Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » Report From The 4th Rochester International Jazz Festival

434

Report From The 4th Rochester International Jazz Festival

By

Sign in to view read count
Over the past four years, while no one was paying attention, Rochester, NY became host to one of the best jazz festivals in the country. Rochester NY???? Isn't that in upstate? Doesn't it still snow in June in Rochester? (No, it doesn't...usually). Why Rochester?

During the past decade, Rochester has developed into quite a music town. The Eastman School of Music has been here since the 1920s and covers not only the classical end of the spectrum but has a good jazz program as well. There are a number of long running clubs (Milestones, Montage Grille, The Bug Jar) that present jazz and cutting edge rock and folk. This city has several good independent record stores, one of which, The Bop Shop, frequently presents jazz/improvised music by name acts at no charge. A recent addition, the A/V Space has been presenting drone/noise bands and eai artists. Rochester has an available pool of good listeners for music of every stripe and it's developed into a very healthy scene.

Four years ago, promoter-musician John Nugent, who had developed the Stockholm Jazz Festival, breezed into town hawking the idea of a Rochester jazz festival. Many people eyed the event with suspicion The artistic results of the first two years were lukewarm but semi-popular: mostly crowd-pleasing acts (George Benson, Tony Bennett, Spyro Gyra, ) and a few quality jazz acts (John Abercrombie, Dave Liebman, Sonny Fortune, the Sun Ra Arkestra). But the modest success of the first two years allowed Nugent to get more sponsorship money to build the festival. The 2004 edition still had the crowd pleasing "big acts but more importantly, Nugent used a good chunk of the money to expand the number of venues for the festival and bring in even more top quality jazz acts, including a number of people who are not normally invited to mainstream jazz festivals (Billy Bang, Blood Ulmer, a Lou Grassi quartet, Vijay Iyer/Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jonas Kullhammar). Clearly, Nugent was aiming to present as full a picture of jazz as he could.

So how did the 2005 festival measure up? "Nine Days, more than 100 concerts and 500 musicians representing 15 plus countries trumpeted the blurb. The big concerts, presented in the Eastman Theatre were big: Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti and Madeline Peyroux and they had big prices attached to the tickets ($65 to $50, still modest by mega city standards but not within the means of those cutting corners). But, surprisingly those I attended (Rollins and Brubeck) appeared to be at least 75% sold and I heard the attendance at the others was higher.

Artistically, the results of those two concerts were satisfying. Rollins had appeared at the 2003 edition of the festival and it was disappointing. An overbusy drummer and an uninspired Rollins made for an unsatisfying concert, This year, with the redoubtable Al Foster on drums, Rollins' usual entourage (Clifton Anderson and Bob Cranshaw) and an African percussionist, the results were decidedly different. Although it took the first set a while to get going, by the end, the band was clearly getting into the groove. It was the opening number of the second set, a 20 minute version of "Falling In Love With Love , which was all Rollins, that made it all worthwhile. It was one of those performances that Rollins fans wait for.

Brubeck, too provided satisfying results. He also played at the 2003 edition of the festival. He had his usual quartet in tow (Bobby Militello on alto, Michael Moore on bass and Randy Jones on drums). Although Brubeck and Militello were in fine form from the beginning, it seemed to take the rhythm section a while to get a fire lit. It was only with a new tune "London Sharp London Flat that they seemed to kick into gear, perhaps inspired by the intricacies of this new piece. But Brubeck provided more than enough spark for everyone, proving at 85 that "age ain't nothin' but a number .

But the "main events are the least important facet of this festival. For jazz listeners, the real meat of it is the 95 other concerts and this year there was no shortage of worthwhile events. Concerts were held in several venues: Kilbourn Hall, the smaller performance space in the Eastman Theatre (approx 500 seats), Milestones (a club), Max's (an upscale restaurant), Montage (a restaurant that also presents music), the Little Theatre (Rochester's art house theatre, which holds about 150 people) and the Festival Tent (a large tent that is erected in a parking lot across the street from the Eastman). On weekends, stages that were erected on Gibbs Street, a small through street, gave the ambience of a block party. The beauty of this arrangement is that all of these venues are within a three block walking distance from each other. Admission was either on an individual basis (usually $15 to 20) or by club pass ($75 which got admission to any of these venues, all week). Most artists performed two sets (some three) in order to meet demand and many of these sets were performed to capacity audiences.

The lineup was impressive and spanned a healthy spectrum of today's music: Bill Frisell, Sex Mob, Willem Breuker Kollektief, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Swell's Slammin' The Infinite, Harold Danko Trio, Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Ernie Krivda, Paul Smoker, Bad Plus. Wallace Roney, Hilton Ruiz, John Scofield etc. etc. etc. There were evening jam sessions at the Crowne Plaza Hotel with a house rhythm section of guitarist Bob Sneider, bassist Phil Flanagan and drummer Mike Melito. What was impressive about this lineup is that it showed that jazz is alive and not merely a museum piece.

