The 2025 Rochester International Jazz Festival offers plenty of familiar comforts. The return of headliner Wynton Marsalis, with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, satiates traditional fans who’ve come to expect flawless presentation; while a free set from high-energy New Orleans performer Trombone Shorty (who’s played the fest seven times) feels like a homecoming gig.
Add that to the always-impressive local talent showcases and first-time marquee acts like Rickie Lee Jones and The Wood Brothers, and the festival lives up to its reputation for live-music excellence.
And this year, on Eastman Theatre’s proverbial marquee: a neo-funk maximalist with knuckle tattoos and face piercings named Thundercat.
The artist’s six-string bass rumbles helped define Kendrick Lamar’s masterstroke 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly,” and his catalog is speckled with collaborations with Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins and Tame Impala, along with freewheeling, subterranean indie R&B all his own.
He’s also possibly the only dude with multiple “Dragon Ball Z” references in his discography to ever headline Jazz Fest. He’s scheduled to hit Kodak Hall at 8 p.m. on June 26.
This refreshing energy permeates Thundercat’s whole endeavor — long dyed locs, glowing orange Ibanez bass, anime obsession. His latest album, 2020’s “It Is What It Is,” featured artists as diverse as Childish Gambino and jazz guitarist Pedro Martins. His top song, “Them Changes,” is a favorite of Ariana Grande’s; they once performed it together in front of a cartoon anthropomorphic ball of meat.
One YouTube video documents him drinking four cans of highly caffeinated yerba mate tea in the studio, just because. “Your heart is in danger!” his producer warns. Thundercat, born Stephen Bruner, remains unfazed.
Similar left-of-center energy and oddball musicality permeates the 2025 Jazz Fest lineup, and while comparatively few of the scheduled 1,750 performers would likely be categorized as “weird,” the paths to strange new horizons exist. (And they are wonderful.)
For proof, look no further than Salami Rose Joe Louis, whose artist name sounds like a Harris Wittels punchline but whose music spans porous and dreamlike soundscapes. Born Lindsay Olsen, the California-based artist and producer is signed to Brainfeeder, the label run by Thundercat’s close collaborator Flying Lotus.
Her sound falls somewhere between ASMR electronica and free noise, with shimmering and minimal ambient tracks composed using her beloved Roland MV-8800 sampler. On “Arm Fell Asleep,” for example, the somnambulant pinging of the digital instrument mirrors the experience suggested by the title.
She’ll play two shows at The Duke, one at 7:30 p.m. and a second at 9, on June 26.
John McKenna, meanwhile, aims to wring unique sound from water jet-cut aluminum sculptures he created. With his Resonant Structures Quartet — guitarist Jim Robitaille, bassist Tom Casale and drummer Hugh Sicotte — the tenor saxophonist blends jazz improvisations with drone elements made with both the metal pieces dangling behind them and electronic synthesizers.
The group’s penchant for spectacularly eerie sounds will color two shows at Montage Music Hall at 6 p.m. and 9:30 on June 24.
Fans of Khruangbin will find plenty to love about Salin, the groove-oriented drummer and bandleader whose rhythms blend the Thai music of her upbringing with the Western sensibilities of her current home in Montreal.
Raised in Bangkok and well-versed in the classic funk beats of The Meters as well as the propulsive energy of Afrobeat, Salin has racked up accolades, including a Juno Award nomination. Her latest collection, “Rammama,” released in late March, revels in a genre she has coined “Afro Isaan Soul.”
She brings with her a band to help electrify these kinetic compositions, with back-to-back shows at The Duke at 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 on June 28.
Along the same lines, Philadelphia’s Muscle Tough looks like a power trio of bass, drums and guitar but can sound alternately like a melting church organ and New Year’s Party on the last rocket ride off an exploding planet.
The three members have taken to heart that dexterity goes beyond musical knowledge; guitarist Ross Bellenoit uses his axe almost literally, as a tool to rip open alternate dimensions (with a pedalboard as stacked as a spaceship’s master controls).
The party hits The Duke at 7:30 p.m. and 9:45 on June 24.
And then there’s the matter of fusion, or the 1960s advancement of jazz ideas in a rock-music context. By 1978, acts like the Brecker Brothers had gone supersonic with it; the group’s “Heavy Metal Be-Bop” record stands as a glittering document of glorious musical excess, plugging concepts explored on “Head Hunters” and “Bitches Brew” into a Marshall stack and blasting them at arena scale.
Rochester-area musicians The Viavattine Bros. anchor a pair (6:30 p.m. and 8:30) of June 25 shows at the Theater at Innovation Square in which they’ll pay tribute to this landmark fusion recording by performing it in full, along with other Brecker Brothers classics.
For more genre-melding, there’s always Thundercat’s sparkly synth-funk original “Tokyo,” which, if it makes his setlist, will see him crying out, “Goku fucking ruined me!” upwards toward the 2.5 ton crystal chandelier inside Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. How’s that for fusion?
The 2025 Rochester International Jazz Festival runs June 20-28. Details and ticket information, including the full schedule of performers and a complete list of venues, available at rochesterjazz.com.
Patrick Hosken is CITY’s arts reporter. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
