Category: Genres

  • New York-Based Neo-Classical Cinematic Pianist Doeke Shares Delicate, Dreamy, and Nostalgic Album ‘Herinner’        

    Doeke (Jorn Swart), a New York-based neo-classical pianist delivers a great deal on his new album Herinner – he is at times poignant, elegant, delicate, intricate, and vulnerable in this continued exploration of his signature dreamy and gentle piano playing style.

    Doeke

    With these sonic reflection of stories from the past, present, and future, the album is all about nostalgia, home, and the strange details remembered from childhood, the music transporting the listener to another time and place.

    Doeke was my grandfather’s first name. He played the accordion, which inspired me to pick up that instrument as a kid, and later led me to the piano. All the song titles are in Dutch, and many of the compositions are inspired by memories from the Netherlands.

    Doeke (Jorn Swart)

    Doeke is shaped by a desire to return to simplicity, with Swart’s piano compositions inviting listeners from all over the world to feel a nostalgia that is both melancholic and comforting. Swart moved to the USA in 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar to pursue a master’s degree in jazz piano in New York City, where he’s been living and performing ever since.

    Doeke

    Throughout his career, Swart has been busy not only as a composer and a piano soloist, but also as a bandleader, musical director, and recording artist for other musicians. As he built his name, touring throughout the USA and in Europe and garnering international acclaim, audiences told him that his work sounded like it was telling a story. With Doeke, he leans into this quality, with music that has a narrative and the emotional attributes of a film score.

    You know how a certain smell can suddenly evoke something that happened a long time ago, something you thought you’d forgotten, and you become instantly overcome with the same feeling you had back then? Music can also send you on these fleeting time travels and the songs on this album capture such transient visceral experiences. Though these recollections are deeply personal for me, music can transcend this and transform the particular into the universal.

    Music allows us to collectively experience the most powerful human states of being — nostalgia, joy, melancholy, reflection, excitement — and take comfort in knowing we all feel this way sometimes. Herinner is about these little moments that can seem insignificant, but still endure. It invites the listeners to join and embrace the nostalgic.

    Doeke (Jorn Swart)

    Herinner is available for streaming on various platforms here.

  • Hearing Aide: Ian McCuen Settles In Despair On ‘Westward to Nowhere’

    Westward expansion. An 80+ year stretch marked by hope, oppression, sorrow, and death. For Ian McCuen, it serves as a provocative metaphor for a life of disappointment and a world of heartbreak on their fifth album, November’s Westward to Nowhere.

    It’s not the first record inspired by grief and the idea of travel. Modest Mouse did the same thing twice in the 90s to massive acclaim. What sets the Buffalo indie folk musician’s concept album apart though is its consistent and clear narrative, which progresses towards its natural finish by the end of the project’s behemoth 18-track, 80 minute run.

    Cover art for ‘Westward to Nowhere.’

    The early going of Westward to Nowhere depicts McCuen’s character as a damaged and traumatized young adult who anticipates and hopes for better things with a change of scene. The lo-fi acoustic opener “Westward” introduces the album’s historical symbolism with the noises of a train and the repeated closing line “westward home, westward home, and I know that I must go,” a phrase which is made a motif via the three interludes found across the record.

    Follow-up track “Independence, MO” is a fuzzy but light indie rock song about the “thrill of anticipation” for starting new, coming before lead single “Lonesome Homesteader” (or “Lonesome Dreamer” according to the album listing), a gloomy acoustic ballad spaced out by stretches of organ and banjo. “I walk for miles at a time, daydreaming of a place that’s always mine,” McCuen sings on “Lonesome Dreamer.

    This continues onto the waltzy “California Bound,” where McCuen analogizes seasonal change with grief and recovery, hoping that change of scenery will “wash away past trauma.” The same goes for the synth and violin-laden “Beatrice, NE,” where McCuen dreams of traversing the Great Plains and scaling the Rockies. “Goodbye Beatrice, so much world left to see,” they sing on one of several tracks that personally address the pinpointed location on McCuen’s journey.

