Now in its 24th year of existence the Atlanta Jazz Festival signals the beginning of the summer jazz festival season for this writer. The AJF always features a variety of local and international performers from most genres of jazz. Even though the free admission Memorial Day weekend concert series is the major part of the festival, there were several other free and paid performances held over a 9-day period throughout the Atlanta area. This year a second stage, reserved for emerging artists,

For the last 2 years the Mid-States Jazz Camp in Dayton, Ohio has hired 6 of the worlds finest jazz musicians to work with the young musicians who attend the camp. Each of these years these musicians have traveled 1 hour south to Cincinnati for a Wednesday night performance. Now Wednesday night is not the best night to draw a crowd for a jazz show here. But for the last 2 years "Cecil McBee and the NYC Jazz All-Stars" performed before a large, enthusiastic mid-week audience, with this year's sho

Daryl Stuermer cast a spell over a hometown crowd at the city's outdoor music festival. The band started with 'Icarus Banjo' off of his LIVE AND LEARN CD. The curiously named tune features a jangly guitar and piano that is reminiscent of early Bruce Hornsby. It took little time for Stuermer to show he is the master of lyrical guitar. With a crystal clear sound coming from the P.A. system, the band soared through this song, which could be best described as an 'American anthem.' Keyboardist Kostia

Drummer/bandleader Chico Hamilton has, like Ellington, Mingus and Blakey, a tradition of his bands being 'finishing schools' for jazz musicians: Larry Coryell, Eric Dolphy, Paul Horn, Arthur Blythe, Fred Katz and Gabor Szabo are among those passed through the ranks of his various organizations. Hamilton, unlike some jazz players, has not stood still in his career, style-wise: bop, cool, chamber jazz, fusion ' he's been-there, done-that and more.Hamilton has kept not-the-highest profile the pa

FLEURINE AND BRAD MEHLDAU Fleurine and Brad Mehldau have recorded an intimate album entitled "Close Enough For Love" and why not? They certainly were close enough when the roller-skating Fleurine fell down the stairs at the Village Vanguard and crashed right on top of Mehldau. That was their first meeting. Performing at North Sea, Mehldau took his usual Bill Evans' hover over the piano and the lovely and beautiful Fleurine, dressed in a stunning black velvet and gold cocktail dress, stood