Jazz buffs ease into post-party blues

PARKING any talk of belt-tightening, the city down south showed it had the nous to knock the best out of straitened circumstances in a three-day extravaganza of jazz and drink.

Packed pubs, pricey grub and tender heads were tolerated with admirable goodwill by the thousands of revellers for whom the lure of the Guinness Jazz Festival is as potent as the perfect pint.

Both tempo and weekend wound down slowly yesterday as those with a love for improv blew out their final few notes and others laid into some hard-hitting be-bop or hip-hop for the final shakedown.