Day six is an eclectic and, for me, mostly international mix on Day Six of the Rochester International Jazz Festival. Believe it or not, I'm going to keep my streak of not catching Dave Brubeck in Eastman. He's been here several times and I've yet to catch him. Don't get me wrong, I love Brubeck and his music—he's a real class act—but as I've noted elsewhere, I've seen him play a number of times, mostly in Chicago and I'll just keep the memories of those great performances in my head (and Take Five in my ears). Here's how my Wednesday, June 17th is shaping up:

• After checking out some high school bands on the bricks or perhaps the wall of trombones of Bonerama for a bit, I'll head over to the Montage to catch the 6:00 pm set of Susan Pereira & Sabor Brasil for some samba, bossa nova, etc. Pereira was unable to make it into Rochester for her gig earlier this year for the Exodus to Jazz series.
• Next I'll check out the NYNDK Jazz Collective, which a group of musicians from New York, Norway, and Denmark (get it?) over at the Nordic Jazz Now series at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation. Brad Walseth over at JazzChicago.net gushes about the Collective's 2008 album Nordic Disruption: "Music this rich, inventive and exciting simply explodes out of the speakers and into the ears/brain of the listener with a vibrancy so often lacking in today's music." While I may not go that far, a listen to their MySpace page definitely draws me to go out to give them a listen.
• I've heard and read quite a lot about Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Kate McGarry, but have yet to hear her, so I think I'll hoof over to the Xerox Auditorium at Xerox Plaza for her 9:00 pm set. Jason Crane interviewed McGarry for a Jazz Session podcast in 2007 after her album If Less Is More … Nothing Is Everything (Palmetto, 2008) was nominated for a Grammy award. There are some cuts to listen to on her MySpace page. And she performed on Boston TV in March of this year, available on YouTube, singing a beautiful, sparse rendering of The Meaning of the Blues.
• To keep to the mostly international and low-keyed flavor of this evening, I'm going to finish up the night with the 10:00 pm set of Canadian guitarist Michael Occhipinti & The Sicilian Jazz Project, which he put together with a number of the best from Canadian jazz,including his brother Robert on bass, reshaping traditional Sicilian folk music. The Sicilian Jazz Project has a MySpace page. Here is a video of the opening of a concert from April of this year at the Festival Cultural Zacatecas in Mexico followed by Cialomi (wait a bit to move from the traditional chanting to the music...it's worth the wait).

The Rochester International Jazz Festival is full of choices.  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.

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

Other links:

• City Newspaper's XRIJF Guide for June 17th