WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17

4:30 p.m.: Rochester Area High School Jazz Bands Jazz Street Stage

5:15 p.m.: Rochester Area High School Jazz Bands Jazz Street Stage

5:30 p.m.: Bonerama Harro East Ballroom

Bonerama: almost as fun to say as it is to hear. This five-trombone-powered outfit makes Phil Spector's wall of sound look like a cardboard fence. Horn players Mark Mullins and Craig Klein put this band together during some downtime from their regular gig with Harry Connick, Jr., and playing it straight wasn't the goal. Experimental guitar got thrown in along with rock drums. With an emphasis on the funky and unpredictable, this New Orleans band is part parade, part earthquake, part wrong, and all right. (FD)

6 p.m.: Susan Pereira & Sabor Brasil Montage Music Hall

Though vocalist, pianist, and percussionist Susan Pereira infuses contemporary jazz into more intense Brazilian jazz, the sound is still rhythmically dedicated and sexy. A native of New York, Pereira and her group have ruled the Brazilian music scene in Gotham since the band's inception in 1983. Pereira's piano attack is bright and percussive, as is her vocal style, which she peppers with rapid-fire Portuguese and scat. (FD)

6 p.m.: Dave Rivello Ensemble Big Tent

Grammy-winning composer/arranger Maria Schneider has declared Dave Rivello's writing "compelling and beautiful." Trained by the great arranger Bob Brookmeyer, Rivello is also a superb arranger, and conductor. With adventurous harmonies, recalling composers as diverse as Charles Mingus and Igor Stravinsky, Rivello's arrangements are challenging to play, but this is never a problem. Rivello's reputation is so strong that he attracts only superb musicians capable of riding the tides of this dynamic music. (RN)

6 p.m.: Baye Kouyate Kilbourn Hall

In the Malian language, Baye Kouyate is a griot of jali --- a West African poet, a praise singer, a wandering musician. This caste is highly respected in Mali as keepers of its culture and history. This percussionist's wandering has brought him to the United States, where he split his time between Tampa and Brooklyn. Kouyate's music is polyrhythmic and joyful, enhanced with generous splashes of, jazz, Latin, and reggae grooves. It's hypnotic and infectious. Kouyate is a master at the talking drum, an hourglass-shaped instrument bound with a goatskin head and strings along its side. While striking the head, the player simultaneously squeezes the strings to change the instrument's pitch like a rhythmic voice. (FD)

6:15 p.m.: Michael Occhipinti & The Sicilian Jazz Project Max of Eastman Place

His point of departure is ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax's 1954 investigation of Sicilian roots music, but guitarist Michael Occhipinti's Sicilian Jazz Project moves well beyond the original Italian folk songs. Occhipinti creates contemporary works based on traditional pieces, incorporating new voicings, rhythms, and harmonies along the way. A typical song may begin in the old country with a folk melody, only to cross the ocean into contemporary post-bop territory. (RN)

6:30 p.m.: Kat McGarry's "Less Is More" Trio Xerox Auditorium

This Massachusetts lass has got guts. She covers The Cars without a lick of irony on her new Grammy-nominated "If Less Is More, Nothing Is Everything." McGarry shifts from the unlikely to the unexpected with graceful vocal layering, hipster swing, and progressive arrangements. No gimmicks here, just beautiful music. (FD)

6:45 p.m.: Tessa Souter Christ Church

Tessa Souter charmed every audience member in two packed concerts at the 2007 RIJF with her gorgeous voice and beautiful original tunes. Born in London, Souter had a flourishing career going as a journalist. She was living and writing in New York in the 1990's when, at the urging of a friend, she began to sing at open mic nights in clubs. After studying with legendary vocalist Mark Murphy, Souter switched from journalism to a different - more tuneful and emotional - form of storytelling. (RN)

7:15 p.m.: CNY Jazz Orchestra Jazz Street Stage

The CNY Jazz Orchestra is an award-winning regional big band whose leader and trombonist, Bret Zvacek, has blown for Count Basie. Executive director Larry Luttinger has rubbed elbows with Rob McConnell, Clark Terry, Grady Tate, Frank Foster, Denis DiBlasio, Doc Severinsen, Bucky Pizzarelli and Howard Alden, Lena Horne, Marian McPartland, The Four Freshmen, Joe Diorio, Ted Piltzecker, and Chuck and Gap Mangione. With these guys in charge? 'Nuff said. (FD)

7:15 p.m.: Bonerama Harro East Ballroom

See bio above.

7:30 p.m.: NYNDK Lutheran Church of the Reformation

It may be tough to pronounce, but NYNDK stands for New York, Norway, and Denmark, the countries of origin for the group's members. Danish pianist Soren Moller, Norwegian saxophonist Ole Mathisen, and New York trombonist Chris Washburne explore a wide range of jazz styles. Group members move effortlessly from hard bop excursions reminiscent of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers to beautiful ballads with gorgeous harmonies. But just when you are lulled into your comfort zone, they'll take you on a ride to the very edge of the avant-garde. NYNDK fuses the old world and the new in more ways than one. (RN)

8 p.m.: Dave Brubeck Quartet Eastman Theatre

Jazz legend Dave Brubeck was nearly bounced out of college when it was discovered he couldn't read music. This is the same guy who went on to compose and play pieces in odd time signatures like 5/4 ("Take Five"), 6/4 ("Pick Up Sticks"), 7/4 ("Unsquare Dance"), and 9/9 ("Blue Rondo a la Turk"). In fact ,the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Iconic 1959 recording "Time Out" contained all original compositions completely devoid of conventional time signatures, and quickly achieved platinum status. Prior to "Time Out's" release Brubeck focused primarily on standards as he assumed that was what audiences wanted. That all changed one night in Rochester, when saxophonist Paul Desmond urged Brubeck to compose "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Waltz" within 30 minutes. (FD)

8:30 p.m.: Hot Club of Cowtown Big Tent

Austin's Hot Club of Cowtown is a trio bent on Western swing frenzy. It is an unstoppable, undeniable, irresistible force of fiddle, bass, and guitar. Up front is the darling Elena James, who Bob Dylan saw fit to include in his touring band. And guitarist Whit Smith is so slick on his big blonde guitar that the average guitar player would need four hands and a fistful of trucker speed to keep up with him. The band briefly split from 2005 to 2007, but has since reunited and is currently working on new stuff. (FD)

8:45 p.m.: Tessa Souter Christ Church

See bio above.

9 p.m.: Kate McGarry's "Less Is More" Trio Xerox Auditorium

See bio above.

9:15 p.m.: CNY Jazz Orchestra Jazz Street Stage

See bio above.

9:30 p.m.: NYNDK Lutheran Church of the Reformation

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Michael Occhipinti & The Sicilian Jazz Project Max of Eastman Place

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Susan Pereira & Sabor Brasil Montage Music Hall

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Hot Club of Cowtown Big Tent

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Baye Kouyate Kilbourn Hall

See bio above.

10:30 p.m.: Bob Sneider Trio State Street Bar & Grille

The RIJF line-up may change from year to year, but one thing remains constant. Every night, after the last notes are sounded at venues around the city, the Bob Sneider Trio hosts the jam session at the Rochester Plaza Hotel's State Street Bar and Grill. Starting at around 10:30 p.m. and heating up as the night progresses, the session has attracted some of the festival's finest musicians - Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, Jake Shimabukuro, to name a few - for after-hours jams. (RN)