Jazz@Rochester

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.

Bonerama goes back to high school . . . Pittsford-Sutherland, that is

I was contacted recently by Ben, a student at Pittsford-Sutherland High School (which, by the way, has a Business Department with kids learning marketing . . . surprise, surprise), who let me know that Bonerama, a great New Orleans brass funk band fronted by no less than four trombones, will be playing a concert at the school to benefit the Arabi Wrecking Krewe of New Orleans, which is a nonprofit that has organized volunteers, many of whom are musicians or former musicians from the New Orleans area, to provide disaster assistance to victims of the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Proceeds of the benefit will go to help rebuild homes for musicians in NOLA.

Many of you might have heard Bonerama play one or more of a number of great sets at the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival, including one that we really enjoyed at the Montage where the combined firepower of those four frontmen almost knocked us off our chairs. If you missed them at the festival, you should really try to catch them. Check out their cover of the Led Zeppelin tune The Ocean on the band's MySpace page to see (well, hear) what I mean.

Bonerama's coming to town (OK, near town) on December 6th at 7:308:00 pm (based on the group's website, they're also holding a workshop with the students, which is cool). The concert will be at Pittsford-Sutherland's auditorium (the high school is at 55 Sutherland Street in Pittsford, NY) Adult tickets are $12 and student tickets are $10. They will also be available at the door for $12 per student and $15 per adult.Tickets will be sold through Wegmans stores.  The Sutherland Jazz Band will also be performing.

Come out and hear a band that really has to be heard live to be appreciated and support a great cause at the same time!

I thought I was late . . . Another voice heard on the RIJF

I actually haven't forgotten that I had promised another post on the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival. Still have that one in the works (had to wait at least until my Geri Allen interview was posted), but just noticed in my Allaboutjazz.com feed in the left panel that Robert Iannapollo has written up his thoughts on RIJF 2007 for the online magazine.  Thought you might want to read his take on what we all agree was a great 6th Annual RIJF.

Here they are:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Flash! Jazz Pianist Geri Allen Does Interview with Rank Amateur!

On June 8th, the first evening of the Rochester International Jazz Festival, I conducted my first "jazz interview" with pianist Geri Allen. It was a wonderful experience.

Ms. Allen invited us into the "green room" at Kilbourn Hall in the Eastman School of Music, where she had performed a killer early set in Kilbourn kicking off the 6th Annual RIJF.  While I've edited out an interruption toward the end, and made a few other adjustments to try to make it easier to hear me or Ms. Allen, it is pretty much as we recorded it.  I left it as is as I think it is a true document of the experience.  Clearly, my interview style could use some work but I think that Ms. Allen more than made up for that with her thoughtful responses. This is an artist that knows herself and where she is going.

In addition to Ms. Allen's voice and mine, the other voice you'll hear on the podcast is my wife Dianna.  She promised me going in that she'd just take notes . . . but anyone who knows Dianna knows that when she hears something that moves her, it is impossible for her to contain herself. I think you'll agree that her participation was invaluable in making the interview a unique document. 

Pardon the sound quality, but my "professional" equipment was a Griffin iTalk microphone plugged into my iPod Nano. The delay in posting this interview is my bad timing . . . it took me a week after the end of the festival to have the time to do the editing (and learn the Audacity software I used to do the editing). By that time, Ms. Allen was near to leaving for a European tour and I had promised I'd send her a copy to hear before publishing it on the blog. We finally connected over the weekend and she wrote it was "good to go".  So, here it is ... a bit over 11 minutes:

I note one thing . . . Geri Allen indicated all she needs to come back to play in Rochester is an invitation.  Someone going to step up?

