We wait all year for this moment in Rochester: the start of the Rochester International Jazz Festival in June. The festival began 25 years ago and has been going strong ever since, despite the two years off due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Between 2002 and 2026, the festival has grown to feature hundreds of artists over nine days, gaining a reputation as one of the country’s major jazz festivals.
Each day, I’ll post my recommended shows, along with reviews from the prior night, here on Rochester Overture. The shows I recommend are mostly club pass shows, but I will add the occasional notable free stage and/or headliner show. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been able to stick my head into as many as seven shows in a night with the club pass, which means there’s plenty of opportunity to hear great stuff even on a stacked night. And remember the festival adage, “it’s not who you know,” and fully embrace the unknown.
Here’s what I recommend for Friday, June 19, the opening night of the festival:
I’ve already written about two major concerts on opening night: Brandon Woody’s Upendo (Theater at Innovation Square, 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.), as a Blue Note-signed, Baltimore-area trumpet player you want to catch on the rise, and the Joe Lovano + Special Guests concert (Kodak Hall, 9:30 p.m.) celebrating John Coltrane’s centennial. The tenor sax player Frank Tiberi, of ‘Coltrane-Tiberi Tapes‘ fame, will be another special guest on the program. With five tenor saxophones, even the massive Kodak Hall stage will feel full. I’m making an early prediction that festival co-producer and tenor saxophonist John Nugent will make an appearance, too. Those are my two must-see shows.
If you like an irresistible swing that gets you bouncing and swaying, get over to hear singer Catherine Russell (Kilbourn Hall, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.). Kilbourn Hall might not be the venue for dancing–I’ve found her best placed at a no-longer-available venue, Harro East–but you will no doubt leave Cat’s show humming and smiling, a great way to start off the festival.
Danilo Pérez, who blends Latin American folk music with jazz and other global currents, is another artist doing big things right now; the Latin American pianist and composer was just nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album at the last Grammy Awards. He’s in Kodak Hall at 7 p.m. I’m personally really excited to get to hear this show. A reminder that the Kodak Hall shows on the 19th are all Club Pass shows, although you can buy separate admission at the door.
And if you’re interested in the single Miles Davis centennial show of the festival, you could catch the Rodriguez Brothers, on piano and trumpet, in Max of Eastman Place at 6:15 p.m. and 10 p.m. They’ll highlight Davis’s Latin-jazz forays, while certainly paying respects to Davis’s full oeuvre. The brothers play again on Saturday at Montage Music Hall, so it’s not imperative to hear them tonight.
The more significant Miles Davis tribute will be down the street at Hochstein, where the legendary bassist Ron Carter, who played in one of Miles Davis’s famed quintets, is scheduled to perform a fundraiser with his Foursight Quartet for RocJuneteenth. But it’s definitely an inconvenient day and time with the jazz festival. If you go, I hope you’ll comment on my coverage to let me know how it was!
(And a quick side note: should you see festival co-producer Marc Iacona, wish him a happy birthday! He shares a birthdate with Juneteenth.)
If you have other artists on your must-see list, I’d love to know. I’m looking forward to seeing you all out and about on Jazz Street. If you see me bobbing around the festival, feel free to stop me and say hello.
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