Jazz@Rochester

I think I’ve said this before, but I’d like to check out the Flat Iron Cafe, but haven’t yet due to my general lack of time recently to get out and see music. A recent Yahoo Groups 90.1 Jazz List posting has the Nick Finzer Quintet performing there on Friday, March 24th from 8-11pm. The Flat Iron Cafe is at 561 State Street. According to the posting, the group is comprised of Eastman Students Nick Finzer (trombone), Adam Horowitz (trumpet), Chris Ziemba (piano), Geoff Saunders (bass), and Brian Heveron-Smith (drums). They will be playing a mixture of jazz standards, original arrangements, and their own compositions. I’ve read and heard some good things about the Flat Iron. More when I get my sorry %@@ out there (or feel free to comment if you’ve been there).

Last night myself and 50 or so brave souls ventured out into the night and snow and saw Gabriel Alegria’s 4FutureMusic Tour at Strong Auditorium at the UofR’s River Campus. As I expected, it was a treat. I hadn’t seen anything in Strong Auditorium before. It’s a smaller venue with the gold trim, cherubs, and plush seats associated with theaters of a certain age. Steam pipes contributed a bit of extra percussion during the evening, clicking away in the background.

The set of six songs by Alegria—joined by Laurandrea Leguia on sax, Jocho Velazquez on guitar, Joscha Oetz on bass, Hugo Alcazar on drums, and Freddy “Huevito” Lobaton on several percussion instruments that I’ll get into later—was a mixture of standards done arranged to the festejo and lando style from the coastal areas of Peru and the African slaves who were brought there and Alegria originals. “Huevito” played the cajon, a wooden box played in the same manner as any drum, although Lobaton’s masterful use of his feet to “bend” the beat as his hands wailed on the side of the box was an special treat. Another instrument played by Lobaton looked something like a large wooden Chinese take-out box with a handle on the lid. I wish I’d caught the name of it (Alegria said they were discussed on his website, but I haven’t found it, although his website has a lot of information and quite a few of his songs to listen to). Huevito hung the instrument around his neck on a string and then played it by pumping the handle and hitting the side of the box with a wooden stick, so fast that you couldn’t believe his arm could do that. I overheard Alegria talking about it after the show and he said that the instrument are actually the boxes used in Catholic churches to collect an offering. How cool is that?

I particularly enjoyed the work of bass player Oetz and, of course, the amazing percussion by Alcazar and Lobaton (plus a bit of tap dancing, Peruvian-style). Their guitarist was also very good, drawing on (I assume) Peruvian folk stylings and classical guitar approaches in many places. Alegria’s trumpet playing was great and Leguia’s sax playing, while not filled with blazing arpeggio’s was very soulful . However, Alegria’s trumpet (and voice between songs) and Leguia’s sax were sometimes hard to hear. Although the music was fantastic and was met with generous applause (and they even broke out of the concert hall clapping idiom and gave the solos their props during the songs), the sound needed work. I saw no sound person there (perhaps there was someone in a booth somewhere), but the mikes on Alegria and Leguia were just so low that their lighter playing was sometimes drowned out by the driving percussion behind them. I wish this wasn’t an issue as much as it seems to be.

Check out Alegria’s website and music. He is an evangelist for this music and his site shows it. If you like Afro-Cuban music, you’ll love Alegria and his Peruvian take on it. I encourage you to check it out.

Urban Grooves Music, a Rochester based entertainment group founded by Marcus Robinson, is attempting to “bring good people together to enjoy only the best in regional Funk, Soul, Jazz, and Reggae music.” While not necessarily succeeding in numbers, the group’s Urban Grooves Jam Fest on Saturday at the German House did succeed in bringing a diverse group of people together to hear great music by a local artists ranging from the straightahead of Bill Tiberio Group, to the great Latin jazz of the Mambo Kings, to the funky sounds of Jimmy Highsmith and Marcus Robinson’s own Thornwood, to the reggae of Mountain Mojo Authority, and capped off by the drumming circles and world music sounds of Buddahood. The whole thing kicked off around 4pm and, and ended sometime after the Budda’s (there was supposed to be a jam session extending to 1am or so, but I don’t know whether that happened or not).
Unfortunately, Dianna and I didn’t have the stamina to catch the whole thing, leaving after Thornwood left the stage (not because of the change to a more rock-oriented sound, as I love both reggae and Buddahood’s eclectic mix), but we had a great time listening to some of the best jazz musicians in the Rochester area in a larger venue, the German House with some decent sound (although there were some limited issues with the sound). I (and I expect Marcus Robinson) really wish there had been a bigger turnout for this event. On a positive note, what impressed upon me was Urban Groove’s explicit goal to bring diverse communities together through the medium of music. On that front, it was quite successful, if limited in number. Keep trying Marcus (and it appears he has another scheduled for April 2006)! Urban Grooves also sponsors the “Urban Grooves Cafe” series, which used to be over at Water Street, but based on their website may be moving to a new location.

After posting the gig on this blog, my wife and I took up Jimmie Highsmith Jr. on his invite and went to see him and the band play Saturday evening at P.I.’s Lounge, 499 West Ave. in the 19th Ward. Located next to the Southern food mecca Unkl Moe’s, P.I.’s is a neighborhood bar with a good-sized dance floor and bandstand. On Saturday night it was full of love, with Jimmie and the band (and a few additional members from the last time we saw them) laying down the groove for a friend’s birthday celebration. We had a great time—Dianna and I met Jimmie and got to hear the band again. In addition, the “birthday boy” (and the rest of us lucky devils in the bar) were treated to a “Saturday night” version of “Dr. Feelgood,” which left little to the imagination and was delivered using more of a “Sunday goin’ to church” voice. Thanks Jimmie.

As I told Jimmie Saturday, I’m willing to post items sent in by jazz groups and musicians for upcoming gigs, especially those that might not be getting much exposure in the press and other venues I’ve mentioned as forming usual sources for the listings I post. I’m interested in gigs throughout all of the communities in Rochester and its environs, especially those that are not always, shall we say, well-represented in the local press. I can’t become a posting service for any particular band or venue, but I can give some exposure where the venues they’re playing won’t or can’t advertise. In the interest of full disclosure, I can assure you that it will not being read by thousands now. However, there is a slow growth in the number of people taking a look at Jazz@Rochester and coming back (not just stumbling onto it, although there are a few of those), so it can’t hurt. Just hit the email link and let me know (plus give me some lead time).

A year after its opening, Clarissa Room owner John Starr died of a heart attack on Saturday at the age of 50. From what I’ve heard from musicians and seen of myself the times I’ve been at the club, and from the writeup by Jeff Spevak in the D&C, Mr. Starr was an interesting man who I would have liked to have the opportunity to meet and get to know. I didn’t know about his activist side, although it doesn’t surprise me. I heard about his death via an email from the Bill Welch Band (thanks), who had played there last Friday, opening for the Bill Tiberio Group. I was planning on going to the Sonny Miles show there on Saturday.

As I have said elsewhere I really was impressed by what he was trying to build at The Clarissa Room and have written it up on occasion (here and here). The Clarissa Room always seemed to be (and will continue to be, I hope) about the music and also seemed to be becoming a neighborhood institution in Corn Hill.

According to the D&C article there will be a celebration of John Starr at The Clarissa Room this Friday, beginning at 4 p.m., with donations accepted to help the family re-open the club, which according to the article was in Starr’s plans all along. Although this is a reminder in this week of reminders of how life and dreams can be cut short, John Starr, a former maintenance mechanic at the Greece Central School District for nearly 20 years, seemed by all accounts to be living his dream. That is a testament to him.