**Click here for photos from these concerts**

It was a love fest downtown Saturday for the ninth and final night of the 10th Rochester International Jazz Festival. Everyone was happy and upbeat. Every program was opened with thanks to the record-breaking crowds and the talented artists.

The Jonas Kullhammar Quartet started my night at Max's with "You're beautiful - you're all so beautiful!" This group from Sweden traveled the ocean to bring us original compositions. If "gypsy jazz" is a separate specialty, then "Scandinavian jazz" should to one, too. 

After just the first notes of the quartet, I was 14 and back to a vacation to Norway that included a tour of the home of classical composer Edvard Grieg. It's a very clear line. It is uncluttered. It is each hand of the pianist in the quartet playing the keys without hand slaps of clumps of keys or pedal blurs.

Outside it was so absolutely mobbed that it was nearly impossible to get anywhere. The good news was that there was music to be had everywhere, just by standing still. I joined Frank De Blase for a few shots of the Po' Boys Brass Band on the Jazz Street Stage as the group whipped everyone into a frenzy. 

I arrived early for .38 Special at the East Ave/Chestnut Street stage. The Chris Beard Band was running over, and it was tearing up the stage with sweat-pouring jazz that I photographed from one end of the stage to the other. Then I waited for the 80's-famous .38 Special. I wondered whether a crowd would arrive. I needn't have spent any time worrying about that: the intersection of East and Chestnut was packed as far as the eye could see in all three directions.

With little introduction, .38 Special burst onto the stage and never let up, except when the group took it up so high that it literally tripped a circuit and blew the power, and the crowd was momentarily plunged into darkness. Songs poured out of .38 Special, from "Rockin' into the Night" to "Caught Up in You" to "Fantasy Girl" to "Second Chance." 

This was a loud Southern country-rock concert, with multi-colored lights flashing, fog machine pouring out smoke. This street corner is, by day, home to the stately and rather hushed Appellate Division, Fourth Department of the State of New York. But I do think I caught a glimpse of Justice tearing off her blindfold and dancing on the roof.

So that's it for the 2011 Rochester International Jazz Festival. It was my first year attending and covering the event, and it has been what I know is only a beginning for me.  Give me that d.c. al coda of the gorgeous melodies of Joe Magnarelli, the orange undertones of Matt Wilson's cymbals and drums and finger percussion, that calm beauty of the arc of the line from Ben Bishop's guitar, the infinite dynamic of Jay Clayton's voice, Joshua Assad with his vocals and his whistle, Carlito Del Puento and his mad-crazy bass playtime, a bit of Misha Piatigorsky on the piano and inside the strings, and let's grab a few songs of that gypsy jazz by Stephane Wrembel et ses amis. It's been a feast for my ears and for my eyes, and hopefully yours, too.

Until next year!