    Musically, Westward to Nowhere is highly consistent and consistently melodic. McCuen’s near whispered falsetto heavily reminisces of Elliott Smith, with their low-key acoustic approach and sentimental subject matter also ringing true of the legendary singer-songwriter. This tonal steadiness doesn’t mean a lack of variety in texture or instrumentation though, with McCuen’s parts on guitar, piano, organ and more being complemented by guest musicians such as Lissa Reed on cello and Sally Schaefer on violin. Reverb-heavy moments of guitar noise add contrast to long stretches of acoustic subtlety on songs such as “American Retreat.” There’s “The Plea,” which closes its six minute runtime with a biting and bluesy guitar solo and hints of trombone. All makes for an experience which sonically conveys McCuen’s sorrow in an affecting and musically accessible fashion.

    While primarily personal, Westward to Nowhere has its political moments too, “The Plea” being explicitly so. “Can’t you hear the chanting, ‘no justice no peace,’ how much fucking longer we gonna let Kansas bleed,” McCuen asks on the final verse’s closing line.

    There’s also the on-the-nose “Running Still (Worker’s Hymn),” a mostly acapella anthem where they sing in the first person about working class strife with exploitation, and the heartful late-placement ballad “American Retreat” which addresses Native American genocide, abandonment of military veterans, and general lies from “the lofty speak of what an infinite frontier provides.”

    Such cynicism defines the rather hopeless back half of Westward to Nowhere. There’s “Letter,” on which Ian McCuen pens letters to a sister, an old friend, and a former lover, detailing fun reminiscence, regret, but most of all, agonizing over the distance created from these loved ones. “I can hardly recognize where I’m heading or from where I came,” they observe over the light drumming of the song’s chorus. “On my shoulders lays the blame.”

    McCuen’s journey away from misery has made life even more hopeless, something fully emphasized in the album’s final three tracks. There’s the upbeat organ/violin-driven “Lonesome Drunkard” with its alcoholism play-by-play, followed by the overpowering gloom of nine-minute “Deadwood, SD,” which takes their sadness to suicidal levels.

    McCuen forecasts themselves as “face first in the dirt with a bullet in the brain” and “just another number in the morgue,” and reminds of the album’s historical symbolism by alluding to “repeated failed attempts at finally striking gold. In the last few minutes, over a subtly building assembly of piano, guitar, , McCuen echoes frustration with a disgustingly wrong promise, singing “I’m so fucking sick and tired of hearing ‘Westward Home,’ after all this time I still don’t know where the hell I belong.”

    No point is more bleak though than the closing track “Nowhere.” The train from the end of “Westward” returns, not to take McCuen on a life changing journey, but to take them out. “My brain and my body have given out on me, so I’m giving in to let these tracks take me,” they sing after two minutes of desolated acoustic guitar playing. McCuen’s echoey vocals and the track’s eerily sparse musical framing make this a haunting self-eulogy, as they talk about an eradicated sense of youthful optimism, reflect on a life of unfulfilled self, and envision a memorial not consisting of any heartfelt tributes, but “just regret for my days.”

    Westward to Nowhere begins with a clear point and ends on a resounding personal message: the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere. Change of scene and change of personal direction don’t always lead away from misery. It may lead nowhere, and it might make life more isolating than ever imaginable. Originally aiming for California, McCuen never got farther west than Montana, a testament to the fleeting nature of personally prophesied destinations.

    The album bears similarities to 1984 hardcore classic Zen Arcade by Husker Dü, a concept record about a boy who leaves a troubled home to find a world of nothing but. Ian McCuen never comes close to being as loud as Husker Dü, but the emotional ideas and big picture thinking are all there.

