While refraining from weight-challenged female references, I must tell you that the 2009 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival comes to an end on Saturday, June 20th, so this is the last preview post. Day nine includes one of my "must sees" and trying to fit in a lot into the final night (body willing... that is). Here's how the end of my 2009 XRIJF is coming together:

• My last evening starts out at 6:00 pm with one of my "must sees" for this year's festival, the Joe Lovano Quartet in Kilbourn Hall, appearing with special guest singer/songwriter Judi Silvano. Here's a great video documentary by the JazzVideoGuy Joe Lovano In the Music about Joe Lovano and his most recent project "Us Five" (a quartet, with an extra drummer... with Joe on saxes, James Weidman on piano, Esperanza Spalding on bass, and two incredible drummers, Francisco Mela and Otis Brown, III) at a Village Vanguard gig late last year. As usual, Brett Primack's videos provide a nice look at the people and thoughts behind the music (which is served up in generous amounts as well).
• Next I'll head over to the Lutheran Church of the Reformation for Delirium, in the Nordic Jazz Now series. Delirium is sax player Mikko Innanen from Finland, and cornet player Kasper Tranberg, bassist Jonas Westergaard and drummer Stefan Pasborg from Denmark, who are described as playing with "Ornette Coleman in [their] back pocket... paint[ing] intense pictures that are obscure and straight-ahead—as well as wild and lyrical...." Listen to Jazz and Poultry and other classics on their MySpace page.
• I'll try to hoof it over to the Xerox Auditorium to catch the Aaron Parks Trio, with Matt Brewer on bass and Ted Poor on drums. You can listen to some of it here on his MySpace page. On the other hand, I have missed much of the Made in the UK series at the Christ Church and Tim Garland's Lighthouse Trio set at 8:45 sounds like another good possibility.
• After chillin with Parks for awhile, I think I'll head over to Max at Eastman Place to catch the 10:00 pm set by Marta Gomez Quartet. Columbiana singer Gomez will provide a fitting "international" coda to the 2009 festival for me. Marta Gomez has a MySpace page that has some cuts of her singing. Here's a video of the Quartet performing at the Jewish Museum in NYC in March and one with some additional background.

There's a lot more every night than what I'm setting out here in this and the other "pick" posts, so check out the entire artist lineup for each night here. Also note that while I'm selecting a time in coming up with my itinerary, most of the venues will have two sets, many around 6:00 and 10:00 pm.  There will be a mix of times in between those two main set times. Some artists are appearing on more than one day.

And again, Jazz@Rochester is on Twitter and I have created a widget, which has its own page to help you follow the conversation about jazz and the XRIJF on that popular micro-blogging platform. For those who want to begin the conversation now, start using #XRIJF as a hash tag (if you're on Twitter, you'll know what I mean) and help me spread the word to use that tag during the festival. If you'd like to access Jazz@Rochester on your smart phone, please try the new mobile site.

Previous Preview & Pick posts:

• Day One, June 12th Picks
• Day Two, June 13th Picks
• Day Three, June 14th Picks
• Day Four, June 15th Picks
• Day Five, June 16th Picks
• Day Six, June 17th Picks
• Day Seven, June 18th Picks
• Day Eight, June 19th Picks

Other links:

• City Newspaper's XRIJF Guide for June 20th
• Jeff Spevak and Anna Reguero, Global rhythms highlight this year's Jazz Festival (Democrat & Chronicle, June 7, 2009).