Jimmie Highsmith Jr.’s ninth release, “Indigo Chronicles Chocolate Brown Eyes,” finds the Rochester saxophonist channeling interpretations of love, loss, and life through his instrument. In particular, through an alto sax he calls “Indigo.” “I was a nerdy kid with no friends and no girlfriends,” Highsmith says. “My saxophone was my first girlfriend. My saxophones are […]
Rochester music
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Album review: ‘Every Freak for Himself’ 25th Anniversary Reissue
Koo Koo Boy “Every Freak for Himself” 25th Anniversary Reissue City of Quality Records kookooboy.bandcamp.com Koo Koo Boy was ahead of his time. The music was avant-garde, larger-than-life, rock ‘n’ roll calamity. And despite his self-deprecating humor and unique on-stage persona in tighty-whities, Koo Koo Boy was Rochester’s best — if not its only truly […]
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Album review: ‘Mostly Blankets’
Candy Isle “Mostly Blankets” Self-released candyisle.bandcamp.com This is an awesome album of deceptive simplicity. Candy Isle is a dynamic duo made up of Kat Bakrania and Lydia Dake — and not much else. This, their first EP, sparkles like a pristine smile with a dusting of harmonious quirk. Assorted instruments are sprinkled about so sparsely […]
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Rochester Fringe 2017 Preview Guide
The sixth annual KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival runs Thursday, September 14, through Saturday, September 23, with more than 500 shows in and around downtown Rochester. It’s hard to know where to start.
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Tom Hanney schools us on the harmonica
Tom Hanney and his harmonica prowl the stage and the classroom with a cool nonchalance. As a member of several bands — The White Hots jazz combo, acoustic outfit The Fog, and rock ‘n’ rollers Open G — as well as a senior lecturer at RIT, Hanney has developed a fascination for the blues harp, […]
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Album review: ‘Positively Phototactic’
Auld Lang Syne “Positively Phototactic” Self-released auldlangsyne.bandcamp.com “Positively Phototactic” is the latest album from the extraordinarily mellow Auld Lang Syne since 2015’s “Last of the Honey Bees,” and the band has emerged with a slightly meaner sound this time. Start to finish, “Positively Phototactic” has the band’s sights on a path to oblivion. It does […]
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Album review: ‘Science’
The Majestics “Science” Self-released facebook.com/majesticsreggae Pure reggae, not the simile that the jamsters toy with or what the punks add with too much cream and sugar, but the straight-ahead, relaxed, one-drop of The Majestics on its new LP record, “Science” — that’s what I want, man. This Rochester band has been a giant on the […]
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Album review: ‘Polka Dot Swing’
Yarms “Polka Dot Swing” Self-released yarms.bandcamp.com On his new solo album, “Polka Dot Swing,” Ryan “Yarms” Yarmel comes across less as a singer-songwriter and more as a straight-up storyteller. And that’s a good thing. Rather than cling to the conventions of indie folk, Yarmel reaches back into the archives of American music, drawing from jazz, […]
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Album review: ‘Unraveling’
Maybird “Unraveling” 30th Century Records/Columbia Records maybirdmusic.com Earlier this summer, Maybird released “Unraveling,” a brisk, four-song EP produced by The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney. “Unraveling” further establishes the rock group’s existing sound while bringing it to a wider audience via Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records. The layered, folk-psychedelic sheen on which Maybird has built its […]
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VOTE NOW: Best of Rochester 2017 Primary Ballot
The primary ballot is now closed. Check back on Wednesday, September 20, for the Best of Rochester 2017 final poll
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Old and new collide in Dangerbyrd’s garage rock
If we lived in a perfect world, bands like Dangerbyrd would be the perfect bands. If we lived in an imperfect world, bands like Dangerbyrd would still be the perfect bands. The Rochester-based quartet plays without a shred of phony grandeur or self-imposed elegance. Dangerbyrd is down and dirty and a clever musical synthesis of […]
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A farewell to the retiring Jack Allen
Jack Allen’s daughter, Linda, cautioned me before I sat down with her father. “He hasn’t picked up his horn for over a year now,” she said about the venerable big band leader and trumpeter. Well, apparently no one told Jack. I handed him his horn as a possible photo opportunity, he put it to his […]
