All posts by Paul Goldberg

XRIJF Day 7 and a Review of Day 6

When I started listening and planning for tonight it was clear I was at a dead loss, everything, well most everything, was ending up GREEN. It just is not possible to fit it all in. I think I said the same thing yesterday. After Carol and I sat down together we came up with the following plan. We will get in line at Kilbourn to hear Theo Crocker and then run to the Little to hear Mama Corn, talk about contrast. Then depending on our mood and street talk we could head for Lutheran Church and Obra International or possibly Squeezers for some country by Peter Rowan. Maybe we will just break and grab some food someplace. Stanley Clark at Xerox is a definite possibility and we are thinking of winding up at Montage for Hallie Loren. If you really want to catch up with us on the Street try a txt if you have our number, not a chance of getting a call heard 🙂 email might work also if I remember to look.

Last night, Wednesday, well really yesterday afternoon, we walked the 1.5 miles from our apartment to Lyric Theater, 440 East Ave, again. This time to hear Fred Hersch, solo piano work his variations on Jazz standards, some a little less known at least to me. When I realized he was playing around with Caravans, Ellington, I knew I had heard enough pianists for one Jazz Festival. This year they seem to out number the female vocalists. I’m not complaining just mentioning that sometimes more than enough of a great thing is getting to be too much for me, sort of like too much great Lake Champlain Chocolate at one sitting. We moved on at a rather hurried pace to get to Montage for Mitch Frohman Latin jazz Quartet. We were meeting grandson Josh there where he would spend as much of the evening as he wanted with us. We had great seats and Josh got there well before the club sold out. We enjoyed the performance although we would have liked a little more up tempo music. Maybe we were wishing Frohman was as young as the rest of his group. We wandered over to the Big Tent where Josh and I indulged in Wegman’s Sushi and Carol brought a salad from Ludwig’s. Then we headed over to Xerox for Omer Avital Quintet. This may have been the highlight of the entire Festival for us. The saxophone players, especially Joel Frahm, were phenomenal and while Omer held himself in the back most of the time his dancing with his bass was infectious. Indeed, at one point I suggested to Josh that they were having too much fun. Even as they performed there were signals and quick conversations and the music would change and head off in a new direction. At one point Omer suggested to the drummer Jonathan Blake some change and Blake picked up a sheaf of chart at least five feet long and pitched it into the wings as if to suggest that they were headed into unplanned territory. Omer did one long solo on the bass that was just magnificent – I’m running out of superlatives here. Both Carol and Josh grabbed the CD and had Omer autograph them. This is the first CD we have bought this week. 

Following Omer, Josh headed off to spend some time with Rhoma and we headed to Max for Julia Biel. Maybe if we had not just come from Omer Avital we would have thought she was great. Instead we found her to be very good and most enjoyable, hardly a condemnation but everything is relative.

We closed out the formal evening with that and headed to the Plaza for the Jam Session. John Nugent was just getting up on stage as we arrived. Shortly he was joined by Joel Frahm and then Omer took over the bass and other performers we had seen started rotating across the stage.

The “stage” at the Rochester Plaza

Shortly after 1 AM Carol and I declared total exhaustion and the inability to take in anymore music. So off to the apartment  and to sleep – or was that off to sleep and then to the apartment? We did get up late, for us and thus I am writing this as the clock has passed noon.

Look for you on the Street or where ever. Three more nights, it is hard to believe we are on the back end of yet another XRIJF.

Day 6 and Review of Day 5

We are having a problem with tonight’s schedule. We want to see/hear everything! Well more than it seems possible to get to. So far our must hears are Fred Hersch at the Lyric, Mitch Frohman Latin Jazz Quartet at Montage Roddy Ellias (my pick, Carol is not so sure) at the Little, Omer Avital Quintet at Xerox ( I used a new color on my chart for that one – my usual must see is Green but I used Red), with a finish at Kilbourn with Antonio Sanchez and Migration. As usual this is all subject to change as we listen and talk with others.

