When I chose the University of Idaho, everyone raved about the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
Each year world-class musicians perform and teach students from across the Pacific Northwest in an intimate, small-town setting. What more could any jazz lover want?
I don”t think the Jazz Fest was quite like it was advertised to me. After attending the Friday and Saturday night concerts at this year”s festival, I was a little underwhelmed.
Tess Fox
Argonaut
Friday night”s performance from Tower of Power was amazing. They are a band with years of experience and it shows. From their stage set-up, to choreographed dance moves, to the ease that each member has when playing – everything worked. I left the Kibbie Dome in pure bliss.
But I didn”t leave the Dome feeling like that on Saturday. The Jazz Festival Big Band opened the show and was phenomenal. It was the second act that left me disappointed and upset.
The Cherry Poppin” Daddies were the headliner of the Jazz Fest this year. This was a poor choice by Jazz Fest management on many counts.
Let”s start with the name of the group. The title alludes to older men who want to have sex with much younger women. It”s heinous, disgusting and one of the last things I want to think about when I listen to swing music.
At an all-ages festival with an all-ages audience, this doesn”t seem appropriate. How do you explain such a name to children who ask?
It also teaches children that even if a band has a creepy, sexist name, it will still make money in the music industry. That”s a good lesson, right?
The lead singer fits the sleazy name with his demeanor. From the double breasted pinstripe suit to his gyrating, crotch grabbing dance moves, I was uncomfortable. Two songs in, I left.
Perry”s voice is nothing spectacular either. He is backed by a decent rhythm section. The horn section consists of one trumpet, two tenor saxophones and a trombone. Many of the band”s lines were in unison, meaning they all had the same note at the same time. This doesn”t make for interesting music. The horn players seemed to fade into the background, literally and musically. The group was placed on the side, in the back half of the stage, as if they weren”t real contributing members to the group.
Their attempt to revive the “rat pack” style jazz reinforces the cheesy, false misconceptions people hold about jazz and jazz culture.
This isn”t the 1950s. I love Frankie Blue Eyes and Dean Martin, but jazz has evolved so much since then.
The pinstripe suit is a great example of this. It”s classic Frank Sinatra. Fedora, pinstripe suit, twinkling blue eyes – what a guy. That was then. By taking all of these elements of old, successful jazz musicians, the Daddies are appropriating culture that doesn”t really fit together.
Plus, Sinatra is the only one that can pull off the pinstripe suit.
The entire shtick of the Daddies is their “throwback” nature. They cater to people who know very little about jazz or want to stay in those “rat pack” days.
This is the most confusing thing for me. At a festival like this, the largest jazz festival this side of the Mississippi might I add, it”s safe to assume that most people attending know a thing or two about jazz music. So to book a band that caters to a non-musical audience was upsetting.
The headlining band should be a group that both musicians and non-musicians can enjoy. While intellectually stimulating, the headlining group should also be accessible and groovy.
This Jazz Fest ended on a disappointing note for me. Higher quality artists could have been booked for the event. I can only hope that next year, the headlining group doesn”t glorify jazz stereotypes as much as this one did, which isn”t a tall order by any means.
Tess Fox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tesstakesphotos