Jazz@Rochester

My plan for June 15th, Day Four of the XRIJF

This is nine days, baby... we're just getting started. I have to pace myself and after the wild first weekend, I often find myself taking a breather on Monday.  While there is lots to choose from, due to repeats (both between festivals and during this festival) there are only two Club Pass gigs I'm planning on getting to, although between the two, I'm sure I'll find something to do. Here's how my Monday, June 15th during the Rochester International Jazz Festival is coming together:

• Starting out at 6:00 pm (well, I may catch something beforehand if I get down to Jazz Street early) with NEA Jazz Master and percussionist Chico Hamilton with his group Euphoria in Kilbourn Hall.  This octogenarian continues to innovate and deliver diverse music since his Cool Jazz days in the 50s.  He can still cook the skins as shown in this clip from a couple of years ago. Get some more on the man at Hamilton's MySpace page and through his responses to a Take Five "interview" on AllAboutJazz.com.
• At 10:00 pm, I'm going to try to check out Andrei Razin  & Second Approach over at the Montage. This Russian pianist and his trio is, according to John Nugent and others, one of the acts not to miss at this year's festival. Check out the mp3s available on their site here and the rest of the site for more.
• In between the 6:00 and 10:00 pm shows I will probably wander around a bit. Although I've now seen him at least twice, I may drop in on the Cedar Walton Quartet (I don't think I've seen him in a Quartet here) at the Harro East, or the Greater Rochester Jazz Orchestra (which I've not yet had a chance to catch myself) on the Jazz Street Stage, both at 7:15 pm. Alternatively, I may drop in 8:30 to check out the Stephane Wrembel Django Experiment to hear some gypsy jazz in the Big Tent or the Bossa Nova sounds of Maria Farinha & Jongo Trio at Xerox Auditorium at 9:00 pm before heading over to Montage for my Russian lesson. 

Just going to play it by ear ... so to speak.

I'm going to keep repeating that Jazz@Rochester is on Twitter and I have created a widget, which has its own page to help you follow the conversation about jazz and the XRIJF on that popular micro-blogging platform. For those who want to begin or join the conversation now, start using #XRIJF as a hash tag (if you're on Twitter, you'll know what I mean) and help me spread the word to use that tag during the festival. If you'd like to access Jazz@Rochester on your smart phone during the festival or througout the year, please try the new mobile site.

Previous Preview & Pick posts:

• Day One, June 12th Preview & Picks
• Day Two, June 13th Preview & Picks
• Day Three, June 14th Preview & Picks

Other links:

• City Newspaper's XRIJF Guide for June 15th

My plan and picks for XRIJF Day Three, June 14th

Again I let too many days pass and now we're getting down to the wire on getting these posts out before the festival starts itself on June 12th. I'm falling down in my quest that this Rochester International Jazz Festival is not going to turn into another job. As I said, this year I want to concentrate on having fun! However, these posts serve two functions, they allow me to map out where I might want to focus during the festival and, I hope, give you some idea on how you can catch a number of sounds each night and information additional to that on the Festival's site on at least some of the many jazz and other musical tastes that may find fulfillment during the festival. Here's how my Sunday, June 14th is shaping up:

• Starting at 4:00 pm, the Eastman Theatre will become a big movie house. In the mid-1970s, WXXI produced a series of one-hour jazz programs that were shown nationally on PBS. Most of the programs were filmed in Rochester’s Top of the Plaza, which is how the series got its name, At the Top. This year there will be video from that series, with sets by the Bill Evans Trio, the Maynard Ferguson Orchestra, ending with a special episode from the second season of WXXI’s Rochester International Jazz Festival series, that presents an overview of last year's festival and includes excerpts from many of the performances, street scenes and interviews with some of the musicians and jazz fans. I checked this out last year and saw some great footage of the Buddy Rich big band. If I can get out of the office by 4:00 I may do that again for a bit. I may also spend some time listening to one or more of the great high school jazz bands from around Rochester or get a reprise of Jon Cleary, who will be over at Harro East.
• For my first Club Pass gig, I'll head over to the Xerox Auditorium to catch Jonas Kullhammar Quartet. Kullhammer has been in town before playing in one of the shows put on by the Bop Shop, but I was never able to get to the gig so I'm looking forward to getting a chance to hear him at his 6:30 pm set. In addition to the cuts on Kullhammer's MySpace page, check out this video of a Stockholm gig from 2007.
• Since this night appears to be developing into mostly envelope pushing, my next stop will be Christ Church to catch the 8:45 set of the Neil Cowley Trio from the "Made in the UK" series. Keyboardist Cowley is one of the "post-jazz" musicians who with the Trio creates concoctions from various genres building on a jazz foundation. Some have drawn connections to E.S.T., although Cowley has taken great pains to not let their music influence the directions he takes with his compositions. Luckily, since they are from Generation at least X, the Nate Cowley Trio has a lot of stuff out there on the interwebs where you can get a taste, including their website and MySpace page, and they're on Twitter. Here's a good video of the Trio performing "Dinosaur die" in Paris last year.
• There is a chance that I'll feel like overdosing on the folks from Scandanavia, so I may instead choose the 7:30 set of Dane Søren Kjærgaard at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, if only because his playing floored me when he appeared here at last year's festival with Blake Tartare. Here is a video of Kjærgaard with a group playing his Ballad for Leo (Mathiesen) in 2006. This is what he's been working on lately with Torben Ulrich (be prepared it's quite long), but there's no indication what Kjærgaard is bringing to Rochester.
• I'm actually going to finally make it into Kilbourn Hall to get my head straightened back out with Ernestine Anderson. This woman may come out with anything from the blues or jazz songbooks and has been doing that for 5 decades. But it will be just what I'll need toward the end of the third night—comfort food for my ears. Here's a video of her dishing some of that out in Japan last year.

