Last year the Mt Hood Jazz Festival was awful. Nothin' but locals...most disappointing. 2004 was awesome. I saw Los Hombres Calientes with Bill Summers and Irvin Mayfield, Madeleine Peyroux, The Heath Bros (Albert, Percy and Tootie), and James Carter. Met them all. With last years downfall of the Mt Hood Jazz Festival it's really good to see that the 3rd annual Portland Jazz Festival has become a huge event taking up 9 days with over 100 events. I will see McCoy Tyner w/Ravi Coltrane and Nicholas Payton, but there are literally dozens of other events. South of here is the Oregon Festival of American Music which is a nearly year round event that includes music from all genres but last year was special for Jazz. I saw Cassandra Wilson, Tomasz Stanko, Directions in Music with Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker and Roy Hargrove, The Dave Holland Big Band, Luciana Souza and many more. Like I said I love this place.