Blown indoors by Nicole, the last night of the Bermuda Music Festival turned into an intimate set.

And performers Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon turned it into a house party for their ?intimate Friends. Back by a compact versatile outfit of guitar keyboard, trumpet and rhythm section, Kindred brought a happy audience to their feet time and time again, with the hip song stylings taken from their album, ?Surrender To Love?.

But the night began with the local James Richardson Trio. Playing a set comprised of original tunes, except for a Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder classic apiece, the young pianist drew several hearty rounds of applause from the audience.

Drummer and teacher Kevin Maybury reeled off a series of engaging solos, using the full resource of his kit like few others choose to do. He was joined my bassist/banker John Lee, who also thrilled the audience with some finger popping fret work.

James himself showed off a creative side hither to unsuspected. He seems to be at the start of a creative cycle, looking for a harmonic language suitable to his individual style of improvisation.

Conceptually the pieces do not stray far from established song form ? there was a standard blues, for example ? and the all seemed to be waiting for some enterprising lyricist to compliment them. Stand out renditions for me were the down tempo ballad, ?From The Start?, Marley?s anthem, ?Redemption Song?, and ?Sir Duke?, Stevie Wonder?s tribute to Ellington.

Off stage voices insisting that ?We are Family? heralded the arrival onstage of Kindred. High energy from the start ? they had the audience rocking straight away.

Like so many of the brightest and best of the new wave, all styles are grist to their mill while they put their individual brand on their work.

?Holla! Holla!?, they chanted, and the audience echoed. And the piece that followed, ?It?s a Beautiful Thing? gave a nod to Stevie Wonder and ended up with more than a hint of salsa.

They vocalised wordlessly over a funky beat, and after a mellow piano introduction, moved into ?Intimate Friends?.

That is where, philosophically this group seems to be coming from, singing about love, family life, hopes, fears, spirituality, with a music cognizant of the best of everything that has come before.

They offered to compensate for the absence of Isaac, the O?Jays, and Anita, then promptly went into a credible rendition of the famous Oscar winning, ?Theme from Shaft?, with Fantin doing a take off on Isaac, shades, bald pate, power salute and all.

Then they did some O?Jays too, in case we thought they were not versatile after that!

?Those were the Days?, the old Archie Bunker theme, done to a Hip-Hop beat followed.

The Minister of Tourism was called on stage. ?The greatest Bermuda Music Festival ever?, Dr. Ewart Brown said, ?was not quite that... until now!?

Then he called the hard working Department of Tourism staff onstage to be thanked for their hard work.

?If we?ve learned anything for this week?, he joked, ?is that we need a Plan B!?

Then the group did ?Far Away From Here? their most recent hit. The big contingent from Philadelphia were on their feet away, singing along, word for word.

You felt you had been a while with intimate friends.