Pics from Jazz Fest

Last week was the Saint-Louis International Jazz Festival 2006. Unfortunately over the last 5 years or so the festival has been in a steady decline, due to poor organization and people embezzling money. This is one of the reasons I guess that I was able to participate in the festival as an amateur musician. It was a great experience to play alongside professional musicians. It gave me an idea of what it would take to be a professional musician...something that I have been giving increasing thought to, although only in a lucid state. It was also a good opportunity to use the new tenor saxophone that I bought in Dakar a little over a month ago. The best part of the festival, I would have to say, were the late night jam sessions. Each night at this jazz club, Marco Jazz, a lot of the musicians that performed in the festival went to jam. It was a great opportunity to play with players that were much better than me...in other words it was a good opportunity to learn from them. Anyway, here are pictures from the jazz fest(more to come soon).

Warning: Due to the magic of photography musicians may appear better than they actually sound.

Afternoon Soundcheck


African Touch on the big stage



Soprano Solo



Marco Jazz Club jam session. The saxophonist on the right was so good he made me want to either 1) pack up my sax and never play again or 2) work twice as hard as I ever have



Perpective shot of the crowd at this tiny club