What a long, strange trip it's been on this nine-day jazz binge. Anyone with a Club Pass has probably hit the wall of exhaustion, caught their second, third, and fourth winds, and seen some impressive acts at some of the most unexpected moments. What really sticks out for me (aside from the obvious -- seeing the legends like Boz Scaggs, David Liebman, Al Green, etc.) was the Craig Snyder Fusion Group, which played an early-bird special at the Reformation Lutheran Church on Day 7 (aka Thursday). It was odd-metered blues that never left the pocket. And seeing a guitar player with as much chops as Snyder is never a bad way to start a night of music. There was Wildbirds and Peacedrums on Day 5 -- a quirky duo that made the Reformation Lutheran Church tremble with an all-out flurry of powerful drum grooves. Add that to the revival-meeting vocals and it's enough to make me want the band's sermon every Sunday. And if any of you caught those four Ruskies of Billy's Band on Day 8, then I'm sure you understand my why I'm still speechless about it.

Day 9 was nothing short of a great street party happening along East Avenue. Joe Bonamassa bent the hell out of his six strings as he ripped apart one blues tune after the next. The smell of cheap beer on the pavement, the sound of the gritty blues, and a few thousand Rochesterians crammed into every inch of street space is exactly what a festival should be.

And it only got bigger when Medeski Martin & Wood took to the stage an hour later. The band played spacier harmonies than many of its jam-band counterparts, and no one minded. The band brought the groove to the breaking point, then stretched it out a little more just for fun. The whole show was packed with drumbeats to make you move, and trippy organ chords that sparked quite a bit of self-medication amongst the fans. The band stunned me (and gained even more respect from the audience) when it had Chuck Campbell sit in on the pedal steel guitar. The rendition of Hendrix's "Hey Joe" cast a spell over the concert-goers. It was a non-stop jam that had the sea of people making hip-shaking waves for nearly two hours.

Next up: Plenty of rest and a trip to the Bop Shop to see how the albums stack up against the live shows.