Jazz@Rochester

Live Shots: Jeremy Pelt jammin at Moe's

At Moe's with the East End guys ...

 

Live Shots: Johnny O'Neal & Jeremy Pelt at Exodus to Jazz

OK, I just made it for the end of the last set, but it was worth it... All Blues.

 

In addition to Pelt, O'Neal came with  Bassist Paul Sikivie, drummer Sharif Zeban, and one of his piano students Dillon Meek (who was playing when I came in, you should remember this guy's name as I'm sure we'll be seeing it and hearing him again). 

Live Shots: Rene Marie at Exodus to Jazz

The few of you who came out to hear René Marie at Exodus to Jazz were part of a wonderful night of music as her rich voice and beautifully written music fills the Lutheran Church of the Reformation (and a few eyes with tears...).

 

René Marie with Experiment in Truth—her fine trio with Kevin Bales, Piano; Kevin Hamilton; and Quentin Baxter—tearing up the house.

Live Shots: Kenny Garrett Quartet at Exodus To Jazz

Live in Hochstein Performance Hall kicking off the Exodus To Jazz season...

Johnny O'Neal wow'd the crowd with a tribute to Hank Jones....

D&C's "Jazz Stories" begin for the 2011 XRIJF

Every year one of the treats that comes out of the Democrat & Chronicle's ever-growing coverage of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival is the series of photo essays by Will Yurman and the "Jazz Stories" videos. [Update: Will Yurman is no longer part of the project as he has left Rochester to begin a gig at Penn State). The first of those videos, by Annette Lein (who has taken on the "Jazz Stories" project), was just released (I think today), with a short profile of talented bassist-vocalist Katie Ernst, who just graduated from Eastman School of Music, will stop off for a gig at the XRIJF on June 16th before continuing on her journey (are you heading back to Chicago area, Katie?). I've had an opportunity to see Katie play (and sing) and those of you who go to her Max gig are in for a treat. Her enthusiasm for music is infectious.

These videos and all of the XRIJF-related articles in the Democrat & Chronicle can be found on their redesigned site.

Visualizing Rochester jazz ... a regular post

With so many ways of taking and sharing live video available, starting today, I'm starting a "regular" (admittedly, nothing has been much regular about my postings recently except for Wednesdays) post showcasing videos of performances of local jazz artists and groups or of artists/groups who have strong ties to the Rochester area. What better way than to bring you a video recently sent to me by NYC artist pianist Enoch Smith Jr., a Rochester native now living in New Jesey, Remembering Rochester:

While I have a lot of source material to work with, I'd appreciate being pointed to additional links, especially to performances from further back in Rochester's rich jazz history.

Jazz Around Town: Still digesting, but it's Wednesday and time for some jazz listings....

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 Syracuse, Toronto and Saratoga.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

• Ted Nicolosi & Shared Genes @ Bistro 135, 6:30 pm
• Roof of the Night @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Mike Allen @ Lemoncello, 8:30 pm
• Filthy Funk All-Star Jam @ Lovin' Cup, 9:00 pm

Friday, June 25, 2010

• The Westview Project with Nick Brust @ Big Tree Inn, 46 Main St, Geneseo, 5:00 pm
• Ted Nicolosi & Shared Genes @ TC Hooligans-Webster, 5:30 pm
• Bobby Dibaudo Trio @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Ryan T Carey & El Rojo Jazz Band @ Thali of India, 7:00 pm
• Nostalgic Reunion @ Port of Pittsford Park, 7:00 pm
• Deborah Magone @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Fred Costello & Co. with Ted Losito @ Charlotte Harbor Fest, 8:30 pm
• The Moho Collective with Gary McNulty @ Boulder Coffee Co., 8:30 pm
• Shades of Grey @ Lemoncello, 9:30 pm

