Vancouver’s own Zapato Negro rewarded the early birds who flocked to David Lam Park on June 28 with a sizzling presentation of Afro-Cuban jazz. The quintet, led by bassist Allan Johnston, began with a lengthy version of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” that gave the classic a bright Latin face-lift.

Turbocharged drummer Gilberto Moreaux and conga player Jack Duncan laid down a rumbling polyrhythmic foundation, on which trumpeter Miguelito Valdés built towering solos. The Havana-born horn-blower has great chops and a restless imagination.

Zapato Negro never settled into easy grooves. The set’s eight songs were a mix of covers and elegant originals by members of the band, including two finely crafted compositions from keyboardist André Carrasquero. The music was complex, yet always accessible—and usually danceable, though not many in the audience felt inclined to move in the heat.

Following a scorching afternoon, it was a blessed relief to enter the cool, cavernous dark of the Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts on the night of June 28. And after the adventurous improvised music programmed at the free Jazz at the Roundhouse series, it was also enjoyable to sink into the amiable virtuosity of Monty Alexander and his trio, whose take on jazz standards (“Fly Me to the Moon”) and reggae classics (“No Woman, No Cry”) nicely merged the pianist’s Jamaican heritage with his swing inclinations.

Headliner Andy Bey was more problematic. The 68-year-old singer was recently named 2008’s best male jazz vocalist by the Jazz Journalists Association, but this performance didn’t justify the honour. Backed by a capable bassist and an unambitious drummer, Bey rolled out a selection of sketchy original songs, stale bebop scat singing, and unfocused piano solos. If he’s the best male singer in jazz today, it’s obvious that all the young vocalists with any imagination have gone into rock or rap.

It seems odd to speak of sweetness being at the heart of John Zorn’s music, Zorn being the guy who made his name by blowing duck calls into buckets of water, and who sometimes graces his CD covers with eye-searing images of sex and death.

His Book of Angels miniatures mix klezmer grit, new-music astringency, Wile E. Coyote cartoon-soundtrack craziness, and atomized, interstellar chords; they’re anything but easy listening. As played by the husband-and-wife team of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman, however, pieces like “Katziel”, “Sammael”, and “Azriel” proved surprisingly—and openheartedly—delightful.

Perhaps that’s because of Feldman’s extraordinarily luminous tone, or Courvoisier’s clarity of touch. Or maybe it’s because of the emotional intensity that Feldman, in particular, brings to the stage. But mostly it’s because they clearly love playing together, which helped make their June 28 performance at the Roundhouse Performance Centre a jazz-festival highlight.

The thermometer was even higher on June 29, when L’Orkestre des Pas Perdus performed to a baking crowd at the Roundhouse Performance Centre in the late afternoon. The Montreal-based nonet comprises one kit-drummer and eight horn players, and draws inspiration from brassy Balkan and Caribbean fanfares and ensembles.

Its original music was carnivalesque in feel, with a cinematic quality. Led by trombonist Claude St. Jean, OPP romped through a rapid succession of tunes with tight arrangements, expansive passages, and plenty of good humour.

“Gastro Funk” proved wickedly funky, with an infectiously swinging New Orleans flavour. “L’Epié dans les Plats” was a punchy, ska-based number, and the march-time “Mécanique Populaire” had a street-party ambiance. OPP’s roisterous music brought out the dancers to kick up the dust as the sun slipped behind a Yaletown skyscraper.