CELEBRATING SMOKER
May
3
7:30 PM19:30

CELEBRATING SMOKER

PAUL SMOKER (1941-2016) - trumpet, composer, educator.

"What Paul Smoker produced on his horn was unheard of in these latitudes; his complete command of his instrument allowed him to play whatever extravaganza he would think of, harmonically as well as in terms of dynamics. Styles, modes and techniques of every era of the history of music -- Baroque and Bebop, Structuralism and Storyville, Blues and Berio… To the widely discussed question about the future development of the jazz trumpet, Paul Smoker's musical concept could definitely constitute a far-reaching answer." — Jazz Podium

Paul Smoker studied and performed both jazz and classical music while growing up in Davenport, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa (eventually receiving a DMA in trumpet) where one of his fellow students was David Sanborn. While in high school and college he played in the clubs across the Mississippi River in Rock Island and Moline, as well as Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, getting to work with Dodo Marmarosa (pianist with Charlie Parker), among others. He was also a member of the Iowa Brass Quintet, touring throughout the United States, and the University of Iowa Center for New Music.

As a trumpeter his influences included avant-garde classical sources as well as the jazz trumpet tradition, and also the saxophonists John Coltrane and Anthony Braxton. For over twenty years he taught trumpet, jazz, and 20th-century ‘classical’ music at the Universities of Iowa, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Coe College. During his tenure at Coe he founded the Paul Smoker Trio with Ron Rohovit and Phil Haynes, and they began to receive international attention, recording five albums and playing jazz festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In late 1990 he moved to upstate New York, where he concentrated on teaching, composing, and performing.

Since the mid-80’s he made over fifty recordings as a leader of his own groups and with Anthony Braxton, Joint Venture, Vinny Golia, Lou Grassi, Herb Robertson, Jay Rosen, Adam Lane, Burton Greene, Dom Minasi, et al. He also worked with David Liebman, Evan Parker, Don Byron, John Tchicai, Art Pepper, Frank Rosolino, Barry Altschul, Gerry Hemingway, Ellery Eskelin, Borah Bergman, Mark Dresser, and on and on…

Paul directed the jazz studies program at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. As part of The Commission Project, he was a composer-in-residence at Cornell University and Rochester’s School of the Arts and East High School. The Paul Smoker Notet debuted in 2003 at Tonic in New York City, and included Smoker, guitarist Steve Salerno, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Phil Haynes. Notet recordings include Live At the Bop Shop, Cool Lives, and Landings. It Might Be Spring, a duo concert with Phil Haynes in Buffalo, NY, is also available.

Smoker was first elected to the annual Downbeat Critics' Poll in 1986, and has been the subject of features and reviews in Downbeat, Jazziz, Coda, Cadence, and many other sources, including discographies, encyclopedias, and texts.

A word about Paul Smoker in Jazz Rochester

Paul passed away on May 14, 2016 at his home in the Rochester, NY, area, surrounded by his family.

Tickets for FRIDAY evening are $25

Tickets for both nights are $40

View Event →
CELEBRATING SMOKER
May
4
7:30 PM19:30

CELEBRATING SMOKER

PAUL SMOKER (1941-2016) - TRUMPET, COMPOSER, EDUCATOR.

"What Paul Smoker produced on his horn was unheard of in these latitudes; his complete command of his instrument allowed him to play whatever extravaganza he would think of, harmonically as well as in terms of dynamics. Styles, modes and techniques of every era of the history of music -- Baroque and Bebop, Structuralism and Storyville, Blues and Berio… To the widely discussed question about the future development of the jazz trumpet, Paul Smoker's musical concept could definitely constitute a far-reaching answer." — Jazz Podium

Paul Smoker studied and performed both jazz and classical music while growing up in Davenport, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa (eventually receiving a DMA in trumpet) where one of his fellow students was David Sanborn. While in high school and college he played in the clubs across the Mississippi River in Rock Island and Moline, as well as Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, getting to work with Dodo Marmarosa (pianist with Charlie Parker), among others. He was also a member of the Iowa Brass Quintet, touring throughout the United States, and the University of Iowa Center for New Music.

As a trumpeter his influences included avant-garde classical sources as well as the jazz trumpet tradition, and also the saxophonists John Coltrane and Anthony Braxton. For over twenty years he taught trumpet, jazz, and 20th-century ‘classical’ music at the Universities of Iowa, Northern Iowa, Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Coe College. During his tenure at Coe he founded the Paul Smoker Trio with Ron Rohovit and Phil Haynes, and they began to receive international attention, recording five albums and playing jazz festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In late 1990 he moved to upstate New York, where he concentrated on teaching, composing, and performing.

Since the mid-80’s he made over fifty recordings as a leader of his own groups and with Anthony Braxton, Joint Venture, Vinny Golia, Lou Grassi, Herb Robertson, Jay Rosen, Adam Lane, Burton Greene, Dom Minasi, et al. He also worked with David Liebman, Evan Parker, Don Byron, John Tchicai, Art Pepper, Frank Rosolino, Barry Altschul, Gerry Hemingway, Ellery Eskelin, Borah Bergman, Mark Dresser, and on and on…

Paul directed the jazz studies program at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. As part of The Commission Project, he was a composer-in-residence at Cornell University and Rochester’s School of the Arts and East High School. The Paul Smoker Notet debuted in 2003 at Tonic in New York City, and included Smoker, guitarist Steve Salerno, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Phil Haynes. Notet recordings include Live At the Bop Shop, Cool Lives, and Landings. It Might Be Spring, a duo concert with Phil Haynes in Buffalo, NY, is also available.

Smoker was first elected to the annual Downbeat Critics' Poll in 1986, and has been the subject of features and reviews in Downbeat, Jazziz, Coda, Cadence, and many other sources, including discographies, encyclopedias, and texts.

A word about Paul Smoker in Jazz Rochester

Paul passed away on May 14, 2016 at his home in the Rochester, NY, area, surrounded by his family.

Tickets for Saturday evening are $25

Tickets for both nights are $40

View Event →
CHARLIE BALLANTINE
May
21
8:00 PM20:00

CHARLIE BALLANTINE

Charlie Ballantine - Guitar
Jon Cowherd - piano
Dave King - drums
Quinn Sternberg - bass

Named as one of the top 200 living guitarists by All About Jazz Magazine, Charlie Ballantine is acclaimed as one of the finest and most versatile  young guitarists on the scene today. JAZZ TIMES MAGAZINE hails his playing as “teeming with intricate grooves and maniacal precision his guitar work is both beautiful and complex” and VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE described his style by stating “Jazz, rock, and folk music peacefully coexist in Charlie Ballantine’s world”. 

   Equipped with an impressive body of original compositions on albums like “Vonnegut” and “Cold Coffee”, Ballantine also displays a great reverence for the jazz tradition through the inclusion of standards like ‘My One and Only Love’, ‘East of the Sun’ and an entire double album dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk released September 2021.  “In the vein of fellow guitarists like John Scofield, Bill Frisell and Julian Lage, Ballantine reconciles his educational background in jazz with the stylistic background of his instrument. He approaches the gratifying tonal and harmonic language of rock/roots with the groove, ambition and improvisational focus of a jazz musician” - (JAZZIZ MAGAZINE)

   After graduating from the Jacobs School of Music under the direction of David Baker, Ballantine relocated to Indianapolis and quickly developed a name for himself with a string of high energy performances at clubs like the Jazz Kitchen and Chatterbox Jazz Club. After releasing two solo albums Ballantine was able to attain global recognition with his award winning third album “Life is Brief: The Music of Bob Dylan” which ALL ABOUT JAZZ named in their top ten jazz albums of the year. “From the opening bars of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" it is clear that something special is happening” - (ALL ABOUT JAZZ) 

   Although primarily a front man for his own projects with tours and frequent appearances throughout the US and Canada at venues and festivals such as the Indianapolis Jazz Festival, The Winnipeg International Jazz Festival and The Elkhart Jazz Festival, Ballantine also has an extensive list of side man credits having performed with names like Rob Dixon, Emmett Cohen, and Amanda Gardier helping to further solidify him as a creative force and  put him in the highest of ranks as a performer.  

