Category: Jazz

Rochester was filled with world-class musicians tonight, but the night belonged to one man named Wayne.

Tom Harrell kicked off the evening in Kilbourn Hall with a set of mostly original compositions. Harrell’s flugelhorn work was stunning throughout the evening as he dipped into the stream of chords and rhythms sprung from the hands of pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Rodney Green. For most of the set, it was the contemplative Harrell on stage, navigating circular melodies and intricate chord progressions. At the end of the set, though, traces of the old fire emerged, as Harrell — on trumpet this time — ripped through a masterful solo on “Caravan.” The crowd loved him, whistling and shouting and calling for multiple encores.

The Eastman Theatre was the center of the jazz universe tonight, as saxophonist Wayne Shorter and his quartet held court. Shorter brought his working band for the gig — pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade. This is the band that backed Shorter on his three most recent albums: Footprints Live, Alegria and Beyond The Sound Barrier. Their telepathic communication was evident on stage, as was their sheer pleasure at being together. In recent months, Shorter has been ill, and several of his concerts have been glorified trio shows. Tonight, though, Wayne was in good form, particularly when playing the soprano saxophone. His probing lines cut through the complex interplay of the rhythm section, driving the band to greater heights.

The quartet opened the show with the long and meditative “She Moves Through The Fair” from Alegria. Shorter stuck to the tenor on this tune, and both his sound and approach were often tentative. On the second tune, though, Shorter gained command of the stage, soprano saxophone soaring as Brian Blade rocked — I said ROCKED — so hard that his drum stool fell over. The third tune opened with a lovely duet between Blade on bells and Patitucci on arco bass. The intensity heightened with another masterful soprano sax solo, and this time Blade launched a drumstick across the stage and onto the floor in the orchestra pit where the media sits. My good friend and fellow media guy paused for one beat, then leapt out of his seat to grab the stick as a souvenir. “Hey man,” he said, “it’s like a foul ball.” I waited in vain for Shorter to drop a saxophone into the orchestra pit. Alas, I went home empty-handed. The obligatory “spontaneous” encore featured more soprano and tenor, and ended the evening on a high note.

For the final set of the evening, a packed-to-the-rafters Montage hosted trumpeter Terrell Stafford and his B-3 band, featuring organist Pat Bianchi and drummer Chris Somebody. OK, his last name wasn’t Somebody, but the Montage crowd was so loud — mostly in the bar, not in the music room — that it was impossible to understand about 80% of what Stafford was saying. He noted this problem from the stage, and played two very soft numbers in an attempt to quiet the conversations. Despite the annoyances from the crowd, the set was nicely swinging, with the band putting several jazz thoroughbreds through their paces, including “Skylark,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” and “I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed (By Anyone But You).” Particularly moving were the two ballads: “Dear Rudy,” a tribute written by Stafford for his late grandmother, and the even quieter “Nearness of You,” both played on silky flugelhorn.

(UPDATE: It turns out the drummer’s name was Chris Beck. Thanks to the Woodstock Road desk for the tip.)

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

So how DO you see five acts in one night when four of them are playing at the same time? That was the question faced tonight, as the 6 and 10 p.m. sets featured Ben Allison, Jane Bunnet, the Tiberi/Garzone tenor duo, and the Joe Locke/Geoffrey Keezer group. All that plus Toots Thielemans and Kenny Werner at 8 p.m. opening for McCoy Tyner’s trio. Oy!

First it was off to Kilbourn Hall for a set by saxophonist/flutist Jane Bunnett. The effervescent Bunnett had an all-star band: Elio Villafranca on piano, Keiran Overs on bass and Francisco Mela on drums. The two Cubans were an inspired pairing, urging each other on from across the stage, and singing together on several songs.

Bunnett seemed visibly surprised by the size of the crowd and the enthusiastic response as she walked onstage. “That’s a really nice welcome,” she said. “Almost as nice the one we got at customs.” She took out her cell phone and said she felt safe in using it as a timer because “no one ever calls me.” She was saved from this precarious position by a good Samaritan with a watch he was willing to loan for the set.

