Blaring trumpets got their share of attention at the Jazz Holiday, but so did the gusts shredding the 10-by-10 projection screen for boaters.
By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published October 16, 2004
[Times photos: Kathleen Flynn]
MC Divinity sings with the Victor Wooten jazz group on Friday at Coachman Park. Fireworks are planned for the end of the Clearwater Jazz Holiday performances today.
Big Z and the SophistiKatz piano player Anthony Mongillo's shadow reflects on his sheet music during Orange Colored Sky. As the band performed just before sunset, it felt like fall with wind gusts and temperatures in the 60s.
Opening act Big Z and the SophistiKatz with guest singer Dave Martin of Orlando performs Friday at the jazz festival in Clearwater's Coachman Park.
CLEARWATER - They envisioned hundreds of boats bobbing in the harbor.
Passengers on board would sip white wine and watch Victor Wooten on a big video screen.
Enormous speakers would be aimed at the water for their listening pleasure.
Should they get bored on board, a shuttle craft would transport them gently to the venue.
But then the cold front came.
Gusts of 30 mph overpowered the music, carrying the sound off to parts unknown.
And the 10- by 10-foot projection screen?
By 5 p.m. the wind had shredded it, then blew it down in a heap.
It was just as well. The water was so rough early Friday evening at the 25th annual Clearwater Jazz Holiday, not as many boats as originally expected had dropped anchor off Coachman Park to catch the show.
Even MarineMax, the title sponsor, decided to leave its vessels at the dock for the time being.
"It's blowing like a bandit," said Jane Olds, president of the Jazz Force, the organization which runs the event.
But the landlubbers in the park seemed to have a good time, braving temperatures in the upper 50s to catch Branford Marsalis' show.
"Everybody seems really happy," Olds said.
The Clearwater Police Department estimated Friday's crowd at more than 10,000.
Chris Clement was among those sitting in the grass listening to the opening act, Big Z and the SophistiKatz.
He was also handing out blue-and-white Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers and pins.
"I try and target the liberals," he said. "I know them when I see them."
He had gotten a few boxes of the stickers from the Kerry campaign and started his one-man political effort because he said "finding a job is like winning the lottery."
"I'm a consultant, which is a euphemism for being unemployed," said Clement.
By the time the lead singer of Big Z had stopped turning cartwheels on stage and left to make way for the next act, Clement had given away about 100 pins.