    This is a long record that doesn’t do anything musically shocking, but within the album’s historical approach, it’s all fitting. Continental travel is long, consistent, and miserable, often like life. On Westward to Nowhere though, Ian McCuen conveys this in a way that ends up being pretty enjoyable to listen to.

    Key Tracks: “Independence, MO,” “California Bound,” “American Retreat,” “Deadwood, SD,” “Nowhere”

  • 19th Annual Hank-O-Rama to be Held at Bowery Electric on New Year’s Day

    The 19 annual Hank-O-Rama festival, celebrating the musical life of Hank Williams, will be held at Bowery Electric on New Year’s Day.

    Hank Willams

    Hank Williams will be celebrated 70 years after his death at the Hank-O-Rama show. Williams is regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. He recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 12 that reached No. 1.

    Hank Williams was just 29 when he was found dead in the back seat of his Cadillac on the morning of Jan. 1, 1953, in Oak Hill, WV, en route to a New Year’s Day gig in Canton, Ohio. The Hank-O-Rama celebration is a symbolic rain date for the last show Williams would ever miss.

    The show features more than 30 of Williams’s hits and rarities, including “Cold, Cold Heart,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and many others, performed live by recording artists The Lonesome Prairie Dogs. The show features Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith) on pedal steel guitar, with an opening set by New York Country luminary Alex Battles, and host, country favorite Linda “Lindy Loo” Hill.

    Other special guests are stars of the NYC & Brooklyn country scene, including Tammy Faye Starlite, Jack Grace, Sean Kershaw, Cliff Westfall, The Lonesome Horns featuring Jordan McLean & Billy Aukstik, and more. Everyone will be gathered together to celebrate the extraordinary life of Hank Williams, who died tragically young.

    The 19 annual Hank-O-Rama celebration will be happening at Bowery Electric on Jan. 1, and tickets are on sale now.

    https://youtu.be/xtolv9kM1qk
  • Sam Woolf, American Idol at the Crossroads

    The network of original artists on Long Island have brought me from dive bars to aspiring stars. Sam Woolf is a young man with the courage of his convictions. When faced with the pressure to be reinvented to suit the market, Sam chose to stay true to his art.

    Intrigued by two recent guests on The Long Island Sound podcast , brothers Como, Andrew and Matt, I was introduced to Sam Woolf.  The Como Brothers collaborated with Sam Woolf, and I was impressed both with the original songs and vocal accompaniment. A particular jem is “Give a Little Love” 

    Sam Woolf & Como Brothers, Andrew and Matt

    American Idol Competition

    At the age of seventeen Sam Woolf, through the encouragement of his mother, took a chance at an audition for American Idol back in 2014. As an uneasy teen with little to no live performance experience, Sam Woolf got the golden ticket to Hollywood to perform on American Idol. He made all the way to the number five spot in the contest. When I asked Sam about the scrutiny on national television, he has this to say:

    … I had really no experience performing live,… no real experience performing in front of an audience. So that that part was like, I just kind of had to muster up the courage and just be like, I gotta do this

    Sam Woolf
    2014 Sam Woolf on American Idol

    American Idol judge Keith Urban was impressed with Sam’s perfect pitch as he performed Ed Sheeran’s Lego House during auditions. Woolf climbed to the number five spot before elimination. What intrigued me was his determination to retain his identity as an independent singer/songwriter. When the American Idol team wanted to transform Sam into some sort of a teen idol, this is how he responded:

    Yeah, I certainly was going against it. Because that was the bubble they put me in. The heartthrob, which is how they labeled it… I don’t want to be the heartthrob. Come on, I’m just trying to be that indie singer songwriter

    Sam Woolf

    A Decade Later

     It’s been a decade since Sam competed on National Television, and he has recently moved to New York City to continue with his music career. He’s opened for Jefferson Starship, War and the Doobie Brothers. He stays in touch with Alex Preston and Caleb Johnson who were contestants with him on American Idol.  In January he’ll be releasing a new song called, “Worst Thing” and this is what he said about the new release:

    It’s called “Worst Thing “, to me, it’s my favorite song, I think, the most honest song I’ve ever written. And I hope people can relate with it in some way, or they could connect with it.

