Great performance. The show went down at the Radisson in Peoria from 6-9:30, hosted by the Central Illinois Jazz Society. My brother and I showed up in our usual way: fashionably late. The room was almost too small for the number of attendees, but it was still pretty comfortable. It was a mostly older crowd in attendance, but I saw a few twenty-somethings here and there.

The talent on stage was everything you could ask for. The pianist (Denny Schielein) had quite the vocal range, at times sweet and mellow but not without the occasional Jazz growl that has become inextricable from the genre. The trumpeter’s (Doug Myers) mute-playing sections were very enjoyable as well, and really seemed to capture that New Orleans feeling the way I always imagine it.

I was especially impressed with how tight their performance was. If a note was dropped anywhere in their first set, I either missed it or they did a heck of a job improvising. This couldn’t have been more true with the banjo player (Lance Dieckow). The man positively kicked ass. I can only recall a handful of times in recent memory where I’ve caught myself bobbing my head to the banjo, but tonight takes the cake. My brother had the same impression.

During the time between sets, another band (whose name I didn’t catch) took the stage. They started off with a catchy tune and a decent beat, then followed it with a mellower piece. I’m pretty sure I know the guitarist from somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it. If he is who I think he is, we might have attended a town hall meeting against the establishment of a golf course in Metamora back in 2000, when I was running around with Illinois Central College’s environmentalist group. (Yes, even back in my conservative days, I was environmentally conscious. It’s just common sense, people.)

Like last night, parental duties cut my time short, forcing me to leave earlier than I’d have preferred. However, on my way out I picked up a CD and happened to catch some of the band outside talking to each other. They were gracious enough to pose for a picture for my humble little blog:

Left to Right:  Carl Anderson, Doug Myers, Craig Bullis.

The CD has a number of covers by some well-known musicians, including The Suits Are Picking Up The Bill (Squirrel Nut Zippers), What a Wonderful World (as associated with Louis Armstrong) and, naturally, I Wish’t I Was In Peoria (Harry Woods, Billy Woods and Mort Dixon). Heh, of all the times I’ve heard that last song referenced, tonight marks the first time I’ve actually heard it.

If Jazz is your thing, give ‘em a listen and order a CD. Or if you want to see them live, their next show is this week on Friday, May 23rd at the Roanoke Festival in Roanoke, IL.

So I apparently have a new title: belligerent, closed-minded hack. Can’t win all the time, I guess.

Anyway, if you were around the riverfront near the CEFCU Center Stage, you might have seen my intolerant ass wandering around the Indo-American Society of Peoria’s India Fest!

First we mistakenly found ourselves checking out the cricket match going on near the RiverPlex. It seemed to be winding down so we headed towards the main event.

The woman at the ticket booth told us that Dr. Sudhir Mungee was on the stage giving a talk about Heart Disease, and that we’d be better off getting food first, then listening to him, heh. We hadn’t eaten all day, so we took her advice:

My wife and I both ordered the Tandoori chicken served over Naan from the “Mumbai Avenue” booth. It tasted great, very flavorful. So good, in fact, that I didn’t have a problem eating it while listening to Dr. Mungee expound on all the dangers of cholesterol.

I asked if they had a restaurant somewhere in town, but unfortunately they don’t. This was 100% home-cooked Indian cuisine. We later shared a cup of ice cream made with pistachio and ground cardamom seeds, which seemed to have a sort of gingery-nutmeg flavor to them. Delicious!

Wife, eating ice cream:

Later we shared a cup of Indian chai and had some spring rolls from Sizzlin’ India. I kept the leftover sauce, which was pretty damn tasty. Later in the day, we watched a brief presentation about Indian cooking, something I’ve been meaning to rotate into our overall cuisine.

We stopped by a few merchant booths while we were there. I picked up a tapestry rug, a marble egg and a carved green and brown onyx camel, which apparently means I now have a carved onyx collection from neighboring countries:

I have no idea what is written there, but judging by my handy-dandy event program, it looks like either Tamil or Urdu. If anyone out there can translate what this part of it seems to say, you win 1000 cool points. My wife bought a necklace by artist Jana Jayanty and we signed up for one of her Indian clothing and design classes. It’s not a skill I’ll use much, if ever, but that’s no excuse not to learn something new.

After wandering around a bit, I saw a booth that was accepting donations for the victims of the recent earthquakes in China. Had I seen this earlier I might have forgone some of my earlier purchases, but I was down to my last three bucks and decided to put them in anyway. Despite my embarrassingly small contribution, a man at the tent offered to write my name in Chinese on a thank-you card. I’d share it, but I haven’t said the kindest things about the Chinese government on here and I already have one stalker.

On the other hand…

Erm.. hello, world!

Unfortunately, we had to leave to pick up the boy from my parents’ house and head home. All-in-all it wasn’t a bad day, but it sucked that we couldn’t stick around for the evening events, which promised to take things up a notch. If any of you are thinking about attending next year, unless you’re planning to stay all day it might be better to come between 5 and 7, then stay for the rest of the evening. That’s apparently when all the action happens (and opportunities for better photos).