You Never Stop Learning . . . RIJF 2007 Provides Some Lessons

Now that I'm done casting my "greater blogger than thou" stones, I think it is only fair to look back with a critical eye on Jazz@Rochester during the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival. While this year was a year where a bunch of new doors opened and this blog had unprecedented traffic and impact on festival-goers, I couldn't help but feel that I hadn't really fully realized the opportunities that were presented.  This post is just a mea culpa of sorts, to show that I'm not oblivious to my many shortcomings (I am oblivious to many things . . . just ask my wife), and a sort of blueprint for next year.  I'll just list a few bullet points:

• While I had a media access pass (as well as the Club Pass that I bought LONG before receiving the media access), I asked for it much too late and with my other responsibilities to work and our business didn't have enough time to do the leg work to set up the interviews even for the artists for whom I requested contact information and be ready to conduct an interview that wouldn't be a waste of their time.
• I did an interview with pianist Geri Allen on the first night of the festival. It was a wonderful experience. I think that despite my less than stellar interview skills, Ms. Allen provided me some real gems about her and her music (and I hope to be publishing the results soon in these pages). However, the experience also gave me an appreciation for what goes into doing them well and I dropped further efforts.  There were others doing interviews of the artists SO much better (I've been listening to the whole lot of them since, Jason, and you're a pro!). Although I want to try the interview thing some more, I need to find a niche.
• I admit it . . . my moblogging from the festival became old pretty fast.  I want to think about how I use it in the future as I think it is a great tool (as do Jason and Seth) that has potential for adding a great immediacy to coverage. I'm thinking of doing more "man in the street" (or more "person in line") interviews and "on the spot" reports. What would you like to know?
• I was unable to really provide images in posts (although, again, so many people were doing a really good job of that), which I love to include when possible.  With the media access pass, I was more restricted than if I'd just been there as a "civilian".  I didn't have the additional photography credential necessary (or perhaps I misunderstood?). My camera really wasn't up to the task, anyway.
• I didn't write enough.  I didn't have my laptop with me at the festival and at the pace I was hitting shows wouldn't have had much time to do any real writing if I had.  That left me the option of writing when I came home at 1-2 am most nights of the festival (with a few extending beyond 3 am), and then going into work (at which I sit at a computer and write).  This 46 year old body can only take so much.  I had so much to say, but I knew that something had to give.  That's why I'm still writing about the RIJF almost two weeks later.

OK, enough with the hair shirt. This blog and what it has become over the past years I've been writing it, who it has introduced me to in the Rochester jazz and blogging community, and the opportunities it has created made this year's RIJF a watershed for me.  Also, it was a lot of damn fun!

OK, one more to go . . . wherein I'll join Seth in putting some things out there for next year's Rochester International Jazz Festival.

Traditional Media Try Their Hands at the New Media Thang . . . Keep Trying!

During the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival, the traditional media in Rochester continued their flirtation in using social media tools to reach additional readers. The "alternative" newspaper City Newspaper incorporated the RIJF into the music "blog" they started last year. The daily Democrat & Chronicle also had a "blog" (although the critic's podcast that they ventured last year did not return).

I use the term "blog" here loosely.  Both are called "blogs" and bear a resemblance to a blog in that they have posts in reverse chronological order, written in a less formal and "personal" style, and monthly archives. However, that is where the resemblance ends. The problem is that there is no "social" in their "social media." They never really joined the conversation and community that was forming around this year's RIJF, content to just continue to write articles that could have just as well been published in print.

Our merry little band of bloggers and podcasters (Seth, Ken, Jason, Tracey, Jane and others) wrote about the 2007 RIJF, published photos, linked to and commented in each others blogs. That's how we originally found each other (Ken and Seth have been blogging the RIJF for much longer than I have). This year we really started to form a community online.  We also linked to and sent trackbacks to both the D&C and City Newspaper blogs, in part as an attempt to draw them into the community, but mostly because they were providing different perspectives on the artists we were hearing (and hearing artists we weren't) and we wanted our readers to be exposed to yet other sources for information about the RIJF.  I can't speak for the other, but I held back an impulse to not link to the D&C and City Newspaper blogs.  It seemed to me that they were either not interested or couldn't be bothered with joining our conversation or leading their readers to the many other voices covering the RIJF. The fact is that the writers in the D&C and City Newspaper blogs were using their credentials to gain access to artists that I didn't have (to be fair, however, it is probably that I didn't take advantage of the access I had). Although I had a media pass, I never really felt in the club and often felt like I didn't know the secret handshake. Oh, and then there's that pesky day job in legal publishing, the 20+ years of age, and a body that really shouldn't be staying out until after 1 or 2 am for 9 days straight.  The access (and stamina) of the young D&C "bloggers" Anna Reguero and Jann Nyffeler (except for one post by the more veteran reporter Jack Garner) resulted in some interesting and, at times, compelling, writing about the artists and their experiences of the RIJF that I wanted to share with my readers. That's one reason I blog—to aggregate the sources of information that are available about the subject I'm passionate about, i.e., live jazz music here in Rochester. However, if you look at the D&C or the City Newspaper "blogs" the only links you'll find in the D&C blog are those in the few comments or trackbacks that I (and perhaps one other) left on them (City has some more comments, but is also linkless). Why is that? 

