Just a quick refresher for those who haven’t a clue who George Boldt was, he developed the original Waldorf Astoria on the site of what was to be Penn Station and several other grand hotels. He made fabulous amounts of money and fell in love with the 1000 Islands where he bought and developed Wellesley Island and ultimately acquired Hart Island, later renamed Heart Island. Eventually he decided to build a grand castle to give to his wife who he loved very much. The tragedy was that she died of Tuberculosis one month before he was to give it to her on Valentine’s Day. He telegraphed the construction foreman with instructions to cease work and leave the Island and Castle unfinished. Although he continued to come to the islands every summer, it is reported that he never again set foot on Heart Island. The island was eventually left to the elements and vandals for 73 years. Ultimately it came into the possession of the Thousand Island Bridge Authority (TIBA) which has been working on restoring it section by section to the condition it was when construction stopped. This has been going on for over 30 years. Much has been restored and many artifacts have been recovered and other similar artifacts have been added for display.

We arrived on an early shuttle direct from Alexandria Bay by about 11 AM and went directly to the Yacht House just across the river, it had never been abandoned so is in the condition it was when the family used it. We then returned to the Castle and spent a couple of hours in the main building before taking a lunch break in the food
concession, call it fuel. To continue on to the main gate, the Children’s Playhouse (It contains bowling alleys and a theater) and the Power House. All in all we spent $19.50 per person for admission fees and shuttle service on Uncle Sam Tour Boats.

. Using a paper map I would not have attempted to do this because it required route changes and turns every 3 to 9 miles until we eventually got to route 3 well beyond Watertown, actually in Theresa, and then 40 miles on NY 30. We did not have a reservation and the ranger was doubtful we could fit on any of the sites that were open for more than one night. We found a site, #117 if you are interested, onto which it was just possible to shoehorn our 36 foot coach. Do not even consider it in anything bigger. Good Sam says the sites are 30×50, that may be but they are dirt and far from level. From my tenting days, they are beautiful, in the coach, not so much.

We spent Friday and Saturday in Hamilton ON visiting Aunt Dodo who just turned 91. We stayed with Marilyn and Albert in Dundas as taking the coach for this jaunt seemed to be overkill. Marilyn put out a lovely luncheon for the five of us and then in the evening just the four of us went to dinner at their club. Saturday noon we gathered at the Mandarin Chinese Buffet in Burlington with Mitchell, Melaney and Haley; Harvey and Leslie; Michael and Stacey; Arnie and Peggy and of course Marilyn, Al and Dodo. It was quite a gang put together in the last week and a half. It was a fun reunion and we all said we need to do it more often.

Now I’m sitting in the living room of our apartment waiting for Josh and his friend to arrive for lunch. Boxes are starting to collect in the corridors and fill with the few things we need to load out to the coach. After lunch we will take them (the boxes)  out to the coach, now that we have a functional elevator in the building, and start up the refrigerator. Tomorrow the food will make the trip and we will hook up the Jeep and head north.

Our first destination is along the St Lawrence River in Northern NY. Depending on how the day goes we could make it to Ogdensburg or we could stop a bit short in Alexandria Bay where there are several campgrounds. Our reason for going this way, as I mentioned in a prior blog, is to visit the birthplace of Frederick Remington and to see the museum there. This also puts us north of the Adirondacks State Park and will give us a chance to drive through the park and maybe even spend a night or two. Eventually we want to get to Hyde Park area, it looks like we will camp in Rhinebeck NY, not too far away. There are several homes and mansions in addition to FDRs home and museum worth touring in the area and dinner at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) would be on the agenda. Also on the program is a visit to Storm King Art Center. Timing is still up in the air as our plans include arriving at Liberty Harbor Marina and RV Park on August 29 and staying through September 2. Plans beyond that are vague. We had hoped to visit friends in Philadelphia, but they are on their way to France as we might be arriving.

We will wend our way to Covesville VA where we will be for Rosh HaShanah and Dan’s birthday. Following that we will return to Rochester September 29 where we will stay until October 13 or so. We are not sure how long we will stay there, but our route from there probably will include Charlotte, NC to say Hi to Leigh and Patrick who just moved there from Austin. We need to visit Hazel who has been providing a running journal of the transition and move from her feline perspective.

We also are planning a stop in Red Bay Alabama, northwest corner of the state, where Gee Whiz was built. The shower door has never been quite right and I hope that someone there can actually resolve the problem. Also the sleep number bed is leaking on Carol’s side so it goes from soft to uninflated in the course of a week or so.  Ultimately we need to make it to Rainbow’s End in Livingston TX by December 15. We leave for Israel from Houston on December 22, leaving the coach on site for the two week we will be gone. Travel plans beyond that are even more vague only knowing we will get to LA at some point and probably the Bay Area as well to see a new grand nephew due in September.