This night shaped up with a lot of music that, for the RIJF, will be outside the mainstream (except for Miss Anderson, that is). That's just the way I roll ....

As I announced earlier, Jazz@Rochester is also on Twitter and I have created a widget, which has its own page to help you follow the conversation about jazz and the XRIJF on that micro-blogging platform. For those who want to begin the conversation now, start using #XRIJF as a hash tag (if you're on Twitter, you'll know what I mean) and help me spread the word to use that during the festival. If you'd like to access Jazz@Rochester on your smart phone, please try the new mobile site.

Previous Preview & Pick posts:

• Day One, June 12th Preview & Picks
• Day Two, June 13th Preview & Picks

Other links:

• City Newspaper's XRIJF Guide for June 14th
• Melissa F. Pheterson, Jazz Festival high notes, Democrat & Chronicle (May 29, 2009).

It's Friday and time to Take Five jazz links....

There is a lot of interesting stuff out there about jazz and I've done a bit of surfing the past few days and found some interesting places to visit. So . . . Take Five:

• One of the clubs that I really wanted to check out last time I was in New York City was Smalls, which is one of the great places to catch cutting edge jazz in the Big Apple. Never made it there, but now I can at least listen to sets from Smalls because they have put a huge number of them (and live video of sets when they're going on, too) on their website.
• As you'll notice I don't do the jazz criticism much here, if at all. This week I came across the beginnings of a conversation, started by the new jazz blog at National Public Radio, A Blog Supreme and the Thriving on a Riff blog out of Ottawa, about the "grade inflation" and other issues surrounding jazz criticism and why you see so few posts panning a jazz CD.
• I think Steve Bowie has been doing the jazz blog Blog-O-Jazz, where he collects various emphemera of jazz, about the same amount of time that I've been doing Jazz@Rochester.
• We all have the economy in mind and recently National Public Radio teamed up with WDUQ in Pittsburgh, PA, to bring us the jazz and blues of "Hard Up: Jazz for Empty Pockets." Don't know if I can say "enjoy," but check out the "Take Five" selections of Mose Allison, Robert Walter, Jimmie Witherspoon, Art Tatum, and Jimmy Smith. 
• Got this clip from YouTube of the Bill Tiberio Band playing the tune "Return of the King" with his band including Geoff Smith, Phil Lake, Joe Chiappone, and Scott Bradley, piano and composer of the tune. The video was recorded in the Fairport High School orchestra room.

So take five and explore. Let me know what you think in the comments ....There will be five more next week.

Serving up the live jazz in and around Rochester for the next seven days

As we continue to count down toward the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, here is some more jazz in and around Rochester for you to check out. By the way, the Jazz Festival Store on Gibbs St. and East Ave. is open. You can purchase your Club Pass or tickets to one of the performances at Eastman Theatre.

Thursday, May 28th

• Matt Valerio @ The Grill at Strathallan, 7:00pm
• Jazz Dawgs @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Manouche A Trois @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Dave Rivello Ensemble @ Village Rock Cafe, 9:00 pm
• The Jack Swift Band (opening for Stereopticon) @ Lovin' Cup, 9:30 pm

Friday, May 29th

• Footnote (first of 14 Fridays at the Village Gate) @ Village Gate, 6:00 pm (Oops, as my friends from Footnote have noted in the Comments, while I put link to the event announcement at the Bop Shop, in my haste I didn't actually look at it and see the fact that the dates had changed from the listing I had from another source. We'll see this in next week's listings. Thanks, guys!)
• Bobby Dibaudo Trio @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Gap Mangione New Blues Band @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• Rochester Philharmonic Pops, "A Night at The Cotton Club" with guests Byron Stripling (trumpet), Carmen Bradford (vocals),Ted Levy (tap dancer) and Bob Breithaupt (drums) @ Eastman Theatre, 8:00 pm
• Deborah Magone @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Bill Dobbins Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Mark Cassara Band @ Bistro 135, 9:00 pm

