Now that a week has passed and I've rested up and had some time to think, I thought I'd write a post wrapping up some thoughts on the 2025 Rochester International Jazz Festival. Overall, I had a great time and heard some fantastic music this year (and was less thwarted by last year's preparation for a knee replacement in July). There were a few things I noticed about this year's RIJF, informed by what I heard on the street and in line (yes, despite my "press" pass, I wait in line with the rest of you...), and the overall "feel" of the festival that I'd like to explore with you:
- It seemed to me that there were fewer people at the festival overall. While the RIJF's official estimate of 210,000 is close to other years totals, I perceived fewer crowds at the Club Pass venues overall. For example, other than for Kilbourn Hall wristbands and small lineup before the doors opened at a venue, I don't think I stood in line for any concert ... although that may also be a result of my choices and times. Why is unclear, at least to me, but it may be a combined effect of more of the audience aging out as I noticed more of my fellow Club Pass patrons were, shall we say, "mature" (myself included, of course), and fewer people attending from Canada and overseas, given the current politics concerning the borders.
- While there were perhaps fewer Canadians in the audiences, there seemed to be a whole lot of them on the stages. There were fewer artists from overseas (many of the global artists may have been born overseas, but have been in NYC or the US for years). I missed the groups that would come over from the UK and the Nordic countries. This may have resulted from issues artists were having getting visas and at the border (WXXI Radio's Connections program during the festival explored the hurdles as international artists in getting to this year's festival, weighing costs, visas, and border issues).
- While I'm not sure whether Christ Church stepped away as a venue or there was no way to program it with enough appropriate international artists due to the above, I heard from a number of Club Pass patrons that they missed it and the music that was programmed to that venue at previous festivals. Ditto for the Rochester Club venue. Some of the types of programming that would have been put in these venues ended up elsewhere, like The Inn on Broadway, The Duke, Temple Theater, and the Montage venues. But there was still something missing for a lot of us who enjoy hearing some of the emerging artists coming out of the international scene.
- With the change of venues noted above, there was also a change in the timing for some venues and the combination of the effect of that timing and the programming into those venues had some effects on how you could choose for your itinerary af the festival. While this is always an issue and also may be a result of my choices (and why in every one of my pick posts I said something about having to make a choice), it seemed like it came up as a conflict for me more than in the past. The change at the Montage, in combination with the type of artists programmed at the venue this year, seemed to have resulted in fewer people in the audience overall and a marked change in the demographic of those attending (more of us "mature" adults).
- There were more local artists in the Club Pass venues and, it seems, overall. That is a good thing as we have some great talent in and around our city.
These thoughts are based on my perceptions and comments I heard on the street, in line and at venues. I'm pretty sure this year's RIJF was probably a programming nightmare to pull off and it seemed to come off well despite all of that (and pretty good luck with the weather, other than that initial heat). If you have some thoughts, leave them in the comments to this post on the site.
That said, overall I had a great time at this year's RIJF. While overall there seemed to be fewer "must hears" in the 2025 schedule, at least for me, you know from my "Picks" this year that I found something to fill every night. In fact, in that situation I tend to be more free to check things out rather than keep to a rigid schedule. And I did find some gems this year, which included (but as we say in the law, "but not limited to"):
- Saturday the 21st was best night for me musically, a "feast" for the ears. The menu started with the the Terell Stafford Quartet in Kilbourn Hall. He brought a killing band with Bruce Bartz, Tim Warfield Jr, David Wong and the astounding drummer Johnathon Blake. They tore just it up. The Sasha Berliner Quartet was a second course. A vibist who is talented way beyond her years, Berliner had a young band with her who were just kicking it throughout their set of originals, Chick Corea and other sources. The band included Rochester born and raised bassist Ben Tiberio, son of Bill. Dessert was hearing the Sullivan Fortner Trio. Fortner sometimes seems to be just noodling around on the Steinway, but those noodles turn into complex and beautiful dishes, served with wit and whimsy. He was joined by bassist (and ESM grad) Tyrone Allen. Apparently, Fortner is a musician's musician, which was shown by the number of RIJF artists who had finished playing elsewhere who came in to listen to his late set.
- The folks at RIJF promised the double bill of Cuban pianist Chuchito Valdés and Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo would be like 2 concerts when they played on June 23rd, but it was more like three concerts, with the two masters playing separately and also together, and fusing their different influences beautifully. There were two "Takes" ... Chuchito's wild arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Take the A Train" and Figueiredo's dazzling interpretation of Brubeck's "Take Five." A highlight for me was them together on the Cuban song "Quizás Quizás Quizás."
- There was good trouble in the house on June 25th when Matt Wilson's Good Trouble hit Kilbourn Hall. With Juan Rashad Jenkins replacing original group member Tia Fuller on alto sax, this amazing band demonstrated the broad palette of music that these great musicians draw from, moving from one of Wilson's to Ornette Coleman's "Feet Music," dissolving into Wilson doing a campfire ditty on a harmonica, then to a touching arrangement of John Denver's "Sunshine On My Shoulders," one of several songs with vocals by pianist Dawn Clement. Then the band played the "Good Trouble Suite" from which this project emerged, which is dedicated to the late Representative and civil rights leader John Lewis. After playing this amazing suite of music, Wilson uttered the words of Rep. Lewis that suggested the band's name, "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America."
- I caught Spin Cycle at the newish RIJF venue, The Duke on June 23rd. Like my experience hearing this band in 2017 at Bop Shop Records, I walked out buzzing with the aftereffects of their high energy set of originals by band founders Scott Neumann and Tom Christensen, with Pete McCann on guitar and bassist Matt Pavolka.
- It was good to see a good crowd of people out for The Fringe at Montage on June 20th, a legendary Boston trio founded in 1971 by saxophonist George Garzone, now including bassist John Lockwood and drummer Francisco Mela. While challenging for some, they played an intense set alternating between structure and freedom. Mela was playing literally ALL of the drum kit and various other bells and whistles. As I was hoping, ears were stretched.
- I started and ended the last night of music at the RIJF in NOLA, beginning with Doreen Ketchens New Orleans Jazz and ending with a bit of Trombone Shorty with probably 10K of my fellow Rochesterarians. Doreen Ketchens is an amazing clarinetist and entertainer. Ketchens' band included her drummer daughter, who rolled a stroller onto the august stage of Kilbourn Hall with her baby, and had sippee cup duty between fills. RIJF Music Producer John Nugent joined the band on sax for several songs. Trombone Shorty was, well, Trombone Shorty... an amazing entertainer. I didn't stay for too long with the throngs, however, opting to sit down and watch the end of the festival in front my "office" in the East End during RIJF, Havana Moe's (and my local the rest of the year).
We've gathered listings for live jazz to hear over the next seven days immediately below. After the "fold" (a link at the end of this week's listings) you'll find gigs for the rest of July and August (and growing number of items beyond that....). If you're out at a venue hearing some live jazz and the listings was not in our listings, let them know about JazzRochester and that's where you look when you want to hear some live jazz around town.