Saturday, June 26, 2010

• Footnote @ Rochester Harbor and Carousel Fest, Rochester NY, 6:00 pm
• Janet Beanman @ Bistro 135, 7:00 pm
• Ted Nicolosi & Shared Genes @ Jasmine's Asian Fusion, 7:30 pm
• Annie Wells @ Little Theatre Cafe, 8:30 pm
• Four on the Floor Quartet @ McArdle's, 1355 Fairport Rd Fairport, NY, 8:30 pm
• East End Jazz Boys @ Havana Moes, 9:30 pm
• Fred Costello & Co. with Ted Losito @ Charlotte Harbor Fest, 9:30 pm

Sunday, June 27, 2010

• Troup Street Jazz Jam Session @ Beale Street Cafe, 6:00 pm
• Bill Slater @ The Lodge at Woodcliff, 11:30 am
• Moondance @ Lovin' Cup, 7:00 pm
• Fred Costello & Co. with Ted Losito @ Charlotte Harbor Fest, 4:30 pm

Monday, June 28, 2010

• The White Hots @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Dave Rivello Jazz Ensemble @ Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, 7:30 pm

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

• Brad Batz @ Bistro 135, 6:30 pm
• Eastman Jazz Faculty Quartet @ Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, 7:30 pm

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

• Simon Fletcher Quartet @ Bistro 135, 6:00 pm
• Andy Stobie and the Greater Finger Lakes Jazz Orchestra @ Yates County Courthouse summer concert series, Penn Yan, NY, 6:30 pm
• Gilad Atzmon & Rich Siegel @ Billsboro Winery, 4760 W Lake Rd, Geneva, NY, 7:00 pm
• AMP @ Little Theatre Cafe, 7:30 pm
• Paul Hofmann @ Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music, 7:30 pm
• Paradigm Shift @ Pomodoro's Grill & Wine Bar, 8:00 pm

Heads Up ... Look for these Jazz Gigs in the Future

• Bop Arts presents Paul Smoker Notet @ Bop Shop Atrium, 274 N. Goodman St, Rochester, 8:00 pm
• The Marcus Roberts Trio with RPO in "Red, White & Boom" @ CMAC, July 3, 7:30 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!

But wait ... there's more! Deadline extended on the Rochester Jazz Start contest

Perhaps since the original deadline was getting close and there were only about 17 entries and to give bands and artists some more time to add their videos into the mix, the folks at the Rochester Jazz Star contest have extended the deadline for submitting videos to May 14th.  There were 20 up there at the time I posted this.

I've been watching some of the videos and there is a wide variety of talent from around Rochester, including some folks you see around town (and in my listings) and others you may not have heard of ... yet.

The contest is brought to us by Rochester International Jazz Festival sponsor Xerox in conjunction with the festival.  You can read more about the contest in my earlier post "Jazz festival sponsor Xerox brings jazz 'Idol' to Rochester in Jazz Star contest)".

Riffing the Links: The return (again) of riffing off some jazz links

I'm always finding new links to put out there for you, but sometimes I just don't get them into a post. You can also find occasional links on Twitter and the Jazz@Rochester Facebook page, some of which may be repeated here, but not all. So here are a few more... I'll look at my feeds and find some more soon.

• At the Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps, adult "jazz players and singers learn and play in a friendly, non-threatening environment, supported by a faculty of caring, professional jazz musician/educators and surrounded by kindred spirits" at a summer camp. There's one in the Rochester area July 25-30 at Nazareth College ... Jazz at Naz.
• If you want to know what's up on the Latin jazz scene, check out Chip Boaz's Latin Jazz Corner blog.
• TwitJazz.net was created recently to help build community among the growing numbers of folks from the jazz world—jazz fans, musicians, presenters, writers, and promoters (including yours truly)—who have established a presence on Twitter. The blog is being managed by a recent entry from D.C. @MaryamLovesJazz and veteran Pacific Northwest trombonist and jazz tweeter David Marriott (@RedRaspus) to help folks find more Twitter love for jazz. You can track and add to the conversations by using the hashtag #twitjazznet.
• My friends in the local group Margaret Explosion have been recording their live shows for quite awhile and have made some of those recordings and cuts from some of their CDs available online for streaming and download. If you caught their gigs at The Little or elsewhere you know they are a great group of musicians making some unique sounds.
• As I noted before, if you were unaware of it April is Jazz Appreciation Month, brought to you by the Smithsonian Institution. One of my jazz friends on Twitter has been doing some great things with it on her new blog Elements of Jazz.