"Befitting a guitarist from America's heartland, Charlie Ballantine mixes jazz, folk-rock, surf/instro, blues, pop, and country into a simmering pot of guitar sound and style."

VISIT - Charlie Ballantine

View Event →
Michael Bisio/Timothy Hill Inside Voice/Outside Voice
Jun
2
8:00 PM20:00

Michael Bisio/Timothy Hill Inside Voice/Outside Voice

The title of this heart-stopping collaboration by Gloversville bassist Michael Bisio (Matthew Shipp Trio) and Beacon vocalist and acoustic guitarist Timothy Hill is rich in layered meaning. Recorded in one continuous take—with no edits or pauses—this sublime set takes its sweet, soft time meandering through jazz standards (Coleman's "Law Years," Coltrane's "Wise One"), Great American Songbook ballads (Cahn and Styne's "I Fall in Love Too Easily," Coots and Lewis's "For All We Know") and spontaneous originals, with everything moving freely and naturally between structure and improvisation—inside and outside. "[H]is expressive touch is distinctive," observes the New York Times of Bisio's deft technique, which is on glorious display in the solo "Bridge," while Hill's vocalizing draws on Chet Baker and the Tuvan and Hindustani styles he's studied. Carve out a quiet moment and, like the duo suggests, listen to this album in one sitting. You'll be deeply rewarded.

In a uniquely satisfying musical synthesis, singer/composer Timothy Hill weaves a natural purity of voice with threads of otherworldly abstract sound, blending seamlessly into a style that transcends genre.


Having performed with such diverse artists as John Cage, Bill Frisell, Jeff Buckley, Allen Ginsberg, Odetta, Pete Seeger, Madan Gopal Singh, Pauline Oliveros, Iva Bittova, Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Brad Mehldau, Hill's musical explorations span folk, jazz, world music, contemporary classical and improvisation.


With David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir, he has been a pioneer in the art of harmonic singing, prompting The New York Times critic Robert Palmer to praise Hill as "a virtuoso of the Tibetan chanting technique."


Hill has released three recordings of original songs - This Bright World, The Human Place, and Spirit's Body. He contributed to the Grammy-nominated spoken-word-with-music collection Pete Seeger: The Storm King, and appears on recordings by artists such as jazz pianist/composer Brad Mehldau, alt-rock chanteuse Katell Keineg, klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman, composer/cellist Robert Een, Irish traditional singer and flautist Cathal McConnell, and interspecies improviser/author David Rothenberg.

Hill performed on eight recordings by David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir, including their seminal work, Hearing Solar Winds. He leads or co-leads several ensembles performing original music, including New Cicada Trio with vocalist/violinist Iva Bittova and David Rothenberg, and Chimera, with Bittova, flautist Steve Gorn and bassist Michael Bisio. He has participated in premier performances under the direction of composers John Cage, Joe Maneri, Butch Morris and Carter Burwell.

Tickets are $20 in advance or at the door.

View Event →
BILL MACKAY
Jun
9
8:00 PM20:00

BILL MACKAY

Bill MacKay is an acclaimed guitarist, composer, and improviser based in Chicago whose music ranges freely across the experimental folk, rock, and avant-garde scenes. His creative, unpredictable approach to the guitar is augmented by his original approach to songwriting. He has been recording music since 2004 and is a prolific collaborator with artists across the musical spectrum. He is best known to rock fans as the founder of the bands Sounds of Now, Broken Things, and Darts & Arrows. He described his music loosely as "garage jazz" for 2005's Bill Mackay & Sounds of Now. The set's raw production sensibilities reveal intuitive improvisations, canny group interplay, and influences steeped in rock, blues, and folk, and set the stage for 2007's meld of hard rock and free jazz Swim to the River. MacKay's sideman duties and other projects led to the formation of Darts & Arrows, who issued a pair of albums between 2010 and 2012, before his collaborative projects claimed most of his time. He found time to release a tribute acoustic offering on Tompkins Square, Sunrise: Bill Mackay Plays the Songs of John Hulburt, worked in a duo with Ryley Walker, and in 2017 signed his own deal with Drag City.

MacKay was born in Tarrytown, New York on April 3, 1968. He grew up in Rochester, New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a trumpeter (both parents were fans of Broadway show tunes, classical music, and jazz). His early influences include the Beatles, Frédéric Chopin, John and Alice Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, and Laura Nyro, among others, and his literary influences include beat poets Kenneth Patchen and Jack Kerouac, Edgar Allan Poe, and Antonin Artaud. In Rochester, he briefly studied classical guitar with Kevin Morse, and in Pittsburgh he was in the music program at Chartiers Valley High School from 1982-1984 and Penn Hills High School, graduating in 1986, taking further instruction with guitarists Eric Susoeff and Joe Negri. MacKay attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston for the next two years and took a course in improvisation and composition with pianist, violinist, composer, and singer Alice Orpheus at the New England Conservatory in 2005.

Tickets: $15 in advance or at the door. Seating is limited to 50 so get your tickets early.

View Event →
Ricky Ford Quartet
Jun
14
8:00 PM20:00
In-Store Concerts

Ricky Ford Quartet

Tenor saxophonist Ricky Ford studied at the New England Conservatory, with, among others, Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake; while still in his early 20s, he toured with both the Duke Ellington Orchestra (under Mercer Ellington's leadership) and Charles Mingus. By the 1980s, he was considered one of the leading tenor saxophonists of his generation. He worked with Dannie Richmond's Quintet, Lionel Hampton, Mal Waldron, Beaver Harris and Abdullah Ibrahim’s Ekaya, and also more than a dozen albums as a leader. He has lived in France since the 1990s.

Thurman Barker Grew up in Chicago in the 1950s, Thurman Barker was exposed to the city’s rich musical heritage, regularly hearing R&B, doo-wop, soul, jazz, and blues. Accordingly, he began his professional career at age 17 by anchoring the rhythm section for blues legend Mighty Joe Young. He then attended the American Conservatory of Music and later Roosevelt University, where he received classical training. While serving as percussionist for the city’s Shubert Theatre throughout much of the 1960s, Barker played for numerous national touring productions, including Hair, The Wiz, Grease, One Mo’ Time, and Ain’t Misbehavin’. A versatile drummer and percussionist, he also performed with singers Billy Eckstine, Marvin Gaye, Bette Midler, and Vicki Carr, and worked with classical groups like the Chicago Chamber Players and the New York City Opera. Perhaps Barker’s most notable musical experience has been with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), an organization founded in the 1960s to promote innovative music and its players. A charter member of the group, Barker first appeared in AACM productions with Joseph Jarman’s pioneering ensemble. He then went on to play with many other members, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Amina Claudine Meyers, Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, and Henry Threadgill. In the 1970s and ’80s, after moving to New York, Barker worked with jazz giants Cecil Taylor, Sam Rivers and Billy Bang, touring with their groups and recording numerous albums with them. Most recently, he has performed with trombonist and composer George Lewis at the Festival International Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Quebec. Since creating Uptee Records in the late 1980s, Barker has released five recordings as a leader, including Voyage (1987), The Way I Hear It (1999), Time Factor (2001), Strike Force (2004), and Rediscovered (2008). In 1994, his work “Dialogue,” commissioned by Mutable Music, premiered at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra premiered Barker’s chamber piece “Expansions” in May 1999, and that same year he became a lecturer at Smolny University in St. Petersburg, Russia. Barker has taught jazz history and performance at Bard College since 1993. Through his efforts to develop the program, he was appointed professor of jazz studies in June 2016.

