As you can see, I didn't get nearly as close to the stages this year as last.  But the music was just as good even though I had to keep my distance.  The UNT Jazz Rep Ensemble and RHythm Tribe were probably my favorite groups to listen to.  Breggett Rideau was a good jazz singer (although I prefer my jazz wordless).

The kids from Rayzor Elementary were cute.  I didn't care for the tap dancing of the Dallas Dazzlers.

Since I saw three UNT groups in rather short order, it wasn't hard to see that several of the musicians are in a number of different groups.  For those not familiar with UNT (which has the largest school of music in the country), there are Jazz Lab Bands meeting every hour on the hour starting at 1:00 PM.  This 1:00 PM group is considered the best, and I have heard it perform enough times to say it is superlative.  But all the groups are pretty darn good.

 

I only had one bad listening experience on the day: Jazzcats, kind of a Dixieland group, was underwhelming.  But, hey, 10 of 11 ain't bad for an afternoon.