SUNDAY, JUNE 14

2:30 & 4 p.m.: Smugtown Stompers Mary Jemison Riverboat

4 p.m.: WXXI Jazz Films Eastman Theatre

Once upon a time in the 1970's, top national jazz musicians made regular visits to the Rochester, and WXXI TV filmed their shows. Sadly, these films have rarely been seen since then. The treasures that will be screened this year include concert performances by Bill Evans and Maynard Ferguson. The films will be introduced by WXXI radio (1370 AM) jazz DJ Tom Hampson, who marks his 50th year on the air this June. Also on the bill is the best of the RIJF 2008. (RN)

4:30 & 5:15 p.m.: Rochester Area High School Jazz Bands Jazz Street Stage

5:30 p.m.: Jon Cleary Harro East Ballroom

Jon Cleary is an Englishman gone big and easy. New Orleans is home to this monster piano player. He's burned hot and cool with his band The Absolute Monster Gentlemen, and as a sideman with Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, and Snooks Eaglin. Cleary leans towards the r&b side of things, but you can still hear the parade and the Longhair of his adopted hometown. Cleary recently toured as part of The Keys To New Orleans solo piano tour with Henry Butler and Allen Toussaint. (FD)

6 p.m.: Ernestine Anderson Kilbourn Hall

Ernestine Anderson made her first festival appearance at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958. Countless appearances world-wide and four Grammy nominations later, she is still wowing audiences with her sultry delivery and inventive scat-singing. After tours with the Johnny Otis Band and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in the 1950's, Anderson moved to Europe, where the ground was more fertile for jazz singers. In the past several decades she has been back in the United States touring and recording. With her extraordinary range and style, Anderson encompasses the entire scope of jazz history in her voice. (RN)

6 p.m.: California Guitar Trio Montage Music Hall

Though it wound up in California, the California Guitar Trio started a bit more spread out. Bert Lams is from Belgium and Hideyo Moriya is from Japan. Paul Richards is the only American in the group. The three met in England thanks to experimental guitarist Robert Fripp. After touring with Fripp the three went on to form their own group in 1991. The CGT is sparkling and tight. It focuses on a circular style of playing, where each musician plays one note in a phrase followed immediately by the next player and the next so that it sounds like one player, is breathtaking. (FD)

6 p.m.: High School Band Directors Big Band Jazz Street Stage

6:15 p.m.: Jon Ballantyne Trio Max of Eastman Place

After winning the grand prize of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal in 1986, Canadian pianist Jon Ballantyne headed to New York City to study with Barry Harris and Kenny Barron. After tours with the Woody Herman Big Band, Buddy De Franco, and Clark Terry, Ballantyne recorded the 1990 Juno Award-winning album, "SkyDance," with Joe Henderson. He picked up a Juno himself in 2007 for his album, "Avenue Standard." Ballantyne has been featured on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" and has played at jazz festivals all over the world. (RN)

6:30 p.m.: Jonas Kullhammar Quartet Xerox Auditorium

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)

6:45 p.m.: Neil Cowley Trio Christ Church

The Neil Cowley Trio is England's answer to The Bad Plus. Cowley is a percussive pianist, and bassist Richard Sadler and drummer Evan Jenkins attack their instruments with equal relish. The trio's music is instantly contagious, with compositions like the rollicking "His Nibs." If that title sounds naughty to you, it must be your dirty mind. It's an expression mocking titles like "his Lordship." But it's also indicative of the subversive and humorous mission of this group. (RN)

7:15 p.m.: Jon Cleary Harro East Ballroom

See bio above.

7:15 p.m.: Stephane Wrembel Trio Jazz Street Stage

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)

7:30 p.m.: Soren Kjaergaard Lutheran Church of the Reformation

They used to call the piano the piano-forte; you know, the soft/loud. After hearing Denmark's Soren Kjaergaard you'll think twice when calling it merely piano. In the spirit of artists like Cecil Taylor, this group blurs the line between the improvised and the composed with a healthy dose of creative curiosity. (FD)

8:30 p.m.: Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater Big Tent

Blues guitarist Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater was part of the big black south to north migration in the late 1950's and early 1960's, and wound up in Chicago playing in its legendary blues scene. The spark was lit after he heard Chuck Berry and Magic Slim. He first recorded under the name Clear Waters as a sort of tribute to Muddy Waters before changing it to Clearwater. He got the nickname "Chief" for his penchant for donning elaborate Native American headdresses on stage. At almost 75 years old, Clearwater still plays the blues red hot, deep-dish Chicago style. (FD)

8:45 p.m.: Neil Cowley Trio Christ Church

See bio above.

9 p.m.: Jonas Kullhammar Quartet Xerox Auditorium

See bio above.

9:15 p.m.: Stephane Wrembel Trio Jazz Street Stage

See bio above.

9:30 p.m.: Soren Kjaergaard Lutheran Church of the Reformation

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater Big Tent

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Jon Ballantyne Trio Max of Eastman Place

See bio above.

10 p.m.: Ernestine Anderson Kilbourn Hall

See bio above.

10 p.m.: California Guitar Trio Montage Music 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)