JazzRochester at the RIJF: My picks for June 21, 2025
May 31, 2025
For those of us who are at the festival all nine days, it's a marathon not a race so I start out slow and steady. As the first Saturday night, the streets downtown may be crowded with folks coming down to hear country star Chris Lane at the stage over at East and Alexander. lt is also a night that includes a rare appearance of jazz in a headliner event at Kodak Hall in Eastman Theatre: The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Winton Marsalis (with a new member familiar to many of us from her days at Eastman, Alexa Tarantino). Tickets for the show sold out early, which is also quite rare for jazz in what I call the "Big House" at RIJF, and is why they are not one of my Picks below (and why I'm not going to go). Don't "@" me as I'm not dissing the lack of jazz in the headliners at Eastman (really, jazzheads like me usually are in the Club Pass venues) ... it brings people in who may come back for more and a Club Pass. Cool that the tickets did sell out this year.
At the RIJF you are confronted with so many options. Some are imposed on you by timing, some by lines, some by sheer accident after hearing raves about an artist you didn't even have on your radar. But, you have to make the choice. So, you do you, but if you're interested, here are the artists/groups I am aiming to hear on the second night of the 2025 RIJF (I've included links so you can check their page on the RIJF site yourself, where you will find links to music, video, etc.):
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I'm going to start out getting my wrist band for the Terell Stafford Quintet. One of the "young lions" of jazz who emerged in the 1990s, trumpeter Stafford is now a versatile, seasoned player and educator, who has performed with many well-known groups including Benny Golson’s Sextet, McCoy Tyner’s Sextet, the Kenny Barron Quintet, the Frank Wess Quintet, Jimmy Heath Quintet and Big Band, Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Alumni Band. Stafford has recorded on over 130 discs, a number as a leader, and collaborated with a diverse number of artists including Cedar Walton, Sadao Watanabe, Herbie Mann, Diana Krall with the Hamilton-Clayton Jazz Orchestra, Jimmy Heath, Matt Wilson’s Arts and Crafts, and others. He is a long-time member of the Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. Terell Stafford Quintet will be hitting the stage at Kilbourn Hall at 6:00 and 9:00 pm.
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My next stop will be to hear the Sasha Berliner Quartet. Vibraphonist Berliner appeared last at the RIJF in 2019 with her 5 Rooms/Vibes group, but I wasn't able to catch her gig. Berliner has been a rising star on the jazz scene for awhile and has been named among the top 10 on the instrument in the DownBeat Reader's Poll several times. Berliner has an innovative approach that blends jazz with more avant-garde and electronic elements and I believe her Quartet sometimes includes pianist Taylor Eigisti and bassist Ben Williams, who will be familiar to RIJF audiences. Producer Pick Berliner will be gracing the stage at The Inn on Broadway at 5:45 and 7:30 pm.
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I'm looking forward to ending the night with the Sullivan Fortner Trio. New Orleans-born pianist and composer, and 2-time Grammy winner, Fortner has virtuosic technique and deeply expressive performances. I closed out the 2019 RIJF with Sullivan Fortner and his trio and want some more of that. The Sullivan Fortner Trio will be on the Max's at Eastman Place at 6:15 and 10:00 pm.
While I've made my choices, there are often artists who I wish I could hear as well but can't due to timing or other reasons, or others who might be a good fit for you. For one reason or another you may want some alternatives, so here they are:
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While I love me some B3, I'm going to have to miss the Brian Charette Organ Trio this year. Don't expect the familiar soul jazz of a typical organ trio as Charette likes to mix things up, defy genres and use odd rhythms, but he can swing as well. We (well not me, but perhaps you) will have to find out what he's bringing to RIJF. The Brian Charette Organ Trio will be playing in the Montage Music Hall at 6:00 and 9:30 pm
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Producer Pick Tatiana Eva-Marie & The Avalon Band was at the RIJF in 2022 and this year brings her "Djangology" project celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt and her French/Romanian Gypsy heritage, and her love for the Parisian art scene of the 1920s-1960s. Tatiana Eva-Marie will be warbling at the Temple Theater at 7:00 and 9:15 pm.
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Producer Pick and Michelle Obama's favorite "blue-eyed" soul (and jazz) singer/songwriter/keyboard player (and former stone mason and piano tuner) Jarrod Lawson will be doing his thing at the Theater at Innovation Square at 6:30 and 8:30 pm.
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On the international front, with Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk and global rhythms in songs about immigration, resistance and love, the group Okan (the name means "heart" in the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria) is a high energy romp of sound. Okan's "high priestesses" are Cuban-born violinist and vocalist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist and vocalist Magdelys Savigne, both Grammy and Latin-Grammy nominees. I started out my 2022 RIJF with Okan and these two women just owned the stage at Montage (I may sneak in for a bit before my last show). Okan will be in the Rochester Regional Big Tent at 8:30 pm.
So how is that for some variety? Not unusual for me or for the RIJF.
JazzRochester aims at providing you with the most comprehensive listings for live jazz gigs in and around Rochester, New York, broadly defined. To help you find some live jazz to hear, I've gathered listings for the next seven days immediately below. After the fold you'll find gigs for the rest of June and a start on July (other than the RIJF, which will be covered separately). 
JazzRochester aims at providing you with the most comprehensive listings for live jazz gigs in and around Rochester, New York, broadly defined. To help you find some live jazz to hear, I've gathered listings for the next seven days immediately below. After the fold you'll find gigs for the rest of May and June (other than the RIJF, which will be covered separately), and special gigs beyond that and beyond ROC. 
JazzRochester aims at providing you with the most comprehensive listings for live jazz gigs in and around Rochester, New York. Some may be more "jazz adjacent" ... there's a reason for that. To help you find some live jazz to hear, I've gathered listings for the next seven days immediately below. After the fold you'll find gigs for the rest of May and June (other than the RIJF, which will be covered separately), and special gigs beyond that and beyond ROC. 
JazzRochester aims at providing you with the most comprehensive listings for live jazz gigs in and around Rochester, New York. Some may be more "jazz adjacent" ... there's a reason for that. To help you find some live jazz to hear, I've gathered listings for the next seven days immediately below. After the fold you'll find gigs for the rest of April and May, and a growing number in June (other than the RIJF, which will be covered separately), and special gigs beyond that and beyond ROC.