Then it was down to business. Bunnett unleashed a long and flowing unaccompanied solo on the soprano saxophone, often lifting one knee in the crane stance known to fans of the Karate Kid movies. The solo became a rollicking quartet number, complete with call and response vocals. The second piece was “Ogere’s Cha,” a tune from Villafranca’s excellent debut album from 2003, Incantations. For this number, Bunnett switched to her wonderfully Rahsaan-esque flute, the raspy tone running through the hall like a broadcast from Cuban radio in the 1950’s. Villafranca’s solo climaxed with a two-handed trill that seemed to lift the stage a few inches higher, as the audience collectively willed the downbeat and accompanying cymbal crash.

Bunnett then dedicated “Joyful Noise” to the brilliant pianist Hilton Ruiz, who died on June 6 at age 54. Mela led the quartet with his wonderful voice and his exuberant drums, all the while with a look on his face as if he were debating an invisible partner. “Alma de Santiago” began with ruminations by Villafranca, then accelerated into a classic Cuban dance tune with vocals by Bunnett, Villafranca and Mela, and a soprano sax solo that had my companion exhorting the heavens for release. Cries of “Ultra, ultra!” brought the band back on stage for another wonderful Cuban dance number, and sent the crowd off to Jazz Street with a bounce in its collective step.

At the Eastman Theatre, pianist Kenny Werner and harmonica legend Toots Thielemans were alternately mellow and playful as they delighted the audience — and each other — with a set of standards, including “Summertime,” “Moon River/Days of Wine and Roses,” “In Your Own Sweet Way,” and more. Werner played both piano and keyboard, using a synthesized string section on several tunes. Thielemans regaled the crowd with stories of his nearly seven decades in the music business, dating back to his first record purchase — a Louis Armstrong album he bought in 1942 during the Nazi occupation of his Belgian homeland. “That was my first injection with jazz,” he said before playing a lovely version of “What A Wonderful World” to close the show. “And after seeing everybody and playing with everybody, Louis is still my main guru.”

Thielemans and Werner also paid tribute to John Coltrane, and by extension the night’s headliner, McCoy Tyner, with a medley of “Naima” and “Giant Steps”. The other tribute of the evening was to pianist Bill Evans, whom Thielemans referred to as “one of the traffic lights of my career,” by which he meant playing with Evans was a milestone for him. The duo sailed through “Blue In Green” and “Solar.” The 84-year-old Thielemans was a wonder to hear, and a true joy to see.

The main act of the evening, the McCoy Tyner Trio, suffered from poor microphone placement on the same piano that sounded fine moments earlier for Werner. The piano was often muddy, individual notes and chords losing focus in a wash of sound. Despite that, the trio played a robust set of mostly Tyner originals, including the vivacious “Angelina” from Tyner’s 2004 album Illuminations. Charnett Moffet provided the energetic bass, and recently un-retired drummer Eric Kamau Gravat kept the music moving with his undeniable beat, one cymbal suspended high in the air like an offertory bell at the Temple of Tyner. (For the fairly amazing story of Gravat, check out this article.) Had the lights gone out in the theatre, we all could have found our way to the exits in the glow of the smiles exchanged throughout the set between an obviously overjoyed Moffet and an equally charmed Gravat. Being in the presence of Tyner was an honor, but the real meat of the session came from his sidemen.

The final act of the night was a late set at Milestones featuring bassist, bandleader, composer, and all-around good guy Ben Allison. Allison — along with guitarist Steve Cardenas, trumpeter Ron Horton, and drummer Gerald Cleaver — played tunes from his new album Cowboy Justice, along with a few selections from earlier records. Every song was fun and interesting, but the two tunes that will make SportsCenter were “Green Al” and the encore, a version of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” with spaces so wide you could have piloted a hot air balloon through them. Allison also played the beautiful and haunting “Ruby’s Roundabout,” written for (scaring?) his 2-year-old daughter. Horton played his ethereal trumpet to great effect on “Roundabout,” and the closing minutes saw the whole band swaying on stage as if in a mild breeze. A fun and adventurous set of music by one of the modern-day visionaries of jazz.

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

Tonight was a laid-back night at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, at least for me. While folks lined up to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band or to get into the Montage to hear Dawn Thompson, my friends and I decided to kick back in the tent for an evening of feel-good, in-the-pocket jazz that drove straight down the road with no surprising detours.

