The Weather Cooperated, J&R MusicFest Brought Joy To City Hall Park

Seeing a break in the weather, J&R took the risk and kept J&R MusicFest outdoors in City Hall Park for the third and final day of the free festival. It proved a good choice, the rain abated so all performers could play to the outdoor crowd.

It was a fantastic show that moved musically from Hip Hop to Pop to Jazz.

Legendary MCs KRS-One & Buckshot opened the show with, as they say, raw, real Hip Hop like was in the ’80s and ’90s: schooling all on how to break it down. LeToya and twin dancers took the stage with more schooling with her heartfelt songs telling a story of love, breakup and healing.

Fifteen year old Nikki Yanofsky demonstrated a prodigious ability to reach the audience while fronting her jazz band singing souped up standards, at times floating over the rhythms with fleet-witted scatting.

Roberta Gambarini with a trio extended the exploration jazz ability to polish the song structure of standard repertoire into brilliance. A truly great singer with a rich textured voice making timeless music for our contemporary era as the great singers of past decades, like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan made for theirs.

Closing out the three day festival was a remarkable display of timeless elegance as Roy Hargrove filled the big stage with a sixteen piece band thrilling all in attendance with the beauty of virtuosic playing in interweaving arrangements of original compositions. This was Jazz of the highest order, a gift to the city, a resource for the world.

Again, the bloggers, tweeters and YouTube videographers did a fine job of capturing and informing those not in attendance the magic of the occasion.

Here is a sampling of social media coverage found early in the day after. With all sources promising more to come.

• First Day of MusicFest Rocked City Hall Park
• No Dampened Spirits as MusicFest Moved Indoors

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