We used to attend every night of the Rochester Jazz Fest. The very first one featured Joe Lovano playing at the MAG. There used to be some really great artists performing and mind-opening discoveries. The most interesting artists didn’t draw that well and it became clear the promoters were not interested in interesting so they kept bringing the same bankable performers back. Anybody ever hear of Trombone Shorty?
We flew to Knoxville in 2019 for the Big Ears Festival and, well, that was arranged by somebody with really good taste. The Rochester festival crash-landed during the pandemic and came back in ‘22. That was the last year we bought a pass and it was worth it, but barely. We saw just a few shows in the last couple of years. Tonight we could have heard Terrell Stafford at Kilbourn, a really good straight-ahead trumpeter, but we decided to just walk around downtown during the festival. Look how big that tip jar is!
The Christ Church by RoCo is no longer a venue. Neither is the Lutheran Church, where the adventurous Nordic groups played. It may not even be a Lutheran Church anymore. There is no stage at East Avenue and Chestnut so we checked out Parcel 5. Just a few people hanging out there. We bought two beers for eighteen dollars on Gibbs Street and listened to the Army band. We saw a couple playing on Main Street (above) that we had seen other years. (2018A & 2018B) They trade back and forth on drums and keys. She was playing the drums while talking on the phone the first time we walked by them and on our way back they had a guest sitting in (above.)
There was a line outside the Little Theatre for an Americana band. As we walked toward the big City stage at Alexander the band was playing a Pat Benatar song. We got in the car and were home before dark.
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Salami Rose Joe Lewis was mind blowing at The Duke last night. Most of the stuff at that venue were really good.
missing the Lutheran Church, heard the most interesting things there.