Cover Story
Movers of the soil: Farmers of the Rochester Public Market
The heartbeat of the Rochester Public Market, though, are the men, women, and children who work the region’s fields, orchards, and vineyards, rise early on market days, and bring the results of that labor to provide food for Rochester homes and businesses.
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 9: Frank reviews Danielle Ponder and the Tomorrow People and The Hooligans
Shootin’ pretty pictures (instead of dirty pool) and trying to give solid testimony to the plethora of artists I’ve seen over the last nine days has left your boy a little punchy folks — tore up from the floor up; beat up from the feet up. But just the same, I once more lugged my…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 9: Ron reviews Donny McCaslin, Matthew Stevens Trio, and Benny Green
The final night of the Jazz Festival was a disappointing end to a great festival for me. For instance, I expected a lot from Donny McCaslin’s set at Xerox Auditorium. McCaslin is a fine saxophone player, and his recent involvement in David Bowie’s final album has given him new visibility. But if tonight’s show is…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 9: Daniel reviews Balkun Brothers and Bonerama
When the band playing consists of only electric guitar and drums, somehow you just know it’s going to be gritty. Such was the case when the Balkun Brothers, Steve and Nick, took the stage with their Southern-style blues rock. There’s something about a rock duo that can sound incredibly full and satisfying, despite the lack…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 8: Frank reviews Binker and Moses, tries to see King Crimson, and ends the night with Caravan Palace
It has been exactly a year when I last set foot in a church. In fact, it was the same church I was in tonight to see, hear, and experience the elegant chaos of British duo Binker and Moses. B&M rocked Christ Church like a hell-bound stage coach reverberating around the nooks and spaces usually…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 8: Ron reviews 4 By Monk By 4, Tessa Souter, and Ariel Pocock
At Kilbourn Hall Friday night, 4 By Monk By 4 was something akin to a Thelonious Monk symphony, or at the very least, a Monk piano sonata. Because the great jazz composer’s tunes have a lot in common with each other — notably off-kilter timing and dissonant melodic twists — an hour of nothing but…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 8: Daniel reviews Iris Bergcrantz Group, Filthy Funk, and Sammy Miller and The Congregation
Upon hearing Iris Bergcrantz Group (featuring Anders Bergcrantz) at the Lutheran Church, the individual performances stood out immediately. As an ensemble, however, the net effect was more muted. To describe Iris’s pure vocal tone as merely ethereal would be clichéd and somewhat misleading. Her voice was also grounded and worldly. At times, the melodies had…
Film review: ‘Baby Driver’
You know that unique sense of elation you get when you’re walking down the street, listening to music, and something clicks and the entire world around you suddenly seems to be moving to the beat of a tune only you can hear? Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver” manages to recreate that feeling, but with high-octane car…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 7: Frank reviews The Wee Trio and Sheryl Crow
The Wee Trio was anything but wee as they filled the Wilder Room Thursday night with hip, bouncy bop. The atmosphere in the room is a tad stiff without music, and it’s still stiff with music. The picture the band painted didn’t entirely color the walls, but I loved it. The trio was equal amounts…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 7: Daniel reviews Phronesis, Jeff Coffin’s In Orbit, and Oskar Stenmark NYC Quartet
As the members of Phronesis made their way to the front of the Christ Church sanctuary for its first set on Thursday night, they looked more like a rock band than a jazz trio. Group leader and double bassist Jasper Høiby looked a bit like a lankier, Nordic version of the late, great Kurt Cobain,…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 7: Ron reviews Youn Sun Nah, Manuel Valera, and The Walt Weiskopf Quartet
How did a South Korean singer with a fantastic voice end up on a Rochester, New York, stage singing Tom Waits’ “Jockey Full of Bourbon” with a punk-metal vibe and earn a standing ovation and an encore? That might have been the question on your mind if you had just arrived at the Xerox Rochester…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 6: Daniel reviews Shauli Einav Quartet, Electric Kif, and Klabbes bank
Shauli Einav Quartet’s first set at Max of Eastman Place on Wednesday night was among the more traditional jazz performances I’ve heard at the festival so far. While this isn’t exactly my style, the musicianship was impeccable, and the overall vibe was suave and sexy. An Eastman School of Music alumnus, Einav’s delivery on the…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 6: Ron reviews Charles Pillow Large Ensemble, George Cables, and Ryan Keberle & Catharsis