Saturday, May 30th

• Dave Spinner @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Ted Nicolosi with Shared Genes @ Jazz at Jazzy's (Jasmine's Asian Fusion), 7:00 pm
• Bob Dibaudo Trio @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• The Westview Project @ Brio Wine Bar & Grill, 7:30 pm
• Rochester Philharmonic Pops, "A Night at The Cotton Club" @ Eastman Theatre, 8:00 pm
• Footnote @ Pane Vino, 8:00 pm
• Dave Arenius Quartet @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Bob Sneider Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Margaret Explosion (appearing with Nod & Hinkley) @ Bug Jar, 9:00 pm
• Hard Logic @ Bistro 135, 9:00 pm
• East End Boys @ Havana Moes (East Ave.), 9:30 pm

Sunday, May 31st

• Bill Slater @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 11:30 am
• The Ryan Barclay Quintet @ Lovin' Cup, 7:00 pm

Monday, June 1st

• Quin Lawrence Trio (Big Apple Monday's Swing Dance classes) @ Flat Iron Cafe, 9:00 pm

Tuesday, June 2nd

• Joe Santora & Emily Kirchoff @ PaRe Bar and Grill, 7:00 pm

Wednesday, June 3rd

• AMP @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Jazz Jam Session w/Mike Allen & Troup Street @ Clarissa's, 8:30 pm

We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Please forgive me for any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Send an email to Jazz@Rochester" link). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post about how it went. I want to hear from you!

Come out and help the Advocacy Center with a night of hot jazz and cool art

The Advocacy Center is having its its fourth annual "Night of Hot Jazz and Cool Art" on Friday, June 5th from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at the Memorial Art Gallery, featuring the music of trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, my friend saxophonistr Jimmie Highsmith Jr. and Tyler Owens. Also appearing will be drummer Kenwood Anderson, pianists Paul Boutte and Dave Spinner, and vocalists Lauren Faggiano and Whitney Marchelle among others. All proceeds will go to benefit The Advocacy Center, which provides services supporting people with disabilities and their families in achieving their goals. The Advocacy Center does this through information-sharing, individual advocacy support, independent service coordination and educational workshops and helps people with disabilities to to build life-long self-advocacy skills. The presenting sponsor is MVP Care Care.

Tickets for the benefit are $40, raffle tickets are $20. Raffle items include 22" flat screen TV, a Wii system, iPod Touch, a Garmin GPS, and a 9.2 megapixel digital camera. For more information, call voice and TDD: (585) 546-1700, (toll free, N.Y.S. only): (800)-650-4967, or visit the website above.

Matana Roberts brings her sax to town to play for Bop Arts' Jazz in the Atrium

Bop Arts, Inc.'s Jazz in the Atrium continues tomorrow, May 26th with saxophonist Matana Roberts at 8:00 pm at the Bop Shop Atrium in the Village Gate in Rochester.

A jazz composer and improviser now based in New York City, Matana Roberts has worked with Steve Lacy, Eugene Chadbourne,Hery Grimes, Hannah Marcus, Fred Anderson, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Robert Barry, Joe Maneri, Miya Masaoka, Vijay Iyer, David Boykins, and Ralph Alessi.  Growing up in Chicago, Roberts is also a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians.The Jazz Journalists Association selected Roberts as a finalist nominee for the 2008 "Up and Coming Musician of the Year" award.Roberts is on a solo tour of 9 cities supporting her Coin Coin project, an ongoing  project in which Roberts is creating original compositions and various configurations,to pull together tales of seven generations of her own ancestry and the four continents it spans to paint a musical picture of her own and African American history.
 There is a more extensive discussion of this project at one of her earlier stops on this tour in Richmond, Va.

Our Tweetfest begins... and XRIJF is only a start

Join the Jazz@Rochester TweetFest!!! As I noted last week, Jazz@Rochester has been on Twitter for awhile, where I've tried to join the conversation about jazz that has been growing on this popular micro-blogging platform. I've created a widget, which I've installed on a new Join the Conversation About Jazz on Twitter page to to help you follow the conversation as well if you're not quite up for getting on Twitter yourself or just want to check in.

Right now I have it set to default to a tab showing some of the conversation going on around the Rochester International Jazz Festival (use the #XRIJF hashtag to help feed it!). There is also a tab with my "tweets". After the RIJF, I will swap out the the XRIJF tab and replace it with another one to follow other jazz-related subjects.

