Major Drama at the Guelph Jazz Festival

[M]

Kevin Breit talked to this at his show last night.

He recounted the events of the eve, even did an impersonation of the woman and her "two note" tune.

He then posed a question to the crowd and his band... what would you have done?

Crowd seemed all primed for pulling the plug...

Rob on organ >> undecided

Ian on bass >> "Fire 'em"

Gary on drums >> "Burn her"

Kevin stated he would have let her keep on until her set was done. As audience members, he stated he feels we have the right to leave at any time if there's something we're hearing that we don't want to hear.

[zero]

That's particularly amusing about Kevin. Would love to hear the tape of her impression. Almost all of the fallout has diminished now. I had a meeting with the artistic director, executive director and a 'cooler' they brought in to finesse me. You do not finesse the kung. They were pretty apologetic and knew I'd gone through hell and back. Still they tried to play like this was all par for the course and they made the right decisions. Despite getting painted as wimp ass passive aggressive pissants! Still things are good with me and the organization, I mean I saved their bacon over and over. It was a bit distasteful but what isn't. They tried to make out that I burned my professional credibility by writing on Carl Wilson's blog (respectfully but revealingly I would say). This is one of those things old guys do, they make you scared that you're going to burn your bridges and hence you shut up. Played that game before.

[AdamH]

I always read Carl Wilson's column even though I'm never in T.O. for the shows he mentions. Thanks for inadvertently mentioning his blog, which is equally insightful and an interesting read.

If I had to pick a side I guess I'd have let her finish her performance. I know that people would've left her show disappointed but ideally it would reflect poorly on her and not on the organizers, who I would think would encourage spontaneity even if things go askew because of it. I'm curious though...had most people puchased show tickets or were they there with festival passes?

Strange (and not at all face saving) was David Burgess saying that the festival "brings together people of different cultures...the results are not always peaches and cream"