If you have a jazz link to share with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send me an email by clicking on the Send an email to Jazz@Rochester link in the left panel.

CD brings the power of the words of Frederick Douglass together with the beauty of jazz

Please shelter this sister from the house of bondage till five OClock this afternoon - She will then be sent on to the land of freedom. Yours Truly Fredk

These words scrawled by abolitionist Frederick Douglass on a note to give safe passage on the Underground Railroad to a slave moving north to Canada are among other powerful words, culled from Douglass's speeches and writings and combined with the music that sprang from the African-American experience, in the wonderful new CD A Sky With More Stars, set to music by Philadelphia-based jazz bassist/composer Tyrone Brown, who has performed and recorded with Grover Washington, Jr., Max Roach and Odean Pope. The CD sets spoken word passages of Douglass’s writings and speeches with music composed by Brown and violinist John Blake and performed by an ensemble that also includes Bill Meek on piano, Craig McIver on drums, Melissa Locati, Beth Dzwil, Ron Lipscomb and Germaine Ingram. Douglass’s words are spoken by Paul Burgett. The idea for the CD came from Richard Peek, director of the Rare Books and Special Collection at the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester, which currently has a an exhibit on "Douglass in Rochester."

For more coverage of the CD, check out Jack Garner's January 22nd article CD combines power of Frederick Douglass, jazz ensemble in the D&C, Lee Mergner's article for JazzTimes.com Tyrone Brown Album Salutes Frederick Douglass, and Ron Netsky's review of the CD in City Newspaper. Additionally, Tom Hampson will play the entire CD on his radio show, Mostly Jazz, this weekend on WXXI AM1370 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm on Saturday, and repeating on WRUR FM88.5 from 8:00 to 9:00 PM on Sunday.

You can buy A Sky with No Stars from Amazon, directly from Tyrone Brown's publisher Dreambox Media, or from local record shops like the Bop Shop.

Seeing & hearing ... JazzCorner's JazzVision site let's you do both

Thought you might want to check out jazz site JazzCorner's JazzVision, which is the first videosharing site dedicated solely to jazz and blues videos for users to watch and even upload. Sign up is free if you want to join. Currently there are more than 1,200 videos, such as this one of the Dave Holland Quintet doing live at the 2002 Newport Jazz Festival with Robin Eubanks, Billy Kilson, Steve Nelson, Dave Holland, Chris Potter. You can search or browse by artist,instrument, groups, type of jazz, or even festivals (although RIJF hasn't uploaded any....).

Although not Friday, it's still time to take 5 (the Newport Edition)

The Newport Jazz Festival (and folk festival as well) seemed to be on their last legs recently, but legendary jazz promoter George Wein, stepped in with the health care products company CareFusion to save them. In honor of Newport, now George Wein's CareFusion Jazz Festival 55, which begins today in about 10 minutes, I'm going to give you five links related to this legendary festival. So...Take Five:

• While you check these out, why don't you listen to the festival itself? Like they did with the Newport Folk Festival last weekend, performances from Newport will be webcast live on National Public Radio website today from 11:45-2:00 pm and tomorrow from 12:00-6:00 pm.
• You can download a 12-track sampler of performers who will be playing Newport this weekend through NPR (and iTunes) as well here. These twelve tracks show the wide range of jazz artists that Wein is bringing together for Newport this year from Roy Haynes to the Vandermark 5, who appeared here Thursday night at the Bop Shop Atrium.
• Follow live coverage of the festival on Twitter by following NPR's @blogsupreme or the #newportjazz "hashtag" feed.
• Watch and listen to 10 minutes from Louis Armstrong's 1958 set at Newport.
• Back to NPR, where you'll find archives of the performances (including some that are not being broadcast, I think) if you can't catch them live. National Public Radio is really doing this up well. Perhaps we can interest them in the 2010 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival?

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

Before heading out to the Park Ave. Fest tomorrow ... why don't you Take Five?