Tony Marino has been playing the bass, that is acoustic and electric, since he was in high school when he switched from guitar so that he might participate in the music curriculum.

Soon after, he started his professional music career as the house bass player at clubs and resorts in the Pocono and Catskill Mountains providing back-up to a myriad of well-known entertainers. Since then, he has toured internationally with the Dave Liebman Band. He also has played several times at SUNY Orange with the Chris Parker Quartet and Septet. In addition, he is the bass in the String Trio of New York. Recently, he recorded CDs with The Kaleidoscope Quintet with world-renowned saxophonist Joe Lovano, and with Expansions, Dave Liebman’s Quintet, which performed at Dizzys in NYC.

Marino’s versatility and wide range of musicality has afforded him opportunities to accompany and record with numerous artists from jazz to folk to pop. The bass is a part of his being. When he is playing, Marino and his bass are one and the instrument is his voice.

John Kordalewski is the leader, arranger and pianist for the Makanda Project, a 13-piece group performing previously unrecorded Makanda Ken McIntyre compositions. He has performed with musicians such as Charlie Rouse, Cab Calloway, Julius Hemphill, Odean Pope, Ricky Ford, Carl Grubbs, Webster Young, Byard Lancaster and Oliver Lake. For many years, he led a trio featuring Boston drummer Bobby Ward. He has conducted clinics and workshops at many colleges and universities, most recently at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa, where his arrangements of compositions by pianist Ndikho Xaba and trumpeter Feya Faku have been performed. He is also currently collaborating with saxophonist Chico Freeman, writing first-ever big band arrangements of Freeman’s compositions.

Tickets: $30

View Event →
AARON IRWIN TRIO
Jul
1
8:00 PM20:00

AARON IRWIN TRIO

Aaron Irwin - sax
Mike Bagetta - guitar
Jeff Hirshfield - drums

Saxophonist, multi-woodwind player, and composer Aaron Irwin is from Decatur, IL. Known as a lyrical alto saxophonist and a compelling original composer (Steve Futterman, The New Yorker), Irwin is a sought-after commodity in both the jazz and commercial worlds. His latest recording Music for Sextet was released on Innova Recordings in January of 2021. He has seven other recordings as a leader with various instrumentations. In addition to his own groups, Irwin has performed with many leading jazz voices in the New York jazz community including the Grammy-nominated Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Bob Sabin’s Tentet, The Mike Fahie Jazz Orchestra, the mixed wind group Weathervest, as well as pop performers Kristen Chenoweth, Rufus Wainwright, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and The Roots. Prior to the global pandemic shutdown, Irwin maintained a busy schedule as a freelance musician, performing in jazz clubs, concert halls, and Broadway theatres working with many of New York’s finest musicians and bands.

Irwin holds a bachelor’s degree in music from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and a master’s degree in music from the University of Miami in Miami, Florida. He is a dedicated educator with over 15 years of teaching experience and currently serves as an adjunct saxophone professor at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland, and woodwind instructor at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two cats.

View Event →
Joe Fiedler - Erik Lawrence solo and duo performance
Jul
19
8:00 PM20:00

Joe Fiedler - Erik Lawrence solo and duo performance

Every summer I celebrate my birthday with a concert of my friends from the jazz world. This July is no exception. Here are two of my favorite humans and awesome musicians. Join us for cake and jazz:)

The New York Times has pinpointed a “feeling for a rugged but jaunty experimentalism” in the music of trombone veteran Joe Fiedler, a figure as esteemed in New York jazz circles as he is in the Afro-Caribbean and pop scenes. He’s an adventurous improviser and bandleader whose recordings range from solo trombone (The Howland Sessions) to quintet (Like, Strange) to trombone/tuba quartet (Big Sackbut, Sackbut Stomp, Live in Graz — “the intersection of gutbucket blues and avant-garde audacity,” JazzTimes) to chordless trio (The Crab, Sacred Chrome Orb, I’m In, Joe Fiedler Plays the Music of Albert Mangelsdorff).

Fiedler’s two Sesame Street-themed albums to date, Open Sesame and Fuzzy and Blue, pay homage to the beloved children’s show where Fiedler has worked as a music director for nearly 15 years. With bold and inventive arrangements of timeless music by Joe Raposo, Jeffrey Moss and more, Fiedler grapples with the legacy of the storied show of which he’s become an integral part. Fuzzy and Blue, opined London Jazz News, is “unnervingly satisfying — hitting a note between scripted nostalgia and improvised jazz that [is] both exciting and comforting at the same time.”

Erik Lawrence has toured the world as a saxophonist, flutist and composer. He currently performs solo and with his own group, Erik Lawrence Trio and Hipmotism and co-leads a band with his Jazz vocalist sister, Marya Lawrence, featuring Cameron Brown on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums.

Erik has often been found support of a wide variety of legendary artists, counting his time with masters from many genres as part of his foundation, among them:  American music masters: Levon Helm, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Miles, David Amram, Henry Butler; from the Spiritual music world Yungchen Lamo, Nawhang Khechog, Gabrielle Roth. He has gratitude for a more than 20 year association with modern jazz master Steven Bernstein and has played and recorded with Spin Doctors, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket, Roger Waters, Joan Osborne, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Aaron Neville, Big Chief Russell Moore, The Levin Brothers (Tony Levin and Pete Levin), and with the Jose Limon Dance Company.  In addition Erik has worked with tea masters playing Tea Ceremony meditation music. 

View Event →
BILL KIRCHEN
Jul
30
8:00 PM20:00

BILL KIRCHEN

Upon tallying how many decades he’s worked as a professional guitar slinger, Telecaster master Bill Kirchen quips, “Well, they don't make 50 years like they used to.” They don’t often make careers like his, either.

From performing with his Who Knows Pickers jug band in Ann Arbor High School’s senior talent show (also on the program: the future Iggy Pop), to birthing the Americana genre with the original “hippie country band,” Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, this affable Austinite has been everywhere, man, flying alongside some of the planet’s coolest cats — including the Jesus of Cool, Nick Lowe, and Lowe’s old protégé, Elvis Costello.

Kirchen has toured the world with Lowe, who produced an album by Kirchen’s post-Airmen band, the Moonlighters, and Costello recruited Kirchen for high-profile gigs like the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival — and even named his festival band after Kirchen’s Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods album. Lowe appears on that 2006 album, and its 2010 follow-up, Word to the Wise, along with Costello, Maria Muldaur, Dan Hicks and other luminaries. For more on Bill visit www.billkirchen.com

Tickets on sale soon

View Event →
Sidewalk Sale 2024
Aug
7
to Aug 14
Store Events

Sidewalk Sale 2024

8 days of huge deals on records, CDS, 45s, tapes, & books!

