With the Rochester International Jazz Festival less than a week away, it's looking like I'll end up racing to finish these pick posts up before the RIJF starts (or not finish until after it starts ... as is usually the case).

At the RIJF you are confronted with so many options, but you have to make a choice. So, you do you, but if you're interested, here are the artists/groups I chose to hear on the fifth 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.):

• I'll start June 24th at the RIJF out with the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet. One of the first times I heard Wycliffe was in a local recording studio where he was laying down some tracks for an album his friend Jimmie Highsmith Jr was recording. As the rest of the band had already recorded, he was just sitting in a booth with cans on and playing his parts. I remember he did three takes, each with a unique twist and, to my ear, equally killing. Wycliffe is one of the best jazz trombonists out there, he can make that instrument sing (and growl), and is also a world class composer, arranger and educator. Wycliffe was last at the RIJF in 2007 but over the years comes to town relatively often (I believe he has family in ROC).  The Wycliffe Gordon Quartet will be hitting the stage at Kilbourn Hall at 6:00 and 9:00 pm.

• The Scott Mayo Band will be my next stop. Mayo is Rochester native (and former intern at local radio station WDKX) is a Grammy-nominated producer, arranger and musician who was a 2024 inductee to the Rochester Music Hall of Fame. After working with Brazilian Sergio Mendes on a Grammy-nominated album, he recorded the album Meu Brasil a couple years back and I'm hoping the Scott Mayo Band will be bringing some of that Rio groove to the stage at the Theater at Innovation Square at 6:30 and 8:30 pm.

• If you look back at my pick posts from past years (and you can do that in the links in the right panel), you'll see I like to stretch my ears to new sounds. For whatever reason, the venues at which many of the groups that scratched that itch of mine are not part of the RIJF this year, but this John Nugent has brought in some groups that do and John McKenna Resonant Structures Quartet appears to be one of them. Resonant Structures Quartet features tenor saxophonist John McKenna, guitarist Jim Robitaille, bassist Tom Casale, and drummer Hugh Sicotte. McKenna is also an artist and the music of the quartet is both inspired and informed by his Resonant Structure works. McKenna and Sicotte share an interest in modular synthesis (in modular synthesis, you build your own synthesizer piece by piece, choosing specific modules based on what sounds or functions you want) and electro-acoustic sound generation and incorporate these "Resonant Structure Instruments" into the quartet’s sound, which is a combination of original compositions and jazz standards. John McKenna Resonant Structures Quartet will be building their sounds on the stage at Montage Music Hall at 6:00 and 9:00 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 perhaps others who might be a better fit for you. For one reason or another you may want some alternatives, so here they are:

• Brandon Goldberg is a young jazz pianist who has been a rising star and is a Producer Pick this year. He would fail if he was carded in a jazz club, but has graced the stage at Dizzy's in NYC (at which his 2024 live album was recorded) and other iconic jazz venues and festivals across the country. The Brandon Goldberg Trio will be at Max's at Eastman Place at 6:15 and 10:00 pm. He is also playing solo in Hatch Recital Hall the previous night at 5:45 and 7:45 pm.

• I'm seeing Matt Wilson's Good Trouble in Kilbourn the next night, so won't be catching their appearance on the 24th. Drummer Matt Wilson brings an energy and his band, usually including Ben Allison, Dawn Clement, Tia Fuller and Jeff Lederer, will really cook. Matt Wilson's Good Trouble will be bringing it to the Temple Theater on the 24th at 7:00 and 9:15 pm. More in the post for June 25th.