Trad mayhem, swing and bebop permeate the comfortably fraying fabric of the Welsh market town, running together happily.
The first song he sang was the bebop era's "Moody's Mood for Love," which he did beautifully. Benson radiates charisma.
The evening was all music, without spoken information about Powell, the most important piano architect of early bebop.
He called the finale "a tune that's 300 years old" and spun a tale to explain the title "And Then She Stopped." James Moody played flute on "Koosh" and sang his famous bebop "Moody's Mood for Love."
His life changed when he heard a 1947 bebop recording featuring Dizzy and saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker.
With it he helped define and refine an important musical legacy: bebop.
The performance began with excitement and kept up throughout. The style was bebop to free, with melody.
The bebop he championed may have been brash, but Gordon wasn't.
Serious young musicians, weary of rock's monotony, continue to find bebop among the most challenging jazz forms.
Gillespie was source and symbol of bebop, both as art and commerce.