Ferrell will be performing in the beautiful and intimate Hochstein Performance Hall, with one 90-minute performance without intermission. Local organ trio Paradigm Shift will be doing a short "welcome" performance at 7:15 pm.
You can buy tickets for the Rachelle Ferrell concert through BrownPaperTickets.com and visit Exodus to Jazz's site for more. Here's the video:
I've been in Kansas for the past week, but the jazz goes on here in ROC (I'm traveling back today ... did ya miss me?)
Wanted to call your attention to the first of a new weekly radio series on WGMC Jazz 90.1 featuring Eastman School of Music jazz performances on Jazz@Eastman: Past, Present and Future, the programs will feature performances as well as works by Eastman faculty, students, and alumni. A collaboration between Eastman and Jazz 90.1 the series is underwritten in part by RG&E and will be hosted and co-produced by saxophonist Alexa Tarantino. The premiere on June 4 gives listeners an inside look at Eastman’s jazz department with Campbell.
OK, here's the live jazz in and around the ROC for the next seven days:
We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one-stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Only start times are listed, visit or call the venue for more details (the websites for many of the venues are in the right panel). Please forgive any discrepancies with reality. Feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Contact Us" button above). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post to let us know how it went. I want to hear from you!
Believe it or not, the 13th Edition of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival will be upon us in 30 days! This year's festival will feature more than 1,200 artists from around the world playing all kinds of music in 20 venues in downtown Rochester. There will continue a number of free shows around Rochester during the festival. Of course, there are the headliner free shows on the street with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Lou Gramm, Marcus Miller Band, Soulive and George Thorogood and the Destroyers. With the support of the City of Rochester, Rochester General Health System, The Community Foundation, Wegmans, RG&E and Lidestri, XRIJF will be presenting over 75 free shows on six outdoor stages and free noon concerts at the downtown Rochester Monroe County Library. The popular nightly jam sessions continue at the Rochester Plaza Hotel on State Street. The revised layout has made that venue so much more inviting to this veteran.
In addition to being one of the world's largest jazz festivals, Rochester's festival also presents one of the more extensive lineups of artists from around the world. This year there are artists and groups from 19 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Aruba, Cuba, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, England, Scotland, France, Mali, Israel, Netherlands and Poland. The festival's popular Made in the UK series is now in its seventh year and remains the largest presentation of British jazz outside the UK. Nordic Jazz Now, will celebrate its eighth year at the festival and always presents some of the best and quirkiest music at the festival .
There is a new venue this year called "Squeezers at the Inn on Broadway." The Inn was featuring live music anyway the past couple of years, so it is a good idea for the folks at XRIJF to "bring them into the family." Squeezers will be a tent with a capacity of 500, adjacent to the Inn on Broadway and will present 18 jazz, blues, and R&B concerts during the nine days. Squeezers is named in honor of the former Bandbox on State Street, which was also known as Squeezers, and is sponsored the DiMarco family in honor of the former club's owner, Joe Strazzeri of Rochester are sponsoring the venue.
Our local Public TV station WXXI will again film 4 concerts in Kilbourn Hall for national distribution on PBS stations. Also returning will be the XRIJF Gerry Niewood Scholarship Concert, which is free, on Monday, June 23 at 8:00 p.m. with the Eastman Jazz Ensemble directed by Bill Dobbins and special guest John Sneider. The 2014 Scholarship recipients will be announced at the concert. The festival has awarded more than $130,000 in scholarships to 31 Eastman School of Music students since 2002. Continuing with the educational angle, 22 of the great regional high school jazz bands will be performing on the City of Rochester Jazz Street Stage presented by The Community Foundation. This year while standing in line for food or Kilbourn (or sitting down for a bit) we'll be hearing students from high school bands from Bloomfield, Brighton, Brockport, Buffalo Academy, Canandaigua, Eastridge, Fairport, Hilton, Honeoye Falls Lima, Spencerport, Greece Arcadia, Greece Athena, Greece Odyssey, Greece Olympia, Newark, Pittsford Mendon, Pittsford Sutherland, MCC, School of the Arts, Webster Schroeder, Webster Thomas, West Irondequoit. The Jazz Workshops for Aspiring Music Students is returning. This series of five structured jazz workshops is sponsored by Wegmans, hosted by Bob Sneider, Eastman School of Music Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media and Senior Instructor of Jazz Guitar, and led by five visiting international musicians performing at XRIJF. Aspiring students will meet, listen to and learn from professional jazz musicians and also play. The series will be held in room 120, the Ray Wright Room, at Eastman School of Music from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Workshops are open to all aspiring grade school and high school music students, no pre-registration is required.
