HOPE – Jazz music filled increasingly gray skies above True Park until late Saturday afternoon, when thunderclaps and showers forced the performers to unplug their equipment.

But the show wasn’t over.

Even as it looked like rain might play a role in the Hope Jazz Festival for the second consecutive year, with gate receipts for Saturday’s event totaling just 305 tickets by 5:30 p.m., it turned out the best was yet to come.

A little after 6 p.m., as people gathered inside the Hope General Store in front of the field, awaiting word on the fate of the festival, a runner came into the store to announce that gypsy jazz guitarist John Jorgensen and his quintet would play “unplugged” inside the Hope Public Library next door.

Spectators filed into the building as the quintet rehearsed. By 7 p.m. the room was filled. More than 120 people found seats in chairs or on the floor. Some leaned against bookshelves or doorways. Children sitting on the floor up front appeared engrossed in the music.

Jorgensen, who was scheduled to play in the field from 7 to 8:30 p.m., played two encores, and as people started to leave, he played one more.

The audience enjoyed not only the lead guitar of Jorgensen and rhythm guitar of Kevin Nolan, but also the drums of Rick Reed, bass of Charlie Chadwick and violin of Jason Anick as they performed songs by the French Gypsy Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt from the 1930s and 1940s.

Although this was Jorgensen’s first time playing in Hope, he has played other Maine venues, including the bluegrass festival in Ossipee Valley.

“I first heard Django’s music in 1979, and I started trying to play it,” said Jorgensen. “In the last number of years, the interest level in his music has gotten a little high.”

Jorgensen, who has been playing for about 40 years, said both of his parents were classical musicians and that he grew up in California studying classical orchestral music.

He said it was “fantastic” to have a chance to play acoustically inside, without all the amplifiers.

“It’s so much nicer,” he said.

Jorgensen is a founding member of the Desert Rose Band and the Hellecasters, and was a six-year member of Elton John’s band.

The festival began at noon with the music of Paavo Carey, who plays a Latin jazz style. Brad Terry, an accomplished jazz clarinet player living in Bath, played classic jazz.

Jazz Babies pianist Bob Page performed at 3:30 p.m. and pianist Bill Davis and drummer Chris Rogers played myriad styles in the King’s Jazz performance at 5 p.m.

HOPE4JAZZ Director Bill Jones and organizers Chris Rogers, Andrew Stewart and Andy Swift hope to see the festival grow as a way to foster jazz in the schools.

Any funds taken in beyond expenses will go back into future festivals and to promote jazz in the schools, they said.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

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