Music

Maybe it’s that breathy voice rising over those tastefully sparse arrangements that makes Diana Krall the current queen of jazz. But it could also be the fact that she never stands still. Over the last two and a half decades, Krall has released albums of jazz standards, songs from early 78 RPM records, contemporary classics, […]

Rochester by-way-of Brooklyn’s Maybird writes music that feels perfect for this time of year. Summer’s creeping up, you finally feel safe to roll your car windows down, and the days are starting to feel a good deal lazier. Maybird’s largely mellow, synth-driven pop is a more than fitting soundtrack for those sun-kissed drives and late […]

For jazz fans, the trio of bassist Michael Bates may bring to mind the Sonny Rollins trio of several decades ago. While Bates leads, he’s got an excellent tenor saxophonist, Michael Blake, and a superb drummer, Jeremy Clemons. Bates is a prolific composer who leans decidedly to the adventurous side, and Blake and Clemons are […]

Jake La Botz mixes Piedmont blues with doses of Chicago shuffle-and-shake. With his classic Hollywood profile and gritty voice, La Botz is both heartbreaking and ominous. Lonesome never sounded so satisfying. And it’s all been brought into keen focus by the magic studio fingertips of producer Jimmy Sutton (bassist for JD McPherson) with the release […]

The Rochester Women’s Community Chorus has been part of the local choral scene for nearly 40 years, performing a wide variety of music from many genres, cultures, and traditions, from spirituals to Broadway and contemporary choral numbers with messages of peace, inclusion, and social equality. The group even has a signature song, “What’s Keeping You […]

Brooklyn’s Leland Sundries is waving an Americana flag in an indie war. Lyrically, it’s a steely folk stance where front man Nick Loss-Eaton keeps the quirk and the off-kilter to a minimum. The arrangements are garage-y yet sufficiently loose, and so is the application, which in turn gives the band miles and miles of credibility […]

This duo came to be as a side project for Dave Matthews and his band’s touring multi-instrumentalist Tim Reynolds. The duo always plays acoustic and has released three albums, all live. The instrumentation is stripped down to the point of seeing the songs’ cheekbones, and it’s a chance to hear the intricacies a whole lot […]

There are few groups more quirky than this nine-person, Boston-based band. Playing in support of its latest album, “Waving Kissyhead, Vol. 2 & 1,” Chandler Travis Philharmonic combines a counterculture rock sensibility with tinges of big-band horns and general zaniness. CTP self-describes as “alternative dixieland” and “omnipop,” but the bottom line is this: if you’re […]

The RPO on Friday and Saturday will close out the pops portion of its 2016-17 season with “Women Rock,” a vibrant program of rock classics made famous by legendary, show-stopping female performers, such as Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Carole King, Tina Turner, and more. Vocalists Cassidy Catanzaro, Katrina Dideriksen, and Shayna Steele (pictured) will share […]