Cover Story
Rochester’s steel-tip darts community keeps throwing
For a community of Rochesterians, darts is more than an amusement many sidestep on their way to order another drink at the bar. Local players put in hours of training and an uncountable number of throws to perfect the craft in weekly leagues and regional tournaments
Jazz Fest 2018: Final thoughts
If anyone feels like the nine days of this year’s Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival went by in a blur, you’re not alone. According to XRIJF organizers, more than 208,000 people followed the music downtown across this year’s run. But if you missed it, the festival will be back for an 18th edition on June…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 9: Daniel reviews Eric Krasno Band, Geoffrey Keezer, and Abe Nouri
Pianist Geoffrey Keezer had an elegant approach to the keys during his first set at Hatch Hall. His confident technical facility and flair for the whimsical in melody was a delight to hear. And his precision in the right hand was mesmerizing. Keezer’s style as a whole was engrossing and effervescent, with a slight air…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 9: Ron reviews Matt Wilson’s Honey & Salt Band, the Mark Lewandowski Trio, and Thomas Stronen
If you can create a Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton using hip-hop, it doesn’t seem too radical to take the poetry of Carl Sandburg and set it to jazz. Matt Wilson’s Honey & Salt Band does exactly that, and Saturday night the group provided one of the most unusual concert’s I’ve heard at the XRIJF.…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 9: Frank keeps his clothes on and beats the heat with Deva Mahal and Tower of Power
Frank streaks the Jazz Fest; pictures at 11. Well, no, not really, but it would have felt good. Remember it’s not the heat; it’s the stupidity. And yes, it was stupid hot last night, but the Harro East Ballroom had us on ice with the AC and the super cool Deva Mahal. Now I’ve heard…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 8: Daniel reviews Stephane Wrembel, Miles Electric Band, and Jerry Granelli Band with Robben Ford
The Jerry Granelli Band with Robben Ford presented a set of easy-going music complete with jazz-shuffle rhythms and blues structures. Interpreting the music of greats such as Charles Mingus, Fats Domino, and Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, the band exhibited undeniable skill — and yet the arrangements felt almost commonplace. The mostly mid-tempo tunes lacked…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 8: Frank catches Robin McKelle, Jill Scott, Pokey LaFarge, and one more song from Gwyneth Herbert
Rochester ex-pat Robin McKelle is far from your stock blues belter or jazz singer. She detours around those parameters , forging her own path. This path led her to the Harro East Ballroom last night. She has a jazzy voice that follows a certain discipline in tone and attack, especially when singing out-and-out jazz. There…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 8: Ron reviews the Geoffrey Keezer Trio, Maciej Obara Quartet, and Jean-Michel Pilc
Sometimes a group with a big name in the title only has one true star, but at Xerox Auditorium, the Geoffrey Keezer Trio proved to be a band of equals. Keezer may be the most well known member; after all he’s played with Sting. But every time bassist Ben Williams or drummer Billy Kilson took…
Parking meter changes coming
The city is changing the hours for its street parking meters. Hours for collecting parking fees will extend from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday through Friday. The new hours of operation will begin on this Sunday, July 1. The city will post the new hours of operation on the meters and violators will…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 7: Frank stumbles upon Gwyneth Herbert, takes a Lake Street Dive, and goes Sax-O-Matic in the process
There’s no explaining how Gwyneth Herbert arrived at her arsenal of eclectic instrumentation. but there she stood on the Max of Eastman Place stage behind half a drum set, a ukulele, and a melodica, an actual instrument that looks like a mini keyboard with a hose to blow into on one side. It’s cool really.…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 7: Daniel reviews The Suffers, GoGo Penguin, and Pilc Moutin Hoenig
The joy and the enthusiasm coming from The Suffers during its first set at Harro East Ballroom felt effortless. In the Houston soul band’s debut performance in Rochester, it was all about the presence of frontwoman Kam Franklin, whose delivery could be sensitive and understated but frequently involved first-rate vocal pyrotechnics. The band was nothing…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 7: Ron reviews the Vincent Herring Quartet, the Georgia Mancio/Alan Broadbent Quartet, and Megumi Yonezawa
