The last night of the 2003 Bermuda Jazz Festival was perhaps the most disappointing night of all. The organisers still weren't dealing with the press properly, the miscommunication was entirely too ubiquitous and the performances were certainly not as sharp as they were on previous nights.

Traffic was slowed to a crawl as far back as Watford Bridge when I arrived on Saturday night, giving the impression that this will be the highest attendance over the three nights by far; it was.

The crowd spilled over into the street and there was very little space left for a critic to view the stage; these are the notes I salvaged.

I missed the actual performance but heard that Fires of Africa did quite well. Stephanie Mills sounded great from where I was standing, and the crowd certainly showered her with their love every time they found familiarity in her pieces.

"What You Gonna Do With My Loving?" and "Something In The Way You Make Me Feel" proved quite popular during the opening moments of her hour long set, while the sweet "I Feel Good All Over" and the saucy "If I Were Your Woman" garnered huge responses during the mid-section of the set.

Ms Mills was a little ball of explosive energy throughout the set, especially the moments when I was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of her through the trees.

She wore a beautiful full length lavender (I could be wrong, by all means correct me if I'm wrong, I was too far away to be sure) satin evening gown, and jumped around the stage like she had forgotten to take her Ritalin earlier in the evening (this is a joke, I am in no way implying that Stephanie Mills is on Ritalin Jeffery!).

Ms Mills closed her set with the magnificent "I Never Knew Love Like This Before" and the absolutely stunning "Home" (you know the one: "when I think of home, I think of a place with, love overflowing"). The ovation was emphatic.

I spent the next half hour sitting in the remarkably pleasant atmosphere of the Frog & Onion, having been told that Ms Mills would be speaking to the press after her set in that very establishment.

That did not occur and I was later told that the interview was conducted backstage; no matter, my time in the Frog and Onion was the highlight of my evening.

I returned to the 'look at me, I'm at the Jazz Fest' crowd during Kenny G's set. He was holding his note trying to outdo Mike Phillips as I was walking through the crowd not even bothering to try to see the stage.

Kenny described Bermuda as "The friendliest place we've ever been" and was surprisingly charismatic throughout his almost two-hour set.

A set during which he played a bunch of songs that all sounded pretty similar and thrilled the crowd by walking through twice.

He played his most famous pieces, including "Songbird" and "Silhouette" and delivered a very classy performance, but he was on for too long and did nothing to impress seasoned Jazz aficionados like this particular critic.

Basically what I am saying is that the jazz equivalent of Muzak performed like just that (hey that rhymes).

Gerald Levert closed the proceedings with a sexually-charged set that lasted for about 70 minutes.

The audience that was still in attendance loved him to death; and he rewarded their love by walking all through the expensive seats and delivering a thoroughly satisfying set.

Highlights included the wonderful "Casanova," the sweet "ABC, 123" and the funkier than thou "In Da Club" / "Fire" / "Outstanding" medley. Then there was the brilliant closer: "Baby Hold On To Me" which is by far my favorite Gerald Levert song ever. The audience seemed to like it quite a bit too; the ovation was loud and long, and then the fireworks started!

At the end of all the tribulation, confusion and disrespect, the actual event was quite well produced. Maybe a competent public relations person can be included in next year's committee (I won't hold my breath).