There is nothing I despise more than an artist who sells out.  It really pisses me off.  Let me clarify a little here: by ‘selling out’ I do not mean ‘making it’.  I have nothing against success.  I want the artists I like to gain recognition.  What I do not want is for them to sacrifice their sound and style and interrupt the flow of the music during a performance with constant direct addresses to the crowd, demanding that we “put our hands together” and “make some noise…”  Puh-lease!At this year’s Montreal Jazz Festival it seemed that the big wigs were pulling all the stops to get people to scream as loud as humanly possible in all of the wrong ways.  George Clinton and Parliament.  Sigh.  What a disapointment.  Amid the 7-minute electric guitar solos, Mr. C. himself gave two or three too many shout-outs.  Double Sigh.  The Roots were a little better-behaved, but only slightly.  They actually played music most of the time, with only a handful of bravado (look up): tuba-prancing razmatazz and end-of-show super shout-outs to their crowd.

No Smoking Orchestra: Werkin' it

Unfortunately, it seems that I missed out on some serious music during the fest — my friends say that San Francisco’s Dessa, Herbie Hancock and The No Smoking Orchestra were some of the best acts they have ever seen, and put on extremely musical performances lacking in some of the–ahem–self-serving ego trip material displayed by the artists previously mentioned.  A quick google revealed all: Dessa’s smooth fusion of hip-hop, trip-hop, downtempo and funk adorned with her bittersweet poetry spoken, sung so eloquently conjures up memories of funk/soul jams like A Long Walk on Jill Scott’s album Beautifully Human.  The No Smoking Orchestra, by contrast, has much more of a goofy funk-down feel, and Herbie Hancock, well, the guy’s a legend for good reason and the videos of his performance are evidence enough to prove that I missed a great show!