Sun Valley Jazz Festival

After not posting for a while, I guess I'm trying to make up for lost time.

Last Friday Erin, Liz, and I made the drive over to Sun Valley to take part in the Sun Valley Jazz Festival. Why did we decide, after living here for almost 20 years, to go this year? Well, that's a somewhat long story. But that's what you're here for, right? To read a long story? Okay, it's really not that long, so here goes.

Back in February I signed up with Facebook, partly because many of the cast members of Brigadoon said they wanted to keep in touch that way, and partly just to see what goes on there since my daughters have accounts there. A month or so after I signed up I got a friend request from Ed Wise. "Holy cow, " said I (I'm sure those were my exact words). Most of my family probably remembers the Wise family. We knew them back in Clear Lake, TX. Ed was the first one in his family to join the church. I think I was a sophomore or junior in high school at the time when we met, and he was a couple of years older so he had already graduated from high school. He was also already a very accomplished bass player, and he was instrumental (hmmm, appropriate word here) in starting a dance band to play at our stake dances. I got to be a part of that band playing trombone as well as singing, so we became friends. Ed left on his mission in April of 1976, a few months before I graduated from high school. By the time he got back from his mission, I was at BYU and the family had moved to Lancaster, so I hadn't seen him since then.

It turns out Ed married a woman from Philadelphia a few years ago and moved up there from New Orleans right after Katrina hit. After he got to Philadelphia he hooked up with a group called "The Midiri Brothers Sextet," and it just so happens that the Midiri Brothers have been coming to the Sun Valley Jazz Festival for several years. So when Ed found me on Facebook, and found out I live in Idaho, he sent me a message and said, "Hey, I'm going to be in Sun Valley in October. If you get a chance come on out to the Festival and we can hang out." Well, we weren't sure we were going to make it until the day before, but I decided to take the day off Friday and go.

It turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise. We got there about 11:00 and found the registration desk at the Sun Valley Lodge and then found out that the place the Midori Brothers were playing at 12:30 was across town (which is not that far) so we headed over there. We got there in time to hear a few songs from the group before them, which was a big band from the Netherlands. They were very good, and it was interesting that they spoke with fairly heavy accents, but their singing was pretty accent-free. Ed's group is headed up by twin brothers, Phil and Joe Midori (hence the name of the group). One of them plays clarinet and saxophone, and the other plays vibraphone, and some trombone. The rest of the group consists of a pianist, guitarist, a drummer, and Ed on bass. They were excellent. They play a lot of Bennie Goodman and Artie Shaw music.

Afterwards we got to talk to Ed finally. We decided to go ahead and head to the next venue his group was playing at and listen to the group before them, and then listen to their next set. Ed loaded his bass up in the group's van, and then rode the shuttle bus with us to the venue, which was back on the other side of town. In this case they were playing for a little dance competition, so that was fun to watch. After that we took the bus back to the original venue and listened to two more groups while visiting with Ed. The first group was Cornet Chop Suey from St. Louis, and the second was Louis Ford and his New Orleans Flairs. They were both fun to listen to as well.

With the almost three hours drive each way, it was a long day, but it was worth it. Great weather, great music, and chance to visit with a friend I hadn't seen for 32 years!