The evening began with the trumpet — and, as it turned out, voice — of Byron Stripling. Stripling played the evening before at the Eastman Theatre with the winners of the 2006 RIJF scholarships, but tonight he was in the company of pros: guitarist Bob Sneider, bassist Phil Flanigan, and drummer Mike Melito. If those names sound familiar, it’s because they belong to three of the busiest men at the festival. All are backing multiple artists, plus the trio is holding down the house band gig at the nightly jam sessions. To add insanity to frenzy, Melito is even teaching his regular lessons this week.

The trio has played together hundreds of times, and it shows. They provided solid, swinging and intelligent support to Stripling’s trumpet on a set that could have come out of a Jamey Aebersold play-along book: “Confirmation,” “I Can’t Get Started,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Strike Up The Band,” “Back Door Blues,” “A Night In Tunisia,” “East of the Sun,” and “Kidney Stew.” Three of the songs (“Kidney,” “East” and “Back Door”) featured Stripling singing in a serviceable style a la the late nonexistent great Nat King Rawls Williams. Highlights included Flanigan’s bass solo on “Honeysuckle,” Melito’s drum work on “Strike Up,” and Sneider’s burning guitar throughout. The sound was fairly good, better than the tent often sounds, although the vocal mic was too loud.

The only part of Stripling’s show I could have done without was the intro to “Strike Up The Band,” during which he made a fairly condescending speech about how all drummers wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and “see Buddy Rich.” He made a few more snarky comments about drummers and eternal solos, then gave the stage to Melito, the drummer who, in all of Rochester, least epitomizes the problem he was describing. Ha ha.

All in all, a fun show with no challenges but a lot of nice music.

The 8:30 set in the tent was a pick-up band filled with talent: drummer Ted Poor (who played the previous night in the Respect Sextet), bassist Ryan Cotler, guitarist Mark Whitfield, and saxophonist Gray Mayfield. The band burned through some standards, including “Straight No Chaser,” the rarely played Coltrane composition “Like Sonny,” and “Trinkle Tinkle.” Mayfield was particularly impressive on “Trinkle,” weaving the tricky melody into his solo, aided by the sharp ears and sharper reflexes of Poor. I enjoyed Whitfield’s comping more than his solos, although those had their moments. The original lineup was supposed to include trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, who had to cancel and was replaced by Whitfield.

Gray Mayfield was a good showman as well as musician. Recounting his conversation with Marsalis: “He called me and said ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?’ I said “Whichever, man.’ He said, ‘I can’t make the gig.’ I said ‘What’s the bad news?’ That’s how we joke down in New Orleans.” It’s always good to hear Mayfield. Kudos to producer John Nugent for bringing him back to the Flower City.

The hot ticket at 10 p.m. was Blue Note pianist Robert Glasper. Glasper was born in Rochester, although he moved away before turning 1. Many of his cousins live here, though, and a big family contingent filled several tables in the back of the atrium at Max of Eastman Place. Bassist Vicente Archer (who was with Karrin Allyson earlier this week) and drummer Damion Reid joined Glasper for a 70-minute set that felt like nothing so much as a John Coltrane recording. Not that it was at all derivative. It was more of a feeling, a polyrhythmic pulse supporting searching piano improvisations that explored the full depth of each piece.

Glasper began the set with a new tune that received the spur-of-the-moment title “Might As Well.” Reid used his tight snare (which sounded like a snare Amir Thompson from The Roots would use) to drive the music forward with quick jabs and longer rolls. The ballad “Of Dreams To Come” was gorgeously heavy, like a glacier glistening in the midnight sun. But the moment of truth was the half hour medley of Glasper’s own “Enoch’s Meditation,” coupled with a reharmonized “Maiden Voyage” laid over the changes of Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place.” The middle 15 minutes found Glasper playing by himself, eyes closed, head rocking as he found more to do with two chords than seemed possible. After so much quiet meditation, it was as if the ceiling fell in when Archer and Reid jumped back in for “Maiden Voyage,” and then the rest of the room fell into the basement as Reid wailed through a solo over a static figure from Glasper and Archer. The crowd was on its feet before the song was even finished. A bright moment, and a bright future.

