Hugo Kugiya of the Seattle Times attended 2008 Jazz Port Townsend, and has posted his review. It’s a great piece, detailing the linkages between the workshop and performance components of the week.
"The defining moment of Jazz Port Townsend was perhaps the one that was not planned.
On the last day of the jazz festival, a few hours before clouds and a sudden chill set in, a young woman in a floral print dress and white sandals, her toenails painted bright green, stepped onto the big stage with her acoustic bass.
Behind her was the festival big band, before her an audience of more than 1,200 who had never before heard of Kate Davis.
Plucked from one of the week’s many student workshops, Davis, 17, a senior-to-be at West Linn High School in Oregon, sang "Sometimes I’m Happy." The arrangement was spare but perfectly balanced and suited to her talents. The song ended and the audience roared.
The professionals on the sideline mostly agreed: She could be a star someday. Davis was added extemporaneously by artistic director John Clayton after he heard her play the song in a class."