Last night we followed the plan exactly which is amazing since we had planned on getting to 6 venues. It was a night heavy with piano. We started with two solo pianists, first Kenny Werner at Lyric, our first venture into the new venue. We really enjoyed his playing and the nice sound in the great hall. I will leave detailed reviews to the Music blog in City since I barely have time to write this today. From there we went to Hatch, hoping to get in to hear George Collgan. We were disappointed to find less than a dozen people in line ahead of us and the hall seemed very empty to us. We were NOT disappointed in the performance and stayed until the last note finished reverberating. the fact that he played a lot of Ellington and T Monk may have had something to do with our attentive listening.

We stopped for dinner with friends at Ludwigs then forged on to Lutheran Church where we stayed for two numbers of Julia Hulamen Piano Trio before heading off to Squeezers Roots on the second floor of Sibley Building for Rob & Trey, guitar and Dobro where we waited in line for a bit to get in then had good viewing and hearing from the back near the food stand. Next stop Xerox for Harry Allen Quartet. As we left there we received a txt from Mary that they had a table for 4 at Max where Aaron Diehl Trio was playing.  As we ran I txted we were on thee way. It was a great set and it set us dancing into the street tired but exhilarated.

After a brief stop at the apartment to drop the chairs and packs, we headed over to the Plaza for the jam session.  John Nugent was already on stage with Bob Schneider Trio and shortly he was joined by Harry Allen and another sax player. The sax trio was great and the do was fine after John left.  By 12:30 we were beat and with four days to go we decided to husband our strength and head out for the night.when we got home I checked the pedometer on my phone and found that we had walked over 5 miles.

XRIJF Day 5 Review of Day 4

We were on the run last night. Somehow we got to five venues and had time for dinner on Main Street. We met friends from lines on previous nights and previous years. We also met Mary and Tom who have Club Passes for the first time. We get together with them in Rochester and in Phoenix as we travel. The night started with Kat Edmonson at Montage, Kat has a unique voice that some find a bit irritating, but I really enjoy. The club was packed and there was very little traffic during the performance, a sign that most of the people were happy with her voice and performance. Our next stop was Christ Church for Trio Red. They sound like a good group, but we were sitting in the back and the sound was so muddy from the very live acoustics and the drum that it was hard to hear and we left after one number to move on to Squeezers for Blue Highway. When we got there the place was full and there was a line to get in and the show wasn’t even scheduled to start for 15 minutes. We moved on.

We decided to stop on Main St for “dinner” and soon had lots of friends, old and new while I enjoyed  my Louisiana blackened chicken plate and Carol her salad. The conversation was mostly “who have you heard and where next?” We were drawn into the Big Tent where Soul Rebels were blowing the walls out with great funk. We stayed for a couple of numbers, as long as our ears could stand, and then moved on to Xerox for Such Sweet Thunder an ensemble of musicians including a string quartet with flute substituting for first violin and the Bob Sneider Trio and others. We stayed through a couple of numbers and moved on more because we really wanted to hear Jane Bunnet and Maqueque at Max. The street talk was very good. Four of the women that make up the group never made it over the border from Canada due to the idiots at US State Department who are blocking everyone  needing a visa because their antique computer system is down worldwide! Somehow Jane found four substitutes with work papers who were beyond marvelous. We had thought of leaving mid performance to hear some Joe Locke at Kilbourn but 11 PM came and went without our noticing. 
Whew! five performances bringing our running total to 18 and tonight may be another 5 or possibly 6. We plan to start at Lyric Theater to hear Kenny Werner then George Collgan at Hatch (two solo pianos in a row!) on to Julia Hulsmann at Lutheran Church and a breakaway to Squeezers for Rob & Trey. If we have the energy, Harry Allen Quartet at Xerox and wrapping the evening at Max again for Aaron Diehl. 
Last night we made it to the jam session and heard some great saxophone playing before deciding that the short break at 12:30 was our cue to go home and to bed. We may try to get there tonight as well.
See you on Jazz Street! someplace!