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

The Democrat & Chronicle has a fun multimedia slideshow of photos and audio from each day of the Rochester International Jazz Festival. And I’m not just linking to it because I’m in the first photo. Kudos to photographer Will Yurman for his excellent work.

Billy Bang. Period. (See details several paragraphs below.)

Tonight I saw something straight out of the past. Mose Allison played more than 20 songs in 70 minutes with no written set list, calling each tune from his book of music by its number so the bass player, Rich Syracuse, would know which song to play. Allison remembered all the lyrics, played 20+ interesting solos, and kept the audience charmed and smiling for the whole set.

Mose Allison is a quiet institution. He’s been around so long that he’s part of America’s musical fabric, and he still has such a following that the line was halfway around the block 90 minutes before showtime. It was worth the wait, as Mose played one great song after another: “Look What You Made Me Do,” “Your Molecular Structure,” “What’s Your Movie?” “Ever Since The World Ended,” and many more. He also threw in some songs by other writers, including “Fool’s Paradise” by Johnny Fuller and a very reharmonized “You Are My Sunshine,” by former Louisiana governor Jimmy Davis.

One strange element of the sound was a bass rasp on the low string that jumped out every time Syracuse plucked it, but otherwise the sound was fairly good in the sometimes cavernous Kilbourn Hall. A friend of mine once described watching jazz there as watching “jazz in a diorama.” While it often has that feel, the best performers can transcend the limitations of the space (see Allyson, Karrin and Allison, Mose).

NOTE: Three paragraphs until Billy Bang.

Outside on the free Jazz Street Stage, the reunited Respect Sextet wowed the crowd and kept them laughing. As a matter fact, Mose Allison into the Respect Sextet was a great segue, as both shows showed the value of a sense of humor in music. It was the classic Respect lineup: Josh Rutner on sax, Eli Asher on trumpet, James Hirschfeld on trombone, Red Wierenga on piano, Ted Poor on drums, and Malcolm Kirby on bass, who missed the Respect show this year at the Bop Shop because he was on tour with the Campbell Brothers. As usual at a Respect show, original compositions — in the best sense of the word “original” — held sway, including Herschfeld’s “latin surf anthem” opener, a Balkan tune by Rutner, and the wonderfully titled “Beer” by Wierenga. The band members now make their home in New York City (all but Asher, who lives in the D.C. area), but they still remember their roots here in Rochester.

NOTE: Two paragraphs until Billy Bang.

The official Next Big Thing of the 2006 festival, Sonya Kitchell, filled the big tent and caused a line down Main Street outside. Back in its inaugural year, the Rochester International Jazz Festival booked a then-unknown singer/pianist named Norah Jones. Eight Grammy awards later, producer John Nugent hoped to prove his instincts again with 17-year-old phenom Kitchell. She’s good, but she struggled to overcome the big tent’s sound-swallowing atmosphere, and her airy vocals were often lost completely in the muddy mix of sound. That said, Kitchell’s songwriting was often impressive, and if she wins eight Grammies this year, you’ll know how to rate my skills as a talent scout.

NOTE: Up next is the good bit, featuring Billy Bang.

Every year at the festival, there’s one artist who transcends the ordinary and sends writers scrambling for adjectives. This year, no matter what happens next, that artist was Billy Bang.

Violinist Bang was joined by trumpeter James Zollar, bassist Todd Nicholson, drummer Newman Taylor Baker, and pianist Andrew Bemkey. Listening to them was like someone reaching inside your rib cage and squeezing your heart. From the first note (Bang’s “Reconciliation”) to the last (“Rainbow Gladiator”), Billy commanded the room in a way few performers ever do. And the audience loved him for it. In recent years, thanks to the work of Bop Shop owner Tom Kohn, Bang has appeared in Rochester several times, both at the jazz festival and at the Bop Shop atrium. Rochester’s music lovers have embraced him, and one of the city’s leading cultural figures, choreographer Garth Fagan, has championed Bang’s music by using it as the basis for a dance piece. Bang was effusive in his praise of Rochester all night long, and he seemed genuinely moved by the intense emotion of the crowd.