    Sam Woolf


    Now that Sam has settled in New York, I’m excited to see where he pops up next. I’m sure there will be more collaborations and great music in this guy’s future. If you’d like to hear the rest of the conversation with Sam, check out his episode on The Long Island Sound Podcast.

  • New York Based Bluegrass Group Nefresh Mountain to Perform at Levon Helm Studios

    New York-based bluegrass group Nefresh Mountain is set to perform at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock on Dec. 23.

    nefresh mountain

    Nefresh Mountain arrived on the scene in 2015 and has been hailed as one of the formative boundary-pushing groups in roots music. Comprised of husband and wife duo Eric Lindberg and Doni Zasloff, the group’s latest album Songs for the Sparrows has been called “A master class in string music” by Rolling Stone, and “arguably some of the best bluegrass ever made” by American Songwriter.

    They have recorded and shared the stage with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bryan Sutton, John Doyle, Noam Pikelny (Punch Brothers), Mark Schatz (Nickel Creek), Mike Gordon (Phish), and Tony Trischka among others. They made their debut in 2021 at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN, and performed at various Festivals, PACs, and venues like Mountain Stage, MerleFest, Wintergrass, City Wineries around the USA, and more.

    Nefresh Mountain will be heading to Levon Helm Studios, which brings the legendary life of Levon Helms and the group the Midnight Rambles alive in historic Woodstock. Rolling Stone called Helm “rock & roll’s greatest drummer,” and he won three Grammys during his life. He loved Woodstock, and gave back to the community while there, playing benefits to raise money for music in the local schools and other worthwhile causes. 

    Nefresh Moutain will be heading to the venue on Dec. 23, and tickets are on sale now.

  • Billy Joel Postpones Dec. 19 Show at MSG

    The Billy Joel concert at Madison Square Garden, originally scheduled for Monday, December 19, has been postponed until June 2, 2023.

    Billy Joel MSG

    In a statement from Billy Joel’s spokesperson, a viral infection that affected his vocals was the cause of the postponement.

    Billy Joel is under strict doctor’s orders for vocal rest due to a viral infection and as a result, his concert scheduled for Monday, December 19th at Madison Square Garden is postponed to Friday, June 2nd. We understand the inconvenience this causes everyone who purchased tickets, and we apologize for this unexpected circumstance.

    On Facebook, Billy said to fans, “I’m disappointed to share that I’m under doctor’s orders for vocal rest due to a viral infection so unfortunately, I must postpone my Monday, December 19th concert at Madison Square Garden to June. I’m so sorry to let you know so close to show day, but I was hoping to be closer to a full recovery by now. Sadly, that hasn’t happened. I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.”

    All tickets purchased for the December 19, 2022 concert will be honored on Friday, June 2, 2023 and will not need to be exchanged. However, the June 2nd performance is subject to change if it conflicts with a Knicks playoff game. For more information, please visit msg.com.

    Billy Joel will next perform at Madison Square Garden on January 13, 2023, making this Friday the 13th Joel’s 86th consecutive monthly show, and 132nd lifetime at The World’s Most Famous Arena.

    In December 2013, Billy Joel was named Madison Square Garden’s first-ever music franchise, joining the ranks of the storied venue’s other original franchises – the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. The record-breaking residency began in January 2014 with Joel playing one show every month at The Garden, “as long as the demand continues,” says Joel.

    Billy Joel is one of the biggest concert draws in the world, selling out arenas and stadiums across the globe. Having sold 150 million records over the past quarter century and scoring 33 consecutive Top 40 hits, Joel ranks as one of the most popular recording artists and respected entertainers in history. The singer/songwriter/composer is the sixth best-selling recording artist of all time and the third best-selling solo artist. In 2016, the Library of Congress selected “Piano Man” for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its “cultural, historic, and artistic significance.”

