Cover Story
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,…
The Mighty High and Dry searches for a groove, the Televisionaries find one in 1963
What is it that Alan Murphy wants from his band, The Mighty High and Dry?
Connecting over spectacle
The ambitious, collaborative “Current Seen” biennial is sustaining one of the most important conversations about the state of the arts in Rochester.
Film review: ‘Marriage Story’
At the center of the film is the idea that it takes the tearing apart of a loving relationship for its players to become conscious of how that relationship worked (or didn’t) in the first place.
COMEDY | Madelein Smith
Stand-up comedian Madelein Smith returns home to Rochester this week for the live recording of her debut comedy album at Photo City Improv. Though she is now based in New York City, Smith has been a formidable player in the upstate comedy scene for several years. With an undeniable stage presence and effusive personality, Smith…
FILM | ‘Daughters of the Dust’
Director Julie Dash’s 1991 film “Daughters of the Dust” will be screened this week as part of the Baobab Cultural Center’s ongoing Friday Film series. The film tells the story of three generations of the Peazant family, who are part of the Gullah community living on the Sea Islands off the South Carolina coast. The…
More Gannett paperboys allege sexual abuse
Alleged abuser was fired from previous job for molesting young men.
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.
Vacancy study a first step toward rent stabilization law
Earlier this year, state lawmakers made upstate communities eligible to opt in to tenant protections that have been in place downstate since 1974.
Music video review: fivebyfive performs ‘Waiting in the Rain for Snow’
On November 17, Rochester chamber ensemble fivebyfive released its music video for “Waiting in the Rain for Snow” by composer David Crowell — just in time for the slushy in-between season that surely awaits us.
The game’s afoot
Rian Johnson’s ingeniously witty “Knives Out” is released on Friday.
Feedback 11/27
CITY welcomes your comments. Send them to feedback@rochester-citynews.com with your name, your city, town or village, and your daytime phone number for verification (your phone number will not be published). Comments of fewer than 500 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish…
SINGER-SONGWRITER | Joanna Schubert
Joanna Schubert is a classically trained pianist and singer-songwriter, exactly the kind of musician that flies under-the-radar in a city like Brooklyn, where Schubert lives. But she’s not an artist you can ignore once you hear her ingenious blend of pop, jazz, and classical. Her precise approach to songwriting also incorporates an indie sensibility with…
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL | Televisionaries
The three brothers who comprise Televisionaries are red hot and relentless as the trio burns up traditional Bandstand rock ‘n’ roll with grease and guts. Dressed unassumingly in velvet dinner jackets, Trevor, Austin, and Brendan Lake have a coppertop snarl that adds a splash of sinister to the proceedings. It’s the biting twang of Eddie…
BLUEGRASS | The Slocan Ramblers
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.…
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…
JAZZ | New Jazz Ensemble with Lynn Ligammari
When the Eastman School of Music’s New Jazz Ensemble takes the stage at Kilbourn Hall next Wednesday, they’ll be joined by Eastman alum and saxophonist Lynn Ligammari. Since graduating, Ligammari has been a member of the Brooklyn-based groove band Holy Hand Grenade. She’s also brought her melodic and funky saxophone sound to gigs with Conor…
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL-AMERICANA | Bill Kirchen
The high point of a Bill Kirchen show is the tour of guitar-hero riffs he takes the crowd on in the middle of “Hot Rod Lincoln,” a rock ‘n’ roll rave-up that Kirchen recorded in 1972 as a member of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. Riffs from The Beatles, The Ventures, Merle Haggard,…
Album review: ‘A View From Within’
Jim Robitaille Group ‘A View From Within’ Whaling City Sound jimrobitaille.com Guitarist Jim Robitaille won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition in 2002 and several more composing awards since then, so it’s no surprise that his tunes on “A View from Within” are first-rate. Robitaille can certainly write tunes that swing, but he’s…
Album review: ‘Between Two Worlds’
Jeff Denson, Romain Pilon, Brian Blade ‘Between Two Worlds’ Ridgeway Records jeffdenson.com/projects The album title “Between Two Worlds” could refer to the fact that bassist Jeff Denson is American, while guitarist Romain Pilon is French. It could indicate the different musical worlds they’ve inhabited in the two decades since playing together extensively at Berklee College…
Cutie pies
The Singh brothers have done it again. The people who brought you Naantastic and Sweet Mist Ice Cream have expanded their brand, this time in the genre of pizza. Rebel Pi Global Pizza is the newest fast-casual eatery in Greece, located across the road from Greece Ridge Mall. Aman and Ajay Singh are like blockbuster…
If you’re thankful for local news, support it
CITY will roll out a new membership model in 2020. If you value what we do, consider supporting us. And yes, we’ll still be free!
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.
