Around town

A good-sized crowd was at the Blue Wisp Friday night to hear Brazilian pianist Jovino Santos-Nato in his trio with Jamey Haddad and Roberto Ochipinti. What an amazing journey -- it was a combination of progressive jazz and samba, and Santos-Nato seemed to draw from everything but the kitchen sink. His playing was imaginative and rhythmic and Haddad's contributions could only be described as electrifying. The keyboard seemed to have sparks coming off of it -- whether from the pianist's playing or reflections from the Blue Wisp sign outside.

For the first set, Haddad was late, so the great Art Gore sat in for the first set, and played wonderfully. Let's hope that the Blue Wisp survives.

After watching the Reds get destroyed by the Cubs Saturday, I followed hoards of Cubs fans to Fountain Square for the kickoff of Downtown HopAround -- with Grand Marshals Mayor Mark Mallory, former Bengal Ickey Woods and funk-music legend Bootsy Collins, with very cool music from The Addisons.

Photo: Keyboardist Jacob Addison, drummer Eric Cieslewicz, guitarist Greg Hanson, and guitarist Charlie Sommers (bassist Brian Goodpastor was behind a speaker...)

The idea was to fan out into downtown restaurants and bars to hear local music. I went to the Cincinnatian, where I heard the Billie Walker Trio, featuring legendary drummer Philip Paul. Billie Walker is one of Cincinnati's great treasures, a simply elegant pianist who has perfected the art of soft jazz in her longtime stint in the Cricket Lounge. (Carl Lindner was dining in the Palace...)

We headed out and noticed mobs of Cubs fans lining up outside restaurants, hanging out everywhere. Hmm, is that what we need for downtown revival?