Since that walk we have taken many more walks, but with less exciting discoveries. For now we are entertaining or being entertained for almost every meal as we prepare to get back in the coach. A brief idea of our near term schedule follows: on Friday the 15th we drive in the Jeep to Hamilton ON to visit Carol’s aunt who just turned 91 – we should all be as spry and active at 85 as she is at 91. Then we will stay over with cousins before traveling to Niagara Falls for dinner with more cousins. A day (or two) in Rochester to prepare ourselves and the coach and we set off to see some of New York that we have driven through without stopping. First destination is Ogdensburg along the St Lawrence River where Frederick Remington, the sculptor, was born and there is a museum. Then to Hyde Park where among other things we will tour FDR’s home and museum. Eventually we will get to Jersey City NJ where we will stay over Labor Day Weekend to see Carol’s family and attend her brother’s birthday party. Since we will be a short ferry ride from Manhattan I cannot imagine that we won’t get into the city.

The looking glass gets a bit foggy after that. We will be in Covesville, VA with Dan, Malena and family over Rosh HaShanah and Dan’s birthday which coincide this year, and back in Rochester from September 29, or so, through October 13ish. Then back to C’ville before heading out either west or south or?

I have left the comment section of this blog “moderated” but otherwise open, not subjecting my readers to the “captcha” block because they are a nuisance (the captchas not my readers). Today I received 15 “comments” on one post from several years ago which has been drawing these spam offers regularly for the past 5 or 6 months.

Enough! I have turned back on the captcha so you will have to prove you are not a machine to post a comment by responding to the captcha requirement.  I have looked at the recent ones and they are much easier than the old system. I am interested to hear about your experience with this system. I am very sorry to have had to resort to this, but that is the internet these days. If you have my email address or are linked to me on FaceBook or Google+ you can reach me through those media as well as commenting here.

Not much more news around here. Tomorrow GeeWhiz goes in for an oil changes and other routine service so it will be ready to roll out of Rochester mid August. We are planning on seeing some of NY and possibly NJ and then PA on our way to Dan and Malena’s. Not sure of the timing of everything.  We will be in Rochester from either the 8th or 28th of September until October 11 or so. I guess you can see the very positive planning that has gone into this plan. I suspect we will know what we have done once we have done it.

We have been having a great time on Jazz Street for 9 nights. Now we must recreate our day to day life without the planning, reading reviews and 6 to 7 hours a night waiting in line and attending performances.  Last night required some additional logistical planning because huge crowds were expected on East Ave at Chestnut St where George Thorogood and the Destroyers: 40 Years Strong were entertaining for free. This plugs that section to any easy access to Montage or Xerox.  this did not matter to us as our plan had us staying on one side of the congestion.

We got in line for Newport Jazz Festival:Now 60 in Kilbourn Hall at 3:40 for the 6 PM show. This seemed extreme as we had gotten into a show on Thursday arriving after 4, but we were only just a few minutes ahead of the line filling to sell out proportions.  By 4:15 the line had extended from the front of the hall down the side alley and around the corner onto Swann where we were and then out to East Ave and past the Ticket office, it was there that the line counters started telling people that they were unlikely to get into the hall. To understand the draw here are the performers in the group: Anat Cohen, who sold out everything she did in her last time at the Festival, Karrin Allyson/vocals, piano, Randy Brecker/trumpet, Larry Grenadier/bass, Peter Martin/piano, Clarence Penn/drums, and Mark Whitfield/guitar. If you want to know more about them and the rest of the performers Rochester Jazz link will get you all the information you want and more. Once they closed the door with 450 in the seats and maybe 50 standing room there was very little movement and I doubt many from the long line left outside the door made it in to the hall. All of the performances were over the top and when the set was over the audience stood in place applauding and screaming for MORE. And MORE we got, with superb encore performance with Karrin taking the piano from Peter Martin for the intro and giving us the best singing of the performance and then the band members each did another solo before wrapping it up. We exited and bought an Anat Cohen CD to have her sign in the Merchandise Tent. There we met and had a chance to talk with her and several of the group, they seemed as buoyed by the crowd response as the crowd was by their performance.