It’s sidewalk sale time again, kids! (Indoors, as usual, of course.) We’ve boxed up thousands of “less-than-perfect” items from our inventory for you to browse & enjoy! You’ll find a wide variety of items from every genre of music regularly stocked in our store.

Get there early to get a good shot at some of the best titles. We guarantee you’ll find some real gems during this once-a-year clearance sale.

  • Regular inventory is not included in the Sidewalk Sale

  • Days 1–3 (Wednesday 8/7 – Saturday 8/10): All sale items $1 each

  • Days 4–6 (Sunday 8/11 –Monday 8/12): All sale items 50 cents each

  • Day 7 (Tuesday, 8/14): 5 sale items for $1

  • Day 8 (Wednesday, 8/14): All remaining Sidewalk Sale items are FREE!

Bop Shop Records will be open 7 days a week during this sale:
Sunday–Wednesday: 12pm–5pm
Thursday–Saturday: 11am–6pm

View Event →
Soft Machine
Sep
28
8:00 PM20:00

Soft Machine

Soft Machine concert rescheduled

SOFT MACHINE 2024

JOHN ETHERIDGE - guitar
THEO TRAVIS - flute, sax, Fender Rhodes piano
FREDDY BAKER - bass guitar
ASAF SIRKIS - drums

Soft Machine is a journey through time and space and their glorious artistic past, but also through a classy present, with a band that, despite the changes in members, maintains intact that unique style of psychedelic jazz that combines power and subtlety and that is, almost six decades after its formation, a registered trademark of one of the  greatest contemporary instrumental bands. - ROCKAXIS MAGAZINE, CHILE

The band enjoys life on that perilous bridge conjoining  experimentation and tradition.- NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD

Tickets will go on sale soon

View Event →
Mike Baggetta solo guitar
Apr
21
8:00 PM20:00

Mike Baggetta solo guitar

“…vintage twang in service of Americana-meets exploratory Jazz-Psych…”
-Rolling Stone

“Baggetta is a player of immense subtlety across all dimension, working with an impressive palette of tones … distilling Fripp’s loopscapes with hints of John Fahey.”
-The Wire

“Mike Baggetta makes stealthy, mysterious music … he’s trying to do something personal with collective improvisation without ever getting in the way of beauty.”
-New York Times

“Guitarist Mike Baggetta bends notes, and his genre, to make music that sounds like life.”
-Premier Guitar

“Mike Baggetta is a genre-blurring guitar hero…at the forefront of an army of guitar innovators.”
-JazzTimes

“…a kind of post-Frisellian sonic explorer … with his wild whammy-bar articulations, ambient looping and rippling arpeggios … full of subversive surprises”
-Slate Magazine

In addition to leading the post-genre power trio -mssv- (with Stephen Hodges on drums and Mike Watt on bass) along several US tours and multiple album releases, and releasing 2 full length albums with Watt and legendary drummer Jim Keltner, all on BIG EGO Records, Baggetta has had the pleasure to make music all over the world with a wide range of visionary musicians across many generations including David Torn, Nels Cline, Psychic Temple, Jeff Coffin, Henry Kaiser, Petra Haden, Rev. Fred Lane, Joseph C. Philips’ Numinous, Imani Uzuri, Viktor Krauss, Donny McCaslin, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, J Mascis, David Wax Museum, Julian Lage, Jon Irabagon, Jerome Harris, Eivind Opsvik, Jeremy Udden, and Ruth Brown among many others. Baggetta is an Endorsing Artist for Koll Guitars, Benson Amps and D’Addario Strings.

mikebaggetta.com

View Event →
CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO - A Jazz & Gospel Concert at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church
Apr
14
3:30 PM15:30

CYRUS CHESTNUT TRIO - A Jazz & Gospel Concert at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church

Bop Shop Records has always been a big supporter of other events in and around Rochester. We are delighted to be of assistance for this jazz event here in town.

Acclaimed jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut brings his trio to Rochester, New York on Sunday, April 14, 2024 for a unique musical experience at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Located at 141 Adams Street, the church will host the Cyrus Chestnut Trio’s two 60-minute sets that will pay tribute to the rich traditions of straight-ahead jazz and gospel music.

About Cyrus Chestnut:

A masterful jazz pianist, Cyrus Chestnut balances his lithe technical skill with a
robust, soulful style that speaks to his deep gospel roots and love of swinging
hard bop. Raised in the church, he learned how to infuse his swinging, classically
trained style with a warm gospel sound, a style that first marked his work as a
sideman, backing legendary vocalists Jon Hendricks and Betty Carter, as well as
with instrumentalists like Donald Harrison and Wynton Marsalis. Chestnut further honed his craft as a sideman with other legendary leaders including Terence Blanchard, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Joe Williams and Dizzy Gillespie. Vocalist Betty Carter told Chestnut to “take chances...play things I’ve never heard”; Chestnut’s acclaimed career reflects adherence to that advice.

About the concert:

The Mt. Olivet Baptist Church doors will open at 2:30 pm; the first set will begin at 3:30 pm. This set will take patrons on a straight-ahead jazz exploration of familiar classics and innovative compositions. Following a 20-minute intermission, the second set will inspire people with heartening gospel music. Led by Cyrus Chestnut's masterful piano playing, the jazz and gospel music promise to be uplifting.

"We are thrilled to bring the Cyrus Chestnut Trio to Rochester for an unforgettable musical event." say The Friends of Lorraine Clement. “The concert will celebrate the rich heritage of jazz and gospel, uniting fans of each genre through the universal language of music." 100% of the net concert proceeds will be donated to The Lorraine Clement Opportunity Scholarship (Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Theta Alpha Zeta Chapter) and The Mount Olivet Baptist Church Youth Cultural Enrichment Trip.

Ticket Availability: you can access Tickets here.

In person @ Mt. Olivet Baptist Church: On-line using the QR Code: - Monday through Friday; 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
In person @ Bop Shop Records, 1460 Monroe Ave, Rochester, NY

Concert Details:

  • Date: Sunday, April 14, 2024

  • Location: Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, 141 Adams Street, Rochester, NY 14608

  • Doors Open: 2:30 pm; Seating: General Admission - “First come, first seated”

  • First Set – Jazz Ministry: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

  • Intermission: 20 minutes

  • Second Set – Gospel Ministry: 4:50 pm – 5:50 pm

  • Ticket Price: Advance purchase - $40; At the door - $45

View Event →
Stew Cutler Trio
Mar
28
7:30 PM19:30
Lovin' Cup Concerts

Stew Cutler Trio

In a career spanning over 4 decades, jazz/blues/gospel guitarist/composer Stew Cutler has established himself as a bandleader, composer and teacher. With 7 record releases to his credit as a bandleader and countless sessions as a sideman, Cutler’s prolific career is a walk-through musical history.

Stew Cutler was born and raised in New York City and through his innate musical talents, found the guitar at an early age. The guitar and Cutler were destined to be together and at 19 years old, Cutler landed his first job with blues legend Z.Z. Hill. Over time, Cutler immersed himself in studying music and soon thereafter was working with instrumental avant-garde artists Bobby Previte and Eliot Sharp. Cutler moved to Woodstock, NY and worked with bassist Harvey Brooks along with many well-known artists that were emerging in that musical kaleidoscope. 

