Jazz@Rochester

I had a great time and heard some fantastic music ... but what do YOU think about XRIJF 2010?

As I noted before, I've given up doing a wrap up post on the 2010 edition of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival—too much water under the bridge after catching up at work and home following the nine days of the festival and 35 acts I saw while attending the XRIJF this year. I expect you all don't really want to hear much more from me about it, but we'd like to hear what you think. To that end, I've used Google Docs to create a short survey to get the thoughts of the readers who attended one or more days of this year's festival.

So, now that you've had some time to digest, please share your thoughts and comments on the 2010 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival on the Jazz@Rochester 2010 XRIJF survey. I'll be publishing some responses and will share them with the folks at XRIJF (I am not associated with the festival). So please click on the link above and share what you think. No personal information is being recorded when you leave your comments.

Oh, and I hope you're having a wonderful and relaxing 4th of July holiday weekend.  See you next year on Jazz Street!

I haven't forgotten, I'm just too tired and "digesting" ....

I have been meaning to write a wrap up post about the end of the 2010 XRIJF since Sunday, but just can't muster the time and strength after getting home from work. That's still the case, but wanted to let you know. I'm sure no one is hanging on my final words....

For the time being, check out what some of the mainstream media had to say/show in their coverage of the 2010 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival:

• The Democrat & Chronicle's coverage starts with their Jazz section online. There you'll find the stories appearing in the paper. There's also the Arts Blog, where you'll find posts by Jeff Spevak and Anna Reguero during the fest (both were on Twitter as well). A highlight are the photo essays and multimedia projects done by D&C photographer Will Yurman, this year called JazzTales.
• Rochester City Newspaper has it's Jazz Blog, where you'll find the reviews of various shows seen by Ron Netsky, Frank De Blase and other City writers.
• This year WHAM Channel 13 has a "Jazz Lounge" where they'll be collecting their XRIJF coverage and has some video, including an interview of saxophone phenom Grace Kelly and other stories.
• You may also want to check out D&C music writer Jeff Spevak's June 21 wrap up, including his thoughts on the joy of Twitter on the Critical Mass blog on his personal website.
• If you'd like to see the "official" photos from the festival, check out the XRIJF's own festival photo page.  Glad my Xerox photo was not very flattering ... won't have to pay to get a copy now (I seem to remember the chipper young girl telling me it was free....).

Random notes from my floating penultimate night at XRIJF

I followed my itinerary pretty closely last night, departing only on Jane Monheit and picking up one of the performers I'd scheduled for the last night. When I arrived on "Jazz Street" at 4:15, the line for Jane Monheit at Kilbourn Hall already was snaking around to East Avenue. I knew that to see her at 10 I might need to blow the chance to see others I had on my list to get in line for Monheit. As I'd seen her before, I decided to take another trip. It was another varied night at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival.

Started out with Little Red Suitcase. This Danish duo of Johanne Borchert on piano, accompanied by Elena Setién on keyboard, accordion (with sticky keys), violin and effects, was a quirky little treat to start the evening out. Well, neither are Danes—Borchert is German and Setién is Spanish—but that doesn't matter. Their songs were small and somewhat off-the-wall, delivered by Setién in a sing-song style that seemed to deliberately misplace some notes, with Borchert sometimes bringing in harmonies. The room seemed to big for their intimate style. Toward the end of the set they both stuck their heads in the open grand piano and began singing, trying to get the sympathetic strings to hum (the room may have defeated that as I only heard a faint sympathetic echo), and ending that with what sounded like a bird fight with two cheap flutes.

Moved from there over to Abilene for some gut-bucket blues from Bryan Lee and the Blues Power Band. Lee delivered what was advertised, which brought me back to some of the sounds from my former hometown Chicago, and I enjoyed some great Abilene beers and a pulled pork sandwich from Beale Street Cafe.

Went across the festival to Christ Church to catch Gwyneth Herbert's second set. She filled that great space with a beautiful voice and her sparse band (they had been advertised as a quartet, but came as a trio, with Herbert playing a number of instruments in addition to her voice, noting that we were "getting our money's worth" despite the mistake. Her songs were catchy, more pop singer-songwriter but, again, quirky. I really enjoyed them, especially the one that told the story of a group of Surrey women who, spying an approaching French invasion fleet during the Napoleonic Wars, went to the top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean and raised their frocks to reveal the red undergarments that women of that region of England wore at the time. The French, seeing the red, took these 50 women as a large contingent of Redcoats and turned tail. Her song was a folk song of a sort, but it sounded thoroughly modern as well.