Jazz@Rochester preview and picks for XRIJF Day Two

Day Two of the Rochester International Jazz Festival is going to be one of those eclectic nights you find yourself having at the fest. There is a lot of variety (even for those who's taste in "jazz" venture toward Southern fried rock) to sample from.  Although I'm only touching the broad swath of music that the folks at RIJF have concocted for the first Saturday (which you should check out in its entirety), here's how my evening on June 13th is shaping up:

• As on Day One, I'm not hitting Kilbourn Hall at all on June 13th.  Not that I don't think it would be great to see Hammond B3 monster Joey DeFrancesco, but the fact is I caught him at Iridium in NYC in February and I'd like to keep that gig he did with Larry Coryell in my ears a bit longer. I have never heard trumpeter Terrell Stafford and his Quartet play, so will catch them first at 6:00 pm at the Montage.
• On my way over to the next stop, I'll pause to have a beer and conjure up some memories of my former home town while catching a bit of Chicago bluesman and Alligator recording Artist Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, who is scheduled to begin playing at 7:00 pm. He's playing the Club Pass Tent on Sunday as well, so if I need some more of that home town cookin I'll see if I can catch it then.
• After getting a bit of blues, a beer and perhaps some "street meat," I'll head down Chestnut, pick up a bottle of water (you'll understand when you go there) and head inside that great space to hear the group Nordic Connect, another in the Nordic Jazz Now series. This group is a special project of leader, trumpeter/composer (and Canadian) Ingrid Jensen, a featured soloist in the Maria Schneider Orchestra when they were here in January. Jensen is joined for this project with Christine Jensen, Swedish pianist-composer Maggi Olin, her husband and drummer Jon Wikan (who although Alaskan-born has a Norwegian background), and Swedish bassist Mattias Welin. Listened to some of their new CD Flurry and know that their music will be perfect for that space and looking forward to sitting back in the pew, taking a breath, and listening.
• The way the RIJF is scheduled now there are a lot of choices in the 7:00 to 9:00 pm range. You usually have some "change ups" in mind to provide flexibility for your mood or what you're hearing on the wind.  As I have some flexibility this night due to my not hitting Kilbourn, I may postpone my Nordic Connect-ion until 9:30 pm or otherwise mix it up and head over with those who love that deep sound to catch some of SMV, a supergroup touring this summer that unites gods of bass Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten, at the Eastman Theater at 8:00 pm. Perhaps they are trying to do some of the demolition for the new Theater annex without hiring a contractor?
• I'm going to tie up the evening (that is if there are no change ups and I don't head out for after-hours jams) with Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, who will be kicking out the New Orleans jams in the Club Pass Tent at 10:00 pm (also, if changes prevail, at 8:30). I've wanted to see this UK ivory tickler, who transplanted to his heart's true home on the Gulf Coast, in a live show since I first heard his song "So Damn Good" a few years ago (I couldn't get the infectious shuffle groove and its lyric says it all ..."I feel so damn good that I'll be glad when I've got the blues ... I'm so down being up that I'll be winning when I start to lose"). To check him out catch "Mo Hippa" (a live cut off his new CD by the same name) and some other cuts (including "So Damn Good") on Cleary's MySpace page. If you're just needing to get your groove on, then you may also want to catch returning group Papa Grows Funk, who'll be appearing twice on the Jazz Street stage (for free, too). Cleary and the Gentleman will also be gracing the stage at Harro East on Sunday.

I'm going to start kicking these Preview & Pick posts out now as fast as possible. I hope to do try some different approaches in Jazz@Rochester coverage throughout the Festival, focusing more on the conversation about the festival rather than try to keep up with posts on "what did I hear tonight". Main thing is I intend to have some fun and hang with all of my old "jazz fest" friends. Come here (or the new mobile site) to find out more as we get closer to June 12th.

As I announced earlier, Jazz@Rochester is also on Twitter. For those who want to begin the conversation now, let's start using #XRIJF as a hash tag. I'm going to be doing something special to pick up that conversation on the site soon.

Previous Preview & Picks:

Day One Preview & Picks

Other links:

City Newspaper's XRIJF Guide for June 13th

Do I have jazz links for you . . . so Take Five of them for now

• Jason Crane recently announced the launch of a partnership of his podcast The Jazz Session with the website All About Jazz. The Jazz Session will be featured on the home page at allaboutjazz.com and they'll be working together in other ways, such as coverage from jazz festivals. Jason gives great interview ... so check it out as this new relationship develops.
• While I'm not the only one who uses Take Five for a regular post in the jazz blog world, there's a new jazz blog in town brought to us by National Public Radio called A Blog Supreme. They're also doing a Friday jazz links post, called the Friday Link Dump. The more the merrier....
• The Jazz Journalists Association has announced the finalists for the 13th Annual JJA Jazz Awards to be held on June 16th at the Jazz Standard in NYC. There are 42 categories of awards, including the top jazz blogs. Nope, I cannot even say that it was wonderful just to be nominated....
• Marc Myers starts out his post in JazzWax on the Top 10 Jazz Ironies with "Like the music itself, the history of jazz is loaded with irony. Stuff happens for strange reasons, or there are coincidences that are spring-loaded with unsaid meaning and hidden messages."
• Howard Mandel raises the question in Jazz Beyond Jazz of where women are as jazz listeners, noting:

