on Friday evening.

On an evening when Hurricane Florence threatened, the tide rose menacingly and patrons got wet, Krall gave us a set that had the ring of authenticity, even while musing that she was having a bad hair day.

By the time she came on the audience was more than ready to hear some jazz, pure and simple. There were some problems of tempo and synchronisation as she and her sidemen opened the set, but once into their groove, what a magnificent set they put together.

The opening number was `I Love Being Here With You', followed by `Let's Fall In Love'. In a great piano solo Krall wryly quoted the refrain `If I only had a heart', from the Wizard of Oz. `I've got You Under My Skin', done -- unusually -- as a laid back Samba, and the hard swinging Peggy Lee number `I Don't Know Enough About You'.

Krall is a formidable pianist who is clearly a student of the whole jazz piano canon. At times there are echoes of Shearing, Nat Cole and fellow Canadian Oscar Peterson in her playing. As a singer she is not afraid to mime the emotions of the lyrics she sings; whether singing behind the beat or anticipating it, each song gets the special treatment it deserves. The gem of her set was, for me, `I Fall In Love Too Easily'. A moody eight bar piano introduction led into the simple lyrics, and another interesting piano solo before closing it out.

There was `East Of The Sun' and a song she sang for Buzz Aldrin -- `Fly Me To The Moon'. She closed out with a rollicking blues number. Local youth, Mahogany started off the evening playing with swing, purpose and intelligence.

These young people are serious.

Led by pianist Mandela Fubler they played in a manner that dispelled any possibility of their being patronised on account of their youth. Most memorable for me was their rendition of Led Zeppelin's `Stairway to Heaven', with featured guitarist Russell Butler. The young man plays with sensitivity and passion. The exchanges between him and guest violinist Machal Charles was as good as anything we were to hear all evening. They deserve a fuller review.

Marcus Jonson and his band followed. They played a set filled with some crisp drumming and tight bass playing -- a great launching pad! but they were let down, to my mind by a lack of any credible soloist. When they left the stage the house system continued playing their recorded music, and to be truthful, it sounded to me like background music.

Boney James's Band came on trolling the same waters but to much better effect,thanks to three fine soloists; James himself, his keyboard player and guitarist. James did get the crowd going with some hard driving cross-over material. 'All My Love', is a nice song, but does it belong in a jazz festival? Picky? Perhaps; but if we're going to bring jazz lovers down from New York and Philadelphia for a jazz festival, mightn't it be a good thing to provide more of the advertised product. Advertising a jazz festival with so little jazz could eventually be self- defeating.

Going down a storm -- jazz greats turn up the tempo at Dockyard's Jazzfest 2000 FRIDAY FRI