MONDAY, JUNE 15

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.: Cedar Walton Quartet Harro East Ballroom

From his early days with Kenny Dorham and J.J. Johnson through his stints with Hank Mobley, Milt Jackson, Lee Morgan, and many more jazz giants, Cedar Walton has been a first-call pianist since the late-1950's. While with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Walton composed some of the group's most innovative tunes, including "Mosaic," "Ugetsu," and "Bolivia." At the age of 25, he was the first pianist to record "Giant Steps" with John Coltrane. Over the past five decades he has released more than 50 albums as a leader, and remains one of the most imaginative pianists playing today. (RN)

6 p.m.: Chico Hamilton & Euphoria Kilbourn Hall

The scene is the Newport Jazz Festival, 1958, as documented in the film "Jazz on a Summer's Day." One great act follows another, including Thelonious Monk and Dinah Washington. Then Chico Hamilton's group takes the stage and begins to play the haunting "Blue Sands." It is absolutely mesmerizing to the audience at the festival, and to audiences of the film. Hamilton's drums, played with mallets, seem to sing in soft tones, building to a crescendo as the piece progresses. Over the past seven decades, Hamilton has supplied no shortage of stunning performances, including the soundtrack for the film-noir classic "The Sweet Smell of Success." Now in his late 80s, he remains the driving force behind a wonderful band. (RN)

6 p.m.: Andrei Razin & Second Approach Montage Music Hall

The three musicians from Moscow who make up Second Approach are fluent in a variety of musical forms, including classical, opera, jazz, and Gypsy music. Andrei Razin is a magnificent pianist who has won Composer of the Year honors in Russia. Igor Ivanushkin is a superb contemporary bassist who pushes the instrument's range well beyond its standard language. And Tatyana Komova is an extraordinarily ethereal vocalist who has perfected her own wordless singing style. Their collective sound is simply otherworldly. (RN)

6 p.m.: Bill Tiberio Group Jazz Street Stage

Bill Tiberio is a committed local educator at Fairport High School. But when he's not teaching, he's honking away on his saxophone with a large, funky sound reminiscent of Maceo Parker. Tiberio thrives on carefully shaped, melodic solos that are catchy enough to appeal to a wide audience. A Rochester favorite for more than a decade, Tiberio has shared the stage with a variety of performers including Fred Wesley, Lou Gramm, The Four Tops, and Nestor Torres. (RN)

6 p.m.: Mike Melito Quintet Big Tent

Mike Melito began his drumming career at the age of 15, playing with Joe Locke at a local club. Since then he's performed with Chuck Mangione, Gene Bertoncini, James Moody, Benny Golson, and many others. The title of his fourth album, "In The Tradition," is a declaration that Melito cherishes the halcyon days of jazz - the hard bop of the late-1950's. His band includes the wonderful Philadelphia trumpeter John Swana and one of New York's finest saxophonists, Grant Stewart. (RN)

6:15 p.m.: Alex Graham Sextet Max of Eastman Place

Don't let the repertoire of alto saxophonist Alex Graham's sextet fool you. The songs are familiar - "All The Things You Are" and the Stylistics' "You Make Me Feel Brand New" - but they are re-harmonized to bring out abstract complexities you might never have imagined were there. Pianist David Hazeltine, who, along with Graham, is responsible for some of these arrangements, is among the members of this all-star band. Others include Jim Rotondi, trumpet; Steve Davis, trombone; Rodney Whitaker, bass; and Carl Allen, drums. (RN)

6:30 p.m.: Maria Farinha w/Jongo Trio Xerox Auditorium

The way Maria Farinha effortlessly lets the Portuguese fly so smoothly, with all its multi-consonant slant, is amazing. Born in Sao Paulo, Farinha is widely recognized as one of the preeminent singers of Bossa Nova and Brazilian jazz. Now living in Canada, she composes within the idiom, as well as interprets the masters like Bossa Nova godfather Tom Jobim. (FD)

6:45 p.m.: Huw Warren Christ Church

Welsh pianist/composer Huw Warren's music quickly dispels the myth that experimental music has to be weird or pieced together with the remaining notes more conventional artists have discarded. He manages to string them together elegantly and relies only slightly on dissonance. He is a founding member of British cult jazz favorite Perfect Houseplants, and the winner of the BBC Jazz Award For Innovation in 2005. Warren bridges the gaps between experimental jazz, pop, and world music with a style that could be called beautifully reckless. (FD)

7:15 p.m.: Greater Rochester Jazz Orchestra Jazz Street Stage

7:15 p.m.: Cedar Walton Quartet Harro East Ballroom

See bio above.

7:30 p.m. Jonas Kullhammar Quartet Lutheran Church of the Reformation

With a deep, full, muscular tone on tenor saxophone, Jonas Kullhammar runs the gamut from straight-ahead be-bop cool to free-form avant-garde wildness - and that's in the same tune! It was just nine years ago that Kullhammar released his first recording as a leader. His high-octane sound was immediately rewarded with Sweden Radio's Jazz Cat award as Newcomer of the Year. In 2001, his second album won him the Jazz Cat as Jazz Musician of the Year. (RN)

8 p.m.: RIJF-ESM Scholarship Performance: Celebrating the Legacy of Woody Herman Eastman Theatre

Clarinetist and big band legend Woody Herman's first band became popular for its interpretation of the blues in the 1930's, and it was his thundering Herd that was at center of the big band blast in the 40's. But besides performing jazz arrangements by Dizzy Gillespie and such, Herman also did pieces by Igor Stravinsky. A little Rochester side note; Rascals guitarist and former Rochesterian Gene Cornish's mother was a vocalist in Herman's band in the late 1940's, and RIJF promoter and saxocat John Nugent played third tenor in a later incarnation of the orchestra, The Second Herd. (FD)

8:30 p.m.: Stephane Wrembel Trio Big Tent

Frenchman Stephane Wrembel calls his music "gypsy jam" --- a hybrid of world music dominated by his gypsy guitar. At the heart of this music, and in the heart of Wrembel, stands Django Reinhardt, the undefeated heavyweight master of gypsy jazz guitar. Reinhardt's two-fingered tight tone and jump is unmistakable on his original recordings, and equally recognizable when they surface directly or indirectly as influences --- like they do with musicians like Wrembel. The teenage Wrembel was turned on to guitar via the legends you'd expect, like Hendrix and Zeppelin. But when he went to the Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois at age 20, it was clear what he would be doing from then on. (FD)

8:45 p.m.: Huw Warren Christ Church

See bio above.

9 p.m.: Maria Farinha w/Jongo Trio Xerox Auditorium

See bio above.

9:15 p.m.: Greater Rochester Jazz Orchestra Jazz Street Stage

9:30 p.m.: Jonas Kullhammar Quartet Lutheran Church of the Reformation

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Stephane Wrembel Trio Big Tent

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Chico Hamilton & Euphoria Kilbourn Hall

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Andrei Razin & Second Approach Montage Music Hall

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Alex Graham Sextet Max of Eastman Place

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)