    Joel received The Kennedy Center Honors, one of the United States’ top cultural awards, in December 2013. He is also the recipient of six GRAMMY® Awards, including the prestigious Grammy Legend Award. Joel has been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has received numerous industry awards including a TONY AWARD for “Movin’ Out,” a Broadway musical based on Joel’s music. For his accomplishments as a musician and as a humanitarian, Joel was honored as the 2002 MusiCares Person Of The Year by the MusiCares Foundation and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

  • Spend New Years Eve in Saranac Lake at The Waterhole with Raisinhead

    Raisinhead have been playing music together for over 15 years, and on New Year’s Eve, the beloved Upstate band will play in Saranac Lake at the Waterhole Music Lounge. This is the perfect North Country spot for music lovers to ring in 2023 together.

    Raisinhead was formed by Rob Beaulieu in 2001, who wanted to play improvisational music in a live setting. Each band member Ted Grey (guitar), Brian Mangini (keys), Tom Pirozzi (bass) and Jeff Prescott, Chadd Ploss and Scott Apicelli (drums) has been involved in other musical projects and still manages to get together and play the music of The Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, The Allman Brothers and many original tunes. The band consists of former members of The Ominous Seapods, Harvest, The Deadbeats, & Fat Albatross, to name a few.

    Raisinhead is three-singer band, which gives the audience a constantly changing vocal perspective, tune by tune. The diverse background, joy of performing, and decades of experience between the members is what gives the band its high energy sound. The band has built a strong following in Upstate New York that promises audiences an interactive evening of sound, energy, and pure fun. 

    Raisinhead is always at its best on stage, under the lights, doing their thing, and creating an experience you won’t forget any time soon. 

    Doors open at 730pm on December 31, with the Joshua West Quartet kicking the night off at 830pm. Advanced Price Tickets are $10, Day of Show Tickets are $12. Tickets can be purchased here or at the downstairs bar.

    For more information visit saranaclakewaterhole.com. The Waterhole is a 21+ establishment. 

  • Lizzo sings “Someday at Christmas,” Austin Butler serenades with “Blue Christmas” as Cecily Strong bids Saturday Night Live farewell

    The Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live brought together Elvis (Austin Butler) and Lizzo for a remarkable show that saw long-time cast member Cecily Strong bidding the late-night institution farewell. Lizzo filled in for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who were originally scheduled to perform, but had to back out due to illness.

    lizzo saturday night live austin butler

    The cold open was a send up of an NFT scam put forth by the 45th president this past week, played much more comically than Alec Baldwin by James Austin Johnson.

    Butler’s monologue recalled that the 2021 Christmas episode was mostly cast-free due to surging COVID infection rates. Butler spoke about growing up in Anaheim, CA, being home schooled by his mom, alongside his sister (who he wished a happy birthday to in the balcony). Talking about how his mother helped him break out of his shell of shyness, and how they watched Saturday Night Live together, Butler teared up in paying tribute to her memory and credited his acting career to her. Austin Butler made his Broadway debut in the 2018 revival of The Iceman Cometh and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Elvis.

    Sketches including a rip-off of Wheel of Fortune “The Phrase That Pays” was a deeply weird SNL game show concept, as was the the It’s a Wonderful Life spoof “A Christmas Epiphany,” where the viewpoint of an ideal family inside a house being observed by a voyeur was a fresh twist on the holiday classic.

    On the rise featured player Sarah Sherman made a stand out appearance as Jewish Elvis, with Austin Butler in the front row in drag as one of the old women who get overly-stimulated by the Semetic singer.