Another weekend of festivals and summer (well, almost...) here in Rochester, but I have some more jazz links for you to check out:

• In case you hadn't heard, local jazzman Fred Costello, who has played the organ during Amerks hockey games for 32 seasons, was recently told his services would no longer be needed. On the bright side for Costello, as he noted in the D&C article on his departure, Costello will “be able to play more with my jazz band in local clubs this winter”.
• Back in June, NPR's weekly Take Five jazz sampler did a story on the evolution of the song Strange Fruit, a powerful protest against the lynchings of blacks and racism made famous by Billie Holiday who, with her pianist Sonny White, refashioned the poem and music of Abel Meeropol into Billie's deep cry of outrage that many of us know. Many have recorded this song. NPR's Take Five gives you five of them: Billie Holiday (of course), Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Rene Marie, and the Labor Camp Orchestra.
• On Jazz.com's The Dozens, jazz writer Ted Panken explores twelve essential Gil Evans tracks selected by his assistant from 1985 to his death and multiple-Grammy winning composer in her own right, Maria Schneider.
• There are a lot of good jazz blogs out there, so I'll keep pointing them out, especially those written by jazz writers with much more under their caps than the writer of this one—like Fred Kaplan's blog Jazz Messenger on the Stereophile site.
• Earlier this year three videos of a 1956 TV performance by the Dave Brubeck Quartet materialized showing the group after Brubeck became famous after a TIME magazine cover story but before Joe Morello and Eugene Wright replaced Joe Dodge and Norman Bates on drums and bass. Doug Ramsey, who has more than a passing acquaintance with Brubeck through his exploration of the life and music of Paul Desmond, links to these three videos and provides some context in O Rare Dave Brubeck on Rifftides.

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

Inspire the development of more "Chops" around Rochester

One of the things that you discover during the Rochester International Jazz Festival is that many of the high school jazz ensembles around here have "chops" way beyond those that my high school group had back in the 70s. I'm always impressed by them both as groups and some of the individual players.

I was recently contacted about a new documentary film called Chops. The film is about one high school jazz band's experience at the Essentially Ellington high school jazz competition, following them from their hometown of Jacksonville, Florida to NYC to participate in the 11th annual competition at Lincoln Center. The film has been endorsed by Jazz at Lincoln Center where the competition and festival is held and was screened there, film festivals throughout the country. One cool aspect about this film is how its makers and distributors are promoting it (in addition to contacting jazz blogs, that is). As jazz festivals and publications are hurting in today's economy, the film's distributor has set Chops up to be a great fund raising tool for jazz-related organizations, distributing it through a screening approach that allows anyone who hosts a screening to keep 100% of the proceeds from a screening. You can view the trailer for Chops at its official website and check out their unique approach to the screenings. There is also a page on Facebook to get updates about the film.

XRIJF Opening Night, a video story by Annette Lein and other D&C multimedia

There's a lot going on out there in the coverage of this year's Rochester International Jazz Festival, so check it out. Here's a video montage from the opening night, brought to you by the Democrat & Chronicle:

Of course, the D&C is also doing the multimedia page they have had in the past on their site, including Wil Yurman's Jazz Tales where Yurman mixes great images of artists with short interviews (as of this writing, only Peter King is there, but there will be more each day). Anna Reguero and other D&C arts writers are posting about the jazz fest in the HerRochester Arts Blog.

Ring, Ring ... Jazz@Rochester calling in from the 2009 XRIJF

Click on the bar below to hear a live moblog from the 2009 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in Rochester, New York. Over at Christ Church for Peter King Quartet ...

Live Jazz@Rochester Updates from RIJF

Ring, Ring ... Jazz@Rochester calling in from the 2009 XRIJF

Click on the bar below to hear a live moblog from the 2009 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in Rochester, New York.

Hoofing (and huffing and puffing...gotta get more exercise) over to hear Billy Bang Quintet at the new venue, the Xerox Auditorium....

Live Jazz@Rochester Updates from RIJF

Ring, Ring ... Jazz@Rochester calling in from the 2009 XRIJF

Click on the bar below to hear a live moblog from the 2009 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in Rochester, New York. 

