PERFORMING ARTS

The family-friendly event was held at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds, which is between Baltimore and the District, but not really close enough to either to attract the areas' sizable West Indian communities. Turnout for the festival was a fraction of what it could have been. On the vast expanse of green in front of the concert pavilion there was plenty of room to have a picnic, stretch your legs -- heck, play a game of tackle football, as some kids did.

Another problem was the day's length: doors opened at 11 a.m. and were scheduled to close at 11 p.m. The live music was slated to begin at 4 p.m., but it was 7:50 p.m. when "Reggae Idol" winner Kimberly Gregory finally took the stage. People were irritated by the late start, not to mention the heat and, later, the Heineken disappearing from concessions.

Plus, there were no lights onstage for much of the show; the sound cut out at times; the Positive Vibrations backing band didn't really know all the songs; and artist sets were cut painfully short to make the curfew that was suddenly 10 p.m., not 11.

Still, slowly, if unsurely, the event began groove -- simply because the music was so irresistible. Classic reggae artists Alton Ellis (resplendent in a full suit and hat) and Leroy Sibbles (from the Heptones) and venerable dancehall stars Admiral Bailey and Professor Nuts simply did what they do, with good humor and grace, considering the obstacles they had to overcome.

-- Christopher Porter

Grace Church Bach Festival

Organist Larry Hammerling and trumpeter D. Kyle Upton gave a promising closing concert Sunday in the 14th annual Grace Church Bach Festival. Hammerling teaches at Rochester College in Rochester, Mich., and Upton just finished his freshman year at Northwestern University. Disappointingly, the program included only two works by Bach.

The musicians opened with the composer's one-movement Concerto in D, BWV 972. Hammerling chose some clarion-sounding stops to match the trumpet's bright tone quality as Upton raced through the piece with absolutely clear articulation of every note, a keen sense of phrasing and a true feel for the music's overall direction. And Hammerling offered a powerful version of Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 548, outlining the fugue in all its chromatic intensity.

Unfortunately, the church's extremely dry acoustics blocked any chance to hear the resonance essential in performing Bach's baroque style. Also, the steamy weather did the organ no favor; several ranks (pipes) were out of tune and the music had to compete with the church's distracting air-conditioning system going at full blast. But Upton exhibited his sheer virtuosity in the five-movement Sonata Prima for trumpet and organ (or harpsichord), otherwise an uninteresting morsel by the very minor 17th-century Italian composer G. B. Viviani.

The rest of the music proved similarly unchallenging. Although resounding with melancholy eastern European coloring, Alan Hovhaness's "Sanahin (Partita) for Organ," Op 69, proved interminable. His music is, in fact, seldom performed anymore, nor is the equally outdated music of Paul Hindemith, whose Sonata No. 1 was on Sunday's program. It unfolds with the composer's typically jutting melodic angularity and barren harmonies.

-- Cecelia Porter