After the first day of the 2018 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, the bar for riveting performances is already high. The artists I caught were far from conventional and boasted charisma that was matched only by their musical profundity. First up was Phony Ppl, a Brooklyn-based quintet who owned the stage at Anthology. The band’s […]
Rochester Jazz Fest 2018
Posted inMusic
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 1: Frank reviews Duchess Trio, Seal, and Vintage Trouble
With the maternal armcharm in tow, I strolled down the gangplank to the bloodbath that is the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival. It felt like someone had crammed an extra Saturday night or two into this particularly balmy Friday. I first did the broadcast boogie boogaloo with Ron Netsky and the Jazz 90.1 characters before […]
Posted inMusic
Jazz Fest 2018, Day 1: Ron reviews Terell Stafford Quintet, Matt Savage, and Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez
There are so many variations on what constitutes a jazz group these days that it was almost shocking to see the Terell Stafford Quintet walk onto the Kilbourn Hall stage in ties and jackets and launch into a hard-core, hard-bop classic. The tune, “Hocus-Pocus,” was by the late, great trumpeter Lee Morgan, and Stafford, one […]