Cutler has worked as a sideman with many musical greats including Percy Sledge, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Fontella Bass (featured on Bass' Grammy nominated album No Ways Tired), Earl King, Jimmy Castor and many more. Cutler has also worked with jazz greats David Sanborn, Bill Frisell, Lester Bowie, Charlie Hunter, Wayne Horvitz to name a few as well as artists as diverse as Meatloaf, Jeb Loy Nichols, David Fanshawe, Sweet Georgia Brown, and Jimmy Dale Gilmore among others. 

https://stewcutler.com/home

Abilene Bar & Lounge (map)

Doors 4pm, Music 7:30pm

Cover: $15

Special Thanks to Bop Shop Records. Check out https://bopshop.com/about-us

View Event →
Anna Webber's Shimmer Wince
Mar
16
8:00 PM20:00

Anna Webber's Shimmer Wince

Anna Webber (b. 1984) is a flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work live in the aesthetic overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. In May 2021 she released Idiom, a double album featuring both a trio and a large ensemble, and a follow-up to her critically-acclaimed release Clockwise. That album, which the Wall Street Journal called "visionary and captivating," was voted #6 Best Album of 2019 in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll, who described it as “heady music [that] appeals to the rest of the body.” Her 2020 release, Both Are True (Greenleaf Music), co-led with saxophonist/composer Angela Morris, was named a top ten best release of 2020 by The New York Times. She was recently named a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow and was voted the top “Rising Star” flutist in the 2020 Downbeat Critic’s Poll. .

View Event →
TuBari
Mar
15
8:00 PM20:00

TuBari

TuBari came together by the love and admiration for the late Howard Johnson shared by saxophonist Erik Lawrence and tuba player Keith Hartshorn-Walton. Along with the very expressive and creative drummer Bram Kincheloe, they have come together in a unique ensemble that features Johnson's two main instruments. Erik and Keith were both performers at a gala tribute concert in Howard's honour in 2019, where they decided they wanted to work together in the future. Erik visited Ottawa the following year for a series of concerts, and Bram was added for a proposed recording that was cancelled due to the pandemic. They persisted, however, producing various projects completed at a distance and combined virtually. They were featured performers at this year's virtual International Tuba and Euphonium Conference. Their music draws on soulful jazz and rock classics, original compositions, as well as wild jams and beautiful lyricism that will surprise expectations.

Erik Lawrence: Erik has often been found support of a wide variety of legendary artists, counting his time with masters from many genres as part of his foundation, among them:  American music masters: Levon Helm, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Sharrock, Hubert Sumlin, Buddy Miles, David Amram, Henry Butler; from the Spiritual music world Yungchen Lamo, Nawhang Khechog, Gabrielle Roth. He has gratitude for a more than 20 year association with modern jazz master Steven Bernstein and has played and recorded with Spin Doctors, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket, Roger Waters, Joan Osborne, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Aaron Neville, Big Chief Russell Moore, The Levin Brothers (Tony Levin and Pete Levin), and with the Jose Limon Dance Company.  In addition Erik has worked with tea masters playing Tea Ceremony meditation music. 

Bram Kincheloe is a professional musician, writer, and small business owner. He attended Manhattan School of Music. While at Manhattan, attending on a Zildjian scholarship, he studied with Justin DiCioccio. During this time, he also studied composition and piano with Garry Dial, and was involved in various recording and performing projects headed by Dick Oatts, Steve Slagel, Kenny Wollesen, and many more. Through the years playing jazz, he has been honored to play with Lee Konitz, Branford Marsalis, Ambrose Akinmusire, Wynton Marsalis, Ben Street, Steve Cardenas and many others.

Keith Hartshorn Originally from Winnipeg, Keith toured extensively with the Foothills Brass Quintet.  He has performed with Clark Terry, Louis Bellson, Quinsin Nachoff, as well as orchestras in Edmonton, Calgary, Oshawa and Kingston.  In 2019, he was invited to participate in a gala tribute concert to Jazz tuba legend Howard Johnson. In 2021, he was featured at the 2021 ITEA Virtual Tuba-Euphonium Conference with Tubari, as part of the “After Hours” series. In Ottawa he can be found in bands as diverse as The Bank Street Bonbons, Safe Low Limit (an all-bass clef jazz group), Linsey Wellman’s Wedding and Funeral Trio, and particularly Mélanie E., a quartet featuring his wife Mélanie Hartshorn-Walton on French Jazz vocals.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1752641698414535&ref=external

Tickets: $20

View Event →
DAIMH
Mar
13
8:00 PM20:00

DAIMH

Scottish folk band Dàimh (pronounced “dive”) returns to Rochester! Gentle ballads in Gaelic, powerful pipe-driven instrumentals, and everything in between. Two-time winners of Folk Band of the Year at the ALBA Scots trad music awards, with eight critically acclaimed recordings to their credit, they’re currently about halfway to their goal of performing on every populated island in Scotland…which apparently is 94 islands! But we’re delighted that they still made time for a USA tour.

Dàimh, the Gaelic word for connection, perfectly describes the electrifying musical interplay

between the individual band members and portrays the interaction with audiences attending their

breath-taking live shows around the world.

The band features renowned Gaelic singer Ellen McDonald, along with Angus McKenzie (bagpipes, whistles), Ross Martin (guitar), Gabe McVarish (fiddle) and Murdo Cameron (mandolin, mandola, accordion).

$25 at the door and on line

View Event →
CHARLIE PARR
Mar
11
8:00 PM20:00

CHARLIE PARR

 In the music of Charlie Parr, there is a sincere conviction and earnest drive to create. The Minnesota-born guitarist, songwriter, and interpreter of traditional music has released 19 albums over two decades and has been known to perform up to 275 shows a year. Parr is a folk troubadour in the truest sense: taking to the road between shows, writing and rewriting songs as he plays, fueled by a belief that music is eternal and cannot be claimed or adequately explained. The bluesman poet pulls closely from the sights and sounds around him, his lyrical craftsmanship built by his influences. The sounds from his working-class upbringing—including Folkways legends such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie—imbue Parr’s music with stylistic echoes of blues and folk icons of decades past. Parr sees himself merely as a continuer of a folk tradition: “I feel like I stand on a lot of big shoulders,” he said in an interview. “I hope that I’ve brought a little bit of myself to the music.” 

With a discography simultaneously transcendental in nature and grounded in roots music, Charlie Parr is the humble master of the 21st century folk tradition. Parr started recording in Duluth in 2002, where he lives today. Life in the port town on Lake Superior has a way of bleeding into his work the same way his childhood in Austin, Minnesota does. Parr self-released his debut album, Criminals and Sinners, and did the same for his sophomore album 1922 (2002). With growing popularity abroad, Parr signed with Red House Records in 2015, where he recorded break-out albums Stumpjumper (2015) and Dog (2017). Parr’s music has an overwhelming sense of being present and mindful, and his sound is timeless.

Parr’s mastery of his craft is only more apparent when contextualized within the history of folk tradition of which Parr has dedicated his practice The land and lives around and intersecting with Parr have always influenced him, from the hills and valleys of Hollandale, Minnesota to the Depression-era stories from his father. Parr strives to listen to everything: “I don’t see that I’d ever be capable of creating anything if it weren’t for these inspirations and influences, books and music as well as the weather and random interactions with strangers and animals. So, the well never runs dry as long as my eyes and ears are open,” Parr said in a 2020 interview. Before he was even 10 years old Parr was rummaging through his father’s record collection—sometimes drawing dinosaurs on the vinyl sleeves—and listening to country, folk, and blues legends, many of whom are staples in the Folkways catalog. When Parr sings and plays his resonator or 12-string, you can hear influences like Mance Lipscomb, Charley Patton, Spinder John Koerner, Rev. Gary Davis, and Dock Boggs. This is especially true in his playing, when, after a diagnosis of focal dystonia, Parr turned to greats like Davis, Doc Watson, and Booker White for two-finger picking inspiration. Gifted a 1965 Gibson B-45 12-string by his father, Parr has never had a formal lesson and learned by to listening records and watching musicians he admired. 

