CITY Newspaper’s guide to the more than 320 shows at the 2018 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival
Rochester International Jazz Festival
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FEATURE: Jack Broadbent
By the time British slide guitarist, Jack Broadbent took the Montage Music Hall stage for his second set at last year’s Jazz Fest, the buzz was on and the word was out. Armed with a Hofner archtop guitar and a whiskey flask as a slide, Broadbent played those beautiful blues to a knocked-out audience. I […]
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FEATURE: Joe Locke
As a teenager in Rochester, Joe Locke was studying drums and piano when his mom saw an ad for a vibraphone in the newspaper. She bought it and launched a career that has taken Locke to the top of the jazz world. “I can still remember being in my bedroom on Park Ave practicing the […]
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INTERVIEW: Jazzmeia Horn
She was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, where her grandmother gave her a name that would prove to be prescient. “Jazzmeia” flowed nicely with her last name, Horn, but what are the odds she would grow into a sensational singer and breathe new life into a field once occupied by greats like Ella Fitzgerald […]
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FEATURE: Lake Street Dive
Six years ago, Lake Street Dive was touring like crazy but not getting much traction on the national stage. Then the band shot a video on a Brighton, Massachusetts, street corner and put it on YouTube. The video captured the exuberance of the four musicians performing the hippest version imaginable of The Jackson 5’s “I […]
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INTERVIEW: Pokey LaFarge
Gather ’round children and let me tell you of a man that plays a mean guitar and sings pretty. You can practically hear him jump out of a gramophone. St. Louis musician Pokey LaFarge is coming to town with his jumpin’ style of hi-tone bop. LaFarge plays what some call “hot music.” He mixes country, […]
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FEATURE: Akiko Tsuruga
Once in a while, Akiko Tsuruga has to pinch herself and ask, “How did I get here?” She had a steady gig playing the organ in her hometown of Osaka, Japan, when she took a vacation in New York City. While there, she heard her hero, Hammond B3 organ icon Dr. Lonnie Smith, playing in […]
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XRIJF announces final 2018 headliners: Boz Scaggs, Jill Scott, Lake Street Dive
Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival producers John Nugent and Mark Iocona have rolled out the final three headliners for the festival’s 17th edition. Jill Scott, Lake Street Dive, and Boz Scaggs join the previously announced headliners Seal, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, and Alison Krauss. The 2018 Jazz Festival runs June 22 to June 30. […]
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Seal, Bela Fleck, and Alison Krauss among XRIJF 2018 headliners
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and no, we aren’t talking ’bout Xmas or even Festivus. We mean The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival when jazz artists as well as musicians of all stripes descend upon our fair city for nine days in the summer. Well, the bigwigs at the XRIJF have just […]
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Featured Artist: Donny McCaslin
When Donny McCaslin went to parties as a teenager in the early 1980’s, there was one record that was sure to be played: “Let’s Dance” by David Bowie. “I especially liked ‘Modern Love’ and ‘China Girl,’” says McCaslin of two of the album’s most popular songs. “I always describe it as the soundtrack of my […]
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Featured Artist: Binker and Moses
It seems to me that the jazz greats — the truly great ones, like Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, et al. — have elements to their sound that are there to confound for the listener’s own betterment. And it seems the more you train your ear in the direction of these passages, the more you begin […]
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Featured Artist: Tierney Sutton
When Tierney Sutton was a junior in high school, she performed a disco song in her school’s talent contest. Her dad was in the audience and, Sutton recalls, he had some advice for her: “You shouldn’t sing that crap,” he said. “You should sing Gershwin.” So, in her senior year, Sutton sang George and Ira […]
