In some ways the focal point of the Jazz Festival, Gibbs Street is the main artery for pedestrian traffic throughout the nine days as concertgoers shuttle back and forth between the various venues. The free stage at Gibbs and East also draws large crowds attracted by the prospect of taking in the atmosphere at no cost. It has also traditionally served as the one venue where local high school musicians -- and their teachers -- get to shine. Yesterday afternoon, on yet another picture-perfect day, local saxophonist Bill Tiberio, a Fairport High School music teacher who also works out of the Eastman Community Music School and Hochstein Music School, appeared with his quintet. Given his pedigree as an educator, it is only fitting that Tiberio appeared at the Gibbs Street stage more than once the last two days, and he supplied a kind of informal chaperoning presence throughout.
As opposed to the formidable density and full-throttle drama of the High School Directors Big Band, which Tiberio led on Sunday, his own band gets funkier and veers toward soul- and lite-jazz. It cast a casual mood over Gibbs Street with airy arrangements that gave room for Tiberio to breathe, and showcased his lyrical soloing style and warm, soothing tone. Tiberio has a knack for showmanship without being showy, and whether playing a solo front and center or hanging back to give someone else the spotlight, Tiberio dug in with obvious relish.
Back in the Xerox Auditorium, Brazilian vocalist Maria Farinha and the all-Canadian Jongo Trio proved that, no matter how beautiful bossa nova may be, there's absolutely nothing quaint about it when it's performed at its highest level. It's a disservice to the genre that it is so widely viewed in this country as a kind of exotic wallpaper or artifact for camp and retro enthusiasts. If anyone in the audience had that view going in, Jongo drummer Alan Hetherington's playing surely straightened them out with his mind-blowing fluidity and finesse.
Bossa nova rhythms are meant to be easy on the ears, and players swerve between the beats with the seeming ease of a gentle breeze blowing on a beach. But it takes the command and craft of a a Swiss watch-maker. Hetherington, a superlatively proficient player, nailed both. He also has that intangible quality -- a kind of rhythm within rhythm -- that one needs to convey Brazilian rhythms so they sound convincing.
Like Hetherington, Welsh pianist Huw Warren, who played solo last night and appears again tonight at Christ Church with stand-up bassist Paula Gardiner's trio, is able to do dazzling things on his instrument without disrupting the overall flow. His compositions beheld piano lines within piano lines, small cycles within larger cycles. During Warren's opening number, it times it sounded like there were three parts were going at once: chords, a simple repeating two-note pulse, and flurries of notes in the upper register.
Warren clearly has classical-caliber chops but never sounds like he's simply delivering a recital. His music is too engaging -- and engaged -- for that as it winds, climbs, twirls and shifts, yet retains its flow and sounds perfectly natural at all times. Even when Warren got up to scrape his fingers against the piano strings and solicited bug-like noises from the instrument, he never compromised the music's accessibility. It isn't easy to hold an audience using just one instrument, but Warren proved that it is entirely possible. It'll be interesting to see how he adjusts to playing with three instruments tonight.