While it may just be inattention, I think it is more about not really "getting" it.  By not joining the conversation and community that is developing, the D&C and City Newspaper are squandering one of the best tools for being "found" and read on the Internet—the blog. The choice may have been conscious or not and may partly be a result of the fear that traditional media have of the inroads being made by us in the blogosphere into what was once their sole province.  As we tell blogging clients, the conversation will be going on with or without you.  It would be so much more interesting for all of our readers if it's the former rather than the latter.

What Just Happened Here? Some Thoughts On RIJF 2007

As I said in an earlier post, I have quite a lot to say following this year's Rochester International Jazz Festival, which was a watershed for me and for this blog. This will be one of several posts exploring my thoughts and feelings.

This year's RIJF was my introduction into being part of "media" and this blog's introduction to so many new readers (over 1200 unique visitor dropped in during the nine days of the festival). It was about hanging out with my friends and fellow new media folks Ken, Seth, Jane, and Jason.  It was about seeing my friends on Jazz Street and in the clubs, including those who I only really meet during the RIJF. It was about meeting new friends. It was about finding new sounds, dancing and clapping, and hearing world class musicians play compelling, innovative music. Mostly, this year's RIJF was a blast!

I haven't disclosed it before in the blog, but this year the publicity staff at RIJF (thanks, Jean!) gave Jazz@Rochester and I a media pass and contact information for a list of artists whom I hoped to interview. This access provided me the cred, I guess, to set up an interview with Geri Allen and get pretty far in sitting down with Fred Hersch, Trio Beyond, and others (by the way, the I hope to have the results of the interview with Ms. Allen up here soon as a podcast). It was a wonderful opportunity, but ultimately it was one that I used somewhat sparingly for a number of reasons. After I sat down with Ms. Allen (with my wife Dianna), I realized how much work it is to do interviews (and gained some respect for those who do it in a more professional capacity).  I didn't want to ask the usual questions, I wanted to get the artist to talk about their music in a new way (at least from what I was hearing) and found out in that first interview how much work it was to be prepared enough to find the way to that result.  In addition, there was a lot of legwork involved just in setting up the interviews.  I plan on doing more of it in the future, but decided this time not to waste the artists' time and keep others from getting the limited time with them. Before this year I had been only an observer, a fan. Now I was a participant. I wasn't entirely ready for that, especially given the need to continue to try to keep to my 9-to-5 job (OK, I was on Jazz Street at 4:30 most days).

That said, the media pass represented something else that I had felt was already happening before this year's RIJF--the arrival of Jazz@Rochester as something more than a hobby.  Although last year had seen some toes dipped in the water, this was also the year that a community of those who are using new media like blogs, moblogging and podcasts came together and formed a community focused on bringing the Rochester International Jazz Festival to Rochester and the world in new ways. I plan on exploring this some more later.

Nearly 1,200 people came to my site during the nine days of the festival and many of them found the RIJF site through Jazz@Rochester, which is a lot for a site like that focused on one narrow subject in a limited market. I'm sure Ken, Seth and Jason experienced a major uptick in their traffic as well. I received a number of emails and comments from people who had never been on the site before. In line at Kilbourn or elsewhere, when I told my line-mates about Jazz@Rochester I often heard "Oh . . . I've been on that site!" or "You're the one who does that...?" or "Oh . . . you're a blogger...." While I felt that I wasn't able to fully realize some of the promise these new technologies have to offer, my missteps and the things I was able to accomplish provided guidance for what worked and what didn't that I'll be using in next year.