  The problem is that no one in the jazz world, with the exception of jazz educators, has pleasantly invited women to partake of the music. Rather than being marketed to, women have been neglectfully, perhaps unconsciously, shut out.

  He makes a great plea for inclusion (and it's not just women who are excluded) and for jazz and jazz venues to being welcoming to women, finishing "Maybe we'll all listen first and identify the gender of creators later, if ever." Hear, hear ....!

So take five and explore. Let me know what you think in the comments ....There will be five more next week.

Jazz@Rochester is "going mobile" ... We have a site for your smart phone or iPhone

My iPhone is becoming an increasingly important tool in my work and play and as technology marches on and an increasing number of you may want to access Jazz@Rochester on your smart phone, iPhone or cell.  Working with the site Mofuse, I've created a mobile version of the blog (both for regular smart phones and iPhones) to make it easier to get to the content.  You'll still have to go to the regular address to get to the links.

So get on your cell and go to http://jazzrochester.mofuse.mobi to check it out.  You can also navigate your smartphone to the site at its regular address and then click on the link in the right panel to be taken to the mobile version of Jazz@Rochester (there is a separate, optimized iPhone version as well which will automatically be served). Can't set it up right now to automatically detect and serve up the mobile site if you are accessing it from a phone.

Jazz in Rochester over the next seven days ... get your jazz listings here

Lots of stuff happening around here at Jazz@Rochester. I swear I'm going to get some more posts out about the upcoming Rochester International Jazz Festival. You may have noticed that we now have a mobile site, accessible through this and the link in the right panel. I've been busy working on some other special features, too. For now, check out the jazz around Rochester's restaurants and clubs over the next seven days ....

Thursday, May 21st

• ECMS Spring Festival: Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra @ Kilbourn Hall (Eastman School of Music, 5:00 pm
• Matt Valerio @ The Grill at Strathallan, 7:00pm
• Art Loves Jazz Benefit for Jazz 90.1@ Artisan Works, 7:00 pm
• Jazz Dawgs @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Manouche A Trois @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• New Horizons Big Band/Brasso Profundo @ Kilbourn Hall (Eastman School of Music), 7:30 pm
• Russell Fielder Quintet @ Merchants Grill, 8:00 pm
• Mark Cassara Band @ Pane Vino, 8:00 pm

Friday, May 22nd

• Bobby Dibaudo Trio @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Steve Greene Quartet with Tina Albright @ Immanuel Baptist Church, 7:00 pm
• Jazz on the Green @ Jack's Place (Durand Eastman Golf Course), 7:00 pm
• Nancy Kelly Well Alright! CD Release Party @ Jazz Central (44 E. Washington St., Syracuse), 7:30 pm
• Gap Mangione New Blues Band @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• Bill Dobbins Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Deborah Magone @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Janet Beaman & Te Naj Jazz Quartet @ Bistro 135, 9:00 pm

Saturday, May 23rd

• Eddie Israel's Thatt Group @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Joe Kozlowski Quartet @ Spot Coffee, 7:00 pm
• Gap Mangione New Blues Band @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• Jazz Dawgs @ Bistro 135, 8:00 pm
• Westview Project @ Pane Vino, 8:00 pm
• Nick/Akos Show (Jazz at Jazzy's) @ Jasmine's Asian Fusion, 8:15 pm
• Bob Sneider Quartet W The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Dave Arenius Quartet @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Hard Logic, No Sheers Ted @ Dub Land Underground, 9:00 pm
• Jazz Boys @ Havana Moes (East Ave.), 9:30 pm

Sunday, May 24th

• Bill Slater @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 11:30 am

Monday, May 25th

• Jimmie Highsmith with Funkbox & Filthy Funk with John Viviani @ Jack's Place (Durand Eastman Golf Course), 3:30 pm
  
• The White Hots @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm

Tuesday, May 26th

• Todd East @ Bistro 135, 5:30 pm
• Joe Santora & Emily Kirchoff @ PaRe Bar and Grill, 7:00 pm
• Bop Arts Jazz in the Atrium Series: Matana Roberts @ Bop Shop Atrium, 8:00 pm

Wednesday, May 27th

• Brad Batz Trio @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• AMP @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Rick Holland-Evan Dobbins Little Big Band @ Lovin Cup, 8:00 pm
• Todd East @ Irondequoit Ale House, 8:00 pm
• Jazz Jam Session w/Mike Allen & Troup Street @ Clarissa's, 8:30 pm

We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Please forgive me for any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Send an email to Jazz@Rochester" link). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post about how it went. I want to hear from you!

