The Art of Mt. Hood’s Jazz Festival

This performance was so beautiful! I was mesmerized by the emotion that was put into the performance. I used to not like jazz, but I’ve always been interested in finding new music and have fallen in love with the art of jazz since last year, when I also attended the festival.

Photos by Lindsay Leeman

Watching Redman play the saxophone impressed me: I’ve never seen anyone play sax the way he does, and it brought a whole new light to jazz I hadn’t seen before. Cavassa was a delightful addition to the performance that evening with her beautiful voice. Even when she wasn’t singing and waited patiently for her cue to start, she was swaying with the beautiful music that was playing.

The pictures I took that evening spotlighted each of the artists in their own light in their seemingly most vulnerable moment on stage, with the most emotion. I so enjoyed the opportunity to witness great music and I hope to be able to do this again next year.

Over the course of the three-day festival that ran May 3-5, there were performances by other professional groups, among them the Steve Spiegl Big Band, Camille Thurman, and Etienne Charles and Creole Soul.

High school and middle school jazz ensembles also competed, and had teaching sessions from professional performers.