Remember going to concerts as a teenager? Even if the sound was terrible, there was something in the muddy, bass-heavy thrum of an overworked PA system that really moved you. Similarly, when Welsh quintet People In Planes played the Club at...

Being a David Byrne fan could easily be a full-time endeavor. He's an artist that has worked in a list of media a lifetime long; really, he's an "artiste" in the most expansive definition of the word. His life is a work of art, his art is a...

It's a rough start for the 2009 Party in the Park series: Southern rock legend Dickey Betts, long ago announced as the headliner for the Thursday, June 11, concert, is out, replaced by Molly Hatchet with openers Los Blancos. The show runs 5-10...

It's fitting that Cleveland-area singer/songwriter Tom Evanchuck began his set last Friday night at the Mez with a song about a train station. The Mez's gorgeous architecture, with its brick archways and vaguely antiquated ambiance, made the...

Disco giants KC & The Sunshine Band will headline the 2009 Rochester Music Fest, which morphs into a day-long r&b celebration taking place Saturday, July 18, at Brown Square Park off Verona Street. Other acts on the bill include 90's...

Every year at the end of the Rochester International Jazz Festival, as the final shows let out and the crowds disperse for the last time, clean-up crews spring to action and a sad feeling descends over Gibbs Street. After nine days straight, it's...

How lucky are we? Last month it was announced that after 36 years, due to the rough economy, New York City would be losing its jazz festival. No summer festival in the Big Apple, but after seven great years, we've still got ours in...

Jazz Fest 2009. Shit, I thought I was ready. I thought I had some time yet to get my head geared up for stuffing two weeks worth of jazz in it. I thought I had time to get in shape for pin-balling between joints and the throngs. But, I'm not....

Some of my favorite Jazz Fest moments seem to come from acts I wasn't expecting to like, or even see in the first place. But this year definitely got off to an unexpected start for me because my favorite part of the first day had little to do...

I've seen Bill Frisell three or four times now and this was definitely the best. Frisell kicked off hit set at Kilbourn Hall gently searching for a melody. The one he found had no bones as it sweetly slithered into something our ears could read....

It must be great to be Smokey Robinson. On stage Friday night at the nearly sold-out Eastman Theatre he seemed to be having at least as good a time as the audience. And when it came to putting on a show, he was everything that last year's soul...

I pulled myself away from messin' with The Chief at the Chestnut Street Stage. I had found me a job, and in that moment, my job was to get funky. I rounded the corner to the Jazz Street Stage and what to my wondering eyes should appear? He's...

Ken Peplowski was right: you hear the clarinet and you think of Benny Goodman. Peplowski peplowed through some beautiful tunes associated with Goodman's classic era Saturday night at the Harro East. The clarinet shined a little more in this set...

One of those great Jazz Festival moments occurred last night near the end of Joey DeFrancesco's late show at Kilbourn Hall. Moments earlier DeFrancesco had introduced singer Colleen McNabb, who proceeded to delight the audience with a vocal...

Jazz drummer, composer, and renowned Yes/King Crimson alum Bill Bruford (whose one-time reed man Tim Garland appears on the final night of this year's festival) recently described one of his pieces as having a "strong British flavor." What does...

In addition to the usual overflow of live talent, yesterday brought a chance to watch two late jazz greats, piano master Bill Evans and trumpet icon Maynard Ferguson, perform in concerts videotaped here in Rochester during the...

I wonder if Neil Crowley ever considered being a meteorologist. Christ Church may have been a bit warm and stuffy Sunday, but his music took me on a tour of the atmosphere. He pounded his piano like the rough-and-tumble thunderstorms of the...

Call it resolve. Call it surrender. Call it zen. Whatever. The lines that snake down the sidewalks for Jazz Fest venues are as long as ever --- particularly at Kilbourn Hall and Montage. But the vibe is cool. For the most part the anticipation...

In some ways the focal point of the Jazz Festival, Gibbs Street is the main artery for pedestrian traffic throughout the nine days as concertgoers shuttle back and forth between the various venues. The free stage at Gibbs and East also draws...

When the Stephane Wrembel Trio hit the stage at the new, large Club Pass tent, I thought there might be a sound system problem - an electronic buzz that just wouldn't quit. My son suggested that it might be there on purpose and, sure enough, it...