Bumbershoot 2005- Seattle Center, Seattle WA 9/4 & 9/5/05

With all the summer music festivals across the country, it’s always quite a task to choose which ones to attend and which ones to skip. Bumbershoot Festival of arts and music in Seattle is one I marked on my calendar early this year. The 35th installment of Seattle’s largest festival of this kind featured, as it always does, an almost impossibly diverse array of musical acts. Whatever tickles your fancy, whether it’s punk or folk, rap or blues, West African or South Caribbean, Bumbershoot has you covered. With that diversity in musical styles comes an exciting cross section of people from all walks of life. Indeed some attendees of the four-day festival spend more time watching people than listening to the bands, and why not?

I had the fortune to catch the weekend portion of the festival taking in over twenty bands ranging from international touring acts to local street performers. There’s something refreshing about being in the middle of thousands of screaming fans at the mainstage one minute and relaxing on the lawn with twelve or thirteen others at the street performer stage the next. In fact some of my favorite performances all weekend were by the likes of bands and performers I can almost guarantee you’ve never seen or heard of in your life, unless of course you live in Seattle and are hip to the music of the streets. Robert Blake, the Ballard Avenue Jug Buskers and Baby Gramps just to name a few of the “unknowns” who put on great shows.

On Saturday I caught a glimpse of Luke Temple who, playing solo on his acoustic guitar, brought a nice touch of melancholy Americana to the festival grounds as I moved on my way to McCaw Hall to line up for a back-to-back billing of Charlie Hunter and Bill Frisell, two of the most innovative guitarists in the world of jazz today. McCaw Hall is a gorgeous 4,000 seat opera hall where, when quiet, not only would you hear a pin drop, it might actually cause you to cover your ears. I shuffled my way into the theater and plopped down in the third row, anxious for what the next few hours had in store.

Hunter[, for those who don’t know, has custom built his own guitar with eight strings (three bass strings), and if you haven’t heard or seen him play, he will blow you away. Playing in his trio were John Ellis (sax, keys) and Derrick Phillips (drums), both of whom complemented Hunter perfectly, adding occasional solos here and there. But it was Hunter’s playing that really got the crowd rolling as the band cruised through some standard jazz and booty-shaking funk, minus the actual booty shaking, remember this is an opera hall which seemed to keep everyone in their seats and on their best behavior, no matter the urge to get up and move.

Directly after Charlie Hunter came another guitar-driven jazz trio, this one fronted by the great Bill Frisell, a Seattle inhabitant for over fifteen years, and therefore kind of a local hero. The genre-bending Frisell on this day didn’t stray too far from his jazz leanings and provided the occasional flash of brilliance but seemed to choose to stay within the umbrella of control and taste for his set, which garnered few arguments from the crowd which featured a rather conservative (read: prim and proper) sampling of the festival’s attendees.

For me it was back into the sunshine where I ran into a great dance party, music provided by Alpha Yaya Diallo, a West-African born and raised guitarist who currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, just up I-5 into Canada. His band went eight or nine deep and provided ferocious rhythms that backed Diallo’s unique guitar style and tender voice. I wandered around for a while and caught bits and pieces of bands here and there. Eventually I noticed people starting to line up to get into the mainstage for the night’s headliner, Trey Anastasio.

After the sun went down, the temperature cooled considerably and thousands made their way to the mainstage, which is placed at one end of an old football stadium. This latest lineup for Anastasio features Les Hall(keys, guitar), Tony Hall (bass), Skeeto Valdez (drums), Ray Paczkowski (keys), and Jennifer Hartswick and Christina Durfee (backup vocals). Pulling songs mainly from his 2002 official solo release, Trey led his band through some impressive jams, highlighted by rousing versions of “Money Love and Change” and “Push on ‘til the Day” before the band left the stage leaving only Trey on a chair with his trusty acoustic guitar. He made his way through tasteful versions of Phish’s “Back on the Train,” “Inlaw Josie Wales,” “Brian &Robert,” “Chaldust Torture,” and “Sleep.” He prefaced “Chalkdust” by calling it his all time favorite Phish song. Needless to say, none of these versions, while kind of cool and cozy, contained the fire or gusto of the ones we had come to love and expect from the now defunct four-piece from Vermont. That being said, they were a welcome part of the set and received appropriate applause and excitement. Eventually the band re-joined Mr. Anastasio as the set rolled on. Meanwhile, I was on my way over to see Digable Planets as the opening notes of “First Tube” serenaded me on my short walk.

