Duke Ellington Jazz Festival
Duke Ellington Jazz Festival
Sylvan Amphitheatre, National Mall, 15th St & Jefferson Dr SW, Washington, DC

I went early. The festival performances were going to be from 12 - 8 PM. I really hoped to see Wayne Shorter and Chuck Brown perform, but the order of the bands was not posted. Finally a guy showed me the order: Wayne was scheduled for 4 PM, Chuck after him. The first band to perform was Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band - it was a quintet - Jerry plays congas, trumpet and flugelhorn, his brother Andy plays acoustic bass, Larry Willis on grand, piano, a drummer and a sax player. The configuration for the congas was different from GoGo bands - five congas, no bongos - four of the congas were black, and the fifth was tan colored. The four black ones were in a semi-circle around the other one. One of the black ones had supports to remain firm, but the rest were loose. Jerry played in a Latin style. Larry played the piano more as a percussion instrument than foundation. I was already sunburned, but I wanted to stay longer.

Wallace Roney was up next. His band was him on trumpet, a sax player, an acoustic double bass, a keyboard player with the grand piano, a Korg and another keyboard, a drummer, and a female turntablist. The music was good, but I realized I really had to go before my sunburn got worse.