Blogging really is about conversation.  Really.  In addition to a conversation between bloggers, this thing works best when there is a conversation between the person publishing a blog and those who read it. So, tell me what you think of what went on in these pages during for the 9 days of the RIJF. What worked for you?  What didn't?  What was helpful?  What was just plain old lame?  What would you like to see more of in the future?  Leave a comment by clicking on the comment link below and tell me what you think.

Looking back . . . Some missing highlights from the RIJF

My life during the Rochester International Jazz Festival was frenzied at best. Nine days of music from around 4:00 until the wee hours of the next morning.  I missed writing about several nights, including some that have left a lasting impression on me, so this post is to catch those "missing posts":

• Trio Beyond: I was looking forward to this concert as I had their most recent CD Saudades (AllAboutJazz.com review here) and had already begun wearing a groove in the it. With masters at the helm, including John Scofield on guitar, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Larry Goldings on organ, Saudades is a two-CD record of a blistering live set in tribute to Tony Williams' jazz/fusion group Lifetime. I came into Eastman Theater and saw the double Leslie speakers of Larry Goldings' Hammond B3 and knew that all was right with the world (I have a thing for the B3). John Scofield twiddled with his guitar and brought out incredible sounds, DeJohnette showed us how it is done on the drums and Goldings made that B3 sing and laid down the bass.  It was unfortunate that so many of those who came for Jean Luc Ponty didn't stay to hear the whole set.  I realize they were very different sounds and some were wondering why they were programmed together (although I expect it was for the very reason of the juxtaposition of their very different approaches and hope that some of the crowd would stay and be exposed to some new sounds).
• Bonerama: I couldn't help thinking that these 6 guys playing trombones (four of them), sousaphone, guitar and drums from NOLA seemed to me to be a group of band nerds (weren't the nerdiest band nerds in your high school mostly trombone players) who found a way to be cool. Although, this night (I saw the 6pm show on Tuesday) I wouldn't say they were "cool", but rather a hot mess of sound. Think of the firepower of that kind of brass in the smallish confines of the Montage Grill (they were making the tent flaps move in the Big Tent the next day, for chrissakes!).  We were up on our feet stomping and clapping within minutes. An infectious groove and really masterful playing kept them there, although it took a while for our ears to quit ringing.
• Matt Wilson Arts & Crafts: Matt Wilson was one of my surprise finds of the RIJF. I'm very glad I gave it a chance and went to hear their 10pm set.  Wilson is a very inventive drummer, using all parts including flipping the drum over and getting a scratchin thing going like he was MC Matt. His band—Danny Gary Versace on piano, Dennis Erwin on bass, and Matthew Rodriguez on trumpet—were tight. Wilson's range and inventive choices were shown by his set, which began with a tune by Rashaan Roland Kirk and ended with  singalong of John Lennon's Give Peace a Chance with Wilson walking out of the house with a snare drum strapped to his neck. A highlight was the tune Free Range Chicken, which Wilson proclaimed was a "combination of jazz and good farming practices."
• Midaircondo: Another find I didn't expect.  While I was afraid at first no one would get a chance to hear them as they fiddled with their huge assortment of electronics in the heat of the Reformation Lutheran Church.  John Nugent was standing at the side and almost had that look of "when do I tell them that it ain't going to happen" when, miraculously, the sound came to life and the performance began.  The two women of Midaircondo (at least this night) are sound sculptresses, layering electronic and sample sounds with their voices and a bass flute and saxophone. The computer geek in me wanted to know more on how they were doing it, but the music was often beautiful and compelling.

I've left so many out of this, but I really felt compelled to get something in this blog about these acts, all of which were groups that I might have missed (OK, I was going to Trio Beyond regardless) and all of which I will now want to hear more from.  I'm adding Wilson's new CD Scenic Route and Midaircondo's Shopping for Images (when the Bop Shop gets an order in) to my list of must haves. I already have Saudades and Bonerama's Bringing It Home.

