Northshore JazzFest

Yesterday was a Day of Music, which, of course, made it a Very Good Day, Indeed! :)

Aimee, Matt, Payton, Josie, Kelly, Matt, Kate, and I all piled into Aimee and Matt's vehicle, and Matt graciously chauffered us to Glenview for the Northshore JazzFest. First of all, I can't tell you all how wonderful it was not to have to worry about where to park, and second of all, it was nice to just sit there and chatter away in the back seat and not have to navigate or worry about traffic! :)

It was about an hour's drive, and, from where I sat (admittedly, I couldn't see the road very well - LOL), the traffic didn't look too awful....but then the windows were kind of fogged in the back from all of the hot air back there......Matt dropped us all off at the door, and went off to find parking - a miracle in itself, because the parking lot looked totally stuffed to me.

A very kind lady at the doorway let all eight of us in for a family fee of only $25.00, when the sign clearly said that a 'family' was two adults and two children! :) Bless her heart. We were given little wristbands to put on, and right off the bat, I got things wrong - I was carried away wrapping that paper band around Kate's eeny meeny wrist so tightly (and then applied the 'stick') that the poor child started to loose feeling in her hand. Luckily, I had some clippers in my bag and the woman gave us another wrist band to start all over with. Kate ran off and asked someone else to apply it the second time, imagine that!

In any event, Tom's group played very well, and looked as though they had a lot of fun doing so. Some of the senior boys in the group are very 'colorful' personalities. I wonder what the group will look like next year? There were several judges there, giving critiques of the playing, but Tom said that not one word was mentioned about the guitar playing......sigh.

Several of the groups I saw did feature guitar solos, which was pretty neat, although I think that Tom could have given any of the guys I heard a run for their money!

It was interesting to hear the groups from Glenbard South and Naperville North - the Naperville group had ten girls! Tom's group only has two, and a few of the groups had absolutely, positively NO girls. Guess Jazz is more of a 'guy' thing?

I did snap a few pictures which I need to download - they are all kind of fuzzy and such, but it was nice to see TommyBoy in a white shirt, dress slacks, and a TIE!!!!! Good thing he had a haircut last weekend - his 'do' would have looked entirely different had the competition been a week ago. :)

Josie was a little darling the entire time - not a peep out of her - she's a Jazz Baby, for sure - and Payton looked to be having a great time as well - he said that it was just 'okay' when I asked him about it later, but at the time, he was groovin' up a storm. :)

Thanks again to Matt for driving, and Aimee and Matt for letting all of us pile on in to the Family Car.