Judging by the capacity crowds at all of the Club Pass shows I went to Friday, the 2008 Rochester International Jazz Festival is off to a great start. An even better indicator is the fact that all of the musicians I saw were top notch. Unfortunately, between Norwegian accents, muffled microphones, and the tendency to speak over applause, I couldn't catch the names of too many sidemen.

The first strains of "So What" -- and I mean the exact gorgeous piano part that Bill Evans played on the "Kind of Blue" album  -- let the Kilbourn Hall audience know in no uncertain terms that Ola Kvernberg.