Parr’s first album with Smithsonian Folkways, Last of Better Days Head (2021), foregrounded his lyrical craftsmanship and sophisticated bluesman confidence, with spare production highlighting Parr’s mastery of guitar and elevating his poetry. Last of Better Days Ahead is a portrait of how Parr saw the world in that moment, reflecting on time and memories that have past while holding an enduring desire to be present. In his 2024 release, Little Sun, Parr weaves together stories celebrating music, community, and communing with nature. Putting forth an ambitious and raw album that exemplifies the best of Parr's sound: a blend of the blues and folk traditions he continues to carry with him and the steadfast originality of a poet. 

Get a little taste of Charlie Parr here

View Event →
AOIFE SCOTT TRIO featuring Andy Meaney (guitar, backing vocals) and Joanna Hyde (fiddle)
Mar
6
8:00 PM20:00

AOIFE SCOTT TRIO featuring Andy Meaney (guitar, backing vocals) and Joanna Hyde (fiddle)

Aoife Scott is an award winning folk singer and songwriter based in Dublin, Ireland.  

Born into the legendary Black Family, Aoife is steadily rising to the top of the traditional and folk music scene, and has long enjoyed success as an established artist in her own right. Fragile and ethereal one minute and strong and vibrant the next, her dynamic and profound vocals explore the emotional depths of her lyrics, leaving the audience entranced.  

Aoife has a unique sound. Her music has a broad creative scope but is largely influenced by her own roots in folk and traditional Irish music. 

Following her highly celebrated debut album, Carry The Day, which was triumphantly launched at Temple Bar Tradfest in 2016 to rapturous acclaim, Aoife Scott released her much anticipated second album “HomeBird” in January at the Button Factory at Temple Bar Trad Festival 2020.  

It’s only a few short years since Aoife’s single “All Along the Wild Atlantic Way” also hit the number 1 slot, knocking Ed Sheeran off the top spot and was named “Song of the Year” at the Irish Folk Music Awards in 2017. While in America she received the award of Emerging Artist of the Year at the Live Ireland Awards (US) in 2018. Aoife’s previous appearances at Lovin’ Cup have won her many fans in the Rochester area.. 

$25 at the door and on line.

View Event →
Remedy Trio
Mar
3
8:00 PM20:00
In-Store Concerts

Remedy Trio

The debut of “Remedy” on the Polish label FSR was voted among the “Best Releases of 2021” in New York City Jazz Record’s annual poll. The trio includes trumpeter Thomas Heberer, bassist Joe Fonda, and drummer Joe Hertenstein, who all contribute compositions to the repertoire.

The band was founded during the early stages of the Coronavirus pandemic in the summer of 2020 in Brooklyn and is currently in the process of finalizing their second album. The trio draws on influences from World music, jazz, and contemporary classical music.

Tickets: $20

View Event →
KRISTIN KORB with BOB SNEIDER
Feb
26
8:00 PM20:00

KRISTIN KORB with BOB SNEIDER

There are few bassists who can sing and there are even fewer who can do it well. Kristin Korb is one of those artists who make you forget that she is playing the bass when you hear her crystalline voice. Encouraged as a young musician by Ray Brown, Korb follows in his footsteps with swinging bass lines, engaging arrangements, and a joy on the bandstand that fills the room.

Kristin is thrilled to be returning to Rochester. Her last visit was as the Artistic Director for the International Society of Bassists convention in 2013 at Eastman School of Music. During the convention, she heard Rochester’s Jazz Ambassador, Bob Sneider, and knew that they had to play together at some point. Now's the time.

https://www.kristinkorb.com

Video (Groove Merchant): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eumml8-meI

Tickets: $15 $10 for students at the door.

View Event →
MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE DO THE KILLING
Feb
23
8:00 PM20:00

MOSTLY OTHER PEOPLE DO THE KILLING

Ron Stabinsky - piano and Nord electronics
Moppa Elliott - bass
Kevin Shea - drums and Nord electronics

Each day, the earth generates numerous destructive and creative events, many of which go by unnoticed by humankind. Volcanoes erupt beneath the sea, glaciers advance and retreat, microorganisms mutate and adapt, yet only when these events disrupt our lives do we call them disasters. A disaster is an anthropological event measured in its human impact, avoidability or inevitability, and our response. Disasters lay bare our values and risk-acceptance: it is a choice to live in a flood zone, to extract natural resources, to rebuild, to make a free-jazz album… Mostly Other People Do the Killing has chosen to do just that: make audible the experience of disaster.

The partial meltdown of reactor number 2 at Three Mile Island in 1979, immortalized in the film masterpiece X-Men Origins: Wolverine by Gavin Hood, looms large in the high-cultural fabric of Pennsylvania. Bassist and composer Moppa Elliott’s nuclear re-engineering of the bugaloo is audible in the contrapuntal melodic lines and finely honed electronic sounds, anticipating a future of [nuclear] fusion. Rather than explain the disaster, Elliott’s composition imagines the event backwards, starting with the chaos and high-energy radiation of a nuclear meltdown and slowly achieves containment, as in the “bombs-in-reverse” sequence of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5.

View Event →
STICK MEN
Feb
20
8:00 PM20:00
Lovin' Cup Concerts

STICK MEN

Stick Men is a progressive rock band created from musicians with extensive experience playing together. Pat Mastelotto and Tony Levin are the rhythm section of the legendary band King Crimson. Mastelotto is in demand all over the world as the premier drummer for progressive rock. Levin plays the unusual instrument, the 12 string Chapman Stick, in Crimson, and with Peter Gabriel and others. Markus Reuter is a composer/guitarist who designed and plays his own unique touch style guitar.

Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto, the powerhouse bass and drums of the group King Crimson for some years, bring that tradition to all their playing. Levin plays the Chapman Stick, from which the band takes it’s name. Having bass and guitar strings, the Chapman Stick functions at times like two instruments. Markus Reuter plays his self-designed touch style guitar – again covering much more ground than a guitar or a bass. And Mastelotto’s drumming encompasses not just the acoustic kit, but a unique electronic setup too, allowing him to add loops, samples, percussion, and more.

CONCERT HELD AT LOVIN’ CUP BISTRO AND BREWS 300 Park Point Dr, Rochester, NY

Tickets: $30 advance / $35 day of show

Tickets on sale now!

View Event →
ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE
Feb
12
8:00 PM20:00

ETHNIC HERITAGE ENSEMBLE

Kahil El’Zabar – drums, percussion

Corey Wilkes – trumpet

Alex Harding – baritone saxophone

A leading proponent of the AACM’s “ancient to the future” philosophy, multi-instrumentalist Kahil El’Zabar has led various incarnations of the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble since 1973, one year after returning from his studies at the University of Ghana. His goal was to combine concepts of African American music-making with the roots of traditional African music to produce something that carried the music into the 21st century and beyond. Half a century later, this legendary band is still serving people worldwide with their special brand of 21st century Griot music. He’s recorded with Nina Simone, Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, and many more.

