Seven days into the Rochester International Jazz Festival – and after some brilliant moments that were impossible to overlook – we finally got the signature moment.
Ms. Lisa Fischer, one-time backing singer for the Rolling Stones, closed her first show Thursday in the packed Temple Theater by caterwauling her way through the Stones’ “Gimme Shelter,” then turning to the wistful ache of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
And as people walked out of the theater into the early evening daylight, some red-eyed from the emotional impact of Fischer’s amazing performance, they were greeted by Joe Beard, as the veteran Rochester bluesman’s amplified voice boomed across the lawn of Parcel 5, bounced off the downtown buildings, and echoed down E. Main Street on its way to a rendezvous with the perfect evening.
The perfect evening in downtown Rochester. A city being utilized, in these sketchy economic days, to its full potential.
Fischer has been here before, in this very building. Temple Theater, a 96-year-old venue, for this nine-day festival, a temple of brilliant song.
Fischer, wearing a black, flowing pants suit and a towering, burnt-orange chapeaux, opened with an a cappella warning drawn from gospel churches and Joan Baez: “We Shall Overcome,” and the line “We’ll walk hand in hand some day,” while glancing at her watch. The implication was clear, as she had introduced the song with a brief mention of the Supreme Court decision earlier in the day striking down affirmative action in education.
A few moments later, Fischer kicked off her sparkly shoes, ready for work. She had arrived from another world to deliver soaring arias of jazz. Fischer wasn’t more than two or three songs into her hour-long set that the standing ovations started to arrive.
She has a sense of humor. When someone’s phone started ringing mid-song, “I know, I hate that too,” Fischer commiserated. “Sink into a hole and die.”
Stones pedigree aside, the 64-year-old Brooklyn native worked some even more vintage material. Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares For Me.” Stepping into Ella Fitzgerald’s territory, “My Mama Done Told Me.”
At one point, Fischer sat at the edge of the stage, then wandered into the audience, her voice a sigh and husky whisper for Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” at one moment clasping her hands as if in prayer.
By the way, she was filling the room with only her voice and her longtime piano partner, Taylor Eigsti.
And then, the song everyone was waiting for, the duet she was known for with Mick Jagger. “Ooooh, oooh, oooh,” she wailed, and here came “Gimme Shelter.” Howling to the chorus, “Just a shot away,” standing on her toes, her eyes fixed on a distant point. Then urging the room to help her out – “Ooooh, oooh, oooh” – which it immediately did.
“Gimme Shelter.” And “Imagine.” Stones aside, Lennon aside — on this night, Fischer made those songs her own.
Today’s jazz haiku
She sets the words free
spiraling to the ceiling
A sigh, a whisper
Southside Johnny’s lonely night
Night was settling in over Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes as the band took over Parcel 5, downtown Rochester’s grassy knoll. A beautiful, balmy night, as though the city had been transported to some other place. A big crowd for the free show. People quietly moved up and down E. Main Street on skateboards, bicycles, electric scooters. A drone hovered overhead, lights blinking red and green.
Like Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny tells a few mid-song stories that might be true, might not be true. There’s a time-worn ache in his voice. As though he’s been here before. Many times.
Where? Rock has a history of linking arms with lonely souls, and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes were really giving it to us this night. Songs such as “Without Love,” carrying through the night air on the tight, three-horn section that drives the rock band in the direction of soul and R&B.
A staple of a Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes show is always an awesome cover of The Left Banke’s “Just Walk Away Renee,” the perfect rock song of lost love.
Lost love, love gone wrong. When this band’s tour bus pulls up to your city, a lot of Jersey spills out the door. The place must hurt. Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes shared their pain through Bruce Springsteen’s “All the Way Home,” with the opening lines about, “I know what it’s like to have failed, baby, with the whole world lookin’ on.” And there was the hopeful, “Baby This Time It’s For Real,” written by yet another member of that Springsteen circle, Steven Van Zandt.
Or try, “This Time Baby’s Gone For Good.” You’ll notice there are a lot of babies in these songs.
And there’s “Don’t Waste My Time.” Or the languid groove of longing from the guy in one of Southside Johnny’s great songs from the ’70s, “The Fever,” where he’s consoling himself, “It’s gonna be alright.” And “Talk to Me,” but she won’t. Or “I Don’t Wanna Go Home,” where Southside asks, “Why did she leave me lonely?”
This band feels your pain. And you feel its pain. That’s one of the jobs of rock and roll, to try and explain it all.
Spevak’s picks for Friday, June 30
Zahyia Rolle, Rochester Public Library, noon.
Rolle is a dynamite Rochester R&B and soul singer. And you can bring your lunch.
Joey Alexander Trio, Temple Theater, 7 and 9:15 p.m.
The Jazz Fest has watched Alexander grow up from an 11-year-old prodigy in 2015, to a fully formed jazz pianist today.
Emilie-Claire Barlow, Montage Music Hall, 6 and 10 p.m.
The Canadian vocalist has been here a few times. She squeezes breezy pop songs, such as Sonny & Cher’s “The Beat Goes On,” into a set list of jazz.
Artimus Pyle Band Celebrating Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wegman’s Stage at Parcel 5, 9 p.m.
Pyle was Lynyrd Skinner’s drummer, surviving the 1977 plane crash that killed several members of the band. This is his tribute to Southern-rock clasics such as “Sweet Home Alabama” and the most-requested song in the history of beered-up rock audiences, “Freebird.”
Jeff Spevak is senior arts writer for WXXI/CITY Magazine. He can be reached at jspevak@wxxi.org.
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2023.