After a nine-year hiatus, The Digable Planets, featuring Butterfly, Ladybug and Doodlebug, were a smash hit at Bumbershoot, and provided arguably the weekend’s most anticipated set. Even though the hip hop group didn’t grace the mainstage, they put on one of the hottest shows of the two days I spent at Bumbershoot, and I only caught their last few songs, one of the dilemmas of such music festivals featuring multiple bands playing at the same time. As someone who didn’t have the opportunity to catch them in their heyday it was a real treat to see them, even if it has been eleven years since “Blowout Comb,” one of the most influential and groundbreaking hip-hop albums in the history of the genre.

After over twelve hours of music, my legs were tired and I slowly made my way to my car. Sunday morning came sooner than later and next thing I knew I was back at Seattle Center at the base of the Space Needle ready for another round of non-stop audible stimulation. My day started at the mainstage where The Pharcyde, an alternative hip-hop group from L.A., was dropping rhymes on the growing early-day audience. Directly following was a great set by Talib Kweli, who is widely respected within the hip-hop community even if he’s not a household name and doesn’t burn up the album sales charts like 50 Cent and Eminem. Kweli, who along with rapper-turned-actor, Mos Def were a part of the rap duo, Black Star, is a gifted lyricist with a razor-sharp delivery style that sets him apart from the also-rans of the business.

The third headliner in the “Hip-Hop 101” portion of the festival was Common, another well-respected lyricist and MC whose latest album, “Be,” partially produced by super producer Kanye West hit the charts this summer with authority and has remained ever since. The politically conscious rapper throws a refreshingly positive spin on a genre otherwise wrapped up in cars, sex and bling bling. Common displayed great stage-presence throughout his set and was joined by Talib Kweli for a few tunes as well.

While the hip-hop sets were going on at the mainstage I found time to sneak out and check out some of the side stages throughout the day and saw portions of some impressive acts, most notably the Omar Torrez Band which blanketed the crowd with a hybrid of Latin and soul music which had those in attendance dancing like they were in a Ricky Martin video. I tried to get into Bo Diddley at McCaw Hall but by the time I thought to line up, the line had already wrapped around a few buildings and I figured even if I got in, it wouldn’t be for over an hour and even then, I’d probably be in the last few rows of the top balcony. I did catch wind that he played an amazing set. I don’t doubt it.

Next I decided to go check out John Wesley Harding &Friends at the Bagley Wright Theater, which is a nice theater maybe half the size at the very most of McCaw Hall; much more quaint. I didn’t know what to expect as I have only seen Harding once and it was about ten years ago. In the festival guide it referred to his set as “Songs of Misfortune.” What it ended up being was a musical story complete with narration (provided by Robyn Hitchcock) and strings and multiple backup harmonies. This was a nice change of pace from the performances I had seen so far, though more than a few people walked out mid-set as it was obviously not what they had expected. Those that stayed for the whole show were treated to a wonderful piece of folk music, which was the world premiere of the show and was apparently filmed for future release.

As I walked outside of the theater it was gently sprinkling. It was the weekend’s first rain, which was precisely forecasted. What wasn’t forecasted, at least to my knowledge, was the complete downpour that came twenty minutes later and caused hundreds, if not thousands of concert goers to scurry for their cars, including this writer. Yes, with no jacket and already soaked to the bone, I put my tail between my legs and ran for home, thus missing the night’s headliners Sun Voltand Elvis Costello. While I may never forgive myself for being such a pushover and leaving early, I did manage to get to my car before my underwear had soaked all the way through and sat in the car for fifteen minutes waiting for the rain to subside. It never did.

Even though I missed the last few acts Sunday evening, I feel in no way cheated. In fact I feel blessed I was able to catch any of the music that I did over those two days. This festival, unlike any other festival I’ve ever attended isn’t about the headliners and the big names. Sure you can see Bo Diddley and Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop, but you can also see Baby Gramps and Flower Alley and Emery Carl. “Who?” you may ask. Exactly!