Taichung Jazz Festival to end on a high note

Sheila Jordan will play th eTaichung Jazz Festival on Sunday. PHOTO COURTESY OF COMPASS

The last notes of the Taichung Jazz Festival will sound over the weekend and given the acts scheduled to perform, they're going to sound great. In addition to the "future jazz" of Norwegian pianist, composer and producer Bugge Wesseltoft, visitors to this final weekend of the annual festival will be treated to "one of the jazz world's best-kept secrets," Sheila Jordan.

Already festival has had the likes of Lou Rainone and his band take the stage, as well as other international acts like the Lewis Nash Trio out of New York and the Yoshiko Kishino Trio and Hip Swing out of Tokyo. They've been joined on stage by local outfits such as Metamorphosis Jazztet, Onyx and the Overtone Jazz Group.

Attendance each of the festival's several stages has been enormous, according to the organizers.

Sheila Jordan is often referred to as one of the few true jazz singers alive who deserves the moniker. She can confound audiences with her unique style, which combines an emotional connection to the music with frequent and unexpected fluctuations in pitch.

Jazz Notes WHAT: Taichung Jazz Festival WHERE: Taichung Square, in front of Taichung City Hall (台中市民廣場) WHEN: Sheila Jordan, Sunday, Nov. 6 at 7pm Bugge Wesseltoft, Sunday, Nov. 6 at 8:30pm TICKETS: Admission to the festival is free of charge. Audiences are encouraged to arrive early to get good seats.

She was born in Pennsylvania's coal-mining district in 1928 and raised in

poverty. By the time she was a teenager she was singing in clubs in Detroit and chasing a dream inspired by Charlie Parker.

But real fame has eluded Jordan. Although she has been listed in Down Beat magazine critics' poll as one of the top-five established artists every year since 1980, she has also been listed some nine times as a "talent deserving wider recognition."

Bugge Wesseltoft is the weekend's other headliner. A native of Norway,

Wesseltoft earned a reputation as a left-of-center pianist, producer and composer. His "future jazz" sound was developed in the early 1990s and he's been likened to Miles Davis and Chick Corea.

Other acts to plug and play this

weekend include the Serge Forte Trio, Rhythm Clown, Steps Ahead and Jazzaholix. Visit www.jazzfestival.com.tw for times and locations of all acts as well as additional information about this year's jazz festival.