Rain doesn’t dampen TCMF11’s musical celebration!

New Orleans Jazz Band of Austin perform during Sunday’s TCMF11

Austin – The Eleventh Annual Texas Community Music Festival, like most all of central Texas, was drenched by Mother Nature during the opening weekend.  But TCMF musicians responded with a tsunami of tuneful tributes (say that three times fast!) and provided the audience with a weekend of outstanding performances.

Friday night’s calm before the storm featured return engagements from Bubba Coletrane and the Train Wrecks, Claiming Neptune and 11-show veterans Rhythm Congress, who filled the patio and dance floor with a plethora of partygoers (yeah, I guess we’re going to do that in this post).  It might have been the largest Friday night performance at TCMF in the 11 year history of the festival.

When the rains came Saturday morning, TCMF hosts, the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble, was forced to cancel its performance on the patio, but after a performance by the Hill Country Community Band of Marble Falls, TCMF moved onto the deck of the cafe, where the festival remained the rest of the weekend … and likely will remain until the weather gives us a break.  The remainder of the program went on without a hitch and the show was eaten up by the music hungry audience (Central Market is great place to be hungry after all!)   Check out our social media (Facebook and Twitter, hashtag #TCMF11) for pictures and video from the day’s show, which culminated with a lively performance by Kupira Marimba, a three-time TCMF favorite and Austin Music Awards winner for World Music.

Austin Jazz Workshop performs its Gershwin performance during Saturday’s TCMF11, the first of three different jazz programs presented by AJW during this year’s festival.

Sunday saw only two main-stage performances cancelled on account of rain, but intrepid music fans who braved the elements were treated to a full day of music, beginning with TCMF newcomers Just Because Fun Bunch, Paige and Ahnna and the Austin Ukestra.  We also had inspired performances by the New Orleans Jazz Band of Austin, Westbank Jazz Ensemble, KlezAustin, Susanna Lee Band, Ready Betty and perennial TCMF favorite, the Boss Street Brass Band who rewarded the evening crowd with one of their best TCMF performances ever.

TCMF11 continues Monday at 5:30pm in the cafe and will feature the Austin Jazz Workshop, making their second appearance of the festival, along with the Austin Jazz Band, in the covered cafe deck.  The evening is scheduled to end with a performance by the Austin Brass Band, weather permitting.   Check our Facebook page for updates and remember, this one goes to 11!