As I've said in previous posts, I am not going to be a the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival this year.  I'm in Wichita, Kansas, helping to take care of my father, who is on home hospice. While I'll miss the music, I'm there with you in spirit and will continue coverage some ways, including:

• I will be sharing on Twitter and Facebook throughout the festival. I encourage you to follow the Twitter list I created of this year's XRIJF artists.
• I hope to post guest posts by some folks who are actually at the festival.  If you'd like to be one of those guest posters, contact me through the Contact Us button above and I'll provide you with the particulars. 
• Next Wednesday, I will still be doing the post with listings of all the jazz I can find in Rochester that is NOT part of the XRIJF.

Have fun at the festival! I'll see you next year.  If you're looking for more about the festival, check out their website by clicking on the image in the middle column. You can also download their app for your iPhone or Android device.

There are fewer than 10 days left until Rochester's streets fill up and the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival gets underway. I'm still in Kansas with my father, who is on home hospice. I won't be joining you at the festival this year, although due to the reason I'm not going to be in Rochester, I am quite happy about that as it means my Dad is still with us. I'll miss some great music this year. My coverage this year will be necessarily limited.  

After the "fold" (click the link if there is one for you) you will find the next seven days of live jazz in and around Rochester. As always, let me know if any regular gigs below are no longer happening or if you have heard of anything that's not in the listings. Check back later in the week for stragglers.

Jazz@Rochester has been on Twitter for a long time and is closing in on 11,000 followers. We follow local jazz artists, jazz artists from elsewhere with a local connection, and more than a few of my favorite artists, websites, blogs and other jazz information sources. There are a number of the artists (in jazz and other genres) on Twitter appearing at this year's Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival and so far I've found 90 of them and added them to a Twitter List. I'm afraid I regrettably have had to leave some off due to the noise their feed creates in the list (Erykah Badu's @fatbellybella account, with over 1M followers, just drowns everything out...).  

It can be fun checking in on what XRIJF artists are doing before and after the festival, sharing relevant insights about them with my followers, and letting the artists know how much I enjoyed their performance at the festival. If you'd like to join that conversation, just click on the "tooting Tweeter" (or is it honking...?) to the right to check out our Twitter List and add it to your favorite Twitter client (or of course follow it directly on Twitter), or just follow the Jazz@Rochester Twitter feed (click on the blue Twitter bird at the top the middle column under Connect with Jazz@Rochester to check that out).

If you're appearing at XRIJF 2016 and are on Twitter and not on the List, please tweet to me (or contact me through the site) and let me know and I'll add you.

It always sneaks up on me. I'm going along through the Rochester winter (although not so much this year) and all of a sudden, I get the email that the lineup for the XRIJF is coming up soon.  I'm not sure why... it always arrives about the same time ... however, I'm always surprised and realize that Jazz in June is only a few months away.  Jazz in June this year, will venture into July, running from June 24th through July 2nd.

Today's announcement was different mostly in location. A new venue this year is where the wandering Squeezers' stage has moved to in 2016—Anthology, a new 900-person music venue off East Avenue just short of Alexander Street. It will be a great venue and close to the footprint of the rest of the XRIJF. But where new venues show up, others disappear (at least this year) as the Lyric Opera venue on East (a couple blocks past Anthology), where many saw Joey Alexander last year, will not be part of the footprint this year at least. The other new venue will, as expected for some time, be moving the other direction toward our revitalizing downtown, with Trombone Shorty holding court in a July 2nd only venue where the food court at Midtown Plaza used to be. While there were no details at the presser, Kilbourn Hall and Max lines will be handled in such a way that the 3 hour line waits for these popular venues may be a thing of the past.  Additionally, Kilbourn's late concerts will be at 9:00 pm, giving you a chance to catch some more music before you head home, bleary-eyed (OK, I'm talking about me....). 

But saying that today's press conference was not so different from previous years is not to say that the lineup announced was same-old-same-old. Chick Corea (and Joey Alexander) are going to be in the Big House (it's not every year that there is jazz there) and there are some great options in the Club Pass venues. There is a new O'Canada series at the Rochester Club. All in all it is the usual great smorgasbord of music, with some artists from recent years returning, but with new, intriguing artists from all over the globe coming to play here (often for the first time in the states). I'm not going to go into details here, but I already see some "must hear" jazz artists and others that I hope to check out as I definitely won't hear them anywhere else. Over the weeks between now and June 24th I hope to explore the 2016 XRIJF (the 15th year) in these pages. For now, check out the XRIJF website, where you can find all the info, get tickets, and find out all things XRIJF. Here's the grid. 

After the 2016 XRIJF wraps, this blog will celebrate 10 years of helping you find live jazz in and around Rochester (and covering the XRIJF). Actually, I started it in 2005 at a different location, Jazz@Rochester started in earnest on August 31, 2006. Wow!

The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, which will be bringing Rochester a smorgasbord of live jazz and other music from June 24th to July 2nd next year has put its Club Passes on sale as of 10:00 am today. The Club Pass provides you at-the-door admission and the freedom to sample the more than 230 Club Pass shows at 13 venues during the XRIJF. 

This year there is a new option, a 3-Day Pass that saves you $40-50 off the full 9-Day Pass.  You'll get the card punched on each day you use it and it becomes invalid after 3 punches.  The early-bird price on the 3-Day Club Pass is $134 (goes to regular $154 on January 1st).  The 9-Day will be early-bird priced at $174 ($204 after January 1st). Service charges will apply, of course.  While there's not a huge difference in the price point between these two options, if you're one of the many people who do not come out all 9 days, the 3-Day will save you some scratch. 

In announcing when that Club Passes would go on sale, the XRIJF also set out some other news about the 2016 XRIJF Club Pass Series:

• The Squeezers stage will move to a larger 900-capacity club, "Anthology" at 336 East Avenue at the corner of Lawrence Street in Rochester's popular East End. Two sets will be presented there nightly at 7:30 and 9:30 pm
• An "Oh, Canada!" Series will be presented at the Rochester Club featuring two performances nightly at 6:00 and 10:00 pm by leading emerging artists from our friends to the North.
• Kilbourn Hall show times will now be 6:00 and 9:00 pm.
• An intriguing system using wristbands will be implemented at two very popular venues—Kilbourn Hall and Max of Eastman Place—to help reduce our line time (and get people out there people to enjoy other shows and/or spend their money on food and beverages). No details yet about how this will work, but they indicate that more details will follow.
• Single entry to any Club Pass Series show without a 3-day or 9-day Club Pass will now be $30 cash at the door for all venues, $35 at Kilbourn Hall. According to the XRIJF, this is the first increase in admission prices at the door in 8 years.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Kilbourn/Max wristband approach. While I have had some great times standing in line with my fellow XRIJF fanatics, I would love to hear more music and I know that for many people it is a major pain point.  So, what do you think?