DJABE pushed the boundaries between pop and jazz a little closer together with its show at the Big Tent Wednesday. The first tune had an electrified pop vibe to it, then suddenly broke down into a chanting call-and-response using what looked like short wooden pitchforks that were tuned to mimic the more familiar sounds of hand bells. And right through it all was John Nugent, the producer of the festival, blowing the sax and shaking Indonesian instruments around on stage. Nugent split after the one tune, and the band was right back to the original improvised pop music for a crowd that seemed to be digging every move, whistling, clapping, and shouting out howls of approval for the sounds they heard. DJABE was definitely mood music -- jazz for a warm, sunny day on a Caribbean Island.

I'm a bit more of the dingy, juke-joint kind of guy, where the backbeat of the drums and the organ grinder's swing help the single malt go down smoothly. David Murray's Black Saint Quartet was just the group to turn Kilbourn Hall into that setting --  if only for 85 minutes at a time. Murray doesn't play bop on the sax; he squeals and honks notes out of the horn that sound like the reverberations of a screaming soul. And the band pushes that to the Nth degree. The keys sustained the spacey-sounding chords that served as the backdrop for the solos, while the drums pushed the intensity up with hits on the snare. It was by far the most accessible sounding I've heard Murray play before, but it still had the intensity and urgency that I've grown accustomed to getting from him.

Next up: Devon Allman's Honeytribe (Harro East Ballroom), Tim Blane (High Fidelity), and Boz Scaggs (Eastman Theatre).