We then stopped to get some food at Ludwigs before continuing on to Lutheran Church, one more time, to hear Susanna. Her sound was ethereal and interesting, but it couldn’t hold our attention. I suspect part of it was that our heads were still full of the high energy from the previous performance. We left and went to the Big Tent as we had planned, to hear Ester Rada. She had performed on the street as an opener to the big group on the Chestnut and East Stage on Friday and the buzz was very good. This was a very high energy performance by an exciting Ethiopian Israeli with 7 Israeli musicians in her band. It was wonderful as I listened and realized that in more than one song the language was neither English nor Hebrew but must have been Amharic. I don’t think that there has been any singing in Amharic at the Festival before. Once again we were floating on a sense of joy and energy as we exited the tent after the show and headed to Max to see if we could get in to hear Cyrille Aimee perform.

The door was open and the line was moving as we joined it. They stopped the line as we got to the front. We were held there for a few minutes while they determined if there was place along the wall for us to stand. We got in before the show started. We leaned on the wall until we realized we had our line chair with us and we could take turns sitting. Cyrille is a coquette, very cute especially in the lacy short skirted frock she was wearing for the performance. Her vocal control is wonderful and her use of scat was a delight to us. Also she sang in French as well as English and her songs were fun. We especially enjoyed her song based on train travel in India One Way Ticket to Somewhere. This is a different version although the bowl in the same. This was our last number for the 2014 Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival.

We went on to to the Jam at the Plaza Hotel, but it seemed anticlimactic and we decided to take a “One Way Ticket to Somewhere” as our lead for next year’s Festival!

John Nugent, Producer and Bob Sneider at the Jam

It seems to be just yesterday that we set out on this 13th edition of Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, yet here I am writing about the the eighth day and planning for the ninth and last night of music. I approach today with mixed feelings. We will be able to get back to some kind of normal schedule of eating and sleeping and getting something done during the day. We will miss the time in long lines getting to know people with whom the only thing we have in common to start with is the music. We will miss the music, especially the rich and varied choices that the producers have brought us for these few days. Where else can we get our fill of straight ahead jazz, americana, Nordic and UK jazz and just plain rock all in one setting with thousands of fans milling around in a five block area? That’s the Festival.

Last night, Friday, we started out in line at Kilbourn once again, waiting to Hear Bill Frisell’s Guitar in the Space Age. With a moderately early start, 3:30 for a 6 O’clock show, we got the seats we were looking for and settled in. We were far from the first in line. Frisell took the stage and in his manner he spent quite a while setting up loops, modifying the sounds and generally making spacey noises. It resolved into sustained music with his partners on steel guitar (mostly), bass and drums that pinned us to our seats with anticipation of what was coming next. Too soon the set was over and we were on our feet demanding MORE. And more we got, the encore took off on a classic surfer song, “Surfer Girl” which he spun out in ways the Beach Boys had never thought of.

And it was 7:15 and we were on the street running. This time we were headed back to the apartment to get the car and drive out to Temple Sinai where our friends Joyce and Victor were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary by participating in the service and reading from Torah. It was a wonderful way for them to express their love for each other and the for the community that is so important to them.  Their entire family was present and ready to depart for Kenya in the morning.

We headed back to Jazz Street dropping the car at the apartment and changing shoes. Our first stop was Montage, where Ibrahim Electric were electrifying the house. Unfortunately we had to watch on the closed circuit tv in the bar because the crowd at the entry to the hall aws solid. After one number we headed on over to The Big Tent, where Honey Island Swamp Band were causing the tent walls to pulse. Once we got inside the volume level was just below earth shattering. We stayed for one number and decided that this really was not to our taste. So on we flitted to Max where Phaedra Kwant and her group were weaving a different kind of magic. She pulled out her cellphone and played a recording of the sound of a traffic light in Tokyo using the simple melody to build a fine piece around. There is music everyplace, just listen. After stopping for Abbots Custard on the street we headed over to the Plaza Hotel and the Jam to see what might be happening. The crowd was happening, it was thicker than ever and tonight will be even more. We left as John Nugent was wrapping up a set and went home to get some sleep.

Haven’t made plans for tonight other than Newport Jazz Festival: Now 60 at Kilbourn.  Watch this space for the actual happening.

Oh, the count, well somehow we got into 4 venues last night bringing the total to 36 through the eighth night.

See Ya on the Street, one more time.

A painful start to a wonderful evening. We started our night’s activities with a 3 PM funeral for a friend of the community as I mentioned in yesterday’s post. Following a very moving series of eulogies we returned to our apartment to change into clothing more suitable for Jazz Street and rushed off to get in line for Joey DeFrancesco Trio in Kilbourn. We arrived in line “only” an hour before the doors were to open somewhere near the entrance to Rochester Club (another venue). We had never been this far back but as the usher came by us with his clicker he announce 185 ahead of us and the hall seats 450 or so plus standing room. We got seats in the same row we have been sitting in when arriving two hours or more before the doors open. . .

