One of the highlights of the Lethbridge Jazz Festival is always Jazz in the Park in Galt Gardens, which features excellent local talent and some of the highlights of the festival.
This year, I only caught a couple of the acts, June 18.
I arrived in time to hear a rare performance local experimental jazz quartet including crack rhythm section drummer Kyle Harmon and bassist Paul Holden, saxophonist Ryan Heseltine and guitarist/ vocalist Arlen Wutch.
Harmon and Holden anchored things with a wicked rhythm groove while Heseltine supplied plenty of sweet saxophone solos. Wutch added plenty of tasteful lead guitar and lead vocals.
They played an excellent set of jazz music which included a revamped, laid back jazz version of Soundgarden’s grunge era hit “Black Hole Sun.”
I was especially pleased to see Kat Danser on the big outdoor stage with her band as I missed her Friday night Jazz Festival show at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.
She borrowed Sue Foley’s upright bassist Chris Brzezicki for the show and was joined by harmonica player Peter Moll and lead guitarist Jimmy Guiboche.
She alternated between an acoustic guitar and a Weissenborn guitar on her lap she used to play steamy leads. In between, she chatted about the previous night’s show at the Owl Acoustic Lounge and gave the audiences a lesson in blues history.
She played a variety of songs from her most recent CDs “ Baptized by the Mud and “Passin’-A-Time”
“Birds N Bees n Me” was a highlight as was the title track,” which she introduced by saying “ When you write the blues you don’t make stuff up you write about what you know.”
She talked about growing up on a Saskatchewan farm and putting pennies and dimes on the train tracks but never being able to find them afterwards and sang about trains. She praised her harmonica player for his amazing solos and talked about touring with Fred Penner who got on stage to play harmonica with her and making him solo until he couldn’t breathe.
After that she played “Mama‘s Blues,” which had a couple of kids dancing in front of the stage.
She ended her set with the old Robert Johnson song “ If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day.”
