Cover Story
New-school fuel
On large dairy farms with lots of cattle, manure management is no minor task. Farmers have to be deliberate about how they store it, and mindful of the environmental impact of mountains of manure. And then there’s the odor. Some of the traditional ways that farmers have stored manure — in holding pits called lagoons,…
A blue note for the Jazz Fest
The Nature Conservancy of Central and Western New York, Xerox, and the City of Rochester offered a small but important service during the just-ended Jazz Fest: they provided a water bottle filling station that festival-goers could use for free. This isn’t a radical idea, or a new one. Filling stations have been brought in for…
Reining in e-waste
Consumers have an insatiable appetite for electronic devices, whether it’s the powerful smartphones in their pockets, the massive television screens on their walls, or the sleek laptops they carry with them. The electronics industry understands that appetite well, and it’s constantly churning out new products to render the old ones obsolete. And every time a…
Questions about the police reorg and body cameras
The Rochester Police Department is on my mind these days. Specifically, the police reorg and the city’s decision to outfit cops with body cameras. When is a reorg not a reorg? Well, according to the police union, it’s when you rearrange the desk chairs and call it a reorganization. The city went ahead with the…
New York makes its fracking ban official
It is done: New York has officially banned high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the state’s shale formations. State officials announced their intention to ban high-volume fracking back in December, but they also said that they needed to complete a few steps to finish out the environmental review. That’s done, and today, the Department of Environmental issued…
A change in Jazz Festival’s Club Passes?
This story has been corrected. If you’ve been buying Club Passes for the Jazz Festival, would you buy one if the Kilbourn Hall concerts weren’t included and you had to pay extra for them? A survey on the Jazz Festival’s app includes that question, and on the event’s last night, it had some festival-goers buzzing.…
WEEK AHEAD: Events for the week of Monday, June 29
This post has been corrected. Monroe County Young Democrats will hold a panel discussion, “Beyond Marriage Equality: What’s Next for the LGBTQ Community?” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, at Bread and Water Theatre, 172 West Main Street. Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry,…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 9: Daniel reviews Katie Ernst’s “Big Words” and The Wood Brothers
Eastman School of Music alumna, vocalist, and upright bassist Katie Ernst brought her “Little Words” project — featuring her original compositions set to the poetry of Dorothy Parker — to Max of Eastman Place and the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival on its last day, along with what may have been the most refreshing voice…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 9: Frank reviews The Steep Canyon Rangers, GoGo Penguin, and Bobby Henrie & The Goners
Mother nature was a soggy, wet jerk for this year’s final day of the Jazz fest. Armed with my umbrella (which afore mentioned soggy jerk wrecked with a gust of wind) I ventured out into the Shangri-la-di-da one more time. Though I missed Steve Martin’s quips, The Steep Canyon Rangers put on one helluva matinee…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 9: Ron reviews Clifton Anderson Quintet, Champian Fulton, and the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra
When the Clifton Anderson Quintet took the stage at Kilbourn Hall Saturday night, it was a gathering of veteran players. Five of the men had earned their strips with greats like Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Milt Jackson, and others. Only one, pianist Tadataka Unno, was in a younger, 30-something, generation. That made for…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 8: Ron reviews Kurt Rosenwinkel’s New Quartet, Denys Baptiste, and Melissa Aldana
He had played at the XRIJF twice before, so I wasn’t sure what the “New” in Kurt Rosenwinkel New Quartet was about, but it didn’t take long to find out at Kilbourn Hall Friday night. I knew he had used a small lapel microphone to vocalize with his guitar for years, but Friday he had…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 8: Daniel reviews Emmet Cohen and Duchess
Before New York City-based pianist Emmet Cohen began playing his second set at Hatch Recital Hall on Friday night, he let the audience know it was going to be “loose.” “It’s jazz — if you wanna scream, comment, say ‘boo,’ whatever.” Those present elected to stay quiet and attentive for most of the set, erupting…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 8: Frank reviews The Steve Gadd Band
