Part of the reason I never made it into last Sunday's Afropunk Fest was that I first went to check out the 20th edition of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival in Tompkins Square Park, where I managed to catch the closing set by vocalist Gregory Porter. Porter's star has been rising fast in the jazz world on the strength of his sophomore album, Be Good, containing Porter's own compositions "Be Good (Lion's Song)," "Real Good Hands," and "On My Way To Harlem." With the sun going down through the trees on a crystal-clear late-summer evening, the crowd—a mix of East Village eccentrics and dyed-in-the wool jazzheads—seemed caught up in Porter's ebullient charm, even if the thread back to Bird wasn't immediately apparent.

More pics on the photo page.