It’s the more intimate feeling Esther Short Park provides that makes it such a good place to perform, said Rena Beavers, the drummer in blues guitarist Coco Montoya’s band, one of the headlining acts at the weekend’s Vancouver Wine & Jazz Festival.
Montoya, he said, would frequently come through Vancouver as a young man, touring with guitarist Albert Collins, making friends and finding fans.
“Love to get up here as much as we can,” Beavers said, adding the sound had been top-notch.
Montoya performed twice this weekend, along with acclaimed pianist and blues singer Marcia Ball; singer and “The New Queen of Chicago Blues” Shemekia Copeland; and New Orleans saxophone player and former Fats Domino sideman Reggie Houston.
Even with intermittent light rain Sunday afternoon, the 21st year of the festival saw the park packed with musicians, vendors, jazz fans and wine-lovers.
Winnie Chapman Richards and Harry Richards came for the whole weekend, with a tarp and jackets just in case.
Chapman Richards said she’s more into blues, but couldn’t get enough from Ball and Copeland. Harry Richards said there hadn’t been an act he didn’t enjoy, and both were excited for Sunday’s headline act, Grammy-winning singer Judy Collins.
For them, Vancouver’s jazz show is the among the prime metro-area music event of the summer, as it retains the smaller, more intimate feel Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival has lost with its growth.
“And it’s close, and it’s easier to park,” Chapman Richards said.
It’s easy to find a nice spot to enjoy the music; there’s food, vendors and art, and they tend to spot friends and people they know.
Harry Richards joked they keep the fun to themselves.
“We don’t tell our friends because we don’t want them to know about it, because next thing you know this will be another big standing room-only event.”
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Correction appended: The article originally misidentified guitarist Albert Collins, with whom Coco Montoya toured.
