Well, better late than never, I guess. Sunday night my brain went into overload shutdown mode, and Monday was basically a lost day, what with the overnight drive from Monterey to Mendocino.

I wanted to check back in, though, and add a short mention of the final act I saw on Sunday night, Joe Lovano's group Us Five, featuring Lovano with pianist James Weidman, bassist Esperanza Spalding and the dueling drums of Otis Brown III and Cuban-born Francisco Mela. The band was featuring music from their recent CD, Folk Art, and the music certainly reflected that title. The band played continuously during the first half of the performance, flowing seemlessly from composition to composition. Lovano's rich, muscular sax style is clearly rooted in the fertile ground of the post-bop giants he grew up idolizing, but he has always been anxious, and happily able, to move out in all sorts of musical directions. And with Us Five, the jazz journey into world music was most rewarding.

Throughout that first half of the performance, I was constantly, and usually unsuccessfully, trying to determine what musical influences I was hearing. Oh, it was jazz, all right, joyously and emphatically. But within the melodies and rhythms it seemed I heard Afro-Cuban sounds, and then Eastern European, and maybe a New Orleans second line beat. Probably they were all there. Probably I missed some. It doesn't really matter. Us Five clearly had a global musical palette in mind, and wherever they were taking me, I was going with enthusiasm.

In his earlier performances during the festival, Lovano was at his fiery best, blasting away in trio with John Patitucci on Friday night, or trading searing riffs with John Scofield in the Arena on Saturday. Here, while still playing with great gusto, Lovano seems a bit more contained, seemingly more focused on playing within the group's overall dynamic. And given the skill level of the band, that's a good thing, as that group dynamic is certainly a joy to experience. The twin drums propel the music forward with constant drive and ever-varying percussive voices. Weidman's comments at the piano provide a luscious harmonic underpinning and until he shoots to the surface with lush, rolling solos.

Spalding's role as a soloist is almost as vital to the music as her more traditional bassist's part as the band's rhythmic heart. One thing's for sure, Spalding's "Next Big Thing-ness" aside, her presence in Lovano's band in and of itself should establish in anyone's mind that Spalding is certainly the real thing instrumentally. Lovano has always been known for his experimentation, but he has also been known for excellence. And in performance with Lovano on this night, she showed it all off. Hard-driving, deep of tone, nimble and almost impossibly tuneful, Spalding provided a bravura show. Lovano gives her plenty of space to cut lose, and during her lengthy solos, I was hardly even aware after awhile that these were bass solos I was hearing: she lines are as melodic as any other instrument on stage. The Folk Art CD is a very good one. But as one would hope, Lovano and Us Five took this music to a different level of energy and emotion.

And with that, I decided to end my festival. There was more music on offer, including Dave Brubeck's celebration of the 50th anniversary of Take Five. But I was bushed, and I didn't see myself enjoying anything more than Lovano's great ensemble. I took myself around the Fair Grounds one more time, said a few goodbyes, had a turkey sausage for the road, and then bid adieu to the 2009 Monterey Jazz Fest. As always, it was a great ride.

I hope these musings have been at least a little entertaining for you. Thanks to the folks at the festival, and to Wayne Saroyan of JazzWest for inviting me to think "out loud" here about my festival experiences. Play on!

After listening for a while to a fun panel discussion on the history of jazz radio, I head back to the Garden Stage to catch Buffalo Collision. This is an avant garde quartet featuring pianist Ethan Iverson and drummer Dave King of the Bad Plus, plus New York loft scene veteran saxophonist Tim Berne and cellist Hank Roberts.

I have always liked "outside" jazz, and the older I get, the better I like it, although I'm not sure what the correlation is. At any rate, despite the free-jazz nature of the group, this music seems to me to have a gentleness at its heart. The numbers often build slowly beginning with minimalist solos. The quartet spends a lot of very profitable time exploring small spaces, finding small niches in time and small, shifting interplays of sonority to consider, both singly within venturesome solos and, even more effectively, in intriguing ensemble play. Even when in full-throated ensemble uproar, the four players never lose contact with each other, and always seem to land successfully.

It's odd to me that I find this sort of music, when played this well, to be so relaxing.

Veteran Trumpeter Scotty Barnhart Delivers

I spent the late afternoon and early evening checking out a pair of trumpeters. First was Scotty Barnhart at the Garden Stage. Barnhart is an old-school trumpeter who's been a member of the current version of the Count Basie Orchestra for 17 years and a veteran of pianist Marcus Roberts' band as well. He offers a hardy, straight-ahead sound that is easy for a listener to settle into.

Despite Barnhart's long years of service, I personally became aware of him just recently when his new CD, Say it Plain, arrived at KZYX FM, the Mendocino radio station where I host a weekly jazz show. (Mondays from 2 to 4 at www.kzyx.org. Can I say that on television?).

It's a very fine CD, and when I arrive, Barnhart is just announcing his attention to play the CD's opening track, a delightful New Orleans second-line arrangement of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps." The band plays this appealing, big-fun version of the classic tune with loose-limbed glee, pianist Bill Kennedy taking an especially bouncing solo. Barnhart's trumpet voice is warm and welcoming, with just a hint of growl around the edges.

Vocalist Jaimie Davis steps onstage to front the band through an easy-swinging roll through "Night and Day." Barnhart, in fact, was in Davis' band when the stylish baritone singer performed at Monterey last year, and Davis is obviously happy to return the compliment for Barnhart this year.

The group's final number is their most challenging, a Barnhart composition called "The Burning Sands" that the trumpeter says was originally written for a Gulf War One veteran but is now dedicated to all combat veterans.

The tune has a sharpness worthy of its inspiration, featuring frequent tempo shifts and dips into dark-toned expression. Barnhart's questing solo sets an expressive standard that saxophonist Bill Kennedy rises to with a foreboding rumble of a solo of his own. Peterson elbows in to provide the key statement of the piece, now gliding across the keys and then seeming to scramble across a rough and dangerous terrain.

I made a point of stopping in on Barnhart's set because of his CD. I'm glad I took the time.

Young NYC Trumpeter Dominick Farinacci Shows Promise

I stepped into the Coffee House Gallery to hear trumpeter Dominick Farinacci next, mainly, I must admit, because I ran into his drummer, Carmen Intorre and bassist Yasushi Nakamura, last night and promised them I'd check out their gig. Nakamura and Intorre were members of the band that won the first annual San Francisco State Generations Jazz Competition for Emerging Combos, an event I was associated with last year. Farinacci's band is composed of young players from around the country who came together over the past few years via their studies at Julliard in NYC.

When I come in, Farinacci and his band are working through a New Orleans style blues. Next they play a lovely version of Jacque Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas," followed by a fine bebop up-tempo "Secret Love."

Farinacci has a burnished, almost honeyed tone, in some ways diametrically opposed to Barnhart's more rough and tumble sound. For my money Barnhart's is the more compelling voice, but that may just speak to the relative level of experience between the two. But in fact as Farinacci's set moves along, pianist Dan Kaufman emerges as a more compelling musician than Farinacci. And while the young trumpeter did handle the Brel quite nicely, when the bands sets out to perform a ballad-form aria from a Puccinni opera, Farinacci just doesn't supply the emotion to maintain a viable interest level. The young player has talent. Some seasoning will tell the tale.