XRIJF Day 4 and Review of Day 3

The quick review, we adored Tessa Souter and Raul Midon, we enjoyed Kneecap and found Nils Berg Cinemascope a bit cliche. We dropped in on Montage, Three Guitars and would have preferred the three guitars without the vocalist, not that she was bad just a distraction from the guitars.

We have heard Tessa Souter at four of her now five appearances at Jazz Fest and will keep coming back if she is invited again. I think our biggest mistake of the evening was not returning for the 10 PM show. She was far better than what we did get to in the 10 o’clock time slot. Her group was excellent and Dana Leong on cello may have been the finest surprise, to us, of the evening. In his hands the cello performed the role of bass, percussion and multi-toned instrument. Souter maintained a “conversation” with the cello as well as the drummer, Keita Ogawa who used his hands as much or more than the sticks and also wielded something that looked more like a whisk broom for a couple of numbers. Her music was as mostly her own composition and arrangement and held us rapt for an hour and 20 minutes – just a slight over run.

On to Lutheran Church for Nils Berg Cinemascope. The concept of using video from YouTube is a modern update of what we saw at Visual Studies Workshop in the 1990’s. It was interesting then, we found it a bit cliche` today. Maybe we were not in the mood for the music or maybe the distraction of the video was too much for us, we walked half way through the performance and stopped outside the Big Tent for some food, Wegman’s Sushi for me, edamame for Carol, before moving on to Xerox for Raul Midon. While eating we met friends from “other life” and people we have spent time in line with over the years and shared experiences.

Raul Midon is a very special performance. There were a guitarist, hand drummer, trumpet, sax and pianist on stage. All of them were Midon, often several at the same time. His opening number featured guitar, hand drum, and trumpet as well as vocalist.  This blind from birth performer played the drum with his right hand and the guitar with his left, hammering on the notes on the neck and vocalized the trumpet parts. In another number he played a straight rock beat on the guitar while also playing a wandering bass line and using the body of the guitar as a bass drum all while vocalizing on top of it. His explanation for how he can do this is he “has nothing but time all day to practice” I doubt that many in the audience bought that explanation. If he had kept going for another hour, I do believe most of us would have stayed put to listen. He will perform again today at 4 at Lyric Theater, do consider going there  if you missed him last night.

On our way back to Jazz Street we stopped at Montage, our first stop there this year, for Three Guitars. We arrived in time to hear too much talking and then Evergreen which was lit with garish green LED lights facing the audience, UGLY, but then much of Montage is pretty ugly. We really enjoyed the number and were less happy when they brought out their vocalist for what they said would be the rest of the set. She is good, but after Souter and the vocalists we have been hearing she is nothing special and we left after one number to see what Kneecap was all about. If anyone is counting (I am), that was our fifth venue for the night. They play with a lot of intensity and a lot of repetition. I wondered how long the saxophone player could keep up his cycle without breaking to “really” breath. In the end, Carol suggested an early departure and I said I wanted to wait for the end of the number to see how they resolved it. to our surprise there was no resolution, they just stopped and that was the end of the set.

We called it quits for the night, electing not go to the Plaza for the Jam Session, we are already getting a bit tired.

Tonight we are planning on hearing Kat Edmonson at Montage then possibly on to Tito Red at Christ Church and on to Blue Highways at Squeezers and wrapping at Kilbourn with Joe Locke. If we do that it will be five venues again. I will report in the morning.

So far we have been in 13 venues, I am counting!

XRIJF Day 3 and Review of Day 2

We almost followed the plan exactly, but at the last minute we jumped to Ben Greene Trio at Kilbourn because there was no line at 10:05 and there was a short line at Max for Dontae Winslow. However first to Joey Alexander, the 11 year old wunderkind from Indonesia. The hype was extreme and the expectations were so high that once again we were in line for a 5:45 show at 3 PM. We were far from alone, by 4:30 it was apparent that late (!) arrivals were not going to get into the small – 250 seat – Hatch Hall. We had watched the YouTube and read the reviews, but still wondered if it could be worth the wait. It was! and he is performing again today, the first performance in a new venue, Lyric Opera formerly the Christian Science Church on East Ave. If you didn’t hear him yesterday and you are in town, GO! He played with the maturity one would expect from a seasoned performer with years of experience. He played Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane and was more than equal to the challenge. He is still a little boy in appearance and stage presence until he faces the piano and gathers his attention to perform then you could close your eyes and not be aware of his youth.

