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Red Sea Jazz Veterans Soar Far Beyond Memory Lane

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This year's Red Sea Jazz Festival delivered on all fronts. Major international draws, such as veteran jazz-world music fusion band Oregon, drummer Terri Lyne Carrington's all-female quartet and iconic pianist Carla Bley's Lost Chords combo, packed in the crowds. And the Israeli contingent showed its mettle too, particularly the Mafrum Sextet, the Shauli Einav Quartet and Avi Lebovich's Orchestra. The latter was celebrating the launch of its latest album, Groove Collage, and its efforts were well received by the sell-out crowd.

Oregon's gigs were among the most eagerly awaited of the Red Sea slots, and the quartet did not disappoint. While there was a definite nostalgia element to the show - the band has been strutting its stuff for almost 40 years - this was not merely a trip down memory lane. Original band members saxophonist Paul McCandless, guitarist-pianist Ralph Towner and bassist Glen Moore, along with more recent addition drummer Mark Walker, reeled off their polished mix of classically and ethnically tinged jazz and moved seamlessly between mellifluously melodic material and more envelope-pushing numbers with an ease borne of long years of shared artistic endeavor.

Bley's shows also elicited rapturous applause, with the pianist resplendent in her trademark feathery blond coiffure and stylish black attire, and an energy level that belied her seven decades on Mother Earth to date. Bassist Steve Swallow provided his usual deft bedrock, and saxophonist Andy Sheppard, trumpeter Michael Rodriguez and drummer Billy Drummond laid on commensurate support in a mix of Latininflected and bebop numbers.

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