EHE was formed in 1974 shortly after Sir Kahil El'Zabar graduated from Lake Forest College, with the goal “To combine concepts of African American music with its earlier roots in traditional African music, to produce new motifs and sounds true to their origins yet rmly pointed in a new artistic direction ”of enlightenment and deep listening". Half a century later and the rich, compelling, ever-evolving sound they are known for, is still going strong. Together with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble is one of the two remaining original groups active in the world today that were nurtured in the AACM( Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).

In other words, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble has a strong rhythmic foundation, innovative harmonics and counterpoint, well-balanced interplay and polyphony among the players for highly developed ensemble dynamics. They are strong individual soloists with an in-depth grasp of music history, originality, fearlessness and deep spirituality. Alongside multi- faceted El’Zabar, the EHE’s current line-up includes Corey Wilkes on trumpet, who has worked with numerous jazz masters, including Wynton Marsalis, Kurt Elling, and multi- instrumentalist Alex Harding on baritone sax, who has performed with Dollar Brand, Julius Hemphill Sun Ra, and Fela The Musical. They whip up an electrifying mix of spiritual jazz and African rhythms built around fundamental brass improvisations and a swing-induced groove.

The resulting trance-like fervor, transports one into a mind opening journey of spiritually enlightened deep listening.

Tickets $25 advance & at the door.

View Event →
WES LEWIS QUARTET
Feb
5
8:00 PM20:00

WES LEWIS QUARTET

Wes Lewis - Sax
Derek Lewis - Piano
Sabu Adeyola - Bass
John Bacon Jr. - Drums

Wesley (Wes) Lewis is a saxophonist, composer, and arranger based in New Haven, CT. He has studied under multiple Grammy award winning musicians including Wayne Escoffery, Abraham Burton, and George Caldwell. Arriving in New Haven CT in 2019, Wes quickly made a name for himself via performances at the Yale School of Music, and as a principal member of the Yale Jazz Ensemble and Yale Jazz Combos. In 2023, Wes performed Charles Mingus' behemoth composition, Epitaph, alongside the Grammy winning Mingus Big Band, under the direction of Kuumba Frank Lacy and Wayne Escoffery. Other recent cornerstones of Wes' musical achievement include performances at Dizzy's (Jazz at Lincoln Center) alongside tenor saxophone giant George Coleman, as well as a series of sound baths commissioned by NXTHVN, the gallery founded by artist and MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship recipient Titus Kaphar. In September of 2023, Wes was awarded the Mellon Foundation's "Artist Corps" grant, providing $20,000 toward the creation of the New Haven Composers Spotlight. The Spotlight aims to reduce the segmentation between musical communities of New Haven, CT, by commissioning a large ensemble to perform the works of local BIPOC musicians. Wes is the primary curator and director for this project.

Bassist Sabu Adeyola’s commitment to preserving the jazz legacy is evident in every note he plays. His collaborations with jazz luminaries like Randy Weston, Roy Haynes, and Gary Burton not only showcase his immense talent but also honor the rich heritage of jazz music. Sabu’s performances are a testament to the enduring power of jazz, a genre that continues to captivate audiences across generations. His journey as a jazz virtuoso has been nothing short of extraordinary. Throughout his illustrious career, he has shared the stage and studio with an illustrious array of industry elites. From performances with Abbey Lincoln and Dexter Gordon to mind-blowing collaborations with Ahmad Jamal and Grover Washington Jr.

Tickets: $15 in advance or at the door

View Event →
The John Bacon Quintet
Jan
27
8:00 PM20:00

The John Bacon Quintet

JBQ is a modern jazz group primarily playing original compositions that blend Hard Bop and modern excursions. The group began as a trio in 2018 quickly evolving to a quartet then quintet incorporating trumpet, saxophone, quitar, bass, drums. Their 2023 release "Revolution Blues" features inspired solos, melodic tunes and deep grooves. JBQ is popular in Buffalo area venues like Pause Art House and a steady gig at Duende in Silo City. In addition they have played high profile venues Kleinhans Music Hall and Artpark.

The Buffalo New York based group is led by drummer and composer John Bacon known for his work with Roswell Rudd, Don Menza, Bobby Militello, Bobby Previte and many Western New York ensembles. As a composer he has received grants from NYFA and NYSCA and works of various genres have been recorded and released. Groups he has led or co-led include The Buffalo Jazz Composers Workshop, The New Jazz Orchestra of Buffalo, Multi Jazz Dimensions, Ine Maelstrom Percussion tnsemble, Star People and Ine Morgan Street Stompers. He teaches Jazz and Percussion at SUNY Fredonia and Ub.

Elliot Scozzaro is an alto saxophonist who has made a mark on the Buffalo Jazz scene through steady gigs and active performing with his trio, quartet, quintet and tentet. He toured with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and currently performs with 80s rocker Al Stewart. He's also an educator and composer whose work Is featured in the JB0 repertoire. He teaches In the Jazz program at SUNY Fredonia.

John Hasselback Ill is a talented trumpeter, composer and mixing engineer. In addition to his multi-faceted work as an instrumentalist he co-produced, mixed and did graphic design for the "Revolution Blues" release. He comes from a family of musicians of note and like his parents and grandparents is a music educator.

Jared Tinkham is a guitarist who brings the range of electric guitar history to his performance. Blistering solos, sensitive comping, energetic grooving all combine with keen harmonic and melodic expression. He is equally dedicated as an educator at the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts.

Ed Croft is a versatile acoustic and electric bassist as likely to be found in a jazz group as singing and playing guitar in Country music settings. Like Scozzaro and Bacon he is a leader on the Buffalo scene organizing differing ensembles and presenting thematic concerts. Like the others he is an educator teaching in the SUNY Fredonia Music Business program.

John Bacon's music has been performed by an eclectic array of musicians, including Leroy Jenkins and New York New Music Ensemble. He has performed with Lester Bowie, Roswell Rudd, Bobby Previte, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bobby Militello, Star People, the Buffalo Jazz Collective and the Buffalo Jazz Composers Workshop. John endorses Zildjian cymbals and Dragonfly Percussion.

Tickets: $15
$10 at the door for students

View Event →
WAMMO
Jan
6
9:00 PM21:00

WAMMO

National recording artist/actor/poet Wammo will bring his eclectic, electric, bombastic show to The Skylark Lounge. Wammo was a vocalist with The Asylum Street Spankers, starred in the film Slacker and can put thought-provoking words together faster than a speeding bullet!!

Wammo is a true force of nature!

In addition to Wammo’’s continuous chaos, I have been recruited to do the DJ slot that night. I haven’t DJ’d in over 20 years so it should be interesting. I’ll be playing an assortment of music from my own personal collection of 45s. Should be fun, have a beer and a laugh!

$5 at the door

View Event →
The Levin Brothers
Dec
20
8:00 PM20:00

The Levin Brothers

The Levin Brothers was founded by Pete and Tony Levin in 2013, After 5 decades of glorious career playing with virtually who is who in all genres of music – jazz, fusion, rock, pop and world music, and after guesting on each other’s projects, two brothers finally decided to have their own jazz band.

View Event →
EMBER TRIO featuring: Caleb Wheeler Curtis, Noah Garabedian, and Vinnie Sperrazza
Dec
15
8:00 PM20:00
In-Store Concerts

EMBER TRIO featuring: Caleb Wheeler Curtis, Noah Garabedian, and Vinnie Sperrazza

The Brooklyn, NY based collaborative trio Ember finds itself at the crossroads of musical and personal exploration resulting in true band-hood and non-hierarchical playing. Each of the members – Caleb Wheeler Curtis (alto saxophone), Noah Garabedian (bass), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums) – are integral parts of the NY creative music community as leaders, collaborators and instigators. The music in this trio is organized but open and expressive. Their music opens up the true freedom of improvisation, exploration, and creativity.

