You have to keep your senses tuned at the Rochester International Jazz Festival.
Yes, that really was Bonnie Raitt hanging out at the back of Montage Music Hall on Monday night, checking out Victoria Victoria – the project of singer-songwriter Tori Elliot, and the guitarist Charlie Hunter – and getting psyched for her own show the next night at Eastman Theater.
Russell’s time machine
Catherine Russell spent years singing on other people’s albums and tours before finding her own voice. For someone who spent time as a backing vocalist with David Bowie, Russell found it in the most unexpected of places: in the music of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.
This music is in her DNA. Her father, Luis Russell, was Louis Armstrong’s musical director. So she has some claim to one of the songs he wrote, “At the Swing Cat’s Ball,” a song going back nearly a century and a popular hit for Louis Jordan.
Yeah, there’s a lot of Louises and Luises in Catherine Russell’s story. She is an archivist, a digger, and a house cleaner. She found many of these songs in her mother’s closet. Old sheet music and recordings ferreted away by Louis Russell.
It’s swinging jazz. And Russell is irresistible when she tries it on for size. She was perfect for the role Wednesday at Temple Theater, in a black suit with sequined top, dancing and snapping her fingers as the history unfolded. “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” — that’s one tune she rescued from the jazz dustbin. The long list of people who recorded that song probably starts in 1921 with Ethel Waters, and continues on to Mark Knopfler and Chet Atkins:
When you grow old you don’t last long
You’re here today and then tomorrow you’re gone
Russell spins the time-machine knob with romantic abandon. Back to 1957 and Nat King Cole’s “Send For Me.” Back to 1926, and King Oliver’s “Dr. Jazz.” Back to Al Hibbler’s 1956 hit, “After the Lights Go Down Low.” Back to 1952 and Amos Milburn’s, “One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer.” Most folks think of George Thorogood’s version, in which he mixes the drinks a little differently: “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” Russell prefers the original.
One of the concert favorites she’s pulled out for her Rochester Jazz Fest dates over the years has been the saucy Dinah Washington classic, “My Man’s an Undertaker,” with the refrain, “and he’s got a casket just your size.”
Pretty dark, not too danceable. “I don’t know why more people,” Russell mused, “aren’t doing that tune.”
Today’s jazz haiku
A mirror of time
songs are a reflection of
where we were years ago
Gently Twisted Pine
There seems to be a lot of romantic turmoil in the midst of Twisted Pine. “This next song is about another, yet another, bad boyfriend,” lead singer Kathleen Parks warned the audience during the band’s second show at The Little Theatre.
The label on this Boston-based band might be progressive bluegrass. Or depressive bluegrass, based on the personal relationships of the quartet. But Twisted Pine’s music actually sounds lilting. An upbeat blend of guitar, mandolin, bass and flute.
It’s the trouble in mind that they bring to the stage, although Twisted Pine gave “Trouble in Mind,” the blues song that hundreds of musicians seem to have done over the last century, a carefree feel.
Before the second set was done, they’d also bluegrass-ified Bill Withers’ “Use Me” and John Hartford’s “Long Hot Summer Days.”
It’s all a matter of degrees. One of Twisted Pine’s breakup songs was more like, “I just need you to stay away for a day or two,” Parks conceded. So there’s no need for therapy. Just, “be careful when you use public toilets,” warned flutist Anh Phung. And, “don’t eat the yellow snow.”
That’s the tipoff that the next song would be a Frank Zappa cover, “Peaches en Regalia.”
This is bluegrass? Sure, Twisted Pine had a song about New Jersey; only Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi write songs about New Jersey. So the audience’s reaction might depend on how it feels about that state. Even if it’s twisted, it’s gently twisted.
Spevak’s picks for Thursday, June 29
Ms. Lisa Fischer with Taylor Eigsti, Temple Theater, 7 and 9:15 p.m.
Fischer was once a backup singer for the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Sting and Luther Vandross, and she blew away the RIJF crowd last year. Eigsti is the pianist who accompanied her last year.
Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, Wegmans Stage at Parcel 5, 9 p.m.
This soulful rocker has run with that Asbury Park crowd that included Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt, both of whom have written songs for Southside. This is a free show, with Rochester blues legend Joe Beard opening at 7 p.m.
Mark Guiliana Quartet, Christ Church 7:30 and 9:30 p.m.
The drummer, who played on David Bowie’s final album, is known for his ear for experimental music, often involving electronics.
Nick Finzer Sextet, Max of Eastman Place, 6:15 and 10 p.m.
Finzer went to Hilton High School and studied at the Eastman School of Music before moving on to perform with the likes of Wynton Marsalis and recording on Anat Cohen’s Grammy-nominated album, “Tentet.”
Jeff Spevak is senior arts writer for WXXI/CITY Magazine. He can be reached at jspevak@wxxi.org.
This article appears in Jun 1-30, 2023.