    Lizzo, who hosted in April, performed her first song “Break Up Twice” with a setting paying homage to artist Annie Lee’s Blue Monday. Lizzo, in white negligee, is seen sitting on the edge of the bed, having just woken up, exhausted but ready to press ahead with the day. Then, belting out the seventh track on her 2022 release Special, Lizzo stepped forward to reveal the full band, singing about a man who left her in tears but whom she does not want to leave, referencing her relationship with Myke Wright.

    “Break Up Twice” had Lizzo singing direct to the camera and lit in white while the band was lit in blue, with notable samples of “Doo Wop (That Thing)” by Lauryn Hill and Judy Clay and William Bell’s “Private Number” found throughout.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnvPKUUueFc&list=PLS_gQd8UB-hJ4H8PK-BjG8jwVyBVEzZuO&index=7

    Weekend Update saw the final appearance for Cecily Strong’s desheveled Cathy Anne, who joked about having to go to prison. Making slightly-cringe conversation with Michael Che, Cathy Anne switched back to Cecily Strong, breaking character to say, “I had a lot of fun here and I feel really lucky that I got to have so many of the best moments of my life in this place with these people that I love so much.”

    Lizzo’s second performance found her covering Stevie Wonder’s 1967 holiday classic “Someday at Christmas,” dressed in a half silver, half gold angel dress, wrapped up like a shiny gift. The track is among those featured on Amazon Music, with musicians offering classic covers of Christmas songs. Lizzo said of the song “I chose to cover ‘Someday At Christmas’ not just because it’s a classic, but because it’s a reminder to us that almost 60 years later, we are still fighting for peace, compassion, and equality, a friendly reminder to spread love and kindness this holiday season.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJjTRUCfZ7c&list=PLS_gQd8UB-hJ4H8PK-BjG8jwVyBVEzZuO&index=10

    For the finale, Kenan Thompson (as Frank Lasagna) introduced Cecily on her last day working at Radio Shack, noting her 11 year run and giving a heartfelt ode to her longevity on the show, fitting, coming from the show’s longest running cast member.

    Butler then appeared as “Casual Elvis” to serenade Strong with Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” as Strong smiled and choked up, with Thompson’s final lyrics altered to “You’ll be doing alright, every saturday night” for the finale, as the cast joined in on stage for the end of the tribute.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvTmjdhBRVs&list=PLS_gQd8UB-hJ4H8PK-BjG8jwVyBVEzZuO&index=17

    Saturday Night Live returns in January 2023.

  • 46th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival Reveals Lineup of Music Icons

    The Saratoga Performing Arts Center will play host to the 46th Annual Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival on Saturday, June 24, and Sunday, June 25, 2023, for a full two-day and two-stage thrilling festival experience. The line-up is anchored by musical legends including Bonnie Raitt, Pat Metheny, Angelique Kidjo, and twenty-one more musical ensembles, who will be bringing a variety of genres ranging from jazz to roots, funk, blues and beyond.

    Saratoga Jazz Festival
    Jazz Artist Angelique Kidjo

    Grammy Award-winner and Rock and Roll of Fame Inductee Bonnie Raitt will be making her highly suspended return to the festival since 1988. She is known for her blend of blues, R&B, rock and pop classics like “I Can’t Make You Love Me,”, “Something to Talk About” and “Nick of Time”.

    Bonnie Raitt

    On Saturday, the festival’s major draw will be the explosive 19-piece megaband Snarky Puppy, which is making its second appearance. The enthralling jazz, rock, and funk trio is described as “An exultant throwdown of brilliant danceability” by the Village Voice. The group has won four Grammy Awards, the most recent one in 2021 for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.

    Saratoga Jazz Festival
    Jazz Ensemble Snarky Puppy

    Jazz and funk guitarist Cory Wong, best known as a frequent guest rhythm guitarist for Vulfpeck as well as for his ebullient solo material; eight-piece psychedelia and funk fiery band St. Paul & The Broken Bones; jazz and rock drum dynamo Cindy Blackman Santana, who is the regular touring drummer for Carlos Santana and previously Lenny Kravitz; and “Silky-voiced rising jazz star” (New York Times).

