I'm running out of time on these posts so the next one may take us on in to home plate for he XRIJF on Saturday, June 18th. Hope you don't mind, but the day job is calling and there's so much more to do to prepare for the marathon that is my jazz festival.

My Thursday of the XRIJF finds me starting out with an artist who has returned to Rochester quite a few times and ends with one who is about to leave Rochester, with some Finns, a Norwegian and Canadians in between to get my international jazz thing on. 

The links below on the artists' name in bold will take you to the artist's page on the XRIJF site. I've mined a few sources and video (in addition to those on the XRIJF site) from the Interwebs to help you decide whether you want to join me (figuratively, that is...) on my walkabout on Thursday, June 16th at the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival:

• Bill Frisell @ Kilbourn Hall, 6:00 pm (also 10:00 pm): Guitarist Bill Frisell has appeared at Rochester's jazz festival several times, but each time you see him he's on another project that may take him and whatever group he brings in a completely different direction, so it's like seeing a different artist every time. I believe he is bringing his Beautiful Dreamers project here this year. There are some cuts from this CD on the Songline/Tonefield Production site and Nate Chinen did a review of a Beautiful Dreamers gig at the Village Vanguard in the New York Times. Also, get a inside Frisell's head a bit in this "Big Think" interview from last year. Although I didn't run across any video from the Beautiful Dreamers project, here's one of Frisell covering La La La Means I Love You in Kilbourn Hall during XRIJF 2007. 
• KUÀRA Trio @  Nordic Jazz Now @ Lutheran Church Of The Reformation, 7:30 pm (also at 9:30): KUÀRA trio is Finnish drummer Markku Ounaskari and pianist Samuli Mikkonen, with  Norwegian trumpeter/singer Per Jørgensen have created improvisations merging Finnish folk music with other Middle Eastern and Chinese sounds. As set out in a recent announcement about their tour, “Kuára” takes as its inspirational starting point Russian psalms and Fenno-Ugrian folk songs from Udmurtia, Vepsä and Karelia." As with a number of the artist brought for the Nordic Jazz Now series, this group's music has a haunting, ethereal sound that will be wonderful in the Reformation Church space. Listen to excerpts of the group's music on the ECM site for the group's CD Kuara and on Ounaskari's Myspace page, as well as Mikkonen's Myspace page, and Per Jørgensen's Myspace page. To get a taste of this group live, there are videos of Udmurtian folk song Sjuan Gúr and the rest of the piece Soldat Keljangúr linked to in the XRIJF artist page.
• Celebrating Oscar Peterson with The Dave Young Quintet @ Xerox Auditorium at Xerox Plaza, 9:00 pm (also at 6:30 pm): Canadian bassist Dave Young's stint with the Oscar Peterson Trio spanned 30 years, playing all over the world with Peterson until his death in 2007, so if anyone knows how to celebrate his music, it's probably Mr. Young. Young also spent five years in the early 60s as a member of guitarist Lenny Breau's quartet and has worked with a virtual Who's Who of jazz, including Clark Terry, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Zoot Simms, Joe Williams, Oliver Jones, Kenny Burrell, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, Nat Adderly, Peter Appleyard, Gary Burton, Barney Kessell, Ed Bickert, Kenny Burrell and James Moody. Here he is with his Quartet walking through Backyard Blues and with the Oscar Peterson Trio in Tokyo in 1987 (with Joe Pass thrown in for good measure).
• Katie Ernst Trio @ Max of Eastman Place, 10:00 pm (also at 6:15 pm): I'm probably making an exception to my usual leaving local artists off my XRIJF itineraries (I discussed my reasons for that in an earlier post) for Katie Ernst. Katie just graduated from Eastman and, I've been told, may be moving back to the Chicago area (yea, Chicago!) where she's from to begin her post-graduate career (I say that as she's been busy as a professional musician for some time). Ernst is very talented as a bassist and singer (and I've been impressed with her savvy in the online world and social media, as well). I'd like to hear her in the "big leagues" of the XRIJF as, to date, my few times to get a chance to hear her have been either her playing in the pickup band that plays Havana Moe's on Saturdays or singing backup for Bitchin' Kitchen. I'm sure she's up for the task....   Here's a video of Katie sings and plays on But Not For Me in one of Chicago's premiere jazz rooms, Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase in 2009 and get it all on Ernst's YouTube channel, and of course the first of this year's first D&C "Jazz Stories" below.

My wife Dianna has a ticket to see k.d. lang and The Siss Boom Bang in the Big House.  I've liked k.d. Lang's music for a long time (in fact, the only CD that both my wife and I both had when we met in 2002 was Ingenue), so may step in for awhile to listen if I can. Others who I'd lke to hear, but it looks like will not be able to work in are the NRBQ survivors The Spampinato Brothers at Abilene, the "architect" of James Brown's sound and former Rochesterian Pee Wee Ellis with his Funk Assembly at Harro East, and Slavic Soul Party!.

As Jazz@Rochester exists to highlight the great jazz talent we have living and working in and around Rochester (you can find links to many of their sites on my Rochester Jazz Artists page and hear many of them throughout the year), I'm highlighting the local artists appearing on stages each night. Here are the ones for Tuesday, June 16th:

• Mike Kaupa @ Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, noontime concert
• High School Jazz Bands @ City of Rochester Jazz Street Stage Presented by The Community Foundation
• ECMS Jazz Combo led by Howard Potter @ City of Rochester Jazz Street Stage Presented by The Community Foundation, 6:00 pm
• Rochester Metro Jazz Orchestra @ Verizon Wireless Festival Big Tent, 6:00 pm
• Gap Mangione Quartet @ The Rochester Club - Viva Italia Series, 6:15 & 10:00 pm
• Andy Stobie & The Greater Finger Lakes Jazz Orchestra @ The RG&E-XEROX Stage, 7:00 & 9:00 pm 

Let me know what you're going out so hear on the 16th in the comments, or on the Jazz@Rochester on Twitter or Facebook.