Didn't do a 10pm, just wondered around for awhile. At 11pm, I wandered by Eastman Theater, just as Jeff Beck began his second show. Although I knew it was a long shot as the show was nearly, if not completely sold out, I went in to see if I could get in with my media pass to take a look. No go. Sounds like it was a great show from those I've read elsewhere and it was surely a great success for the festival.

Now I get ready to head out soon for the final night. I already feel like I've heard enough outstanding music that I can go and not hear anything tonight and feel like this has been great festival for me. 

Well, for one last time, see you on Jazz Street!

Tomorrow's the end of the Xerox Rochester Jazz Festival ... Really?

No time to write much today. Hit all my "itinerary" and filled my Thursday with outstanding music at every stop. A highlight was the Danish "super group" of Palle Mikkelborg with Marilyn Mazur, Helen Davies, and Mikkel Nordsoe at Reformation Church, who sewed incredibly beautiful tapestries of sound (Jeff Spevak wrote more here). Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey's second set was on fire, with the band fully instrumented (there had been a missing bass in the first set). Well, gotta go.

See you on Jazz Street!

XRIJF Day 6... not only my car battery is dead (tired), but I'm happy!

When I got back to my car at nearly midnight, since Steve Turré Quintet (well his regular quartet, plus special guest Texas tenor Billy Harper) played well past 11:30 pm, the battery was dead as a doornail. I've also been slowing down a bit as I try to maintain a schedule of going to work each day and out to the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival in the evenings. Because I spent the morning getting my car jumped and out of the East End garage, I just haven't the time to write much. Here's some random notes from my sixth night at the festival.

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.

I love listening to music that takes me out of my comfort zones and Eivind Opsvik's Overseas group did just that, creating an intricate mesh of sound that was modern, yet also had elements of monster movie theater organ and other odd influences. I especially liked Opsvik's composition Nineteen to a Dozen.

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.

Random notes from the fifth night of XRIJF ...

Here are some random notes from my fifth night of the Rochester International Jazz Festival. Attended a media event for the 2010 Copenhagen Jazz Festival, July 2-11. Rochester has three artists from Denmark appearing at this year's festival: Palle Mikkelborg, Helen Davies, Marilyn Mazur and Mikkel Nordsoe (Mikkelborg & Mazur have not played together since playing on Miles Davis's Aura in 1985, which was written and produced by Palle as a tribute to Miles), Little Red Suitcase, and Ibrahim Electric. All of these artists are on on my pick posts, so see those for Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the left panel for more information. Artistic Director Kenneth Hansen came to town yesterday to promote the Danish festival here. Rochester's festival was one of three at which they're promoting the Copenhagen festival this year. The other two are Berlin and London (pretty good company). The Copenhagen festival includes some of the other artists you're seeing here, including the headliner last night Herbie Hancock (Mr. Hansen was scoping out the show in the balcony with the media last night). There are over 1,000 performances over 10 days in all sorts venues around the city of Copenhagen. Hansen said that if you toss a stone over your shoulder, chances are you'll hit a concert.

Guitarist Russell Malone was my first stop. Enjoyed the set and loved his ballad playing. I got a chance to hear some of my friend Jimmie Highsmith Jr.'s set on the Jazz Street Stage (and some more after leaving Herbie); looked like he was having fun and it was good to see him playing for a big, appreciative crowd in Rochester, a city to which he has given so much.

