OK, so the best laid plans . . . etc  Christian McBride’s plane never left the ground in NYC so we waited in line from 4:20 until 5:00 only to have the news that the show was off.  Our next first choice at Max had a line that was two full shows worth by the time we got there.  No way were we getting in to hear Karrin Allyson, for that matter with her show half over both then and at 10:30 PM the line was formidable.  We got in line for Don Thompson & Neil Swainson at Hatch Hall, great new venue as part of the Eastman School expansion.  They were excellent, but a bit mellow for the mood of opening performance of the 9 days so after 40 minutes we left and found our way to Montage to hear Tessa Souter working interesting Jazz variants on classical music themes. After a stop for dinner, sandwiches preordered from Java Joe, we moved on to our preplanned schedule at Lutheran Church, Goran Kaifes, Subtropic Arkestra which turned up the volume and inventiveness a whole notch.  We stayed for the entire show and then went to Christ Church, yeah I know what a way to celebrate Shabbat from church to church, where UK groups are featured.  We heard most of Get the Blessing (the groups name) trumpet, sax, guitar and DRUMS.  They offered just a bit of humor mixed in with their performance, the intro to Pentopia was a story about five legged hyenas in Europe, naturally the music was in 5/4 time.  Finally, well not quite finally we went to the Big Tent to hear L’Orkestre Des Pas Perdus, it was more feeling then hearing, even with earplugs and moving to the back of the tent the bass was felt in the chest and the ears were ringing, time to move away.  Still couldn’t get into Max so we went to The Rochester Club, Italian Jazz! Lucio Ferrara Trio performing very straight ahead Jazz.  Nice way to round out the evening even though they have the A/C way too cold for us.  If my count is correct, we got to 6 performances.


Tonight we will hear headliner Esperanza Spalding in Kodak Hall at 8.  We plan to start out at Harro East Mike Stern Group at 5:30 with a possible jump to Kilbourn for the Tom Harrell Chamber Ensemble or Max for Mathias Eick before picking up dinner and heading to Kodak Hall. The main link for more information about the groups and links to some of their music is http://www.rochesterjazz.com/artist_lineup/?option=view_by_date

If anyone reading this is in Rochester and knows someone who would like a single ticket to Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, 4 PM show, I have one available.  It is listed on Craigslist and I am carrying it with me to sell to the first person with $62 cash (box office price plus box office charge) to ask.  You can reach me by email, by commenting here or use my phone if you have it.