The Vincent Herring Quartet put on quite a crowd-pleasing show at Kilbourn Hall Thursday night. Part of the charm was Herring’s personality; he had a great rapport with the audience. But the other reason was his song selection. There were no brooding ballads, just lively tunes with great heads and perfect chords to improvise over.…
Families Belong Together rally set for Saturday
Saturday is the Families Belong Together day of action against the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, and there will be a protest at Washington Square Park. The Rochester rally begins at 3 p.m., and speakers will talk about Trump’s recent executive order to stop the separation of migrant families detained by immigration officials, local organizations that…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 6: Daniel reviews ‘Songs of Freedom,’ Shake Stew, and Ghost-Note with MonoNeon
Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.’s “Songs of Freedom” was a different kind of American Songbook concert. For this performance, Owens and his band looked no further than a trio of powerhouse singer-songwriters from the 1960’s — Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and Joni Mitchell — to conjure up the sounds of liberation. The assembled quartet was prolifically…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 6: Frank reviews Liz Vice, Davina and The Vagabonds, and Rai Thistlethwayte
The dampness put a damper on the vibe last night, I’m afraid. Still, those who had umbrellas soldiered on despite the inclemency. Last night, I started off at Montage to see an artist I knew little of: Liz Vice. Her story is one of triumph over adversity. She was raised by a single mother with…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 6: Ron reviews Jazzmeia Horn, Harold Danko, and Torben Waldorff
When Jazzmeia Horn took the Temple Building Theater stage Wednesday night, it was obvious she was a commanding presence in a long green dress and brightly colored African head wrap. As soon as she launched into her first song, Betty Carter’s “Tight,” there was no doubt that there was plenty of substance to go with…
More development proposed for the Inner Loop’s fill-in
Mayor Lovely Warren has chosen two more developers for the land created by filling in the east side of the Inner Loop downtown. For the highly visible site between East Avenue and Broad Street, she is recommending a unique, mixed-use development by Home Leasing: 66 one and two-bedroom apartments, a pharmacy for Trillium Health, and…
House candidate Maxwell lays out his positions
It took barely 12 hours for the 25th Congressional District election to pivot from the Democratic primary to the coming general election in November. Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle walked away with a victory in last night’s primary, and this morning his Republican opponent Jim Maxwell, a neurosurgeon from East Rochester, held a press conference…
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 5: Daniel reviews Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, House of Waters, and Partikel
You won’t hear anyone else like New York City’s House of Waters at this year’s Jazz Festival. Singularly hypnotic, the trio features the hammered dulcimer playing of Max ZT, who takes what is primarily known here in America as an Appalachian folk instrument and turns it into a multicultural mashup of East meets West. During…
Album review: ‘Assorted Colors’
Spin Cycle “Assorted Colors” Sound Footing Records spincyclemusic.org There’s a moment about halfway through “Possum Dark,” the third track on Spin Cycle’s “Assorted Colors,” when you might forget you are listening to a jazz album. Saxophonist Tom Christensen, who co-leads the group with drummer Scott Neumann, wrote the tune and takes the first solo with a powerful…
Nuisance Abatement Law gets an overhaul
Music blaring from a neighboring rental house… suspected drug sales at a corner store… fights outside of a nightclub…. Living and working in a city has plenty of advantages, including the proximity of businesses, cultural offerings, and people, all of it adding convenience as well as richness and diversity to life. But that closeness can…
ART | ‘Underpants and Overbites’
For more than two years Rochester-based comic artist Jackie E. Davis has kept a diary comic she calls “Underpants and Overbites,” which is inspired by real-life experiences and observations. With a dry and casually self-deprecating wit, Davis translates relatable experiences onto the panels filled with “chubby pink humanoids” that she then watercolors by hand. Makers…
THEATER | ‘Million Dollar Quartet’
