Jazz ranging to the ends of its scale

Meanwhile, Vandermark’s quartet — with electric guitar, electric bass, and drums — shredded a set of angry, noisy anti-songs that contained elements of heavy metal, punk rock, funk, and free improv. “That guy is sick,’’ one woman said as she walked out. Vandermark would probably take that as a compliment.

Under picture-postcard-perfect skies all weekend, 30 sets of wildly varied jazz unfolded on three stages in Fort Adams State Park, headlined by crowd-pleasing jazz-pop heartthrobs Jamie Cullum (Saturday) and Chris Botti (Sunday). Even if you were there for the full 16 hours, you couldn’t have taken in a fraction of what was offered. Yet you would have left satisfied.

Highlights? We’ve got your highlights right here:

Ahmad Jamal’s “Poinciana.’’ The pianist just turned 80, but he brought new life to his signature song. Jamal’s style hasn’t changed in the least over the years — sparse playing and empty spaces remain his calling cards. On “Poinciana,’’ he went silent for four and six bars at a time, then played single-note right-hand runs for six or hand bars, then threw in some block chords, and — hey, why not — tossed in a quote from “Take the ‘A’ Train.’’

Fly on Cole Porter. Fly is the leaderless trio of saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Jeff Ballard. Two songs into their set, Turner and Grenadier repeated a four-note phrase four times, after which Ballard joined in. Once everyone was grounded, Turner let go of the handle and played a series of sustained notes. Suddenly the melody of Porter’s “It’s All Right With Me’’ emerged, but the song was entirely rearranged.