Headed into the Eastman Theater to see Herbie Hancock. In addition to the fewer seats that Eastman's recent renovation left, the ticket sales for the headliners appear to have been improving. The theater was nearly full. In past years, media could usually sit up fairly close on the wings. Not this year. Most of us were up in the nosebleeds of the upper balcony. Fine by me. Herbie Hancock and his band of stars played for 2-1/2 hours straight through without a break. This was the first stop on a world tour for his album The Imagine Project, which is due out next week. The band included Lionel Loueke on guitar, Tal Wikkenfeld on bass, Vinnie Coaluita on drums, and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes (all of whom sing, except Vinnie), and singer Kristina Train. The first part of the set included a number of Herbie's greatest hits, some of them mashed up with other music or together. The second part premiered songs from his new Imagine Project album. While I enjoyed listening to all of it, and expect as we were the first outing on the tour that some of it was a bit rough, I have to echo Ron Netsky, who wrote in his review on City's blog that "[t]he trouble for me was that Hancock's band was transformed into a very extravagant cover band with a hell of a pianist." I think the album will be wonderful with its worldwide mashups of music and musicians. I'm not sure how it translates to a concert. However, most people in the Big House loved it without reservation. I think that part of it for me is that I'm always somewhat ill-at-ease at "big time" concerts by major artists, opting usually opted for smaller, more intimate spaces and clubs in my live music consumption. That was at play last night, too.

Tonight, although, I may switch up the order, but I think we're back to the usual swing of things. See you on Jazz Street.....

So much music, so little time ...

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.

Tonight (June 15) it is Russell Malone and Herbie Hancock's new Imagine Project coming to the Eastman. Perhaps some Sicilian Jazz Project...a bit depending on when Herbie let's out. (update: Herbie played until after 11pm, so missed the end).

Just no time to write in between working full time and going to hear music, so read the tweets and my posts. 

See you on Jazz Street!

Day 4 a wrap ... I'm spent after Trombone Shorty

The first set tonight for Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue just proved what I had already figured out from my "research"--that this amazing musician and showman would nearly tear the Big Tent at the Rochester International Jazz Festival down.

Capacity crowd; no need for tables as nearly everyone was on their feet soon after he started funking up the house. Playing both the bone and trumpet (and singing), it's going to hard to get for the 10pm show. Don't know what they're going to do tomorrow at Harro ...

I'm heading home soon to catch some z's before work and then it starts all over again. As John Nugent told me tonight, the rest of the week is sort of a tsunami, building momentum... May have something there...,

Day 4 begins in Havana, but reroutes

Although I'm taking some detours on the fourth evening of the Rochester International Jazz Festival, I'm beginning the night as planned with Hilario Duran at Max. Duran is more subdued, with a quieter brilliance than his fellow Cuban pianist who appeared last night. Roberto Occhipinti on bass in his trio is another highlight and will probably appear tomorrow with his brother Michael's Sicilian Jazz Project.

Changing plans as I have had a change in heart on hearing vocals tonight, so will sit out Tolstoy & McKelle (really, it's me... not you). Going to catch one of Trombone Shorty's shows as planned and Amy Lavere for something different in between.

XRIJF Day Three... Your "citizen critic" on the job

My posts from yesterday pretty much tell you where I was at (I actually followed my itinerary to the letter). Sunday night at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival was one of the overall best nights of music of the festival so far. Chuchito Valdes is a monster on the piano in Cuban and any other musical genre, most of which he incorporated into the first set that I saw (and the first 1 hour line I was queued in). He went from a fiery mambo to a slow and introspective Someone To Watch Over Me. He got over that and exploded again with a version of Old Devil Moon. His trio mates were also top notch and in sync with Valdes throughout. As I left for my next stop with Valdes finishing his encore, I was wondering "now how is someone going to top that?" 

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, no one left their seats. Moffett kept playing, incorporated the alarm into his playing, mimicking it and pausing to catch the intervals between its peals.  Jeff Spevak described the reaction of this "citizen critic" in his recap of last night in the D&C (OK, maybe I was a bit exuberant, although by the time I saw Jeff last night it may have partly been the beer....).

Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba were a great change of pace in the SRO crowd that fit into the Big Tent. The Malian master of the ngoni (a small, banjo precursor) and a large ensemble of players cut through the chatter and noise of the Tent with their intricate patterns of notes, singing and, of course, beats. I was glad I was on my feet as I had a lot of trouble keeping them from moving.

I then opted to quiet down and see bassist Katie Thiroux's set at Max. While a great bass player with a sweet voice, Moffett was a hard bass act to follow. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed her choices of tunes to play and the fact that some were picked from odd places, including a couple transcribed from YouTube.

Headed out into the night and home feeling that good feeling I get after I've just soaked up some great music.