When jazz aficionados think of Miles Davis and jazz orchestra music, the first thing that comes to mind is a series of recordings Davis made with arranger Gil Evans in the late-1950’s. Wednesday night at Xerox Auditorium, the Charles Pillow Large Ensemble performed something fairly radical: jazz orchestra arrangements of some of Davis’s most controversial…
Jazz Fest 2017, Day 6: Frank reviews Tommy Smith, Marcia Ball, and Mavis Staples
As Tommy Smith slowly strode down the aisle in the Lyric Theatre, I got to thinking how I would describe it. I first thought it took on the look and speed of a wedding march. Nope; that would be too happy for what he was playing on his tenor saxophone. How about a funeral march?…
PUNK | Hamell on Trial
Anti-folk storyteller Edward James Hamell is full of dark, comedic anecdotes exploring ideas of discontent with politics, social issues, family, and death. His music is fast, witty, and meant to invoke thoughts of rebellion. Equipped with his vintage 1937 Gibson guitar and side-splitting, obscene rants, Hamell is a force to be reckoned with — he…
HIP-HOP | Jarren Benton
It might be pure marketing genius to have album names like “Freebasing with Kevin Bacon” and “Huffing Glue with Hasslehoff”; comedic emcee Jarren Benton definitely knows what he’s doing. The Georgia-based rapper not only has fast-spitting humorous rhymes with hot, sweaty party music, but he has big plans for the future. Benton recently launched his…
Album review: ‘Trailer Romance’
Anonymous Willpower “Trailer Romance” Self-released anonymouswillpower.bandcamp.com Taking a page from the Southern Culture on the Skids book of white trash, Anonymous Willpower returns with its most cohesive album to date, “Trailer Romance.” This is an album that covers multiple genres musically and lyrically and has the band working the clever and blue sides of the…
CLASSICAL/POPS | Concert by the Shore
Summer is here and the regular orchestral concert season is over. But you can still catch the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director, Ward Stare, at a free concert at Ontario Beach next Wednesday. The populist program features plenty of Independence Day odes and a heavy dose of John Williams with film music from…
Album review: ‘Missed Connections’
Small Signals “Missed Connections” Self-released smallsignals.bandcamp.com As Small Signals, Rochester musician Stephen Roessner (part of Pleistocene, Revengineers) has stumbled upon the intersection between profoundly sad and profoundly hysterical. By taking entries from Craiglist’s Missed Connections and putting them to synth-pop sugar and lonely guitar, he creates little vignettes of, at times, dark desperation and desire.…
Women’s work
Rose Liu, an RIT student and photographer and video artist, in early May issued a challenge to local art institutions when she posted fliers on the front doors of museums and galleries that asked, “Do you feature as many female artists as you do male?” She also posted pictures of the fliers on social media…
Disability rights advocates stage sit-in at county Republican headquarters
About 25 members of ADAPT were arrested and charged with trespassing after a sit-in at the Monroe County Republican Committee’s headquarters on State Street. The disability rights organization asked county Republicans to go on record opposing any healthcare legislation that caps or cuts federal Medicaid funding. The sit-in started around 1 p.m. and had roughly…
HOLIDAY | July 4 Celebrations
Summer is officially in full swing, so it’s time to dig out that Old Navy Independence Day T-shirt — you know, the one that you only wear once a year. Sports-inclined folks can start their evening festivities at a Red Wings game at Frontier Field, and then stick around for the post-game fireworks. In downtown…
ART | Charles Atlas: “Here she is…v1”
June may be Pride Month (with Rochester events coming up in July), but LGBTQ representation in art is important year-round. “Here she is…v1” is a video art installation created by cinematographer Charles Atlas which showcases iconic drag queen Lady Bunny. The piece will be screened continuously at the Memorial Art Gallery beginning Friday, June 30,…
ART | “Square 2017”
“Square 2017,” the new exhibit at Gallery 96, features fine art photography in a square format from more than 25 juried artists. The exhibit includes Marshall Handfield, who received Best in Show for his piece, “Luminous Lunch,” at the 2016 Wayne County Council exhibit and contest “Art Thru the Lens.” His work is unmistakable and…
SPECIAL EVENT | “Women Who Rock”
In light of the current political rhetoric that is putting women’s rights at jeopardy, Bewitched Burlesque Sideshow co-owner Evie Delilah is helping to organize “Women Who Rock,” a tribute to all the women who have succeeded in the rock ‘n’ roll industry over the years. Hula-hoopers, burlesque and belly dancers, and other performers will honor…
COMEDY | Doug Stanhope
A year and a half since his last Rochester show, darkly cynical comic Doug Stanhope will take the stage this week at the recently opened Comedy @ the Carlson. Not for the sensitive at heart, the shameless comedian stuns audiences with his controversial antics, ranging from suicide jokes to laughing about his girlfriend being in…
