2025 Rochester International Jazz Festival

Now in its 22nd year, the Rochester International Jazz Festival is one of North America's finest jazz festivals.

On Monday, June 23 I made the one hour from Buffalo and parked adjacent to the street hosting a makeshift food court. June 23 was one of the hottest days of the year in the Genesee River Valley, so music lovers were licking ice cream cones and holding cold, aluminum cans against their necks.

I walked past the Spencerport High School Jazz Band performing a tight, confident set to the Eastman School of Music's Hatch Recital Hall to see Brandon Goldberg.

Goldberg elegantly riffed on two standards, Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," and George and Ira Gershwin's "They Can't Take That Away From Me." After a sunny walk, I ducked into the Big Tent to cool off and listen to the Brockport Big Band, a municipal ensemble, perform early jazz classics.

It was standing room only at Montage Music Hall, where David Hazeltine and trombonist Steve Davis engaged in hard bop in a pitch-dark room, then back into the bright sun to catch Claudia Acuña at Max of Eastman Place. Acuña's bright personality fit the sunny room in another packed room.

My visit concluded at the Innovation Theater and Mike Stern Band where he his wife and band mate Leni Stern gave a clinic in jazz fusion guitar.