Art Loves Jazz 2009: Come out to support Jazz 90.1 and get your art on

For the fourth year in a row, Rochester's jazz radio station, Jazz90.1 is teaming up with Artisan Works to present Art Loves Jazz on Thursday May 21st from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. in the 60,000 SF Rochester art gallery and event space. They hope to raise funds for Jazz90.1, one of the last remaining 24/7 jazz radio stations in the country. Works from artists from around the world are featured in the ever-changing space. There will be good food, libations (i.e., a cash bar), live jazz by three groups, and a silent auction at which those attending can get some real deals on wonderful art.

Tickets are available for $30.00 and can be purchased by calling 966-2660, through the Jazz 90.1 website, or through Artisan Works at the ARTISANworks reception desk or by phone at (585) 288-7170.

Get out to hear some jazz over the next seven days in Rochester

While the lilacs bloom (and there may be some jazz here and there at the festival), there's still a lot of live jazz in and around Rochester for the next seven days. Check some of it out!

Thursday, May 14th

• Jazz Dawgs @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Matt Valerio @ Grill at Strathallan, 7:00 pm
• Manouche A Trois @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Standard Jazz Quartet @ Starry Nites Cafe, 8:00 pm
• Dave Rivello Ensemble @ Village Rock Cafe, 9:00 pm

Friday, May 15th

• Bobby Dibaudo Trio @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Jimmie Highsmith, Jr., with Funkbox (Jazz on the Green) @ Jack's Place (Durand Eastman Golf Club), 7:00 pm
• Tom Passamonte & Special Blend @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• Jazz in the Atrium Series: The Penfield High School Monday/Wednesday Jazz Band @ Bop Shop Atrium, 7:30 pm
• Jazz for the Masses @ Bethany Presbyterian Church, 3000 Dewey Ave, 7:30 pm
• Todd East Trio @ Sevens (Farmington), 8:00 pm
• Deborah Magone @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Randy Napoleon with Bob Sneider Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Mark Cassara Band @ Bistro 135, 9:00 pm

Saturday, May 16th

• Dave Spinner @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Madeline Forster @ Brio Wine Bar & Grill, 7:00 pm
• Tom Passamonte & Special Blend @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• Marco Armadio @ Pane Vino, 8:00 pm
• Dave Arenius Quartet @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Randy Napoleon with Bob Sneider Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Nathaniel Reit Jazz Trio @ Jasmine's Asian Fusion, 8:30 pm
• East End Boys @ Havana Moes (East Ave.), 9:30 pm
• Joe Kozlowski Quartet @ Spot Coffee, no time given

Sunday, May 17th

• Bill Slater @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 11:30 am
• The Nick Weizer Group @ Lovin' Cup, 7:00 pm

Monday, May 18th

• Flower City Jazz Society presents Roy Rubinstein's Chicago Hot Six with Sarah Spencer @ Green Lantern Inn (One East Church St, Fairport, NY), 6:30pm
• The White Hots @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm

Tuesday, May 19th

• New Horizons Band @ Kilbourn Hall (Eastman School of Music), 3:30 pm
• Rackestra @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Joe Santora & Emily Kirchoff @ PaRe Bar and Grill, 7:00 pm

Wednesday, May 20th

• Deborah Magone @ Merchant's Street Smokehouse (Brockport), 6:00 pm
• AMP @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Todd East @ Irondequoit Ale House, 8:00 pm

We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Please forgive me for any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Send an email to Jazz@Rochester" link). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post about how it went. I want to hear from you!

As if I didn't have enough ways to annoy you, Jazz@Rochester is on Twitter too ....

You may have noticed I've installed a funky little widget in the left panel, which will be calling attention (like this post) to the fact that Jazz@Rochester is on Twitter (and we have been for quite awhile). Although some of the "tweets" will be familiar sounding (they are links to my posts from this blog), I have found a growing jazz community on Twitter—artists, listeners, and people in the music industry—and hope to tap into it as a way to share some of the great conversations about jazz music and musicians going on out there.

You may see me change widgets occasionally as I try them on for size. Watch soon for some other uses for Twitter I'm cooking ....

Another Friday in Kansas, but that doesn't mean you can't Take Five.

