The cool September evening gives way to stuffy heat as this indoor space fills up for the Benny Green/Russell Malone duo’s first set. The pair will have this stage to themselves for the evening, playing until midnight.
With the lights turned down to a cave-like darkness and a few impotent ceiling fans struggling vainly overhead, the pair waste no time in demonstrating the art of melodic conversation.
At the outdoor Garden Stage, San Francisco vocalist Jacqui Naylor is turning the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime’ on its ear. Sounding more like a Joan Armatrading composition than one of David Byrne’s, the melody flows like the underground water Naylor sings about, buoyed on the familiar pop-fusion bassline of Joe Zawinul’s “Birdland.”
In the hours before the gates open, the atmosphere in the fairgrounds is relaxed and collegial. Vendors crack jokes as they set up their wares. The sound of Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet wafts out of the double-wide booth of a national record store chain. A guitarist — John Scofield, perhaps? — tunes up in a little hut away from the main drag. Workmen straighten banners as the yellow-jacketed event staff prowls the perimeter.
