I got two wonderful lessons about the meaning of music Thursday night. Both involved the inspiration for tunes and the resulting performances. The first was from hometown hero, vibraphonist Joe Locke, at Kilbourn Hall. In the middle of a fabulous set (no one has had more fun playing at the festival over the years than Locke and his various bands) Locke introduced his song, "Verrazano Moon." He told a touching story about an encounter with a glorious, full, orange moon after getting lost on the way home from the funeral of his friend and band-mate, saxophonist Bob Berg.

He wrote a great song about it -- music and lyrics -- but for years he only performed the music until another chance encounter. He heard singer Kenny Washington in an Oakland club and immediately knew he wanted to work with him. Last year they recorded the song on his excellent "For The Love Of You" album. After they performed it together beautifully Thursday night, an emotional Locke hugged Washington. Twice.

Washington is a great choice for Locke's band. He's not the usual singer out in front; he's a member of the band who even takes solos on instrumentals with his powerful scat singing ability. At this point Locke is so absurdly dexterous with his four-mallet technique that every solo he played was spectacular. His pianist, Geoffrey Keezer, is on the same level, as were bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Clarence Penn.

The second lesson came at the end of trumpeter Sean Jones's late set at Max at Eastman Place. Jones introduced the final song by saying he wrote it at 4 o'clock in the morning the other night. He explained that he was thinking about the power of redemption and how we sometimes hold on to the past forever. He titled the piece "Forgiveness."

After a set of mostly hard-driving, up-tempo tunes, this one was a ballad and it was the best tune of his show. It's not easy to get across a concept in an instrumental song, but watching him play it, and listening to the beautiful melody, you could kind of tell what he was saying with his horn. When the great pianist Orrin Evans took a solo, Jones was every bit as engaged, watching him and reacting to his magnificent improvisation.

Because the piece was new the band was just beginning to find out what it had to offer harmonically. Jones was genuinely intrigued by Evans' take on his chord structure and melody. You could actually hear and see that moment of discovery in Evans' playing and on Jones' face.

Earlier I heard Get the Blessing at Christ Church. To say the band is quirky is an understatement. The quartet is a bit like America's wise-ass trio, The Bad Plus, in terms of sudden dynamic shifts and a sense of humor. Some of the compositions reminded me of manic Frank Zappa tunes. What I liked best was the way the musicians would get quite a cacophony going and then suddenly, somehow, emerge with a heraldic melody and ride off into the distance.

Friday I'm looking forward to the Brazilian music of Joyce at Max at Eastman Place and the Hungarian jazz/fusion band Djabe in the Big Tent.