The festival opens on Jazz Street ...

Live Jazz@Rochester Updates from XRIJF

"Finale" of last year's RIJF on WXXI tomorrow, hosted by Tom Hampson

Mostly Jazz Host Tom Hampson, heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on WXXI AM1370, will be in the studio to present the final episode of WXXI’s 2008 Rochester International Jazz Festival (RIJF) series. Hampson, who was involved in the 1970s WXXI production of the At the Top jazz series, and this month will be celebrating his 50th year of playing jazz on the radio in Rochester, will introduce the final episode of the RIJF series on the 2008 Rochester International Jazz Festival, which airs tomorrow, June 2 at 9:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV21. The Rochester International Jazz Festival series was shot during last year's festival. Shot in high-definition and recorded in the historic Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, the series tries to capture the essence of the Rochester International Jazz Festival. This final episode includes selections from Catherine Russell, Slide Hampton, and The Bad Plus, and provides sights and sounds in and around the nine-day festival.

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.

It's Friday, so Take Five ....

It's Take Five Friday and I have a fresh batch of links for you to sample:

• I'm not the only place where you'll find Take Five.  Although not necessarily on Friday, NPR's Take Five: A Weekly Jazz Sampler is meant to help you to get to know jazz fives songs at a time.
• Going on a trip somewhere, here's CNN's list of nine great jazz joints across the world.
• It's hard to get a blog started and especially one like Improvised Communications, which is setting up shop to promote creative improvised music. Tom Kohn at the Bop Shop will probably be a reader, so will I.
• Mark Grube shares his thoughts about the Cassandra Wilson concert at the State Theater in Ithaca last Sunday in 'Til There Was You in his blog over at WXXI.
• You've seen the big pictures around downtown Rochester. They're the result of the Big Picture Rochester project. There's a photo essay on BPR's site showing them putting up the one with Wynton Marsalis and Bob Sneider from the Rochester International Jazz Festival, at the Rochester Plaza Hotel.

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

It's Take Five Friday...time for fresh jazz links

It's Take Five Friday (almost Saturday, but I had a thing...) and a fresh batch of links for you:

• Howard Mandel searches for joyous music after the election of Obama, but "can't think of a movement akin to the bells ringing in Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' in the repertoire of Miles, Ornette, Cecil or Coltrane, Mingus, Monk, Bird and Diz, or Ellington, Basie and Goodman . . . . Jazz seems to temper its joy with the thought that the struggle continues and it's folly to forget that for even a moment." Read The jazz of victory and celebration in Mandel's Jazz Beyond Jazz blog.
• Another favorite of mine, Rifftides, opened my eyes to the fact that one of the characters of the story of my earlier life in Chicago, Studs Terkel, wrote a book Giants of Jazz, published in 1957, that ends with Coltrane who was just emerging. I didn't know that! Doug Ramsey's post has some great links to learn more about this amazing individual spirit.
• In case you missed it, "Over the Rainbow," played by ukelele sensation Jake Shimabukuro at last year's Rochester International Jazz Festival.
• As the Jazz Impact website says, "[g]ood jazz and high performance business depend on creativity, agility, empathy and flexibility."  Jazz Impact is a company that uses jazz to teach businesses and their employees the skills of collaboration.
• The sweet Ms. Ella Fitzgerald sings "Useless Landscape" by Jobim in Montreux in 1969 with Tommy Flanagan.
  

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

It's Take Five Friday and I have some fresh links for you.

It's Take Five Friday and a fresh batch of links for you:

• The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, which has a mission to offer public school-based jazz education programs for young people around the world, has begun a series of online animated Journeys Into Jazz to teach kids about jazz. The host is Herbie Hancock and uses his Memorized Logarhythmic Deporter to Yesteryear (or MeLoDY) to transport kids back to the roots of jazz.
• Just some Brazilians in a garage on a farm with their guitars and a tractor holding down the beat on Sweet Georgia Brown (with thanks to Mike Kaupa and Carl Atkins). Actually, I have no idea where they're at. I had Brazilian YouTube hijack my browser for awhile... When it happened again this week, I started wondering why all the jazz videos were coming up on Brazil's YouTube.
• The website/blog of the Esencia Latina Radio program on Jazz 90.1, which details everything happening in the world of salsa, merengue, bachata, etc., every Saturday from 6-10am NY Time on Jazz 90.1
• You think I have a lot of links, you should check out the links on Kurt Elling's site.
• A community with some sax appeal ... Saxophone People.

