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43rd Annual Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland, Part 2
Courtesy C. Andrew Hovan
The Tri-C JazzFest did a fantastic job of ensuring that those who arrived with open ears, discovered at least one artist who they fell in love with.
After a year online and a year at the suburban Cain Park, the Tri-C JazzFest made a triumphant return to downtown Cleveland in 2022. The downtown location gave the music a wider audience than at Cain Park, as it was more likely that someone returning home from a baseball game or an afternoon at a bar could stumble upon one of the many bands playing at two outdoor stages. The festival comes less than a year after the Cain Park version of the festival, with a quick turnaround time giving it the chance to entertain a summer audience, and pay tribute to the current president of Cuyahoga Community College Alex Johnson before he retired in June.
Though at many festivals the big name national acts are often the ones playing indoors for paying audiences, this writer often finds the outdoor shows to be a better way to experience a truly local festival. You can experience
Eddie Palmieri
piano1936 - 2025
Eddie Baccus Sr.
keyboardsOutdoor Concerts
Dave Thomas
vocals
Jimmy Smith
organ, Hammond B31925 - 2005
Jack McDuff
organ, Hammond B31926 - 2001
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
woodwinds1935 - 1977
"One time during his solo he put something on his keys that would make them stick," Thomas said. "He got up in the middle of his solo and started walking around the organ."
Cleveland band Alla Boara paid tribute to a different musical tradition underneath the Playhouse Square chandelier. In the middle of their set, the audience a recording heard a recording of a long-dead Italian priest singing an old, nearly-forgotten song. After the recording ended, Alla Boara took that priest's melody and gave it life, letting the stories of the dead live again beyond the grave. The band ensures that a new generation of listeners will have a new perspective on the folk music of their Italian ancestors. Folk music can be transformed into something completely modern retaining something of the emotions that previous generations expressed through song. The band's remixing of older songs is reminiscent of how jazz musicians have mined Broadway musicals for material since the beginning of the genre. How many people would know of the Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical "Babes in Arms" if it never spawned "My Funny Valentine?"
"If you have a grandpa from France or South Africa or Poland check out their music," bandleader and drummer
Anthony Taddeo
drumsb.1986
All the songs Alla Boara performed would have been forever lost to history if Alan Lomax, best known for preserving the folk songs of the American South, hadn't journeyed through Italy in 1954. Taddeo took those field recordings, learned the melodies and constructed modern arrangements of them that add a hint of modernity while still being listenable for a popular audience. "C'Aventi C'e" is a stellar example, with unison guitar and bass riffs and an angular bridge, in-between Singer
Amanda Powell
vocals"I always have my little book with all my translations because it's important to maintain the story," Powell said.
Some of the pieces were more whimsical than the religious song of a priest. One standout story song is based around a dialogue between an uninterested woman saying that she would rather turn into a flower then marry the other singer, who responds by saying he'd turn into a bee, leading to a long spree of banter. Alla Boara's first album, Le Tre Sorelle, comes out in October, 2022.
Indoor Concerts
" data-original-title="" title="">Anthony Hamilton, a favorite of Dr. Johnson's kicked off the festival with Southern tinged soul. Hamilton showed love to the audience, mixing stage banter about his Southern roots, at one point inviting Johnson over to his house for grits, with the ability to dance and improvise at the end of a song to keep audiences holding on for just a couple minutes longer. The crowd paid him back in return waving white towels in the air and getting out of their seats. Many of Hamilton's songs are about a grown-up love, with songs like "Best of Me" based on the simple pleasures of having a lazy day with a person you love. He also paid tribute to his forebears, with references to m: Bill Withers,
"
data-original-title="" title="">Parliament Funkadelic and Luther Vandross. Hamilton ended the night with a song that he said "pays my bills:" "Charlene," a song about a topic as old as touring musicians, about the difficulties at home having a job on the road causes, with the singer unable to spend time with his daughter and family. 
Dominick Farinacci
trumpetb.1983
Tom Waits
piano and vocalsb.1949
Jamey Haddad
percussionb.1952
Christian Tamburr
vibraphoneb.1980
Michael Ward-Bergeman
accordion
John Mayer
guitarb.1977
Cyrille Aimée
vocalsb.1984
There are certain bands who do not fit well in sitting rooms.
Ghost-Note
band / ensemble / orchestra
Snarky Puppy
band / ensemble / orchestraRobert Sput Searight
drumsNate Werth
percussionThe band is pure '70s funk out of the
Tower of Power
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1968
Education
The Tri-C JazzFest does more than provide entertainment for people and an excuse to drink outdoors in downtown Cleveland. The festival is also an educational tool, giving students the opportunity to perform live in front of an audience and learn from some of the top jazz artists in the country before they even graduate college.Farinacci's journey to become a professional musician began at the Tri-C JazzFest Academy. Farinacci got the opportunity to play with Wynton Marsalis in the
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
band / ensemble / orchestra
John Clayton
bassb.1952
John Pizzarelli
guitarb.1960
Terence Blanchard
trumpetb.1962
This year a new stage was devoted entirely to current Tri-C students and alumni, including Spirit of the Groove, a yearround pre-college program intended for students considering music school, Farinacci said. Jazz education, like that of K-12 schools across the country, was forced online during the COVID-19 pandemic. For two years, Farinacci said, the class was split, the rhythm section doing in-person lessons, the horn section doing online lessons, because of COVID-19 restrictions, with combined practices only happening since March. The horn section would play over pre-recorded rhythm tracks, creating a much different environment than the communications between instruments that normally occurs at a jazz rehearsal.
"We didn't look at it as better or worse. We just looked at it as a different skill set," Farinacci said.
Student
Ava Preston
vocals
Diana Krall
piano and vocalsb.1964
"It's just such a fundamental It's part of who I am," Preston said, referring to music, "And who all of my friends are, and who my teachers are, to not have the chance to connect with the arts and connect with other people, was devastating."
The Tri-C jazz program offers young students the experience of making music outside of their basement or for an audience of their peers, as random people walking through Cleveland can also stumble upon their music.
"It's about more than just music," Preston said. " It's about making something bigger than yourself."
Drummer Drew Hoschar is set to take the step on his musical journey by becoming a student at the Manhattan School of Music. The ability to constantly progress and learn is what draws him to the field, as even the slightest change of grip can make a difference in your playing. That's the beauty of pursuing jazz or another artform, it's impossible to stop evolving.
"I started hearing all the nuances that music brought, and the ability to just go back to a record and you've already listened to find new things," Hoschar said. "It's so inspiring."
The ability to go back to something you've heard countless times and discover something new is one of the countless reasons to love jazz. The Tri-C JazzFest did a fantastic job of ensuring that those who arrived with open ears, discovered at least one artist who they fell in love with.
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