OTTAWA - The forecast for the Ottawa International Jazz Festival last night called for overcast skies and stormy weather with brilliant flashes of tenor saxophone.

And, as usual, the forecasters were right on the money. But then, with jazz heavyweight Wayne Shorter headlining the Concerts Under the Stars stage, who even noticed the weather?

Certainly not the spartan crowd of 4,000 or so at Confederation Park last night.

In the mid-1960s, Shorter was a fast-rising star when he replaced John Coltrane in Miles Davis' band, but only became a household name when he and Joe Zawinul created Weather Report, one of the first bands to fuse rock with jazz, and bring jazz to a new generation of teenage ears.

Accompanied by the same quartet that's won three Grammys since 2000 -- bassist John Patitucci, Brian Blade on drums and pianist Geoffrey Keezer filling in for Danilo Perez, Shorter opened his set with an epic, hour-long improvisation that touched on familiar themes, though Shorter was more intent on exploring the very fringes of his musical vocabulary, translating familiar melodies such as Masqualero into exotic new languages with beautifully dimensional sound.

The four veterans riffed continuously off each other with such intensity, it was difficult to know exactly where they were headed, though I doubt that that was important. For Shorter, a devout Buddhist, the journey proved to be more important than the destination.

This was not a concert for the casual fan. While some players like to paint a pretty picture, musical innovators like Shorter prefer a more elaborate listening experience akin to a Jackson Pollock abstract.

Now, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Day 8 of the Jazz Festival's main stage concert series opened with The Three Tenors.

No, not the one that everyone knows -- Pavarotti, Domingo and the other guy (Carreras) -- but Eric Alexander, Harry Allen and Grant Stewart, three tenor sax players based out of New York, who saw a golden marketing opportunity for themselves.

And like their more famous operatic namesakes, the three virtuoso saxmen traded off solos that showed their own individual stylistic flair with contrasting interpretations of familiar jazz classics.

Accompanied by a smart and steady if a little subdued rhythm section with pianist David Hazeltine, bassist Joel Forbes and Phil Stewart on drums, the trio of tenors opened their early evening Concert Under the Stars (Under the Storm Clouds would be more accurate) with Hollywood Stamped before working up a jam on Sweet & Lovely, You Stepped Out of a Dream, You Go To My Head and Lush Life before closing with the tenor favourite Blues Up & Down.

You don't see too many traditional jazz bands like The Three Tenors around mainstream jazz festivals any more, in part, (and I'm taking an educated guess here) because younger audiences like a little more flash. That's too bad, because The Three Tenors played an interesting set that accurately read the mood of the 3,000 Ottawa Jazz Festival fans who came to Confederation Park to hear tenor legend Wayne Shorter.