Welcome to the 2009 Monterey Jazz Festival "Open Blog."

During the entire weekend, September 18-20, we'll be posting news, notes, reviews and ruminations from the 52nd annual festival.

Enjoy!

Wayne Saroyan
Editor & Publisher, JazzWest.com

I'm back at the Monterey Jazz Fest after taking last year off due to my move from San Francisco to Boonville, a small town in Mendocino County. As usual, I hit the Fairgrounds a bit early today (after my 5-hour sprint from Mendocino to Monterey this afternoon) to check out the grounds before the storm and to watch the crowds as they come in. There is a somewhat subdued vibe on the grounds this year, due to the economy, I'm sure. Maybe it's my imagination, but there seem to be fewer food booths and vendor stalls. The Festival program is much lighter than normal. Still, the Festival powers on and I'm looking forward to three days of great music.

One more thing that occurs to me. In years past, living in San Francisco as I did, I was used to getting my great live jazz in regular doses. The MJF was just a great, big bunch of my usual diet, but served up in a huge, wonderful splurge. But now I live out in the hinterlands, and I realize that three straights days of such high-quality music is going to be even more precious to me than ever. Onward to the music!

As the gates open and the fans start filtering in to explore the grounds, I, too, am doing my investigations. One thing that's made an impression on me: the music and CD sales tent this year is being run, not by any music/CD store chain (are there any left?) but by Best Buy. On view at one end of this tent, a video of John Coltrane in concert with the classic quartet of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Roy Haynes, wailing away on "My Favorite Things." On the other end of the tent, a Best Buy employee is banging away on a set of electronic drums to "Here Comes the Sun" as a large screen shows an animated version of the darling Liverpool mop tops. I realize that here on display is the new Beatles Guitar Hero software. Why this strikes me as a tad discordant, but what the heck. Who doesn't love the Beatles, even an animated version accompanied by a Best Buy employee banging on electronic drums?

At any rate, I hear real music being played, and make a bee line for the sound. Inside the Bill Berry Night Club, the Scott Amendola Trio is running through their soundcheck. In fact, I always love opening my MJF music experience with a soundcheck or rehearsal, if I can. There's something pure about sitting almost alone in a performance venue watching a band get ready. You see them playing without having to worry about connecting with anyone but each other. Often they play all out. And in fact, the Amendola Trio does this now, to my delight. Scott Amendola is an extremely talented drummer based in San Francisco and I have seen him often before. He seems to be able to play any sort of music with finesse and power. I guess you would have to call this trio, which features guitarist Jeff Parker and bassist John Shifflet, a fusion group. Some fusion groups seem to start at rock and then reach out toward jazz. A lot of very good music gets made that way, obviously. But this group seems more to use jazz as their jumping off point from which to push off into interesting new territories.

I listen to the band rip through a pair of uptempo power numbers and listen to them discuss the sound with the tech guys. Overall it is easy and everyone is pleased. I note that Amendola seems more relaxed when his hands are ripping his drum sticks across the drum kit in intricate rhythmic patterns than when they're at rest. The band plays for each other; the key to their combined sound is the joy with which they play, clearly. I'll be back to hear their real set, and comment more about their music then. I may post once more tonight, but most likely it will be in the morning. Keep well.