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

Please jump into the Jazz@Rochester image pool

I love to add pictures to the posts on this blog, but have a lousy camera and always forget to bring it to gigs anyway. A number of blogs that I've come across have created image pools to draw new images from and I thought . . . why not? . . . I'd love to start highlighting images taken by readers on Jazz@Rochester. So I created the Jazz@Rochester image pool on Flickr (I think you need to have a Flickr account to do so). If you take some images at a gig or have jazz-oriented pictures that you'd like to share with other Jazz@Rochester readers, then I invite you to come by join the group.  To get things started, I've posted a few of the Listings "wordles" and some images that I've taken from the past couple of years at jazz gigs.  Make sure that you take a look at the group rules and make sure you indicate how you would like attribution when you leave images (if you don't, I'll use your Flickr ID anyway).  Let me know what you think in the comments.

So, if you're interested, visit the image pool, take a dip, leave an image or two.

Take Five Friday ... take "Time Out" for jazz exploration

I thought I'd start a new regular post on Fridays, which I've decided to call Take Five Friday and designed a special image (with a deep bow to the Dave Brubeck Quartet album Time Out on which Paul Desmond's Take Five is found).  Each Friday, I'll do a post with five links to jazz-oriented sites and sounds I've come across out there in the wide world of the "interwebs" that were unique, made me stop and listen or read, or I thought my be interesting. Here is the first set:

• Doug Ramsey reviews McCoy Tyner's new disc Guitars on Rifftides.
• Chatting With Jimmy Cobb, Kind of Blue's Last Surviving Player: Remembering the greatest jazz album of all time, 50 years on (by Rob Trucks in The Village Voice, Oct. 8, 2008).
• A jazz blog, This Shape of Jazz, with the musings of Matthew Ditullo about different albums primarily from the 1960s of the avant-garde, but also touches on bop, hard-bop, soul jazz and post-bop.
• Howard Mandel describes a recent bit of fun that Steven Colbert poked at jazz in Jazz Beyond Jazz.
• Billie Holiday singing Fine and Mellow in 1957 with a historic lineup of greats, including Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, and Mal Waldron.

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

Baby needs a new pair of headphones . . . Support jazz radio in Rochester by pledging to Jazz 90.1

Local public radio station Jazz 90.1 has kicked off its Fall 2008 membership campaign to support jazz radio. Jazz90.1 receives no funding from the Greece Central School District, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the state or federal government. Therefore, the station has to come to the jazz listeners in Rochester periodically to help raise their operating budget and get through the year. And no. . . they probably won't spend it on headphones....

Consider supporting Jazz90.1 with a donation at any level. They've eve  got "thank you" gifts (and they aren't those tote bags either).To make a pledge of support, call 585.966.5299, toll free to 1.800.790.0415, or you can pledge securely by clicking here.

The Rochester International Jazz Festival...now in High Def!

Our local PBS station, WXXI will begin broadcasting performances from the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival in high definition on Sunday at 7:00 pm on WXXI-HD 1011/DT21.2 and PBS-HD. The show, has played on PBS stations nationwide, but will now be presented in high-definition.  The series is six-hour long episodes shot in the historic Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music, including:

• Bill Frisell Trio: 7 p.m. Sunday, July 20th, 4 a.m. Monday and 11 p.m. July 25th.
• Geri Allen Trio: 7 p.m. on July 27th, July 28th at 4 a.m. and 11 p.m. Aug. 1. We interviewed Geri Allen last year.
• Harry Allen Quartet: 7 p.m. on Aug. 3rd and 11 p.m. Aug. 8th.
• Christian Scott Band: 7 p.m. on Aug. 4th, 4 a.m. on Aug. 11 and 11 p.m. Aug. 15.
• James Moody: 7 p.m. Aug. 17, 4 a.m. Aug. 18 and 11 p.m. Aug. 22.
• Don Byron’s Ivey Divey: 7 p.m. on Aug. 24th, 4 a.m. on Aug. 25th and 11 p.m. on Aug. 29.

