The Slocan Ramblers are built for speed, but these Juno Award nominees don’t waste it as a flash trick for the stage. There’s no doubt the band of Canadian pickers can handle blinding fingerpickin’ speed. All the instruments are turbo-charged and yet the four musicians don’t get in each other’s way. It’s a foot-stompin’ time. […]
Music
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Leaving the stage
It’s a reasonable question to ask: What the hell were Bat McGrath and Tricia Cast doing in Nashville? True, the city is exploding, and fantabulous architecture can be found on many downtown street corners. When the hotel doorman asks, “Looking for the honky-tonks?” he needs to point only a couple of blocks up the street, […]
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Blake Pattengale: Song of the Samurai
A seemingly strange dichotomy is at work in the creative life of Rochester musician Blake Pattengale. A guitarist who graduated from Eastman School of Music in 2018 with a Bachelor’s degree in jazz performance, he’s also the rapper known as Redbeard Samurai.
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JAZZ | Gap Mangione & The New Big Band
You might call Gap Mangione a member of Rochester’s first family of jazz. Growing up, he and his brother Chuck were introduced to some of the greatest musicians in jazz by their father, who would invite touring stars like Dizzy Gillespie back to the house for pasta dinners. The Mangione brothers collaborated as The Jazz […]
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The F Word: ‘I’ve Got Rhythm’
With an appropriate amount of hometown pride and fanfare, there’s no way vibraphonist Joe Locke couldn’t feel the outpouring of local love from the capacity crowd at the newly renovated Little Theatre Friday night.
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Eastman alumni and faculty receive Grammy nominations
Eastman School of Music will be well-represented at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, January 26, 2020.
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‘Like Falling Through a Cloud’ with Eugenia Zukerman
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, just a better road to the end. World-renowned flutist Eugenia Zukerman on coping with her diagnosis.
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RPO and Ward Stare’s recording up for two Grammys
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Ward Stare’s recording of composer Jennifer Higdon’s “Harp Concerto,” featuring the classical harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, has been nominated for two Grammys.
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ROOTS ROCK-SOUL | Dustbowl Revival
Without a percussive strike, spike, or slap of an instrument, or even a harsh puff from a singer’s lungs, it’s hard sometimes to distinguish a note’s origin. The music of California sextet Dustbowl Revival is full of this mysterious phenomenon, especially with the fiddle, which seems to appear out of thin air. The same goes […]
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HARD ROCK-METAL | John 5
Fast ain’t the word, chum. Guitarist John 5 plugs in and rides the lightning for Rob Zombie, just like he’s done for David Lee Roth and shock rocker Marilyn Manson. John 5 is integral to Zombie’s sound, and has been with him since 2006. And though there’s no rest for the wicked, it’s impressive to […]
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JAZZ | Joe Fiedler’s ‘Big Sackbut’
Trombonist Joe Fiedler has explored his instrument’s important role in Latin music with Celia Cruz and Eddie Palmieri, as well as in the pit band of “In the Heights” on Broadway. He’s also embraced his role as an arranger of hundreds of tunes for “Sesame Street” on his recent album, “Open Sesame.” But over the […]
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CLASSICAL | RPO with JoAnn Falletta
JoAnn Falletta, the lauded music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, makes a welcome visit east this week to lead the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert begins with a brief but delightful Overture by Germaine Taillefaire (1892-1983), the female member of the composer coterie Les Six. The late Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto comes next, probably […]