Still out here with the parental units in S.E. Kansas and another Friday is coming (and going). So....Take Five (more jazz links):

• Jazz Video Guy recently did an interesting video interview of one of my favorite jazz bloggers, Marc Myers, who writes the Jazz Wax blog and whom I've pointed you to in the direction of several times in Take Five links or elsewhere. Watch Portrait of a Jazz Blogger.
• Here's an written interview with Saxophonist Greg Osby on the why and how of starting his own record label, Inner Circle in Open Sky Jazz's Independent Ear blog.
• The good Doctor Lonnie Smith writes up a prescription for groove with Yoron Israel and my buddy Mel Henderson cookin on guitar in this video from an early Exodus to Jazz performance (am I right Jose?).
• As a recovering lawyer with a lot of musician readers, friends and acquaintances, I thought I'd show that some of us attorneys really have their interests at heart in addition to ear. Josh Kaplan, who received his JD from the same law school I did (although about 10 years later), is (the) Lawyer for Musicians™ and he has a pretty cool blog/site serving up some good advice for musicians.
• "The dozens" is an "informal exchange filled with ribaldry, taunting and clever put downs" in African-American traditions. It is also the name of a regular feature on Jazz.com, where the writer (who changes) takes 12 jazz tracks based on a particular theme or individual or event, providing his or her frank opinions on those tracks.

So take five and explore. Let me know what you think in the comments ....There will be five more next week.

Still in Kansas, so I'm going to miss this jazz in Rochester

Jazz clubs are hard to come by out here on the prairie, but we've still put together the listings for the next seven days of jazz in clubs and restaurants around Rochester. I'll be back before they're gone...

Thursday, May 7th

• Matt Valerio @ The Grill at Strathallan, 7:00 pm
• Jazz Dawgs @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Manouche A Trois @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Jazz Open Jam with the Russell Fielder Quintet @ Merchants Grill, 8:00 pm

Friday, May 8th

• Bobby Dibaudo Trio @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Jazz on the Green @ Jack's Place (Durand Eastman Golf Club), 7:00 pm
• Gap Mangione New Blues Band @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• Artisian Jazz @ Starry Nites Cafe, 8:00 pm
• Grupo Mania, OnClave @ Water Street Music Hall, 8:00 pm
• Cafe Antarsia Ensemble @ Mez, 8:00 pm
• John Nugent Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Janet Beaman & Te Naj Jazz Quartet @ Bistro 135, 9:00 pm
• Bill Tiberio Band @ Village Landing Bar and Grille (Main Street, Fairport, NY), 10:00 pm

Saturday, May 9th

• Will Holton & Jimmies Highsmith Jr @ Water Street Music Hall, 7:00 pm
• Sofrito @ Brio Bistro, 7:00 pm
• Joe Kozlowski Quartet @ Spot Coffee, 7:00 pm
• Gap Mangione New Blues Band @ Woodcliff Hotel & Spa, 7:30 pm
• The Brad Batz Trio @ Pane Vino, 8:00 pm
• Mike Allen Akos Jazz Revue @ Jasmine's Asian Fusion, 8:30 pm
• Dave Arenius Quartet @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• John Nugent Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
• Po Boys Brass Band @ Lovin' Cup, 9:30 pm
• East End Boys @ Havana Moes (East Ave.), 9:30 pm

Sunday, May 10th

• Bill Slater @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 11:30 am
• The Westview Project w/Nick Brust @ Lovin' Cup, 7:00 pm
• Grupo Calle Uno @ St Michael's Church, 8:00 pm

Monday, May 11th

• The White Hots @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm

Tuesday, May 12th

• Todd East @ Bistro 135, 5:30 pm
• Joe Santora & Emily Kirchoff @ PaRe Bar and Grill, 7:00 pm

Wednesday, May 13th

• Mark Hadley Jazz Trio @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• AMP @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Bop Arts presents the Eastern Boundary Quartet @ Bop Shop Atrium, Village Gate, 8:00 pm
• Ted Perry Trio Benefit for Hillside Children's Center @ Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, 8:00 pm
• Jazz Jam Session with Mike Allen & Troup Street @ Clarissa's, 8:30 pm

We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Please forgive me for any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Send an email to Jazz@Rochester" link). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post about how it went. I want to hear from you!

