Another intriguing act at the club is Japan’s wildly energetic jazz fusion band, Soil & “Pimp” Sessions.įamiliar faces return, starting with opening night and the classic jazz vocalist Catherine Russell at Kilbourn Hall. The wide range of sounds there include Junior Brown, the roadhouse favorite who plays an instrument of his own design, the double-necked “guit-steel,” part regular guitar, part steel guitar. The Squeezer’s Stage at Anthology, a big new room near the intersection of East and Alexander, replaces last year’s much-maligned pop-up Squeezer’s Stage in the Sibley Building. The 13 club venues include one new addition. The trio’s acoustic brilliance packed two shows at the Harro East Ballroom, with a line out the door. The following night, July 2, the stage hosts one of the most-talked about acts from the 2015 fest, The Wood Brothers. The band of three brothers was supposed to play the fest last summer, but was forced to cancel after the death of their mother. The Texican rock of Los Lonely Boys plays the East Avenue & Chestnut Street Stage July 1. Mooney, who now lives in New Orleans, grew up in the Rochester area. John Mooney & Bluesiana opens for Cleary. Cleary is best known for his many years as Bonnie Raitt’s keyboardist. It’s followed the next night by the Louisiana swamp rock of Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentleman. Other free shows include a very energetic rock band, Fitz & the Tantrums, playing opening night on the East Avenue and Chestnut Street Stage. “They’re really going to appreciate the transformation going on in our city,” said Mayor Lovely Warren. That big open space, now bulldozed clear of what was once Midtown Plaza, could be a surprise to many people who don’t get into downtown Rochester often. In fact, “we’ve been asked to go to that parcel,” added Co-Promoter and Executive Director Marc Iacona. “Marc and I are at the mercy of what happens in the city,” said Co-Promoter and Artistic Director John Nugent of the move to Midtown. The festival drew a record 196,000 people in 2014, but weather and construction brought the number down last year. And that’s likely where the biggest crowd of the nine-day event will be found, if the weather cooperates: Jazz fest favorite Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue - who were responsible for some of those giant Alexander Street gatherings - plays there on the final night. Main Street, a westward expansion of the festival. That stage now becomes the City of Rochester Midtown Free Outdoor Stage, at the Midtown re-development site off of E. The biggest change is the East Avenue and Alexander Street Stage, which had been the site of huge final-day crowds until last year, when it was shut down by the Inner Loop destruction/construction. Work on the big hole shutting down East Avenue, the Inner Loop fill-in, apparently will be far enough along to accommodate the big crowds attracted by the June 24 through July 2 event, now in its 15th year in and around the East End District. Along with the flood of local, national and international music acts that will have to be analyzed and digested over the next three months before the start of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival - relax, Trombone Shorty’s coming back - on Tuesday morning the event’s organizers and city officials introduced a slightly revamped footprint that’s a response to the evolving downtown landscape.
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