North Sea Jazz Festival is just crazy. It’s a madhouse. It’s the supermarket of jazz. You try to get into the building, find your concert space, play the show, and find your way out. It’s a black hole.

And yet. The number and breadth of musicians in one place on one day is simply astounding! This is a partial list of players who were playing in the same building in Rotterdam, many of them at the same time, on July 15, 2007. In no particular order, just reading down the list here.

Ornette Coleman
Toots Thielemans
Chick Corea
Gary Burton
Wynton Marsalis
Dave Holland
SFJAZZ Collective
Joshua Redman
Mike Stern
Candy Dulfer
Amy Winehouse
Sly Stone
Snoop Dogg
Randy Brecker
Elvis Costello
Allen Toussaint
Fanfare Ciocarlia
Chano Dominguez
Hypnotic Brass Band
Martial Solal
Lee Konitz
Misha Mengelberg
Richard Galliano
Enrico Pieranunzi
Bob Brookmeyer
Marvin Stamm
Bill Mays
Kurt Elling
Ernst Reijseger
Louis Sclavis
Fred Van Hove
Barry Guy
ICP Orchestra
Henri Texier
Kneebody
Moncef Genoud
Lionel Loueke
Hamilton De Holanda
Esperanza Spalding

The water is wide.

Why isn’t there a festival like this in the United States?