Umbria Jazz and Umbria Not Really Jazz

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Wednesday

At 3pm, Jane and David went to an event billed as "Jazz on Film" at the theatre. It proved to be a selection of recordings of performances by great soloists, from Louis Armstrong to Wes Montgomery, introduced by an Italian expert. Ellington was well represented, with two tunes featuring respectively Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves. We saw Roland Kirk on a number called "Three in One Without the Oil", playing three saxes at once, then soloing on flute and adding harmonies by blowing into a wooden flute through his right nostril.

After the films, Italian trumpeter Marco Tamburini performed a set of originals with a pianist, a drummer, a string quartet and various electronic devices to modify his sound.

In the evening, in the bar of the Brufani were Santana's rhythm section and Sergio Mendes.

Thursday

After taking Beck to the airport, we set off in search of a fan for the room that Marc and Vandy will use. Near the marketplace, we passed a general store. On the pavement was an empty box depicting a fan. When Jane picked this up and showed it to the two Chinese shop assistants, they nodded eagerly, to signify that Jane could take the box if she wanted it. Jane pointed at the picture on the outside. This elicited a mysterious response that something had ended on Saturday. Then we spotted a working fan atop a display in the window. By gesturing at this, we got a result: one of the women scurried off into the back of the shop. A few minutes later, she reappeared with a box marked "desk fan". Together, the two assistants unpacked it and one of them used a screwdriver to assemble the base. Back at the flat, we gave up on the instructions (in Italian), but managed to fit the blade and guard with much effort and perspiration in the airless bedroom.

Over the last few days, we've seen several young women wearing laurels on their heads, walking with others or dining with friends and family at long tables outside restaurants. We assume they must be celebrating graduation from school or university.

We directed Marc and Vandy to the San Antonio car park and met them there. Outside the shoe shop, we recognised two buskers, a keyboard player and guitarist, who had been playing real book standards for most of the day to appreciative passers by. While we sat in a cafe, a crowd followed a brass band as it processed down the Corso Vannucci, and they gathered in a ring to hear a set of its funk tunes outside the Teatro Pavone. A procession of models in improbable curls and carrying parasols seemed to be advertising a hair salon.

In the arena, Gilberto Gil opened the evening show with a set of North East Brazilian pop tunes. (David had last seen him, unintentionally, at Montreux in 1978, when Gil was an unlikely substitute for Joe Farrell, who'd been cancelled.) Then, till well after midnight, Sergio Mendes, dapper in white Panama, green shirt and white trousers, led his band through the bossas that first made him famous back in 1966, his trio of vocalists augmented by a rapper. The audience danced and sang in the aisles, in front of the stage and in their seats.

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