Using the XRIJF app, I have gone over the schedule and made some picks for my XRIJF this year and hope to start telling you all about them soon. My picks are, by definition, subject to change, but that is one of the things I love about the XRIJF. I'm looking forward to this year as there are lot of places in my schedule that may provide me an opportunity to make the "odd" choices that create opportunities to find new "favorites."
More later . . .
You know the drill ... the Rochester International Jazz Festival is about 30 days away. That and the holiday coming up on Monday has made it a bit light toward the beginning of next week. Watch for an increase in posts here previewing the festival.
Hey, if you know that any of the gigs I list regularly (and are still listed elsewhere...) are no longer being played, let me know. I try to be as accurate as possible and some of them have been going on for a bit too long, if you ask me.
OK, here's the live jazz in and around the ROC for the next seven days:
We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one-stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Only start times are listed, visit or call the venue for more details (the websites for many of the venues are in the right panel). Please forgive any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Contact Us" button above). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post to let us know how it went. I want to hear from you!
Some great stuff this coming week, including a great get together of local jazz musicians for a concert at the Immanuel Baptist Church on Park Ave. and two concerts at the Bop Shop.
Believe it or not it's also festival season with the Lilac starting on Friday. Check out the concert listings here (some of them are jazz and some are out of the rain, including the one on Thursday with my buds in Paradigm Shift)
OK, here's the live jazz in and around the ROC for the next seven days:
We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one-stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Only start times are listed, visit or call the venue for more details (the websites for many of the venues are in the right panel). Please forgive any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Contact Us" button above). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post to let us know how it went. I want to hear from you!
The official Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival smartphone apps for Android and iPhone are now available for download.
The app includes the full schedule, artist bios and photos, venue information, maps and the ability to buy tickets. Users can select favorite artists and make a custom itinerary around the festival, and take and share photos with Photo Booth (including selfies). There is also a search tool that allows easy browsing. Both apps can be downloaded through their site.
The app was very useful for this XRIJF-goer last year both in setting up my itinerary and figuring out where to go next when faced with a need to change my choice. No need for breaking out that spreadsheet now....
On a short tour out of her home town Chicago with a new CD, Sightline, bassist/singer Katie Ernst dropped by the Bop Shop for a great set with her band Laurenzi/Ernst/Green. A favorite in and around ROC during her time at Eastman, Katie has been tearing it up in my old stomping grounds and recently came back for a set at last year's XRIJF.
While I'm writing this, I'm listening to ESM graduate and Rochester favorite Katie Ernst live on Jazz 90.1 radio. Katie is in town with her band Laurenzi/Ernst/Green from Chicago and is performing live on WGMC. Hope to catch her at one of her 2 other gigs in the ROC area this week (see below).
Believe it or not it's also festival season with the Lilac starting on Friday. Check out the concert listings here. I know that Paradigm Shift is playing a number of gigs at the Wine Tent, but those aren't listed. Hope the weather is cooperative!
OK, here's the live jazz in and around the ROC for the next seven days:
We've compiled these listings from information obtained from the performing artists themselves and other sources. The aim is to give you a one-stop place to find all your jazz in Rochester. Only start times are listed, visit or call the venue for more details (the websites for many of the venues are in the right panel). Please forgive any discrepancies with reality and feel free to let me know what the problem is, and I'll get the corrections up on the site as soon as possible (click on the "Contact Us" button above). If you go out to hear a performance listed here, feel free to drop a comment to this post to let us know how it went. I want to hear from you!
Don't know where ROC was tonight for this great group who dropped by The Bop Shop on the start of a tour. Great sounds from this trio Crump's bass with the acoustic guitar of Liberty Ellman and electric guitar of Jamie Fox.