In December of 1956, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins recorded an impromptu jam session at Sun Records in Memphis that is regarded as one of the greatest recordings ever made. The session included the classic hits “Great Balls of Fire,” “Sixteen Tons,” “I Walk the Line,” “Hound Dog” and others,…
THEATER | ‘White Guy on the Bus’
Like Amiri Baraka’s play “Dutchman,” Bruce Graham’s “White Guy on the Bus” explores racism through an encounter on public transportation. But unlike the encounter in “Dutchman,” which takes place on a single ride that moves from casually pleasant to violent, Graham’s play follows the routine encounters between a wealthy white businessmen and a young black…
SPECIAL EVENT | ‘Whiskey & Watches’
Two Rochester-based businesses will showcase their respective crafts together for a “Whiskey & Watches” event this week. Presented by Black Button Distilling and Ocean Crawler Watch Company, the event will include tastings of three signature cocktails made with Black Button’s bourbon, as well as the opportunity to view, try on, and buy Ocean Crawler’s dive…
PUNK | Murder Junkies
Murder Junkies are the remnants of G.G. Allin and the Murder Junkies, the most chaotic and vulgar counter attack on rock music’s waning libido ever. His mother named him Jesus Christ, which was soon after shortened to G.G. Covered in blood and shit (not always his own) and raging with an utter disdain for anything…
ROCK | Roger Daltrey
What makes the force of nature that is The Who is front man Roger Daltrey’s voice. I mean, he’s been screaming his head off over the pummeling volume of the band since 1964. And he still nails those skyscrapers. The Who’s sold out CMAC show last year left fans wanting more. And they’re gonna get…
ROCK | Animal Flag
After recording its latest album, “Void Ripper,” at various locations between 2014 and 2017, Animal Flag is finally putting its sound on the road. The Boston-based collective blends electronic production with heavy rock textures using loud, crashing drums and dreamy synthesizers. Lead vocalist Matthew Politoski has a tender clarity to his voice, but with an…
FUNK | Tiger Chung Lee
Soul and funk band Tiger Chung Lee packs a powerhouse sound. The Buffalo band creates high-energy grooves with fast-paced drums beats, quick moving bass lines, syncopated and percussively rhythmic guitar, and bold horn lines. Every member of this 11-piece band has world-class chops, and the heavy funk and rock ‘n’ roll mix comes out with…
Interview: Beal Institute Director Mark Watters
Watters will conduct the 25-piece Eastman All Stars Big Band through selections from classic and contemporary jazz film scores by artists from ranging from Lalo Schifrin and Duke Ellington to Leonard Bernstein and Randy Newman.
Feedback 6/27
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. Speak out…
Urban Action 6/27
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Facing the facts about America The Moving Beyond Racism Book Group will meet on Monday, July 2, to discuss Michael Eric Dyson’s “Tears We Cannot Stop: a Sermon to White America.” In the…
VARIOUS | Jazz Fest at the Station
Maybe you’ve got to take a break from the Jazz Festival madness going on downtown, or you could be looking to stretch out your night after the Club Pass venues grow quiet. If you want to get in one last band before you head home for the night, a couple of bars outside of the…
CLASSICAL | Futaba Niekawa and Olga Shupyatskaya
Summertime at the Eastman School of Music gives a chance for the school’s faculty to step front and center with their own recitals. July will feature a full lineup of Summer at Eastman concerts, including performances by Dave Rivello, Bob Sneider, Charles Pillow, Sophia Gibbs Kim, and Kenneth Kam. The July run begins on Sunday…
Album review: ‘Electric Miles’
Charles Pillow Large Ensemble “Electric Miles” MAMA Records charlespillow.com Over his long and varied career, Miles Davis recorded several seminal jazz orchestra albums in collaboration with the great arranger Gil Evans. Those disciplined affairs (“Sketches of Spain” and others) were in stark contrast to Miles’s wild, improvised, “electric” period that produced records like “Bitches Brew.”…
Making America great: Trump, children… and jazz
Donald Trump’s behavior is becoming more and more that of a despot, not the president of a democratic nation.
Jazz Fest Feature: Brendan Lanighan
Frank’s biggest thrill is talking to artists on the ground floor as they wait for the elevator to ding its arrival. One such lad is Brendan Lanighan, a young Eastman grad and trombone player who has just started to make waves
Book review: “A History of Video Games in 64 Objects”
Video games have already had a massive impact on 21st century culture, and this fact is celebrated in “A History of Video Games in 64 Objects,” a new book produced by The Strong Museum of Play.