Of the events I took in (it was impossible for one person to cover everything, so I was instructed to just go with what I wanted to see), there were plenty of highlights.

The Willem Breuker Kollektief played two sets at Milestones. I caught the first. The place was packed to the rafters and the ten piece band delivered. Running through a set that took in some old Kollektief favorites as well as new material (including extracts from Breuker's score to the Murnau silent classic "Faust ), the audience responded enthusiastically and the band responded in kind with substantive solos. The clowning was kept to a minimum and towards the end of the set. When they returned for an encore, Breuker crooned "My Resistance Is Low to the ladies in the audience, inducing one up on stage for a couple of elegant dance turns. Having seen this band many times and having seen them operate on automatic pilot, this was one of their most energetic and fresh performances.

Drummer/percussionist Kahil El'Zabar brought a new edition of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble into Kilbourn Hall. Long-time cohort Ernest Khabeer Dawkins was on tenor and alto sax (as well as a wide range of effective "little percussion). But a revelation and the real coup of this festival was the presence of a new member, young Chicago trumpeter Corey Wilkes. Putting his own spin on trumpeter Lester Bowie's "ancient to the future approach, he proved to be an improviser with his own ideas. On "All Blues he invoked Miles not by quoting the Kind Of Blue cool ethos but by delivering a smoldering solo in his own voice. On "Ornette he gave a solo of playful twists and turns, evoking Ornette but never imitating him. Dawkins was his ever-reliable self with impassioned solos and El'Zabar (on both trap drums and hand percussion) held it all together demonstrating how one can get deep groove with just a thumb piano and ankle bells.

Paul Smoker brought his Notet (Steve Salerno on guitar, Ed Schuller on bass and Phil Haynes on drums) and a good anecdote for how the group got its name, to the Little Theatre. It was an electric set with Smoker in fine form etching his acrobatic lines with a seemingly endless range of extended brass techniques. Yet despite all of the energy displayed by this group, it was some of the quieter moments that were most effective. Towards the end of an untitled new piece, the group pared down to a duet between Smoker and Schuller that brought out the beauty in both players. Salerno delivered several effective solos but was equally effective during others' solos whether comping with slashing chords or delicately picked harmonics. Rochesterians are fortunate since Smoker is a resident of this city and can be caught around town fairly regularly in a variety of groups. I've never been disappointed by a Smoker performance but this one was particularly inspired.

The festival got a taste of New York style free jazz when trombonist Steve Swell's Slammin' The Infinite (Sabir Mateen on reeds, flute; Matt Heyner on bass and Michael Wimberley on drums) played at Milestones. Running through a few tunes from their album as well as a couple of new numbers, the audience was surprisingly appreciative for such uncompromising music and at the end Swell eyed the crowd and commented "This is more people than I've seen in New York for the last three years.

Night Of The Cookers, a tribute band to the Bluenote album of the same title and specifically trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan's compositions played at Kilbourn Hall. Filling the big shoes of those trumpeters were David Weiss and Jeremy Pelt. But it was original album participants, saxophonist/ flutist James Spaulding and drummer Pete LaRoca-Sims who stole the show. Spaulding delivered a pair of gleaming solos and re-created his flute role on Hubbard's "Up Jumped Spring . I caught the early show and it was marred by annoying sound gaffes. But by the concert's conclusion the band delivered a standout version of Morgan's "Zip Code (with rousing solos by Pelt and tenor saxophonist Craig Handy) that brought the audience to its feet.

So much more went on at the festival to go into in great detail. Sex Mob delivered an opening festival set at Milestones that went from Prince to Duke and was full of their characteristic wit and mayhem. Pianist Harold Danko, another local resident, brought in his Steeplechase trio (Michael Formanek on bass and Jeff Hirschfield on drums) or a set that ranged from originals to updated Earl Hines tunes. It was another of the festival highlights. A week later Formanek and Hirschfield accompanied Danish pianist Jacob Anderskov in a set of abstract piano trio interplay that recalled Paul Bley's vintage trios of the 1960s. Saxophonist Ernie Krivda's quintet accomplished the difficult task of muscular soloing and sensitivity to the Clevelander's unique and personal compositions. George Schuller's band Circle Wide paid tribute to Circle In The Round era Miles Davis without the benefit of a trumpet and electric piano and came up with something original in the process.

An early summary of the attendance figures shows as many as 65,000 people attended this year. The original 2002 festival had an attendance of 15,000. It's definitely a festival on the upswing and one that's found its own character. And with the increasing attendance figures, it's an encouraging sign that if you don't underestimate the intelligence of the audience, good things can occur.

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.
View events near New York City
Jazz Near New York City
Events Guide | Venue Guide | Local Businesses | More...

More

Jazz article: The Cookers at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley
Jazz article: Julian Lage At Higher Ground

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.