OK, I've given up on the wrap up post for the 2010 XRIJF. Too much on the plate, so I'm going to do something better. Soon I'll put up a link to a short survey so we can hear what YOU think. I'll add my 2 cents at some point, but I think it's best I just move on. You probably don't lose much sleep not knowing what I think about the jazz festival anyway...
Until then, here are some listings for you for live jazz in and around Rochester for the next seven days. Enjoy your July 4th Holiday!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
- Mambo Kings @ Granite Mills Park, High Falls, 12:15 pm
- Jazz Dawgs @ Bistro 135, 6:30 pm
- Mike Allen, AKOS' Avatars @ Beale Street Cafe, 7:00 pm
- Matt Valerio @ The Grill at Strathallan, 7:30 pm
- Bob Sneider @ Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, 7:30 pm
- Bop Arts presents Paul Smoker Notet @ Bop Shop Atrium, 274 N. Goodman St, Rochester, 8:00 pm
- Filthy Funk with Sophistafunk @ Dub Land Underground, 10:00 pm
Friday, July 2, 2010
- Sofrito @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
- Bop Shop presents 14 Fridays with the Mambo Kings @ In the courtyard of the Village Gate, 274 N Goodman, Rochester, 6:00 pm
- Bill Dobbins Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
- Ryan T Carey & El Rojo Jazz Band @ Thali of India, 7:00 pm
- Jim Nugent Trio @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
- Gap Mangione and New Blues Band @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 8:30 pm
Saturday, July 3, 2010
- Dan White Quartet @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
- The Marcus Roberts Trio with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in "Red, White & Boom" @ CMAC, 7:30 pm
- Ted Nicolosi & Shared Genes @ Jasmine's Asian Fusion, 7:30 pm
- Bob Sneider Quartet @ The Grill at Strathallan, 8:30 pm
- Gap Mangione and New Blues Band @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 8:30 pm
- East End Jazz Boys @ Havana Moes, 9:30 pm
Sunday, July 4, 2010
- Bill Slater @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 11:30 am
- Gap Mangione Big Band @ Sodus Bay Lighthouse Museum, 7606 N. Ontario St., Sodus Point, NY, 2:00 pm
- Troup Street Jazz Jam Session @ Beale Street Cafe, 6:00 pm
- Mike Allen @ Lemoncello, 9:00 pm
Monday, July 5, 2010
- John Nyerges @ Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, 7:30 pm
- White Hots @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
- Quinn Lawrence & Anna Reguero (jazz and swing dance instruction) @ Flat Iron Cafe, 9:00 pm
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
- Michael Sinicroppi @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
- Nostalgic Jazz Reunion @ Summer Concert Series, Ferris Hills at WestLake, Canandaigua, NY, 7:00 pm
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
- Paradigm Shift @ Pomodoro's Grill & Wine Bar, 8:00 pm
Heads Up ... Look for these Jazz Gigs in the Future
- Jazz on the Pond with Chaka Khan, Rick Braun, Graham Keir, Chris Ziemba and Trio Slaye, Mark Stephens, Dwight Sills @ Cranberry Pond, NY, July 10, 3:00 pm
- Najee, Tom Browne, Roy Ayers, and Jimmie Highsmith Jr. in “Sax in the City” @ Riverside Festival Site, Gates, July 21, 5:00 pm, Music, 7:00 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.The aim is to give you a one stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Only start times are listed, visit or call the venue for more details (the sites for many are in the right panel). 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!






I'm playing catch-up at work and here at home, so still digesting my thoughts on the 9th Rochester International Jazz Festival. Look for a series of posts on it in the near future. In the meantime, here's the listings for live jazz in and around Rochester for the next seven days. Now that the XRIJF is over, there are some other festivals nearby starting this weekend in 
Mixing sax player and chanteuse with equal measure and a lot of cuteness, Grace Kelly was a
big crowd pleaser (the line for the first set was all the way to Broad Street and many
were turned away; same for the second). But once you get past the wow! factor of the amazing amount of talent Kelly has on her instrument, as a singer and as a composer (and how long and with whom she has grown up as a player), and at the ripe old age of 18, the wow wears off a little and the room she has to grow becomes more apparent. But who would expect her to spring from the head of Lee Konitz, et al fully formed? She's an accomplished performer and has been for quite a few years. Kelly will definitely be a talent to watch grow, but the soul and emotion that I heard in Billy Harper's playing and elsewhere this year just wasn't there yet.
Finished up the night with Steve Turré's trombone and conch shells. I saw Turré perform at Milestones a few years back and he is a master at his instruments (both marine gastropod and brass). I was so tired I almost didn't go, but thought better of it. I saw a weather change begin to throw drops around, so I got a beer and a sandwich and got under Eastman's big awning to wait for his Kilbourn Hall show. So glad that I did. His special guess Billy Harper on tenor and his regular quartet of Xavier Davis (piano), Corcoran Holt (bass), and Dion Parsons (drums) formed a tight fit with Turré's trombone and conch playing. Turré is always trying to make sounds; he's almost OCD up there, comping by picking up one conch shell or another to get just the right sound out of it, or one of several cowbells with different ringers to get just that right amount (no, no one yelled "more cowbell!"). Unlike the first set where I read that he only played the shells a couple of times, Turré worked them in a lot in the long second set, beginning with the first on the play list, the cut A Light Within from their new CD due out in August.
As the
Here are some random notes from my fifth night of the Rochester International Jazz Festival. Attended a media event for the
Updated:Didn't have time to sum it up the fourth or fifth nights of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival. Check out the tweets and short posts for Day 4. In short, I made a few detours and then got some much needed sleep.
Charnett Moffett did just that, although I guess I shouldn't say "topped" as the two sets were as different as can be. Both are just incredible monsters on their instruments. Moffett spent 3/4 of his second set playing solo bass, bringing his band mates (a bit more than a trio) out at a trickle starting with sitar (someone correct me if it was not actually a sitar) and ending with piano and trumpet. That he held that audience in their seats for that amount of time with only him and his bass was a tribute to the excellence and intensity of his playing. Toward the end of the set, while he was blistering his fingers and our ears on electric bass with his band mates, the intensity may have reached critical mass and ignited a flame somewhere in Harro East as a fire alarm started to ring, repeating every few seconds. While everyone looked around to see if someone with apparent authority was telling them to head for the doors, and some sniffed for smoke,
As I noted in my 


