Check the schedule.  They did the same for the 2008 RIJF, so we look forward to seeing those films.

Jazz on (and in) film . . . at a discount from Jazz 90.1 and the Dryden Theatre at Eastman House

Jazz90.1 members (i.e., those of us who forked over a donation in the past year and have a MemberCard) can enjoy some great jazz in and on films this weekend in "A Prelude to the Jazz Festival" at the Eastman House's Dryden Theatre at a discount.  The films are being  presented with support from the Rochester International Jazz Festival.  The films will include:

• Friday, June 6th at 8:00 pm: The Silent Partner (Elliot Gould & Christopher Plummer) with a score by Oscar Peterson.
• Saturday, June 7th at 8:00 pm: Let's Get Lost (biopic on Chet Baker).
• Sunday, June 8th at 7:00 pm: Elevator to the Gallows (Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet) with a score by Miles Davis, preceded Jammin with the Blues (Lester Young, Illinois Jacquet, Jo Jones, and other jazz greats).

Jazz 90.1 members will be admitted at the museum member price of $4 each. Just show your current MemberCard at the box office to receive the discount. (Actually, Jazz90.1 members can now enjoy Dryden Theatre movies at the discount price of $4 all year around). 

Special webcast to premiere "Legends of Jazz Presents the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters" TV Show

In honor of April, which is Jazz Appreciation Month , LRSmedia is debuting starting today the television show Legends of Jazz Presents the 2007 NEA Jazz Masters as a special webcast premiere in conjunction with the entire online jazz community. This one-hour television special, soon to come to your local PBS station hosted by 2007 NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis on his Legends of Jazz program, will feature conversation and musical performances by bandleader and pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi, trombonist Curtis Fuller, vocalist Jimmy Scott, flutist Frank Wess, and saxophonist Phil Woods. Special guest and co-host Nancy Wilson will interview Ramsey Lewis about his music, 50-year career and his selection as an NEA Jazz Master. The special is co-produced by LRSmedia and Chicago's WTTW National Productions. It is filmed in state-of-the-art high definition.

The NEA Jazz Masters Awards are the highest honors that the U.S. government bestows upon jazz musicians and are given in recognition of the jazz—one of America's greatest gifts to the world. As Lewis says, "This special 2007 NEA Jazz Masters program, like the others in our Legends of Jazz series, provides not only exciting performances, but showcases that unique energy sparked when great artists respond to each other in conversation and through music."

In conjunction with Jazz Appreciation Month, LRSmedia is making the program available to websites around the world. More than 50 websites will participate in this amazing online event by embedding a video player on their website. Unfortunately, the embedded player requires too wide a berth to host on my site, so you'll have to travel to the Legends of Jazz site to watch the show by clicking on the image below.  Or you can wait until it's on television...its up to you.

Pledge early, pledge often, pledge now . . . Jazz 90.1 needs your support!

Jazz 90.1, our local jazz radio station (and one of the few left in the country), is going to start its Spring 2008 Membership Campaign on March 12th. I'm going to pony up, so please show your supportand help them reach their goal of $50,000 for the drive, which will be running from the 12th until the goal is met. The station relies on your support to stay on the air. All donations are tax deductible.

If you make your online donation to Jazz90.1 between now (actually it was last Wednesday, but I just saw the email) and Wednesday March 12th at 6:00 am, you can get a special bonus CD or DVD from the Jazz 90.1 prize closet in addition to the thank you gifts they are making available at each level. Those interested can also make pledges by calling (585) 966-5299, 1-800-790-0415, or pledge securely on line at www.jazz901.org, where you can listen live any time, anywhere.