Gadd-zooks Batman, that Steve Gadd can really beat the tubs. Celebrating his 70th birthday in front of a sold out, hometown crowd, Gadd and his black clad band were greeted enthusiastically and jumped right into a tight and progressive set. Though the audience clearly loved what was going on, the band struck me more as…
Marriage equality wins
The US Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex marriage is legal right. The 5 to 4 ruling is a major victory for gay rights advocates and it comes as public opinion has largely shifted in favor of marriage equality in recent years. Local LGBT and marriage equality activists will hold a rally today in support of…
Jazz Fest, Day 7: Ron reviews Bill Charlap, Obara International, and Stanley Clarke
I began Thursday at the new festival venue which is one of the oldest auditoriums in Rochester. Pianist Bill Charlap played at the Lyric Theatre and, with its gorgeous dome, it is absolutely magnificent. I don’t know about other kinds of musical acts, but for solo piano, the acoustics couldn’t have been better. Charlap is…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 7: Daniel reviews Theo Croker and Mama Corn
When the nearly 30-year-old trumpeter Theo Croker took the stage at Kilbourn Hall on Thursday night, he did so with a group of young professionals both exceedingly vibrant and undeniably mature. It’s hard to imagine five musicians more dialed into one another than Croker and his band — keyboardist Michael King, tenor saxophonist Anthony Ware,…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 7: Frank reviews Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings and Tedeschi Trucks Band
[IMAGE-1] There will be no pictures this evening of Doyle Bramhall II because the cat played in the shadows with no spotlight. Regardless, he sounded great. He was the second loud guitar player on stage in a poncho this week which added to his good, bad, and ugly guitar-slinger mystique. His guitar was an intense,…
Supreme Court upholds health insurance subsidies
In a 6-3 decision released this morning, the Supreme Court upheld federal subsidies for insurance plans purchased through its exchanges. Vox has a good summary of the case, King v. Burwell, and some analysis of the decision’s impacts. In short, the case had the potential to eliminate a key provision of Obamacare, which was aimed…
Dan Sallitt’s “family films”
Creative types are usually at ease discussing the artistic process and where that process places them within the context of “the scene,” but every artist I’ve ever interviewed has always shied away from speculating about his or her future importance to the art form. That is, until I met Brooklyn independent filmmaker Dan Sallitt, whose…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 6: Ron reviews the Omer Avital Quintet, Antonio Sanchez & Migration, and Aaron Diehl
The most joyful experience I’ve had so far at the XRIJF was watching and hearing the Omer Avital Quintet Wednesday night at Xerox Auditorium. Part of the reason was that the dancing bassist, Avital, and the other members of his group were clearly having a great time and it was infectious. But it was also…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 6: Daniel reviews Julia Biel and the High Definition Quartet
British vocalist, guitarist, and pianist Julia Biel and her band brought melancholic jazz-tinged pop songs to Max at Eastman Place on Wednesday night. Amidst her brooding original songs, Biel’s vocal aesthetic was often hushed, intimate, and confessional. Though she clearly has a powerful voice, she never overstated her case, singing with a controlled tone that…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 6: Frank reviews Sonny Knight & The Lakers, Jennifer Hudson, and Dana Fuchs
Sonny Knight was a solid sender at his Harro East Ballroom early set Wednesday night. It was some seriously intense stomp and git-it rhythm and blues. The band took the stage and immediately brought the heat with bass, guitar, drums, organ, and a smoking horn section including the royal rattle, rumble, and honk of the…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 5: Daniel reviews Mario Rom’s Interzone and George Colligan
If you blinked on Tuesday night, you might have missed the Austrian trio known as Mario Rom’s Interzone, easily one of the most entertaining and scintillating acts at this year’s festival. I have yet to hear a group of musicians — anywhere — with a more serious sense of play. The band opened its first…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 5: Ron reviews Fred Hersch, Julia Hulsmann, and George Colligan
Fred Hersch was so perfectly in command of everything he played at Kilbourn Hall Tuesday night that you would hardly have noticed anything subversive going on. But toward the end of his set I realized that I knew the ballad he was playing very well, but at that moment I didn’t know it at all.…
Jazz Fest 2015, Day 5: Frank reviews Beth Hart and Gary Clark Jr.