Jazz@Rochester preview and picks for XRIJF Day One

This post kicks off nine posts that will be published over the next month or so highlighting each night of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, coming June 12th to 20th.  As there is a wealth of information on the festival's own site about lineup of artists each night with links to writeups on each artist (here's one), I'm going to focus my posts on the artists or groups I'm planning to catch each day (not that I have any pretensions that you give a hoot what I'm going to go hear, but mostly as a way to organize my own thoughts).  Of course, as anyone who has been to the RIJF will attest, you have to be flexible as you make your way through the nine days of the festival, flexibility that sometimes leads to new musical experiences. Well, enough with the introduction, let's get on with the picks:

• On the first day of RIJF I usually get off work and head over around 4:00 pm to see the last minute set up and often catch glimpses of festival producers John Nugent and Marc Iaccona are running around making tweaks and putting out fires (not that they aren't doing that almost continuously for the next 9 days as well). I wait for the beer stand to open, get a beer and get in line at Kilbourn Hall for the first show there, but like last year, my first set of the 2009 XRIJF is going to be somewhere else this year. Although I enjoy hearing Bill Frisell every time, I've seen him several times at RIJF, so I'm planning to first head over to the Harro East Ballroom at 5:30 to catch some of the Jazz Mandolin Project (mostly as I'm an aspiring mando player, although mostly aspiring, not playing). You can hear a bit at JMP's MySpace page.
• As I meander to the next item on my list, I may duck inside the Big Tent to catch a bit of local trumpeter Mike Kaupa (link for him on the Rochester Jazz Artists & Groups page).  It seems that RIJF scheduling local acts for the early sets in the tent, although again there is a local artist who gives so much to this city conspicuously absent from the local lineups for the RIJF.
• Despite seeing him play several times in Rochester, at 6:30 I'm going to go hear Billy Bang, so I can check out the new venue (brought to you by the new sponsor, Xerox), the Xerox Auditorium at Xerox Plaza. I think this is going to be a great new addition to the venues as it is a larger hall with apparently pretty good acoustics. Check out Bang on MySpace and this interview from 2003 on Allaboutjazz.com
• At 7:30 pm, I'll head over to the Lutheran Church of the Reformation to catch the first set of the popular Nordic Jazz Now series, hearing Kari Ikonen & Karikko out of Finland. You can hear some more here and his profile on the Finnish Music Information Center.
• I'll dash over to the Christ Church to catch the 8:45 set of the first artist in the new Made in the UK Series, the Peter King Quartet. I hope that there has been some attention paid to the acoustics in this cavernous space, but nonethless I'm looking forward to hearing some of the UK artists with whom I'm mostly unfamiliar. Here's King's page from Wikipedia and an "in his own words" article from 2003 from the Jazz Institute of Chicago's site.
• It's a short walk from there to the Montage Grill to catch Eric Alexander Quartet's 10:00 pm set. I saw Alexander play twice in 2008 (at the Jazz at Philharmonic remake at last year's RIJF and with the guys over at the Strathallan Hotel more recently), but want to catch him with his quartet. It's a bit of nostalgia too for me, a former Chicagoan. Here's the Quartet live in Asheville, NC, playing "Pearl."
• I will try to make the first night of the after hours at the RIJF's "official" hotel (now called the Rochester Plaza Hotel, which by the way has a blog). There's some folks that I expect will drop by to sit in with Bob Sneider et al.

I've put a to the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival site in my left panel. I'll be putting up more special XRIJF features soon. Watch for them and for additional "picks" posts to come. I'm also going to try moving stuff around a bit, so watch for that as well and I apologize in advance if there are any hiccups along the way.  I'll try to have everything ready by the time June 12th rolls around.

I'm in Kansas, so it's still Friday and time to Take Five....

I'm out in S.E. Kansas visiting my parents again and hoping that the rain stops before the creek running next to the house becomes a river. While in Rochester, it's now Saturday, it's just turned 11:00 pm here. So it's still Friday here and time to "Take Five":

• On April 29th, Life.com opened up a gallery of images of Duke Ellington, who was was born on that day in 1899. The seventeen images range across his career and include Duke with other jazz greats like Stan Kenton (hamming it up with Duke on CBS) and Billie Holiday.
• For you working musicians in our readership, you might want to check out MusicianWages.com, the website for working musicians. A good place to start is the clear-eyed advice about using social media and other online tools in the post A Musician's Guide to Creating An Online Presence.
• In July of 1965, FBI agents came to drummer Max Roach’s apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and began asking questions about the people he knew, his involvement in the civil rights movement and his connections to black activists. Andrew Lehrens has written an interesting article, "Jazz and the FBI: Guilty Until Proven Innocent," that throws some light, based on recently discovered archive materials, on this interview of Roach and the FBI's treatment of other jazz artists during the 1960s.
• Although it will only be of help for you who have plans to visit the UK, or want to see where the cats who play in the UK series at this year's Rochester International Jazz Festival play when they're on their side of the pond, UK jazz radio JazzFM has created a map of jazz venues in the UK (and one in Mexico...). Perhaps we might do one for around here to add it to this site?
• Way more than most of us want to know about John Coltrane's Giant Steps from the site SongTrellis: Music, Musical Know-how and Music Technology For You.

So take five and explore. Let me know what you think in the comments ....There will be five more next week.