Nancy Kelly has been looking back into classic vocal jazz since she was a wee one, just four years old. Growing up in Rochester, she studied piano, clarinet, drama, and dance before settling on voice, which she studied at the Eastman School of Music. Kelly was twice named “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” in the DownBeat […]
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Rochester blues rock band Rain releases ‘The Lost Album’ 50 years later
With help from producer and engineer Dave Anderson, the Rochester blues rock band Rain is now releasing “1971…The Lost Album,” nearly 50 years after it was recorded.
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CLASSICAL | Pegasus Early Music: ‘Nevertheless, She Persisted’
The 17th and 18th centuries were enlivened by some persistent and talented women composers and performers, all of them more or less erased by history until recently. This weekend’s Pegasus Early Music concert features a potpourri of instrumental pieces, songs, and opera excerpts by five such women: Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bembo, Isabella Leonarda, Julie Pinel, […]
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South Australia benefit show adds up to New Math reunion
Deb Jones has lived in Rochester for two decades, but is a native of Australia, where the landscape has been ravaged by fires since late July. She’s assembled “Songs for South Australia Bushfire Relief”; the January 31 show at Lovin’ Cup features the reunion of New Math.
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JAZZ-JAM BAND | Jazz Is PHSH
Created by drummer Adam Chase and his brother, guitarist Matthew Chase, Jazz Is PHSH is more than your typical tribute band. Rather than simply presenting the music of popular jam band Phish with similar or identical arrangements, Jazz Is PHSH repackages the improv-rich music in tight and succinct jazz arrangements. There’s also plenty of funk […]
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Album review: ‘Play Doh’
Carmen Sandim ‘Play Doh’ Ropeadope Records carmensandim.com If the title of pianist Carmen Sandim’s new album, “Play Doh,” suggests something malleable, it couldn’t be more appropriate. Like the children’s “clay,” jazz begins with a structure, but it’s up to the individual players to shape it, often spontaneously, into myriad forms. Sandim — who began piano […]
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CHORAL | St. Olaf Choir
Few collegiate choirs have the history and reputation that precede St. Olaf Choir. The 75-member chorus from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota has been in existence since 1912, has maintained its signature sound since its beginning. Led by Dr. Anton Armstrong — only the choir’s fourth conductor in its 100-plus years — the ensemble […]
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JAZZ | Ibeji Quartet
When they are not working on their advanced studies, you’ll find two Eastman School of Music doctoral students playing at The Little Theatre Café in the Ibeji Quartet. The band is named after the Yoruba word for twins because of what can only be described as a mutual admiration society. American jazz pianist Ted Perry […]
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Album review: ‘Master Volume’
Teymur Phell ‘Master Volume’ Self-released teymurphell.com In the mid-1970s, Jaco Pastorius revolutionized the electric bass and brought it into the spotlight. Four decades later, emerging artists like Teymur Phell continue to expand the instrument’s range. On his debut album, “Master Volume,” Phell plays a six-string bass with a dexterity and fluidity more often associated with […]
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ALT-COUNTRY | Rhett Miller
Rhett Miller is the king of the murder ballad, the prince of melancholy, the champion of the love song. Best known from his position leading the charge of the alt-country darlings Old 97’s, Miller is one of the precious few who legitimately can call his music Americana and mean it. In a sense, Old 97’s […]
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JAZZ | Mike Kaupa & Gordon Webster
Trumpeter Mike Kaupa seems to be on every bandstand in town. One night he’s playing with Chet Catallo, the next with Annie Wells. And that’s when he’s not occupying his long-standing trumpet chair in the Dave Rivello Ensemble. When the stars have visited, Kaupa has brought his gorgeous tone to the music of Ray Charles, […]
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Susan B. at the symphony
This year’s observances of Susan B. Anthony’s 200th birthday celebration and the centenary of the 19th Amendment are momentous events, but at first glance they may not seem to inspire musical celebrations – but the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra is prepared to prove otherwise this weekend and next.
