I rarely go back for a second show, but Tessa Souter is
one of my favorite singers, so why not indulge? Souter has been at the festival
four times before at three different venues. She finally made it to Kilbourn Hall.

Souter does not sing a lot of standards; she’s more likely to
transform a pop tune into one as she did with Lennon and McCartney’s “Eleanor
Rigby” and U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Whether singing her own
songs, the songs of friends, or lesser-known tunes she’s found, she makes them
all personal.

At one point she sang her own “I Will Forget,” a song
seemingly about an abusive relationship, followed by “You Won’t Forget Me.”
These two strangely mirror-image songs were followed by another relationship
song, “You Don’t Have To Believe.” With its Middle
Eastern flavor and gorgeous, sinuous melody it’s my favorite of Souter’s
compositions.

She also drew on jazz history with a beautiful version of
Kenny Barron’s “Sunshower” with lyrics by Teri Roiger; McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation,” retitled “Ancestors,”
with lyrics by Vicki Burns; and a song with lyrics she wrote for a Wayne
Shorter tune.

One of the things that made Souter’s sound unique was her
band: Adam Platt, piano; Keita Ogawa, percussion; and Dana Leong on
cello. While Platt played a pretty conventional role at the piano, Ogawa used
hand percussion as much as he used his drum set. And Leong got sounds out of
his cello I’ve never heard before. The result was a unique textural soundscape,
far from the usual jazz combo experience.

Platt warmed up as the night went on. His finest solo came
toward the end of the second set on “Yesterdays.” Ogawa’s all-hand (no sticks)
solo on the final song, “Pure Imagination” was his best. As for Leong, he stole
the show on almost every solo. Aside from playing excellent classical-style
cello, he had a way of sliding over the strings without pressing down,
transforming the cello into a Theremin.

The most touching part of the show was a heart-felt tribute
to trumpeter Lew Soloff, the Eastman School of Music
graduate and early member of Blood, Sweat & Tears who worked with Souter
and was here with her at last year’s XRIJF. Singing a cappella for much of the
song, with only Leong backing her on cello in parts, she sang a touching
rendition of “Here’s To Life.”

At the Lutheran Church I caught a set by Nils Berg
Cinemascope. The group is a Swedish jazz trio but the members performed
world music in the truest sense of the word. While videos from YouTube played
on a screen above the stage, the trio accompanied the musicians in the videos.

The videos included a singer from Punjab, India; a violin and
piano player from a circa-1940’s movie; a banjo player from the U.S.; and
various street musicians playing everything from a recorder to instruments I’d
never seen before. Sometimes the videos were edited for purposes of rhythm,
sometimes for more playful reasons.

This crazy form of fusion worked well in every case. The band’s
message seemed to be that musically, at least, we are one world.

While introducing one of his finest songs, “Invisible
Chains,” Raul Midon gave away the
secret of his phenomenal ability to play bass, rhythm, and lead guitar at the
same time (not to mention singing). “I have all day to do this,” he told the
large crowd at Xerox Auditorium. No one was buying it.

For one song he moved over to the piano, explaining that he
was inspired to write at the keyboard by Rickie Lee Jones, who he had toured
with. She had told Midon she wrote better stories at
the piano. His reasoning was he had to work harder because he didn’t know the
piano as well as he did guitar and he couldn’t fall back on technique.

Midon saved his best tune, “State
Of Mind,” for last and of course proceeded to blow everyone away with his
guitar gymnastics, the added bongo drums, and an extended solo on his mouth
trumpet. At one point he mixed the mouth trumpet with guitar riffs and scat
singing in a crazy mash-up of notes that truly only he could do.

Midon will play again on Monday, June 22, at
4 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre, 440 East Avenue.

Joe Locke will be at Kilbourn Hall
on Monday night and he’s first on my list. Locke never disappoints
and, with a great new album and a top-flight band, this concert should be
great. EvindOpsvik
Overseas will actually be overseas (they’re from Norway) when they visit the
Lutheran Church and I’ll be there. I’ll follow that with Trio Red, a power trio
from Scotland, England and Norway at Christ Church.

This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2015.