I first witnessed the female phenomenon that is Beth Hart at Lollapalooza some 15 years ago when the headliners on the main stage were Metallica, Rancid, Soundgarden, and The Ramones. Tucked away on a little stage among the merchandise was this skinny little hippy girl with cathedral pipes and a throaty wail. Flash forward to…
RPO sees record-setting season
The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra has recently finished one of its best seasons on record, the organization reported today. The RPO set a new record in 2014-15 ticket sales, surpassing the former record-holding 2010-11 season. All told, the RPO gathered $1.66 million in single ticket sales, an increase of 19 percent from the 2013-14 season and…
ALBUM REVIEW: “New For You”
Herb Heins “New For You” Self-released On his fresh new CD, “New For You,” Rochester rocker Herb Heins offers up an interesting juxtaposition with his guitar’s non-stop rhythmic cabaret as it chops, bops, bucks, and careens beneath his strident singing style. That’s not to say that his lyrics aren’t borne of a spirited delivery, rather,…
ALBUM REVIEW: “Signal in the Static”
The Crawdiddies “Signal in the Static” Self-released thecrawdiddies.com The Crawdiddies is the type of band that transcends the limits of a descriptive chronology. Bluegrass, fiddle music, acoustic blues all get the vintage tag, which isn’t entirely inaccurate. But how can you refer to it exclusively as a vintage strain? Hearts still get broken in the…
Feedback 6/24
We welcome your comments. Send them to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. Comments of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. Blame the…
A zero-waste world
Khoury Humphrey has a philosophy: to ignore a problem is to condone it. This viewpoint led him to begin thinking of ways to feed the homeless and poor in the City of Rochester, and to eventually form Flower City Pickers — an idea he came up with while recovering from an illness earlier this year.…
RCSD’s busing morass
Busing city students has been a source of controversy for several years and for multiple reasons. Many parents and school officials want the school district to bus their children to school rather than having them walk, citing neighborhood safety concerns and the need to increase attendance. But the cost of transporting city students has mushroomed…
Calls for better access to police reports
Victims of domestic violence have to deal with fear, emotional harm, and often, physical harm. And if they want a copy of the police report dealing with their case, they have one more hurdle to overcome: they must make a trip downtown to the Public Safety Building. It can be a hardship for people who…
At the chef’s table
Since December, Pittsford restaurant The Kitchen has offered a unique culinary experience: intimate, chef’s table dining. Overseen by Executive Chef Joseph Cipolla, The Kitchen turns out modern American cuisine through a seven-course tasting menu. This alone would make The Kitchen a stand out in Rochester. That Cipolla and his team are able to do so…
Urban Action 6/24
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. Encyclical celebration Earth Care Team of Presbytery of Genesee Valley and St. Mary’s church will celebrate Pope Francis’ earth encyclical at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 28. The papal encyclical on the environment…
Variations on a dream
When siblings and artists Lanna and Dejan Pejovic began creating their recent work, currently showcased at Ock Hee’s Gallery in Honeoye Falls, they had no idea how complementary their paintings and sculptures would be. Both work with concepts of architectural forms in nature and sacred spaces and with the emotional qualities explored in both, pointing…
PUNK | Hugh Cornwell
The man who Rolling Stone once referred to as “UK punk’s dark lord” pretty much solidified the melodic musical chasm between punk and new wave with his band The Stranglers (1974-1990). Cornwell’s tune “Peaches” is one of the all-time coolest in the whole punk, post-punk lexicon. His latest album is the Steve Albini produced “Totem…
ART | “Cubes”
If you were out and about in the East End for the Jazz Festival this past weekend, it’s likely that you spotted a stack of cubes delineated by the surging and darkening LED lights along their frames. The installation, “Cubes,” is an interactive light sculpture by Alexander Green. Using technology developed by Green and Symmetry…
SKA | Mrs. Skannotto
So it’s not just the swinging jazz invasion filling the streets with bodies and the air with beautiful music this week. Smack in the middle of this partay will be the ska-tacular line-up of Rochester road dogs Mrs. Skannotto and the irreverent maniacs 5Head. Both bands are as much ska as they aren’t; blending punk,…
