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The crowd enjoys clear skies, cool breezes and the music on the final day of the Jazz Holiday.
By MAUREEN BYRNE
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 23, 2000
CLEARWATER -- There were plenty of reasons to be in a good mood Sunday at Coachman Park.
A blue sky, a gentle breeze and an afternoon of jazz put smiles on most of the faces that filled the waterfront park in downtown Clearwater for the final day of the 21st annual Clearwater Jazz Holiday.
Thousands, many of them families with children, crowded Coachman Park to hear vocalist Oleta Adams, singer Fred Johnson, pianist Monty Alexander and trumpeter Terence Blanchard.
The four-day event also included performances by bassist Stanley Clarke, vocalist Patti Austin and the Yellowjackets.
Barry Portier, 44, swayed to the soulful sounds of Adams, whose recording of Get Here became something of a people's anthem during the Gulf War. Portier, a former Tampa resident, was on vacation from Raleigh, N.C.
"We made it a point to come back for this," he said.
Portier, who is a sales manager for a car dealership, said he and his wife, Janice, attend a lot of the big jazz festivals. "I have to say, this is the best one, and in the best location."
About 50 boats bobbed in Clearwater Harbor. "There are more boats out there today than Saturday," said Clearwater police Lt. M.J. Sahr. "Sunday is a big concert day."
By 3 p.m., about 6,000 people filled the park, but a stream of people continued filing through the festival's four entrances.
Jazz Holiday organizers were hoping there would be a large crowd, making up for last year's low turnout because of Hurricane Irene.
Sahr said peak attendance figureswere 4,500 on Thursday, 7,500 on Friday and 14,000 on Saturday. It is difficult to estimate accurately because no tickets are sold at the free event and people come and go throughout the day.
Except for police having to escort three drunken people from the park, the overall mood at the festival was mellow, Sahr said.
Mellow was definitely the word to describe Wayne Yates, 40, and John Spicola, 43, both of Tampa. Both men lay shirtless on a blue sheet, soaking up the rays.
"It's really nice to be out here enjoying the sun and the nice breeze," said Yates, who works as a technical manager for AT&T and has been attending the Jazz Holiday since the early 1980s.
Spicola, who works in sales for Saks Fifth Avenue, said he was impressed with this year's lineup. "It's great," he said. "I love the fact that they have headliners like Oleta Adams and Patti Austin."
Another crowd favorite was Tim Hockenberry, a singer from San Francisco who performed on Saturday. "He blew the crowd away," said Jazz Holiday spokesman Wayne Garcia. "He brought 60 CDs with him, and they were gone within a minute of him coming off the stage."
The musician's CDs weren't the only things selling like hotcakes. Festivalgoers were lined up four people deep Saturday night to buy Jazz Holiday merchandise, which included $15 posters, $15 T-shirts and $30 long-sleeved denim shirts with the event's logo.
But long-sleeved shirts weren't what most folks were wearing Sunday afternoon. With the sunny weather, tank tops, shorts, baseball caps and straw hats were common sightings.
Cynthia Palmer of Tampa was decked out in a green straw hat, green glasses and a green skirt. The 47-year-old schoolteacher danced on the grass as Adams belted out a tune. She wondered why more people weren't dancing.
Her advice to those too self-conscious to move to the groove: "Close your eyes and don't worry about it."
"This is just beautiful," she said. "We see every slice of life here, and everyone is united by the music."
Just before 9 p.m. Saturday, festivalgoers looked to the sky for a 10-minute fireworks display, a tribute to the late Tito Puente. The Latin jazz percussionist had performed at several Jazz Holidays, including last year's event, one of his last concerts before he died in June.
Chuck Sullivan, president of the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Foundation, was thrilled with this year's festival. "On all fronts, it's been a huge success," he said.
- Times staff writer Eileen Schulte contributed to this report.