We recovered from that incredible performance and set off to the Little Theater as planned to hear Chet Catallao and the Cats. Chet played guitar with Spiro Gyro for many years. His group of drums, percussion, bass and keyboards rocked the Little for the full hour leaving us wanting more. I particularly enjoyed “Finger Pickin’ Good”. It was loud and satisfying. Following that we took a break and Carol got out her  sandwich while I got my favorite Louisiana Blackened Chicken plate to eat at tables set up on Main Street. Carol may kill me for this selfie:

As we digested we walked, or should I say waded, through the mobs to get to Xerox for Eric Revis Trio. Revis has been playing bass for a long time see his bio here. The performance was wonderful and the music had us thinking we had taken a different turn and ended up in Lutheran Church. In classic music terms it was more like Reich than Copeland. It would be hard to call it melodic. The pianist never even turned to face the audience. She had four pages of sheet music in front of her, actually two full pages and two half pages and she never seemed to refer to them. We were captivated and stayed through most of the show, leaving in time to wade back through the mob listening to Blood, Sweat and Tears – we got to hear some of that as we walked. Confronted with people waiting to get into Max for Dontae Winslow and no line at Kilbourn for Ben Green, as mentioned at the top of this post, we opted to hear Ben Green planing to leave after 30 minutes to jump to Max. Somehow we found ourselves glued to our seats until 11:20 when the trio finished its overtime encore piece. 
We stopped by the apartment to drop off the chairs and snag some ice cream before heading across the river to the Plaza for some more music. As we arrived John Nugent was sitting in on sax and Bill Dobbins was at the piano with the Bob Sneider and trio on stage. John invited Grace Kelley, tenor sax, to sit in and a bass sax player, whose name I didn’t get, joined the mix as John left for the night. As the set was reaching its last number a pianist sat down at the keyboard and joined in to wrap up the set. It was 1AM and Sneider called for a 15 minute break. I looked at Carol and we decided to call it a night.
Our grandson Josh had texted that he wanted to come over for breakfast and that was very high on our list of priorities especially as today, Sunday the 21st of June, is not only Father’s Day, but our 51st Anniversary. It is hard to believe so many years have passed, but all we need to do is look at our boys to know it is true. Breakfast with Josh is very special for us, we hope he can join us on Wednesday night, when he has a night off, for some music.
But I get ahead of myself. Tonight we have agreed to line up for Tessa Souter in Kilbourn then Nils Berg Cinemascope in Lutheran, just to see/hear what it is all about. Then on to Xerox for Raul Midon winding up at either Max, Kneebody, or Montage, New West Guitar. If we still have the strength we will venture over to the Plaza for a final wrap of the night.

XRIJF Day 2 and Review of Day 1

We showed up with our tripod chairs in line for Cecile McLorin Salvant outside Kilbourn Hall at just a bit after 3 PM. The day was cool and the sun was bright and we were 20th or so in line. Just a bit early for doors opening at 5:30. The street seemed empty until we realized that all the food vendors had been moved off Jazz Street on to Main and East leaving more room for people to mill about when they arrived. Still the line at Max, across from us, had only 2 people in it at 4 for doors opening at 5:45. Where is everyone? We asked.  The traffic started building a bit by 3:30 as ticket holders began to arrive for Diana Krall’s 4 PM show. By 4:30 our line began to fill down the alley and around the corner on Swan and out to East Ave, YES! it is Jazz Fest and the people are indeed coming.

