The second weekend of the ten-day Montreal Jazz Festival was coming apart at the seams. One of the scheduled headliners, Ruth Brown, was hospitalized back in the United States. Another headliner, Son Seals, made it to Montreal but was stricken with a diabetic attack and hospitalized. Then Lester Bowie dropped out of his featured role with the Art Ensemble of Chicago. And the rain pounded down on the picturesque cobbled streets of this beautiful old North American city, with forecasts calling ...