Urban Action 6/28
This week’s calls to action include the following events and activities. (All are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.) Film urges action on climate Metro Justice will show the documentary film “This Changes Everything” on Friday, June 29. The film, by director Avi Lewis, looks at the issue of climate change through…
Feedback 6/28
Send comments to themail@rochester-citynews.com, or post them on our website, rochestercitynewspaper.com, our Facebook page, or our Twitter feed, @roccitynews. For our print edition, we select comments from all three sources; those of fewer than 350 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. No more studies…
New train station, old problems
[UPDATED AND REVISED 7/5/17] Rochester’s new train station is expected to be open for business later in the summer. The 12,000 square foot facility and $29.5 million project is nearing completion, and some government officials have touted that it will improve business and tourism. But how the new station will impact ridership over the long…
Trump plan hurts cities’ health, too
News from Washington this week is dominated by the Republicans’ health-care bill and the impact it would have, particularly on poor and low-income Americans. That’s not the only threat, however. Still to come: the federal budget. Many of the cuts proposed by President Donald Trump are aimed straight at the least affluent Americans and their…
A hideaway no longer
There is a new entrance to Hogan’s Hideaway (197 Park Avenue) closer to the thoroughfare on Park Avenue. It’s just one of many changes that new owners Max Gordon, Maurice Kusminsky, and Drew Nye have made to once again make Hogan’s a destination on Park. The owners will hold a grand re-opening on Thursday, June…
Seeking to change the climate on carbon
Climate activists have been bruised and bloodied over the past few months. And yet there’s a group in Rochester that still has hope that Congress will act to cut US carbon emissions. The local chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby has watched its numbers swell since President Donald Trump’s election. It now gets around 40 people…
ROCK | War
Through its humble beginnings in the late-1960’s playing in topless joints to being discovered by legendary producer Jerry Goldstein and having The Animals’ Eric Burdon join up, War’s music and message has remained relevant all the way to today. Look and listen for timeless hits like “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” and the summertime favorite…
Police and community: The path to real reform
Police-community relations in Rochester have been under stress for decades. And that stress probably increased a notch this past weekend, when a Rochester police officer was shot while he was responding to an unrelated 911 call. The shooting is a tragedy, and it underscores the depth of the violence plaguing some neighborhoods in this city.…
CLASSICAL | “Sonic Cluster II”
Eastman alumni and pianists Futaba Niekawa and Olga Shupyatskaya on Sunday will bring back “Sonic Cluster” in a new program that focuses on the collaboration between Eastman musicians, local freelancers, and dancers. The concert highlights music written for two pianos, including the premiere of a work by fellow Eastman alum Jennifer Bellor. Compositions by the…
FOLK ROCK | Iron & Wine
Iron & Wine’s combination of soft vocal delivery and heavenly songwriting has a way of slipping into the background — its sounds emanate from the speaker but feel more comfortable blending into the environment. Singer-songwriter Samuel Beam is the maestro of this alternative folk outfit that began with lo-fi recordings but has now evolved to…
Featured Artist: Caravan Palace
Does anyone remember “Hooked on Classics,” a schmaltzy record put out in 1981 by K-Tel that featured a cross section of classical masterpieces set to a driving disco beat? French band Caravan Palace takes a somewhat similar house beat and screws it onto the end of classic swing music. The difference here is that it…
Film review: ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’
Despite being the right age, I was never into Transformers as a kid, so as an adult, I haven’t had much of an interest in the film series, and thus haven’t seen any of them. I can’t speak to whether “Transformers: The Last Knight,” the fifth installment of the massively lucrative global franchise, is any…
Film review: ‘Okja’
Part Spielbergian adventure, part environmentalist fable, and part barbed anti-corporate satire, “Okja” — the latest from South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (“Snowpiercer”) — is the story of a young girl named Mija (a wonderful An Seo Hyun) and her best friend, a massive, genetically engineered pig named Okja. Okja is the result of the Mirando…
Theater review: Screen Plays’ ‘The Entertainer’
Three and a half hours is a long time, depending on the context. It’s longer than any of “The Lord of the Rings” films, a baseball game, and most middle school relationships. It’s especially long for a play. Screen Plays, a local community theater group that produces “Hollywood’s Golden Age on Stage,” is currently performing…