This was a phenomenal concert. DeFrancesco on the organ, with the occasional foray into trumpet, sometimes both at once, warmed the house up from the first moments. His guitar and drum sidemen were up to the task of meeting him more than halfway and the hall was shaking throughout the performance. People started to leave after the “last number” but the cries of encore and the continued standing ovation brought them back out and people froze in place finding new seats as the group played one more piece. By now the show was almost 15 minutes overtime and our thoughts of jumping to another show were out of the question.

We stopped on Main Street where the Food Trucks were and I found some almost suitable food at the “Meatball Truck” Carol found nothing and we moved on to Lutheran Church where Anders Hagberg Quartet were playing. True to the Nordic tradition the music was very different from what most people expect. They drew on Sami (Lapland Native) themes and Indian themes among others for their sources and included an African pottery jar drum and a flute modified to give an Indian sound as well as fittings on the piano strings. All in all the music was very interesting and demanded attention. Our interests were slightly different and Carol got hungry so she left to go to Abilene where in addition to VERY different music there are good food choices. It was a bit worrying as just before she left she realized her phone battery was almost dead. We arranged a couple of alternate meeting places just in case I could not find her in Abilene after I left Lutheran Church. Never fear, I got to Abilene in plenty of time having left the Nordic environment before the last number and had no trouble finding her in the crowd. The most I can say for that show is it was loud and still hard to hear over the yammering of the crowd there more to drink than to listen. We moved on.

For the first time we made it to The Little Theater, a venue that was added last year. It is on the eastern edge of the Festival area and maybe a couple of blocks further out than the nearest venue, it is small and tends to fill. We had listened to Hey Mavis, the quartet, online and really wanted to hear them. I guess the best classification of their music I can make is Americana. They are made up of banjo, guitar (with foot pedal bass drum), fiddle and bass (with foot pedal tamborine!). They come from the Cleveland/Akron area and most of the music was there own. Talk about setting the place rocking. The crowd was captivated (there, I found a new description) and there was very little turnover until near the end. They said goodbye and the house lights came up and the crowd kept applauding and mostly didn’t move. They came back on stage and played another number and finally the crowd moved on. We stayed behind and bought a CD (the first time we have succumbed this year). It is their first and the title track is Honey Man which is playing on the laptop as I write.

It was too late to go to any other venue so we decided to head over to the Plaza Hotel for the Jam Session. We eventually got stools against the windows with a decent sight line and we listened to the Jam and the crowd until about 12:20 and we decided enough for the night.

With four more clubs to add to the 28 we had already been to we are now up to 32. The freedom to walk into a club not knowing whether we are interested in the group knowing we can walk out and not have to worry about the admission price ($20 for most clubs, $25 for Kilbourn) is priceless.

Tonight we will start with Bill Frisell’s Guitar in the Space Age. We have friends celebrating a 50th anniversary and will leave to attend that at 8 PM. Not sure how we will fill the 30 minutes or so after Kilbourn nor where we will go when we get back. We will have the list with us and there is always the Jam.

See Ya’ on The Street!

I had a great title for this post last night as we were walking home in the drizzle, but I forgot it. My mind is a bit scattered as I made the mistake of looking at Facebook and learned that a friend who has been battling for her life for months, lost the battle, and no longer has any pain. Add this distraction to a couple of performances that were less thrilling than we hoped and at least one find we did not expect and it was a strange Jazz Festival night. We ended up attending 6 different performances, not because we had a goal or anything just because we walked out on a couple early.  That puts the count at 28 through Wednesday.

We lined up at 3:30 for the 6 PM performance and were just around the corner from Jazz Street in the alley, under the cover in case of rain. We had one of our new seats with us and put it to good use. We made new Jazz Fest line friends who we found ourselves standing next to at Max at the very end of the evening, very typical.

Taking photos or videos during performances in Kilbourn is verboten, but the temptation is so great that I couldn’t resist this shot:

Kilbourn Stage before Diane Schuur Performance

 Diane came on stage with her assistant guiding her to her seat, she bowed deeply to the audience putting her hands flat to the floor. She got settled on her stool and began to sing, and she can still sing and belt it out and sing it soft and everything we expected even though it is clear she has aged. She sang mostly standards and mixed in a fair amount of scat.  She talked just enough to bring us in and not so much that she cut into performance time.  After the set was concluded, or so it appeared, the extraordinary group backing her left the stage and she was seated at the piano where she delivered two more songs accompanying herself on piano, what a treat!