Now let the wrap up posts begin! I have a lot to say about the last nine days of jazz and will start to explore my thoughts on what this year's RIJF meant for me, for my fellow travelers, and perhaps make some suggestions for next year, and hopefully a podcast of my first interview with Geri Allen (there is some editing and vetting to do on that, but I think you'll love what she had to say).  Seth—a machine of jazz this past nine days taking in a whopping 36 different acts—has already begun to turn a reflective eye on the festival.

I Blinked and It Was Over . . . Day 9 of the RIJF

After reacquainting myself with my jazz widow Dianna and our cats, I am finally ready to sit down and write something. These last nine days of the 2007 Rochester International Jazz Festival have been a blur of wonderful music, street food, and having a great time seeing old friends and meeting new ones.  I intend to explore the festival and some of the music in more detail in later posts for the rest of the month, including a wrap up episode (for this year) of the "Da Jazz" podcast with Seth and Ken (we will be recording it at one of the venues showing live jazz). I have a whole list of posts I'd like to do, along with continuing my usual posting on the local jazz scene and jazz music in general. You should also check out some of the other blogging (and podcasting) on the last day of the 6th Annual Rochester International Jazz Festival, including: Ken, Seth, Jason, D&C bloggers Anna Reguero and Jann Nyffeler, the cold storage over at The Refrigerator, and City Newspaper's Ron Netsky. You should also to head over to the D&C's jazz coverage to check out Jeff Spevak and the last reviews by Jack Garner and Will Yurman's photo essays (there's a lot of material and I'm never sure about the staying power of D&C links, so I'm just directing you to the festival's special section on their website). But first, a few notes on last night . . . .

The final night of the 2007 RIJF was just right. While Ken spent some time with his family and some ice cream, Seth and I (with my wife Dianna) caught Bill Frisell Trio in Kilbourn Hall. The set was fantastic, with mixmaster Frisell at the controls creating intricate layers of sound with his guitar and the many effects boxes at his feet and hands, backed by two great musicians—Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. I couldn't help but thinking that we has toying with the capacity crowd in the hall along with the knobs on his guitar as he and the band kept moving from one composition to another, giving the audience little time to react (or clap). Kept people on their toes, but in the end the long standing ovations allowed them to get it off their check. Like Don Byron, Frisell had a story about the Eastman School of Music, in which Kilbourn Hall is located.  He noted that while in high school he had applied to Eastman for clarinet.  While they accepted him, it was only into the music education program, not performance. Frisell said "f*ck that" and started playing guitar. So, if you're keeping score, that's two clarinetists, both rejected by Eastman, who both who went on to become world-class jazz musicians (one considered the foremost jazz clarinetist).  Go figure....

From Frisell, we all went over to the Reformation Lutheran Church to hear the Jens Winther European Quartet, which had a smorgasbord of European talent appearing with Dane Jens Winther on trumpet.  Although it was hotter than blazes in the sanctuary, Winther's group was hotter.

After some fine culinary repast on Jazz Street (ok, it was a cheeseburger), we headed over to Montage.  We almost blew it as the club was almost full by the time we arrived.  We found a place on the wall near the middle.  After MC Jason Crane whipped us into a lather, the Avishai Cohen Trio hit the stage. After a smokin opening number, Cohen announced that as he and his bandmates, Shai Maestro on piano and Mark Guiliana on drums, had been on a world tour and the RIJF date was the last gig on the tour.  The were "tired but happy" and he promised us a great show.  It was more than great. As Jason said as he exited the Montage—"holy crap." We had just experienced performance with so much energy,  musicianship, and sheer excitement that we just felt spent.  When we went in, we were discussing going over to catch the last after hours at the State Street Bar and Grill.  When we left we knew that anything we tried to do after that performance would seem lame in comparison. Our 2007 RIJF was over.  Tie a tag on that toe.

Ring, Ring . . . Moblogging from the RIJF

This is a live update from from the Rochester International Jazz Festival in Rochester, NY.  Click on the bar to find out . . . it may be an observation or interview on the street, suggestions for later shows, updates on crowds and lines, and other things to allow you to experience some of the RIJF even if you're not here. Powered by Audioblog.com and Hipcast.com