TUESDAY, JUNE 16
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.: Holly Cole Harro East Ballroom
If you're not hip to her already, Holly Cole's torch song treatment of Tom Waits' music on 1995's "Temptation" is a nice way to get drawn to her flame. This sultry Canadian chanteuse has a voice that is seduction personified. Just try and resist; you don't stand a chance. Cole's style is deceptively simple. The sophistication is all in her languid phrasing and often wry emphasis on lyrical subtext. And just dig the way she slithers in and out of melodies you know, melodies you think you know, and melodies you will forever associate with Cole after she commandeers them. (FD)
6 p.m.: Jeff Dyer-Bill Brennan Group Big Tent
Newfoundland pianist Bill Brennan has only appeared on 85 recordings. He's only backed up cats like Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gillespie, and Placido Domingo. His work with Jeff Dyer is pretty cool, too, in an evening cocktail kind of way. This is because Dyer sounds just a little bit like, well, Lou Rawls to be exact. In fact ,when you close your eyes you can almost picture the late crooner's easygoing, pearly white display while Dyer sings. (FD)
6 p.m.: Dafnis Prieto Sextet Kilbourn Hall
Since arriving in the United States just a decade ago, Dafnis Prieto has earned a spot as one of the hottest drummers on the New York and national jazz scenes. He has been enlisted by the top Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban ensembles, including the Caribbean Jazz Project, Chico O'Farrill's The Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra and the bands of Chucho Valdez, Michel Camilo, Arturo Sandoval, and Eddie Palmieri. His current album, "Taking the Soul for a Walk," reveals him to be a formidable composer and arranger in addition to his percussion prowess. (RN)
6 p.m.: Sean Jefferson Quintet + Marcus Strickland Montage Music Hall
A home-grown drummer, Sean Jefferson studied with the finest teachers - John C. McNeill, Dave Mancini, Mike Melito - in the music-rich Rochester area. A member of Paradigm Shift and The Jazz Mad Lab, Jefferson is no stranger to upstate New York stages. At the RIJF his septet will be enhanced by special guest Marcus Strickland, one of the most thrilling saxophonists on the scene today. A versatile leader and sideman, Strickland is equally at home with originals, jazz standards, or contemporary compositions by artists like Outkast and Bjork. (RN)
6:15 p.m.: Lionel Loueke Trio Max of Eastman Place
Lionel Loueke has released only one major-label album, but that was enough to earn him the top spot for Rising Star Guitarist in Down Beat Magazine's prestigious Critic's Poll last year. Loueke was born in the West African country of Benin; his album's title, "Karibu," means "welcome" in Swahili. If he sounds familiar, it may be because his distinctive style enhances Herbie Hancock's Grammy-winning "River: The Joni Letters." Loueke's trio-mates, bassist Massimo Biolcati and percussionist Ferenc Nemeth, beautifully support his wondrous guitar and vocals as he fuses the music of his culture with jazz. (RN)
6:30 p.m.: Andrei Razin & Second Approach Xerox Auditorium
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)
6:45 p.m.: Paula Gardiner Trio + Huw Warren Christ Church
Welsh double bassist Paul Gardiner started out as a classically trained guitarist before jumping ship into jazz waters in 1988. She still plays guitar and flute, but it is Gardiner's bass playing that is utterly sublime. Hers is a style that could be described as lyrically fluid, in that she plays not just as the as sub-strata support, but as a key part of the melodies and quotes as well. (FD)
7:15 p.m.: Holly Cole Harro East Ballroom
See bio above.
7:15 p.m.: Soul Stew Jazz Street Stage
It's a jazz, funk, and r&b stew as well. This Toronto septet has been rocking it right since 1990 along Toronto's famed College Street scene. Made up of top-notch session men, Soul Stew has lent its brass to artists from Aretha Franklin to Nelly Furtado to Gorillaz. The band's prevailing sound is the kind of pleasant soul that floated out of umpteen transistor radios in the 1970's. I had mine tied to my handlebars. Where was yours? (FD)
7:30 p.m.: Sidsel Stromnes Lutheran Church of the Reformation
This Norwegian songstress sings mellow and sweet --- or should I say melancholy and sweet? Her music embraces the epic heartache of love and life, and exemplifies how surviving it all makes for beautiful music. The dichotomy in her life --- social worker by day, musician at night --- is mirrored in her music. It's both haunting and soothing, vulnerable and strong, lonely and uplifting. (FD)
8 p.m.: Jake Shimabukuro/Carolyn Wonderland Eastman Theatre
It doesn't take much to dwarf a ukulele. It does, however, take some talent to take the tiny instrument out of the realm of the hukilau and into the rock virtuoso arena. Hawaiian ukulele wildman Jake Shimabukuro had 'em howling at last year's Jazz Fest. Lines wrapped around the sold-out venues he played, and festival honchos reportedly turned more than 1200 people away. For some, playing rock music on the uke may come off as novel, but Shimabukuro's technique is no joke. He fills his traditional and contemporary salutes like a man-sized music box with flawless, innovative technique. It's a fleet-fingered blur unlike anything you've ever heard. (FD)
The Susans - that'd be Tedeschi and Foley - are at that enviable cruising altitude afforded them by talent and years of hard work. Fans of those ladies will undoubtedly fall in love with Carolyn Wonderland, a triple threat (songwriter, singer, guitar slinger) from Austin, Texas, who - in my opinion - burns even hotter than the aforementioned ladies. Wonderland's pipes defy race, genre, and age, and are backed up by bluesy guitar. Her spurs dig deep into Americana's side. She has toured with Buddy Guy and Johnny Winter, and has sat in with The String Cheese Incident, Los Lobos, and Robert Earl Keen. This gal's gonna blow your doors off. (FD)
8:30 p.m.: Bonerama Big Tent
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)
8:45 p.m.: Paula Gardiner Trio + Huw Warren Christ Church
See bio above.
9 p.m.: Andrei Razin & Second Approach Xerox Auditorium
See bio above.
9:15 p.m.: Soul Stew Jazz Street Stage
See bio above.
9:30 p.m.: Sidsel Stromnes Lutheran Church of the Reformation
See bio above.
10 p.m.: Bonerama Big Tent
See bio above.
10 p.m.: Dafnis Prieto Sextet Kilbourn Hall
See bio above.
10 p.m.: Lionel Loueke Trio Max of Eastman Place
See bio above.
10 p.m.: Sean Jefferson Quintet + Marcus Strickland 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)