The extra fifteen minutes rendered a run to Xerox to catch the last half of Ivan Jansen, Aruba Jazz Project out of the question. Listening to others and checking the time we headed over to Harro East where Mike Stern & Bill Evans Band Featuring: Steve Smith and Ted Kennedy were about to burn the place down. We entered as the introduction was finishing and settled ourselves at a table so I get some food and drink – our dinner – as the band started. We had no idea what to expect so were prepared to move on.  This was the great surprise of the evening, we couldn’t sit still, nor could the others in the hall, the music just kept building. I’m sure that at one point the guitar was routed through the Korg so that it sounded like an organ, the drummer did a scat number scatting against his drums in a manner I don’t remember hearing and the sax was just phenomenal.  We left the hall soaring after the last notes reverberations were dying out.

Where to? We stopped by The Big Tent to hear Lucky Peterson Featuring Tamara Peterson.  They were good, but couldn’t hold us as we really wanted to hear Ivan Jansen Aruba Jazz Project. We stayed for two numbers and left. Sitting up front, the sound at Xerox was disorganized and never seemed to come together. I’m not sure whether to blame the soundman or the way the group was situated on the stage. A further distraction was Ivan kept fussing with the knobs on his amp and guitar and never seemed to get into the music. The beat had very little of the Caribbean we expected so off we went. But where? We had heard a great review of Jamey Haddad Group at the Rochester Club so off we went. It was our first time this year and two things we had forgotten about greeted us at the door; it was COLD; the menu is great! We had eaten so the menu was of interest for the future and we just shivered. The group was fine lounge music, we were hoping for some extraordinary drumming given the writeups and fact that the leader is a drummer who has developed his own cymbals. Nope, just very good lounge music with a hint of tropic beat.

Where to? Warren Wolfe and The Wolfpack were at Max. When we got there at 10:30 ish there was a short line at the door, but having no place else to go (the line for Diane at Kilbourn was much longer and who was going to leave that show?) we waited. It turned out we waited about five minutes before they opened the door and we found leaning room behind the band. Worth the wait, worth the lousy location! Wolf is wonderful on the vibes and his group was super.

Not sure what tonight will bring. Funeral at 3PM means we get in line for Joey DeFrancesco late and maybe get in for the first show. We have some Greens and Yellow and will play it as it comes once again.

Crossing the midpoint of the Festival. We have looked forward to this since we bought the tickets while traveling in China last Fall, at least the Chinese had not blocked access to that site. Actually we started looking forward to this Festival on June 29 as the last one was wrapping up and here we are almost half way through and counting last nights 4 concerts we have attended 22 concerts. But I am ahead of myself.

When we left the apartment to get the elevator with one of our new lightweight chairs on my shoulder a glance out the window showed it was dry out.  As we walked out the door it it had rained, but the sky was clear. The elevator is slow, but not that slow. We intercepted the same couple as we walked and then split at East and Main as they were headed to Hatch and we on our way to Montage to hear Tessa Souter, again. We arrived in line at about 3:30 to find two people ahead of us and the direction of the line reversed to clear the door of the office building and gym after 10 years of complaints about the line obstructing the door. We waited patiently, ducking under the marquee for shelter from the rain only once. At 5:15 as the sky threatened a major storm they opened the doors to let us into the hall to wait in the dry and cool. It did storm while we were inside. Tessa sang beautifully, as we expected, opening with “Eleanor Rigby”. Our only objection to the performance was that she sang less than we wanted and gave more time in her arrangements to her excellent sidemen on bass, trumpet and drums. We most likely will not choose to hear her again, if there is a choice next year.

We left before the last number and crossed the street to Christ Church to hear Sophie Bancroft & Tom Lyne Trio.

Another great night of Jazz and people on the street. We walked out of our apartment headed for Kilbourn to get in line for the 6 PM show of Vijay Iyer Trio, he is from Rochester (Fairport actually) and is a talented and successful pianist. We noted a couple walking ahead of us who were clearly headed to the Festival. We had seen them the night before walking back.  They were remarkable because of her turquoise toenail polish, among other things. We overtook them and started a conversation which lasted us through the walk and the two hour wait on line. Such is the nature of Jazz Festival. Oh yes they are both librarians from Elmira NY in town for the Jazz Festival.

So we started with Vijay Iyer in Kilbourn Hall and he was worth the wait. The music was complex and required close attention which was rewarded with outstanding intricacies and great performance. They stretched the first piece into three pieces for the first half of the show without a break. We stayed until the last note and then did not wait for the applause to subside, we were on a mission. Catherine Russell was starting in 15 minutes at Harro East and we really wanted to hear her again, as I noted in yesterday’s post she is a regular and worth hearing any time she performs. We made it and even got seats at a table so I could have a sandwich with my beer.