The set featured one highlight reel solo after another. Nicholson’s root-to-fruit bass solo on “Reconciliation.” Zollar’s ride on Rocket #9 during the Sun Ra tribute “Jupiter’s Future.” Bemkey destroying and rebuilding the piano with a consciousness-altering two-fisted display on the same tune. Bang getting his sabroso on during the Cuban-inflected closer, which had the crowd on its feet screaming as the band tightened the screws one notch, then another, then another, leaving the audience so enraptured that the band was literally prevented from leaving the stage until they played an encore, the lovely “Rainbow Gladiator.”

With the week ahead including names like Tyner and Shorter, it may seem ridiculous to say this, but my prediction is that no individual set of music will top Billy Bang. Not this week, and not for a long time to come.

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

Any festival is about making choices. There are more acts to see than time to see them, and musical triage is the order of the day. With that in mind, it’s tempting to do the easy thing and cross artists off the list if you’ve seen them before. I’ve seen Karrin Allyson a half dozen times, so I did the sensible thing … and lined up an hour and a half early to see her again. She’s that good.

Allyson’s new album is called Footprints. It features a number of tunes not normally associated with singers, decked out with new lyrics by Rochester native Chris Caswell. The program offered a mix of tunes from the new record — “Lazy Bird,” “Never Say Yes,” “Con Alma” — with some old friends from previous albums. Allyson was joined by a top-flight band: Bruce Barth on piano, Vicente Archer on bass, and Todd Strait on drums.

“Con Alma” was a grabber. They played it slow. The kind of slow that makes you lean forward in your chair to try to get closer to the sound. The kind of slow that the band holds together by an act of collective will. Exquisite.

As at any Karrin Allyson gig, there was a beautiful bossa nova number, sung in Allyson’s gorgeous Portuguese. During the latin numbers, Karrin played what appeared to be two egg shakers. In her hands, the egg shakers had a sensuality that they seem to lack when wielded by, say, a class of kindergartners.

Karrin also played piano on several tunes, including Jimmy Webb’s 70’s ballad “The Moon Is Harsh Mistress.” Bruce Barth added a second keyboard instrument — the Fender Rhodes — for Oscar Brown Jr.’s uplifting “As Long As You’re Living,” Hank Mobley’s “Turnaround,” and Blossom Dearie’s “Bye Bye Country Boy.”

The encore was once through the haunting “Say It (Over And Over Again)” from her Ballads album. When it ended, you could have heard a jaw drop. From start to end, a perfect set of music.

From the Not-An-Early-Enough-Bird Department: Apparently, Brazilian sensation Baji Assad is not just big in Brazil. A line four across and about thirty deep was waiting to get into the sold-out show in the big tent, so this review will be rather short. In fact, it’s over right now.

The late set at Milestones featured guitarist Joel Harrison playing the music of George Harrison. For those in the crowd expecting BeatleJazz, it was probably a shock to hear the searing explorations of Harrison and saxophonist Dave Binney, bassist Dave Ambrosio and drummer Dan Weiss. Harrison’s inventive and exciting arrangements used George’s music as a springboard, rather than an anchor. Binney was the perfect foil for Harrison, adding his sharp-edged tone and intelligent but accessible improvisations to Harrison’s fluid and free-ranging chord structures. The band played George Harrison’s “Within You Without You,” “Beware of Darkness,” “Isn’t It A Pity,” and “My Sweet Lord,” along with Joel Harrison’s own compositions “My Father’s House” and “You Bring The Rain.”

Binney lifted “Beware Of Darkness” higher and higher with each phrase, wiping his left hand on his jeans between each line like a safecracker sandpapering his fingers before the next turn of the dial. Binney wasn’t afraid to explore one repeated pitch, mining it of every ounce of meaning before moving on to the next note.

This show was a left turn from most of the fare at the festival, and it was a welcome exploration of less-charted territory.

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

Another chilly night on the streets of Rochester completely failed to deter thousands of people from packing the clubs and filling the streets at the 2006 Rochester International Jazz Festival.

