Four years ago during Jazz at the Lake—Lake George Arts Project’s annual music festival on the western shore of Lake George—the virtuosic young sax player Grace Kelly was blowing soulfully through Gershwin’s “Summertime” when a passing steamboat sounded its horn. She paused for a second and ad-libbed to the crowd, “That was in B flat, am I right?” The delighted crowd shouted out a few of its own guesses at the possible key, and Kelly carried on with even more verve. The moment was emblematic of the unique brand of camaraderie between performer and audience that can be found at this most intimate and laid-back of jazz festivals.
