While maniacally dashing from one Rochester International Jazz Festival show to the next, it’s easy to overlook the ambient sounds of the city reaching for a larger role in our lives.
And there it was, Saturday night at about 9 p.m. on the closed-off East Avenue. A large crowd had gathered around the swirling, rhythmic percussion of a drum circle. People – some musicians, some not – pounding away on their instruments, creating an irresistible groove, and a communal event.
An unscheduled event. But, even if you don’t own Grateful Dead albums, large groups of people can lead to spontaneous outbreaks of music and loose-limbed dancing. The scene encourages people to stop, look, listen, buy a burrito from a food truck. The scene encourages you to talk to the stranger next to you, who you will likely never again see. The scene encourages a dog and his guy to sit on the sidewalk with a guitar, a hat lying open in front of them, in case passersby have any loose change that they need to unload.
Some visitors to an event such as the Rochester International Jazz Festival don’t like to see this kind of humanity, one that lies outside the bounds of their printed programs.
If so, they are missing a really cool part of the show.
Just as I missed St. Paul and the Broken Bones playing the closed-off streets on a beautifully balmy night: I’d spent too much time with the incredible Samara Joy.
Joy to the world
The 23-year-old from New York City was all shimmering sequins as she opened her second set at Kilbourn Hall with “This is the Moment.” And it is. This is no idle typing. Samara Joy will soon be the voice of contemporary jazz.
She left notes to it everywhere. Notes soaring to the ceiling. Scat singing. Even an Antônio Carlos Jobin song in Portuguese.
“I never imagined I would do this and, call this, like work,” she said to a packed room. “I thought places like this existed on a screen saver.”
Chatty, and with a stage presence beyond her years, Joy connected with her audience in personal, gastronomic ways. “I had to hold off the garbage plate until later,” she said.
There were occasional outbursts of “Wow!” from the crowd as she cooed and sirened her way through Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight” and an a cappella opening to Monk’s “Worry Later.”
And she told of how she learned she’d been nominated for a Grammy award last year while riding home on Amtrak, only to note with self deprecation that when she arrived, “in New York City, no one cares.”
If so, that will change.
Temptation of Tom Waits
Tom Waits is not simply a pop-music curiosity. He is one of the most-brilliant songwriters of the day.
And the trio of VickiKristinaBarcelona – all sparkly pants and slouched hats – interprets every aspect of Waits. Joy and heartbreak, darkness and the angelic soaring chorus. And truth, unfolding in stunningly heartfelt songs such as “Innocent When You Dream.”
VickiKristinaBarcelona had nearly a full house for its first of two shows Saturday at Temple Theater. The New York City-area band, which has played the fest in the past, is connected to Waits in the most sonic of ways. Guitar, banjo, an accordion they said was purchased from Irondequoit’s House of Guitars, squeezebox, rubboard, and the curiosity known as a harmonium. Found percussion, found ghosts.
The group was a soaring trio over brilliant Waits songs such as “Downbound Train,” and lent a gypsy feel to “Temptation.” Bette Midler, and many others, have found this material to be irresistible.
Yet more than any of these tributes, VickiKristinaBarcelona has found a way to make that Waits catalog their own. “Re-shaping old songs for you.”
Today’s jazz haiku
Engineer Tom Waits
tips his engineer’s cap to
a Kurt Weil train wreck
Fest alumni report
Jake Shimabukuro first came to attention in Rochester through his performances RIJF. Now, this charming ukulele virtuoso returns for an 8 p.m. July 12 show at The Little Theater, 240 East Ave. No normal uke musician, many people like to compare Jake Shimabukuro to Jimi Hendrix. Tickets, $35, are available at The Little.
Sunday: Jazz Fest Day Three
Note: Omara Portuondo’s Kodak Hall at Eastman
Theatre show Sunday has been cancelled due to the Cuban singer’s visa issues.
Nduduzo Makhathini, 6 and 9 p.m., Kilbourn Hall
A native of South Africa, Makhathini is a jazz pianist whose music also reflects his Zulu heritage. He says he believes deeply in the healing power of music.
Dear Marian: Laura Dubin Trio Plays Marian McPartland, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., Theater at Innovation Square
Dubin is a familiar figure on the local jazz scene. McPartland, a frequent visitor to Rochester until her death in 2013 at age 95, did much to bring jazz to a wider audience with her longtime NPR radio show, “Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz.”
Corner House, Little Theater, 7 and 9:15 p.m.
A string quartet that came together at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. If you’re considering this, the twangy noir of Big Lazy, playing 6 and 10 p.m. at The Wilder Room, might also suit you.
Jeff Spevak is senior arts writer for WXXI/CITY Magazine.