FOLK | David Crosby
A legend, a visionary, an iconoclast — David Crosby is so many things to his fans. The California-born singer-songwriter logged time in coffeehouses prior to coming up with The Byrds and later co-founding Crosby, Stills & Nash. Both of those bands pioneered a West Coast approach that blasted David Crosby into the AM-FM stratosphere.…
COMEDY | Ed Blaze
Ed Blaze has quickly made a name for himself in the past few years by opening for acts like Ralphie May, Jim Gaffigan, and Dave Chappelle. With a sharp-witted observational brand of humor — heavily inspired by Richard Pryor and George Carlin — Blaze finds his niche in comparing American life to growing up in…
JAZZ | Bob Sneider
Bob Sneider is a local wonder, a world-class jazz guitarist whose lightning fast solos fall somewhere between those of Barney Kessel and Jim Hall. At his upcoming Kilbourn concert he’ll explore the music of Dizzy Gillespie and Wes Montgomery with an all-star band: Mike Kaupa on trumpet; Doug Stone, tenor sax; Paul Hofmann, piano; Mike…
FOOD | Distinguished Male Cooks
More than 40 of Rochester’s community leaders will be cooking and serving their signature dishes at the Urban League of Rochester’s 25th Annual Distinguished Male Cooks event. This year’s cooks will include former RIT professor William J. Daniels; Glen Jeter, the owner of the Upper Falls Boulevard McDonald’s; and Michael Schwabl of Dixon Schwabl. The…
JAZZ | Doug Stone
Saxophonist Doug Stone is a master of the sinuous solo. After years of enhancing the bands of Maynard Ferguson and others, Stone directs jazz ensembles at Rochester’s School of the Arts and serves as chair of the jazz department at the Eastman Community Music School. When he takes the stage at Kilbourn Hall he’ll be…
COMEDY | Rondell Sheridan
Odds are you’ve seen actor, director, and comedian Rondell Sheridan somewhere before, either as a featured guest on one of numerous late-night shows; in Showtime and Comedy Central stand-up specials; as Chef Victor on Disney’s “That’s So Raven”; or any one of his over-200 half-hour sitcom appearances. Sheridan has established himself as a versatile talent.…
ROCK | The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
In the vein of dissonant, literary post-hardcore and screamo with unrestrained band names — like iwrotehaikusaboutcannibalisminyouryearbook and combatwoundedveteran — The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die skulks into the Bug Jar on Thursday, June 25. TWIABP’s style, akin to La Dispute, features spoken word segments accompanied by slow,…
THEATER | Shakespeare in the Park
As they have for nearly two decades, the words of Shakespeare will come alive again in Rochester. The Rochester Community Player’s Shakespeare Players present the 19th annual Shakespeare in the Park at the Highland Park Bowl (1200 South Avenue). This year’s performances will include two plays: “Henry IV, Part 1” and “Henry IV, Part 2.”…
VARIOUS | Bernunzio’s Homegrown Concert Series
During Rochester’s Jazz Fest, East End music store Bernunzio Uptown Music is hosting its own performances by local musicians. The Homegrown Concert Series features music of a slew of different genres, offering a venue to catch a break from the bustling of Rochester’s downtown during Jazz Fest. The remaining acts include blues trio Red, Fred,…
Film Review: “Inside Out”
By now we’ve hopefully gotten past the ridiculous idea that animation is strictly for kids and accepted it as a versatile medium that allows filmmakers the means to tell stories which wouldn’t be physically possible (or would simply be too expensive) with a live-action film. Take Pixar’s astonishing new film, “Inside Out,” whose protagonists are…
Film Review: “Dope”
It’s said that there are only about seven different plots in storytelling, yet our unique perspectives have enabled scribes to recycle those same scenarios for thousands of years. So on the surface, there’s nothing particularly new or groundbreaking about writer-director Rick Famuyiwa’s “Dope,” in which naïve young people come into possession of a pile of…
Film Review: “Results”
Your garden-variety romantic comedy is a nice girl, a nice guy, and, as Jane Austen once wrote of her characters, “after a little bit of trouble, all that they desire.” Everyone’s adorably quirky but no one’s overtly weird, even though humans are unquestionably strange. It’s surprising that not many filmmakers have the guts to craft…
The Charleston shootings and the state of the nation
Not only does this country, through its laws, its political leaders, and its media, permit such events, it encourages them.