Kilbourn Hall welcomed back pianist Cedar Walton, who played an engaging hour of solo piano for an enthusiastic audience. The set list included two Walton tunes: “Cedar’s Blues” and “Underground Memoirs.” The rest of the evening found Walton navigating the entire range of the grand piano on everything from “Skylark” (an emotional touchstone of the set) to “Willow Weep For Me,” which rolled steadily on a wave of flatted fifths. The list also included a handful of tunes about time: “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” “Time After Time,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” and “Just In Time.”

When he wasn’t seated at the piano, Cedar delivered lines with the timing of a comedian. He read song titles from a scrap of paper as he introduced the tunes, but at one point he got up from the piano without the list. “That was ‘Every Time We Say Goodbye,'” he said. “The next piece is … I’ll tell you when I’m finished because I’ve got to go look at my list.” He introduced his composition “Underground Memoirs” by saying, “If this one doesn’t put you to sleep, nothing will.”

One thing the Jazz Festival might consider is handing out cough drops. Someone who sounded like they were moments from an appointment with the Grim Reaper spent the entire show hacking in the middle of the theater.

As any jazzhead will tell you, nothing goes with an hour of introspective piano like the Godfather of Soul. Which is a happy coincidence, because that’s just the menu the festival was serving tonight.

It was hard not to be skeptical about a 73-year-old man trying to recreate the soul power of his youth, but it was even harder not to be won over by the mind-jellying funk of The James Brown Show. For more than an hour, the enormous band turned the 3,000 spectators — including Rochester’s mayor, Bob Duffy — into participants, forcing them out of their seats and onto their feet to shake what could be shook. The band had two drummers with full drum sets, a percussionist, three guitarists, a bassist, four backup singers, a guest vocalist, two dancers, three horn players, an M.C., and R.J., who stood on the side of the stage for all but the last ten minutes, when he came on to ask the immortal question, “Do you want James Brown to do his thang?” Everyone said they did, so Soul Brother Number One busted out “Sex Machine,” and it was all over but the leather pants and hot flashes. That said, seeing James Brown in 2006 rather than 1966 is a little like seeing a tiger in a zoo rather than going out into the jungle yourself — you can say you’ve seen it, but it’s not exactly like the real thing. Not that it mattered; a soulful time was had by all.

Djabe played two free sets on the outdoor Jazz Street Stage, and the street was full, despite the cold. Similarly, Roomful of Blues and Little Feat filled the East Avenue Stage.

Back in the clubs, it was time for the most star-studded ensemble of Day 2, as trumpeter Eddie Henderson played swinging hard bop with pianist George Cables, bassist Ed Howard and drummer Billy Drummond (whom Henderson referred to as the “chief of the fire department”). At least, I think those were the guys — the players were almost invisible on the stage, which was apparently lit by the novelty blacklight department at Spencer’s Gifts.

But who needs to see when you can hear? And there was plenty to hear. The late set was full of classic tracks, including “One Finger Snap,” “El Gaucho,” and “Green Dolphin Street.” Henderson used the flugelhorn to wonderful effect on several tunes, his tone sounding like a warm fleece blanket on a cold (June?) night. Cables and Drummond were captivating. Drummond’s solo on “One Finger Snap” was a master class in timing, texture and musicality as he alternated between a curtain of cymbals and driving snare/tom work. A rousing “Cantaloupe Island” finished off the evening, as the band played well past the allotted time. “As you can see, we want to keep playing,” Henderson said. “I hope that’s all right.”

The jam session was packed with minor league ball players, prom guests and jazz lovers. Festival promoter John Nugent held sway for an entire set, slightly belying the “jam” concept, but he was ably assisted by guitarist Bob Sneider, drummer Mike Melito, and Roomful of Blues sax player Mark Earley, with whom Nugent attended college. The bar was full of jazznocenti, including Eddie Henderson and his son, the members of Djabe, and James Brown’s drummer, Mousie.

And that was how it rolled on Day 2.

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

Jason with friends Gary and Beth outside Kilbourn Hall

It’s almost too much to take. Day 1 of the 2006 World Cup coinciding with Day 1 of the 2006 Rochester International Jazz Festival. Three hours of soccer matches (Germany and Ecuador emerging victorious) followed by 8 hours of jazz (everybody in attendance emerging victorious). Here’s what I saw and heard on the opening day of what is fast becoming one of the country’s top jazz festivals.