From our early start we were able to get prime seating up above the vomitorium (a real word to describe the entry thought the audience) where the leg room is best and the site line to the stage is unobstructed and the sound is wonderful. The aisle seat was already taken by City News critic Ron Netsky, media has its privileges. We had an interesting conversation, check him out at City Newspaper Music Blog. The moment John Nugent’s young daughter came out to introduce the producer, the audience went silent in expectation. Cecile McLorin Salvant and her group took the stage and we were immediately transported by her voice with its great power and range. Read Netsky’s blog for a critic’s view, we agree with him. For all the power she displayed the most powerful and moving number came near the end when she stepped away from the microphone and had all the sound enhancement powered down for a pure acoustic number, Bessie Smith’s “Blue Spirit Blues” She has the power and the hall is very suited to this kind of risk taking.

We stayed on through the last note before taking to the street so I could pick up a sandwich I had preordered at Java Joes and we could eat quickly before heading over to Lutheran Church for Music Music Music. The hall was almost full and the music was very definitely from a different part of the world. We stayed through the performance then threaded our way through the building crowds to Xerox Auditorium for Ranee Lee, another vocalist with a different style and take on the music. She expressed great delight at finally being able to perform at XRIJF and gave a wonderful performance along with a very capable group of musicians. We hoped the guitarist would sit in at the Jam Session later in the night. It was not to be. As that show ended we headed out for Max to hear Kavita Shah without a lot of hope we would be able to get right in.

Once again we had to thread the crowds at the Chestnut Street Stage Where the Mavericks (don’t ask me) were performing and then past the Jazz Street Stage where Sauce Boss was setting up. It is sort of a full body massage to move through the crowds encumbered with our chairs and packs, but everyone is good humored and out to enjoy themselves. To our amazement the door was open when we got to Max and we found seating off to the side for another amazing female vocalist performance. Kavita Shah performs mostly music she has written either original or derivative and sings with an incredible range of voices and styles. I noted click notes and throat vocalizations as well as beautiful pure sound. Wow! and the night was only middle aged.

On to the Rochester Plaza Hotel and Bob Sneider Trio Jam Session. This is the most crowded venue of the festival. It is in the hotel lounge, just off the lobby (there is no wall separating the two) and under normal circumstances it would be crowded with 30 or 40 people. Needless to say there are many more than that in the space and standing room is at a premium. The treat is when performers come in from their stages and decide to sit in with the group just because they want to keep playing. Last night the Dobro player and the pianist from Hillbender, a country group we had missed, sat in for 30 minutes or so. Sneider called a break at 12:30 and we decided to save some energy for Day 2 and called it quits ourselves for the short walk across the pedestrian bridge to our apartment.

Oh yes, Day 2. I fear we will get in line real early again, Hatch only seats 250 and Joey Alexander promises to be a sellout. He just turned 12 and is reputed to be one of the best jazz pianists around. The sound samples I have listened to do nothing to contradict that assessment. So 3 PM for 5:15 doors open for 5:45 show. Next up we will try to get into the Little for Chet Catallo and the Cats. Failing that, there are excellent performers at Christ Church and Lutheran Church which are sort of on the way back, or we might continue on to Squeezers for Honeycutters. In any event we will head for Xerox and Eric Revis Trio at 9 and then once again try our luck at Max at 10 for Dontae Winslow and Winslow Dynasty. I haven’t thought about where we will eat yet.

Quick recap, last night we got to everything as planned and stuck to our plan, almost totally unheard of in all our years of attending the Festival! Our count is 4 concerts going into Day 2.

If you are interested in references to places and groups that I have not fully defined or more biography on the performers there is lots of material at http://www.rochesterjazz.com/

XRIJF IS ON!

We are so excited. Yesterday (Thursday June 18) I walked over to the ticket office and picked up our Club Passes:

