Caught a few minutes of Angelique Kidjo's set; Dianne Reeves joined her to sing "Baby, I Love You." And Kidjo has a good band, with Christian McBride, Lionel Loueke and others. But it's not really going anywhere. Maybe it's just too hot in the Arena right now. The sun is intense; I'm out of there.
Now, a shady suggestion: If anyone here at the Monterey County Fairgrounds is reading this, consider going over to the Coffee House Gallery. There, the Jazz Loft Project has installed an exhibition showcasing the photography of W. Eugene Smith, one of the iconic American visual artists of the last century.
You may have read about this: From 1957-65, Smith documented life inside his Sixth Avenue loft in Manhattan. It was a late-night hangout for many of the jazz musicians of the era: Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Roland Kirk, Chet Baker and many others.
In the Gallery, there's a big-screen projection of dozens of these marvelous images. The ones of Monk, cigarette dangling from his lips over the keyboard, are especially evocative. And there's more: Smith also recorded the jam sessions that took place in his loft, so, in the Gallery "theater," you can listen to these recordings while viewing the images. It's like time-traveling, and it's not only a window into the jazz of that period. Smith spent a lot of time shooting out his windows and into the street, and the New York street scenes bring back a vanished era. I felt a little blue, nostalgic, watching and remembering New York, my old hometown.