The weather was nasty. Let’s just get that out of the way. It was a very un-June kind of day in Rochester — cold, rainy and windy enough that the folks from the local jazz station, Jazz90.1, had to hold down the four corners of their broadcast tent to keep it from sailing off into the sunset.

This is the northeast, though, and jazz fans can’t be dissuaded by foul weather. For the first time, all the Club Passes sold out by Day 1 of the festival. (The Club Passes get you in to everything but the shows in the Eastman Theatre.) A packed house watched as guitarist Charlie Hunter and his new trio remodeled the interior of staid Kilbourn hall with a mix of Levon-Helm-Slept-Here drumming from Simon Lott and the Rhodes and organ of Erik Deutsch. A breakneck version of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” was a highlight, particularly when it screeched to a halt and became a cerebral and hushed “Out of Nowhere.” Lott and Deutsch are new to the trio, replacing long-time members John Ellis and Derrek Phillips, who left amicably to pursue other projects. The one hitch in the first set was a long, introspective tune that took up the last 20 minutes of the show. When it ended, Charlie called a closing number, but the soundman was gesturing wildly that time was up, and a surprised Charlie warmly thanked the audience and split. It was obvious that the quiet number wasn’t supposed to be the show closer, and my guess is that they worked out the timing a little better by the second set.

After a quick round of sushi to restore the vital signs, it was off to the Eastman Theatre to see … Woody Allen? That’s right, the film auteur was in town with his trad jazz band to play the most expensive show of the week. Unfortunately, the music didn’t live up to the hype. If his name were Woody Jones, he and the band would have been a very enjoyable local outfit that you might see on a small stage. For $90 a head, though, you really have to like looking at Woody as he energetically keeps time and plays clarinet with what can only be described as a sadistic amount of vibrato. (As it turns out, the standout member of his band was Cynthia Sayer, who charmed the jam session later in the evening with her delightful banjo playing.) It’s important to note, though, that a portion of the proceeds from this show go to benefit folks in New Orleans, so from a nonmusical perspective, it was a good thing.

Over in the festival tent, Hungarian fusion band Djabe made their second appearance in Rochester and once again won the crowd over with the kind of feel-good electric music that was big with guys named Corea and Clarke back in the early 80s. The members of Djabe radiate a personal warmth from the stage that does a lot to win the crowd over, and they back up that vibe with solid musicianship.

Milestones Music Room was host to one of the standout shows of the night, as Gregg Bendian and his Mahavishnu Project channeled John McLaughlin and stoked the inner mounting flame. The five-piece band features Bendian on drums, Adam Holzman on keyboards, Rob Thomas on violin, Glenn Alexander on guitar, and Dave Johnsen on bass. “We believe jazz can be electric,” Bendian told the crowd, “and when it’s electric, it should be heard live.” The room was packed with admirers, from the grey goatees who listened to the original records in the 70’s, to jam band kids who’ve grown up listening to extended improvisation. Highlights included a beautiful version of “Dawn,” a hard-charging “Celestial Terrestrial Extraterrestrial Commuters,” and a mesmerizing rendition of Jan Hammer’s “Bamboo Forest.”

It’s worth mentioning that Milestones booked its own act to go on between the jazz fest sets. Singer/songwriter/pianist Juliet Lloyd played an hour of original music that could easily find its way onto stations that play Jamie Cullum and Nellie McKay. Her song “Too Little, Too Late” would be on the radio in a better world.

For the fifth year running, every night of the festival ends with the Bob Sneider Trio leading a jam session for headliners and amateurs alike at the Crowne Plaza. Guitarist Sneider was joined by bassist Phil Flanigan and drummer Mike Melito. The opening night session featured members of the Woody Allen band, local boys Filthy Funk, and many, many others. A packed crowd stayed until after 2 a.m. to drink in the music (and a few liquid refreshments) and celebrate nine days when Rochester becomes the Jazz Capital of the World.

For complete information, including audio files, concert photos and more, visit rochesterjazz.com.

I posted this overview back in April, but it seemed appropriate to post it again, given that the Jazz Festival starts one week from today.