If I'm going to be criticized for being critical about last night, I had better just say it and get it out of the way: where has Mercury Opera been throughout the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra season?
Last night's "grand finale" concert...

I could say many things about the Ray LaMontagne show at CMAC last night. But the music was so wonderful I won't ruin it by focusing on trite negatives. The first of three acts, The Secret Sisters -- two actual sisters from Muscle Shoals,...

The 10th edition of the Rochester International Jazz Festival may be lacking in jazz-giant headliners, but for me it's always been the Club Pass shows that make the festival.
This year's model is no exception. I'm looking forward to hearing a...

For the next nine days, you all can live la vida Frank: bopping around from club to club, day to day, digging live music the way I do all the time. Sure beats the boob tube. I can't encourage Jazz Fest patrons enough to balance what they know...

I started out the 10th edition of the Rochester International Jazz Festival with a double-dose of sax Friday night. Both shows were very different, but both very satisfying.
First up was the Vince Ercolamento Quartet early show at the Rochester...

From the first note out of Terell Stafford's trumpet, Matt Wilson's Arts & Crafts gave it all to the packed house at the Montage (Chestnut Street).  On the trumpet and the flugelhorn, Stafford's highs were high, his trills were a finger...

Not every female in jazz is a chanteuse or a femme fatale. It's just that we tend to romanticize their appearance and efforts. I'm guilty of this myself --- a lot. But nobody does it when it's some old gargoyle in a sharkskin suit. So if you...

When I left the Natalie Cole concert at Friday night's XRIJF, the first friend I ran into asked, "Was she OK?" Over the past few years when Cole's been in the news it's been about her kidney transplant. And she's spoken honestly about her past...

Saturday night brought another unintentional link for the shows I covered: New Orleans. I started the evening off with the Davell Crawford early show at Max of Eastman Place. I got in line at 5:30 p.m. for the 6:15 p.m. show, and I...

Tonight, had I not been on a journalist's schedule at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, I would have stayed until the end of the concert to reveal myself as the groupie I have become for the Bishop/McLeod Organ Trio. The trio is what...

I was curious why the Celtic-rock group Black 47 was invited to play at this year's jazz fest, even at the mostly non-jazz Abilene stage. My exposure to the group had been mostly word of mouth: having predated Celtic groups such as the Dropkick...

Lucky Peterson was on fire from the moment he stepped out onto the Harro East stage. It started with a slow pump 'n' tease from the big B-3 before bass and drums kicked in with a serious uptempo. And I gotta say, this is one of the...

Listening to the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 you might suddenly hear the notes practically sing out: "There's a place for us." Of course, the concerto was written in the early 19th century, and Leonard Bernstein, let's...

Max of Eastman Place is quite proper, with its white linen tablecloths and refined patrons of jazz, who sat politely in their white chairs until Champian Fulton came out to perform Sunday night. Within measures, Fulton and her quartet lit up the...

The Antonio Ciacca Trio was already underway in the Rochester Club ballroom as Lew Tabackin and I walked in. I personally got no applause, but folks seemed thrilled to see Tabackin. Apparently his plane had been delayed (something about being No....

It was the interplay of organization and wildness that made John Nugent's concert with strings so wonderful Sunday afternoon at Kodak Hall.
In Dave Rivello's arrangements the strings served as a lush, beautifully structured counterpoint to the...

I'd bet my $2 that the promoters allegedly overcharged that Against Me! probably won't get invited back to play Water Street Music Hall after Sunday night's concert. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the openers.
First up was...

Three big concerts coming to Rochester this fall:
ALT-ROCK: They Might Be Giants Thursday, September 15. Harro East Ballroom, 155 N. Chestnut St. 8 p.m. $25. Dansmallspresents.com.
R&B: Diana Ross Wednesday, September 28. Auditorium...

The most remarkable performance I heard Monday night was by pianist John Escreet at Christ Church. Most of the audience walked out.
Escreet is far from a typical jazz pianist. He is classically trained but instead of interpreting a challenging...

Professor Louie & the Crowmatix managed get people up, out of their chairs, and dancing around Monday night at Abilene. Through a mix of jazz, country, blues, and even some folksier classic-rock pieces, the band was able to blend styles...