLAJO and JPO battled it out... (Salt Lake Alternative Jazz Orchestra and Joshua Payne Orchestra). How they managed to set up two big bands in the limited (large garage) space of Kilby Court still amazes me... and I was there! At least the audience didn't mind hanging around outside in the courtyard since it was quite warm inside. So there we were, photographers, recorders, videographers, stumbling over each other in the small space between the blasting bands. Each took a turn, and then combined...

First up was the visiting team, JPO,


followed in the bottom of the inning by the home team, SLAJO.


Best of all was the bottom of the ninth, with both groups participating in a beautiful version of Herschel Bullen's "Wreckrium". Tie game... Absolutely great jazz, and a very fun musical configuration. Tunes from the show can be heard or downloaded from the SLAJO web site.

Curious, this weekend is the Salt Lake International Jazz Festival... and neither of these great bands is involved. What's going on??? How can such jazz excellence, innovation, and overall excitement be ignored by a local jazz festival?