The Silver Spring Penguin

Thousands of people took in the sultry sounds and sticky heat Saturday as Silver Spring held its annual jazz festival.

The crowd lounged on beach chairs and blankets in what is usually a downtown parking lot off Georgia Avenue. The day-long free concert was moved to the site from its usual digs on Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street, where construction on Silver Spring’s civic center and veterans plaza will start soon.

The lot’s pitched terrain, and a large projection screen by the stage, made for easy viewing. Food vendors pushing funnel cake and grilled sausages toward the lot’s Fenton Street entrance made for easy noshing. And black-nylon folding chairs (for sale at $20 each, below) made for easy sitting.

But the day’s unseasonal heat — 91 humid degrees — kept the early evening crowd sedated. By 6:30 p.m., during sax man Yaron Elyashiv’s set, people expended energy only to fan themselves or to chat with friends.

However, the audience wasn’t completely still. One older woman in sweat pants danced blithely next to the stage, and the few children there tossed around miniature beach balls, courtesy of one of the festival’s sponsors.

And it ain’t a jazz fest in Silver Spring without a little politics, both local and national. A large banner posted on the adjacent Lee Plaza office building proclaimed “Finalize Fillmore”, the music-hall project that could occupy part of that parking lot. The county council discusses two zoning changes affecting that project later this month.

Fliers urging support for the project were distributed among the crowd, and Live Nation, which signed a lease in January to operate the 2,000-seat music venue, had an information booth among the festival’s vendors.

The presidential campaign also infiltrated the day, with some in the audience wearing stickers supporting Democratic nominee Sen Barack Obama. No one showed noticeable love for GOP nominee Sen John McCain.

This was the festival’s fifth year and featured local artists Gail Shipp, Samambaia, Yaron Elyashiv and the Marcus Johnson Project. The Mingus Big Band headlined the show.

Photos by Ron Pace for The Silver Spring Penguin.