I have also spent hours listening to music samples for all the Club performers for just the first two days. We have planned an initial “route” through Day 1. First stop will be Cecile McLorin Salvant in Kilbourn Hall. This means we expect to be in line by 3 PM for doors open at 5:30 for 6 PM show. We heard her last year and with that experience we are really looking forward to more. I expect we may break for food after that show and then head for Lutheran Church for Music Music Music and or Squeezers (in the Sibley Building) for Hillbenders who we heard at Abilene last year. Next stop Xerox Auditorium for Ranee Lee and with any luck we will finish the night at Max for Kavita Shah. That would give us three female vocalists in one night. Of course, if we have any strength left we will stop by the Plaza for the late night jam session.
As soon as I post this I will get on with listening and choosing a route for Day 3 as soon as I put Day 2 together. This is really work 🙂 but there is so much music to sample it must be done. We have decided not to go to any of the Main Stage events like Diana Krall because that takes away the opportunity to hear 3 or more groups.  
An aside, the JCC announced they are bringing in John Sebastian and Dave Grisman in the Fall. We have our tickets for that as it is just days before we plan to leave Rochester, not to return until mid summer, we will miss XRIJF next year, we think.

Back to Rochester

Well we got back to the apartment in Rochester in plenty of time to go to an annual meeting, attend a funeral, have a dinner and a coffee and oh yes start the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival on Friday. We were just south of Burlington VT for the duration of their jazz festival, but the presence of family and pre wedding events precluded our even getting to hear a snippet on the street.

The ride home through the Adirondacks on route 8 was beautiful and, for the most part uneventful. GWhiz did try to show us a new kind of issue, but master RV tech Paul solved the problem in no time. We stopped for lunch in a roadside pullout we have used before just outside Speculator (that is indeed a town in NY). I went to use the facilities and the water pump would not activate. Since this is relay operated and can be activated from 4 different switches I assumed Carol had managed to try to activate it from the kitchen switch at the exact moment I had tried. Wrong. She was indeed trying and continued to try as I came to to see what was up. First thought “oh darn, (or something like that) we must have blown a fuse, it was working 30 minutes ago.” Quickly searched the easy to reach fuse blocks and found no pump fuse. We were well off the road so I pulled out the driver side bedroom slide to get to the fuse block with most of the house fuses. There I found the pump fuse. No matter how I tested it, it was good. Darn! Time to actually look at the pump, which meant going out in the subsiding drizzle. It was not on fire or anything so I knelt down with my trusty Volt/Ohm meter in hand remembering how little I actually know about that stuff. I uncapped the hot wire connection and determined that there was 12.7 volts DC from the connection to chassis ground. I followed some wires from the front of the pump to the back where the relay that operated it seemed to be. As I traced the wires one of them came loose in my hand. Ah Ha! found where it went, plugged it back in and tried the pump switch. It lit up and the pump pressurized the line. We were back in business. I think writing about it took longer than doing it. The roads in New York are dreadful. I 88 may be the worst highway I have driven outside of the New York City area (we took that on the way too Vermont). The mountain roads were pretty bad too. I sure hope that is all that has shaken loose.

The coach is in storage. I will go out and pet it once a week and start the generator once a month. There is other cleaning and work to be done once we settle into a routine. The apartment is all back together with the pictures back up on their hooks and the clutter of life covering many surfaces. We are looking forward to an active summer which I will document here as we go along.

The Climax of the Festivities

It was yesterday, after the Chocolate Factory and Shelburne Farms where some of us milked a cow and others sampled cheese and someone picked p and petted chickens, and goats and lambs, and after we went to the party house by the lake and some got wet and some had a bit too much to drink and others of us had wonderful Halibut and King Crab Legs brought from Alaska by the bride’s father and so it went through seven days of preparation (well 6 1/2 days).

The rains ceased, the grounds dried out and the temperature settled into the 70’s and the entire party gathered, finally in Bostwick Garden in Shelburne Museum to witness the marriage ceremony between Daisy and Steven, or was that Sam? yes the groom’s father, who was officiating, did manage to name his youngest son instead of his eldest son as the groom, oops! He corrected himself immediately to the laughter of some and the consternation of others. I would regale you with pictures, but we will wait for the “official” pictures to follow soon. Besides Google has changed the way it handles pictures and my phone pictures are not transferring yet, in a way I can see. Oh look here are the Bride and Groom! (and someone’s leg).

There were a myriad of little girls in beautiful dresses with flowers trapped between two layers of fabric and many little boys – and some not so little boys who played around the garden or stood and watched in wonderment.

