Rochester International Jazz Festival

Well, the seventh edition of the Rochester International Jazz Festival is history, and it turned out OK. I was one of many who was underwhelmed by the list of headliners but, as always, there was plenty of great music to enjoy. So now what about next year? I think they ought to set up a big interactive voting thing on the website, so everyone in the community could weigh in. But I also imagine they probably get tired of hearing people ask, "Why don't you book so-and-so?" Even so...

Marc Iacona and John Nugent put out their open hands, palms down, and with heads bowed, raised and lowered their arms to each other. But the real praise on stage last night at the Eastman Theater was for God and the gift he gave Al Green.

I finally made it to the Rochester International Jazz Festival last night.

It was cloudy and chilly. A few hundred people milled around Gibbs Street, and most wore jackets or sweatshirts. Smoke from vendors’ booths drifted down past Eastman Theatre, and a line snaked around the corner for David Murray's Black Saint Quartet in Kilbourn Hall. The sight of the crowds made me happy.

Julia Figueras told me first. Then I heard it from Dave Sluberski, WXXI's audio engineer. The Bad Plus brought a singer with them for their Rochester International Jazz Festival appearance. A singer?! I admit I was skeptical. The trio works so well on their own, a singer could only get in the way, I thought.

In his introduction, Jack Garner noted the irony of having a band from Finland perform in the hottest venue at the festival – hot temperature-wise, that is. The Lutheran Church of the Reformation was sweltering last night as the Timo Lassy Band took the stage, or the altar. They began with African Rumble and Early Move, tunes I featured on What’s New a few weeks back.

Nat Hentoff is stalking me.

First I saw his American Legacy article on women in jazz.

Then he pops up in this Lenny Bruce book I've been reading, “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People: An Autobiography.” While on the stand at the comedian’s obscenity trial, Ralph Gleason reads an excerpt from one of Nat’s articles about Lenny.

During the Jazz Festival last year, a secret society formed here at WXXI. In order to join, you had to be a little bit sick of hearing about the Jazz Festival. It was a small group, to be sure, and I cannot reveal the participants. I think they bonded in part because they felt left out of the daily who-did-you-see-last-night-and-who-are-you-seeing-tonight conversations. Their question of the day was more like “What is the big deal?”

The seventh edition of the Rochester International Jazz Festival starts a week from today. If you’re going, you’ve probably already started mapping out your plan for the week. There's no need to restrict yourself to just one show each night, but here are my picks for the don't-miss events...along with some words to consider from Holden Caulfield.