    Cory Wong
    Cindy Blackman Santana

    Having originally been founded as “the Newport Jazz Festival at Saratoga”, the musical event was renamed Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival in 1998 and is one of the most prominent jazz festivals in North America.

    Saratoga Jazz Festival
    Saratoga Jazz Festival

    On Saturday, June 24, performances will begin at 11 a.m. on the Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage and 12 p.m. on the Amphitheater Stage, and at 11:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m., respectively, on Sunday, June 25. Fans may enjoy a magnificent arts and crafts market, artist CD signings, and fresh and diverse culinary selections in addition to two nonstop days of outstanding music on two stages. Tickets can be purchased here.

    2023 FREIHOFER’S SARATOGA JAZZ FESTIVAL LINEUP

    SATURDAY, JUNE 24

    Amphitheater:
    Snarky Puppy
    Angelique Kidjo
    Cory Wong*
    Tower of Power
    Chucho Valdes Quartet
    Cindy Blackman Santana Band*

    Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage:
    Kurt Rosenwinkel
    Emmet Cohen Trio*
    Claudia Acuna*
    Carolyn Wonderland*
    Glen David Andrews*
    Nduduzo Makhathini*

    SUNDAY, JUNE 25

    Amphitheater:
    Bonnie Raitt
    Pat Metheny Side-Eye
    St. Paul & The Broken Bones*
    Hiromi: The Piano Quintet feat. PUBLIQuartet

    Charles R. Wood “Jazz Discovery” Stage:
    Samara Joy*
    Jupiter & Okwess*
    Melissa Aldana
    Mark Guiliana*
    Skidmore Jazz Institute Faculty All-Stars Centennial Celebration of Wes Montgomery, Tito Puente & Dexter Gordon featuring Clay Jenkins, Jimmy Greene, Michael Dease, Dave Stryker, Bill Cunliffe, Todd Coolman and Dennis Mackrel

  • Bonnie Raitt Headlines Rochester International Jazz Festival June 27th

    The CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival will feature the great Bonnie Raitt on June 27th at the Festival’s 20th-anniversary edition. More than just a best-selling artist, expressive singer, and accomplished songwriter, Bonnie Raitt will bring her “Just Like That…Tour” on Tuesday, June 27th, 2023. The festival will be held from June 23rd to July 1st, 2023, in downtown Rochester

    Bonnie Raitt Headlines 20th Anniversary Festival June 27th 2023

    The infamous Raitt has become an institution in American music. Born to a musical family, the ten-time Grammy winner is the daughter of celebrated Broadway singer John Raitt and accomplished pianist/singer Marge Goddard. Raitt was raised in Los Angeles where she grew up to have a respect for the arts and a commitment to social activism. 

    Bonnie Raitt Headlines 20th Anniversary Festival June 27th 2023

    Bonnie is as known for her lifelong commitment to social activism as she is for her music. She has long been involved with the environmental movement, doing concerts around oil, nuclear power, mining, water and forest protection since the mid 70’s.

    She even stated, “I’ve always wanted to make a record here, and once vaccinations made traveling safe again, we were thrilled to get everyone back together.” The mix of sounds and approaches on Just Like That…reveals how, 50 years after the release of her debut album, Bonnie Raitt continues to personify what it means to stay creative, adventurous, and daring over the course of a life’s work. “I think the absolute joy and relief of reuniting to play live music is really palpable on this record.”

    With Just Like That…, this is her twenty-first album and first new release in more than six years. Rolling Stone even named her as both one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” and one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt continues to draw on the range of influences that have shaped her legendary career.

    Tickets for Bonnie Raitt at CGI Rochester International Jazz Fest range in price from: Boxes $140, Orchestra $125, Loge/Mezzanine $105, Balcony $85. Tickets go on sale Friday, December 16th at 10am. To purchase, click the link here or call (585) 454-2060.