After the ceremony, as the bridal party and family paused for pictures we were free to wander the grounds some more until the steam whistle on the Ticonderoga blew, closing the museum and opening the decks of the beached stern wheeler for the wedding reception. We wandered through the collection of Modern Art while waiting and once again we were impressed with what the Shelburne Museum has to offer beyond the wonderful historical museum of farm equipment in the Round Barn and Circus equipment in the Circus Barn and so much more. All of the this is within a short walk of Shelburne Village so our observant son and grandson were able to walk to the festivities even though it was Shabbat.

The party was grand, the food was excellent and the entire staff of the museum seemed to be determined to do everything within their power to make things run smoothly. Whenever my aunt and uncle – he celebrated his 90th birthday two weeks before – wanted to change venue there was a staff driven golf cart waiting to provide transportation and the rest of us were treated like royalty as well. Kudos to Shelburne Museum. Take this as a an shameless unsolicited plug, don’t miss this museum if you are anywhere in the northeast. For Rvers, Shelburne Camping Area is very well situated. It is an old campground and the spaces are well sized. It offers little other than full hookups in a great location, and some mud if should happen to rain for 40 days and 40 nights. Not far away is Heart of the Village B&B which our eldest found to be fine and very well located.

Our boys gathered on the motorhome after the grounds closed at 10 pm to partake in some Lagavulin which was found hiding there. Then all retired to be ready for post wedding brunch at my sister’s house, yum! They have now all scattered to their intended destinations and Carol and I are alone for the moment. This won’t last long! We are heading into Rochester in the morning, intending to arrive late afternoon. We have already planned a whirlwind of activity with Jazz Fest starting on Friday Night.

Watch for my posts from Xerox Rochester International Jazz Fest starting on Friday June 19.

Vermont for Festivities

Whew! we kept on the move from Winchester, Candy Hill RV to Yogi Shangri-la on the Creek in Milton PA where Dan, Malena and the Alex and Corey joined us. They were pulling their new trailer for their first extended camping trip. We established a 9 AM departure for Sunday morning and actually were on the road at 9:15. The day was very long as we were going through to Shelburne Vermont, 430 miles. We expected to drive for about 8 hours and the total time on the road was about 10 hours including fuel and food stops. Long hauling for us. The boys rode with us after I dug out seat belts for the couches. this gave them room to move about and not be on top of each other. they read, talked and played games and even slept part of the way. It is was a delight for us to have them with us and Dan and Malena had plenty of time together without them, something as we remember, is not always easy to get.

We are set up in Shelburne Camping on route 7 in Shelburne on adjacent sites. With six of us we are moving around in two vehicles. We visited my sister and brother-in-law first thing and had a lovely dinner at their home on Tuesday night. Yechiel will be arriving from the west coast Thursday afternoon with Avi.

On Tuesday we went to Lake Champlain Chocolate for a tour and tasting along with the Bride and Groom and a couple from New Zealand, Kate and EJ. We were doubtful about a chocolate factory tour, but found it very interesting and the tasting certainly enhanced the experience. Naturally we bought some 🙂 Lunch next door was also fun and the hot chocolate drink was a fine enhancement for our lunch. Others enjoyed the chocolate maple porter. The list of events leading up to the wedding on Saturday are extensive and I will not reproduce the entire list here. Suffice it to say we will be dining “pot luck” with the growing wedding party for the next two nights and then a big bash on Friday night followed by the BIG BASH on Saturday with the the reception being held “on board” the Ticonderoga paddle wheel beached in Shelburne Museum.

I ought to mention, it has been raining since we arrived. Mild and gentle rains and torrential downpours and everything in between. I have felt like I was growing webs between my toes. As I am writing the sun is shining and there is a promise of decent weather for the day, if the forecasters are to be believed.

In the midst of the revelry we had a phone call that a dear friend, Donna Rosenthal, had died. this has put a bit of a damper on things for Carol who grew up in the same block with Donna and for me as I have known her almost as long. We visited her in Brooklyn just last Fall and Carol has exchanged email recently.