Watch: Fred's Hop, No One Is Any One: Ember with Orrin Evans

Tickets: $20

View Event →
Bill Kirchen’s Honky Tonk Holiday Show
Dec
4
7:00 PM19:00
Lovin' Cup Concerts

Bill Kirchen’s Honky Tonk Holiday Show

For a real taste of seasonal cheer, nothing says joy to the world like Bill Kirchen singing "Daddy's Drinkin' Up Our Christmas!" 

Bill Kirchen and his Silent Knights will make a stop on their annual Honky Tonk Holiday Tour at Lovin' Cup on Monday 12/4.  Featured is a sleigh-full of rarely heard holiday numbers from the blues, rock 'n' roll and honky tonk bags: "Silent Surfin' Night," "Truckin' Trees for Christmas," "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin," and more. But be ye not afraid, there'll be so much more than holiday songs of questionable taste; you can count on a truckload of dieselbilly classics, rockers, and country weepers to take the edge off the holiday fuss. So mark your calendars and check 'em twice - Santa Claus is back in town! Kirchen is touring with his all-star Texas guys - Jack Saunders on bass and Rick Richards on drums.

Bill Kirchen is one of the fortunate few who can step on any stage, play those trademark guitar licks which he created for the seminal Commander Cody classic, "Hot Rod Lincoln," and elicit immediate recognition.

As a founding father of the proto-Americana group Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, Kirchen wrought a diesel-fueled guitar hook that drove their Hot Rod Lincoln into the Top 10 nationwide. Kirchen went on to the Grammys where he was nominated for Best Country Instrumental in 2001. 

He has recorded with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Dan Hicks, Maria Muldaur, Hoyt Axton, Hazel Dickens, Gene Vincent and Link Wray, and  has toured the world as guitarist with Cody, Nick Lowe, Hoyt Axton and Emmylou Harris. 

Bill Kirchen was inducted into the Hall Of Fame of the Washington DC Wammie Music Awards in 2001, alongside Dave Grohl and John Phillip Sousa. He joined a remarkable list of prior inductees including Bo Diddly, Duke Ellington, Ruth Brown, Marvin Gaye, Patsy Cline, Shirley Horn, Emmylou Harris, Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady.

His recent disc, Transatlanticana, entered the Americana Radio Chart Top 10 in 2018, joining his extensive catalogue of over 2 dozen albums, from the Commander Cody discs on through his current 12 releases on the Proper and Last Music Company labels. Bill’s latest releases are Back from the Ozone, a Lost Planet Airmen reunion CD out in October 2023 and, from 2021,  the LPs Waxworks and Tombstone Every Mile, along with The Proper Years and Tombstone on CD and in all digital formats, all on the Last Music Company label.

Washington Post:  "Seldom has traveling across the rock and country landscape been this much fun"

Guitar Player magazine: “The Titan of the Telecaster...cuts loose with some of the fattest, gnarliest low-down twang imaginable”

Rolling Stone: “A musical treasure, a fantastic player, and, in these roots-conscious times, very much a pioneer, Bill Kirchen is one of our best.”

Tickets: $30 advance / $35 at door

View Event →
WAMMO
Nov
24
8:30 PM20:30

WAMMO

One Huge Musical Bash featuring WAMMO!!!!

  • Abilene Bar & Lounge153 Liberty Pole WayRochester, NY, 14604United States (map)

A Very Special Show featuring… WAMMO!!!

Don’t miss Wammo, former Asylum Street Spankers’ front man…and backed by Rochester’s baddest blues musicians for an evening of passion, soul, and laughter!

https://www.facebook.com/billydavewammo

Tickets: $10 advance, $15 day of show and on sale now online at https://abilene.showare.com/ and at the bar

View Event →
JOEL HARRISON
Nov
18
8:00 PM20:00

JOEL HARRISON

This is a rare opportunity to hear this extrordinary guitarist in a solo setting. Joel had been here many times over the years and this is the first time ever as a soloist.  

Guitarist, composer, arranger, lyricist, writer, educator, and vocalist Joel Harrison has “created a new blueprint for jazz” (New Orleans Times-Picayune). A Guggenheim Fellow (2010) whose compositions have been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, New Music USA, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Harrison is a two-time winner of the Jazz Composers Alliance Composition Competition and has appeared repeatedly on DownBeat Magazine’s “Rising Star” poll.

His twenty-two releases as a leader showcase his prowess as a shapeshifting composer, with works for orchestra, string quartet, solo cello, and percussion as well as the PASIC award-winning marimba solo Fear of Silence. Notable releases include Free Country, featuring Norah Jones and David Binney; the recent America at War for jazz orchestra; String Choir: The Music of Paul Motian; and Search, featuring Donny McCaslin. His ever-surprising body of work seamlessly connects multiple American traditions. Harrison’s music may be founded on jazz but veers into classical, rock, country, and all manner of American roots music. Succinctly described by the New York Times as “protean… brilliant,” he is also an active film composer, having worked on the Oscar-nominated Traffic Stop and the Sundance awardee Southern Comfort.

A former student of Jimmy Wyble and Mick Goodrick, Harrison is the founder and director of the Alternative Guitar Summit, a yearly festival devoted to new and unusual guitar music. The festival has featured such artists as Fred Frith, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, and Pat Metheny, who has called the Summit “one of the most interesting and distinguished forums for guitar on the planet.”

View Event →
CLASSICAL SALE
Nov
18
to Dec 3

CLASSICAL SALE

We are swimming in classical vinyl and CDs, SO! We are running a 50% sale on all our classical  inventory. Sale runs from Saturday November 18 through Sunday November 26. Don’t miss this opportunity to bring a classic home with you.

We've had such an amazing responce to the vault and classical sale that we are extending it another week. Sale will now run through December 3rd.

View Event →
Jim Yanda's Empathy Gene w/Herb Robertson & Phil Haynes
Nov
11
8:00 PM20:00

Jim Yanda's Empathy Gene w/Herb Robertson & Phil Haynes

From the brilliant corners of the collective artistic psyche, Empathy Gene takes us on a sonic journey of discovery that surprises, haunts, and transforms. Inspired by shaman sound traveler Clarence "Herb" Robertson, and brought into sharp focus by Ritual Music explorers Phil Haynes and Jim Yanda, this "quiet to riotous" trio takes us to unexpected and exquisite musical worlds. They breathe life into subconscious traditions that facilitate knowing home and our human community for the first time. Like Davis or Coleman before him - who jumped from acoustic to electronic universes - Jim Yanda both sheds his idiomatic clothing for Empathy Gene and births fresh acoustic expression as he and his cohorts revel in true independent unity. – CornerStoreJazz

"Trumpeter Robertson looks at jazz the way a mad scientist looks at test tubes-very daffy with equal roots in Cage and Mingus. Louis Armstrong would be proud." – Option Magazine

https://www.jimyanda.com/

Tickets - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

View Event →
Jim Yanda & Regional Cookin' w/Drew Gress & Phil Haynes
Nov
10
8:00 PM20:00

Jim Yanda & Regional Cookin' w/Drew Gress & Phil Haynes

Guitarist/Composer Jim Yanda Releases Two Albums Spanning the 30-Year Career of His Brilliantly Inventive Trio

Featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Phil Haynes, Regional Cookin’ finds long-overdue release after decades on the shelf, while Home Road captures 2 CDs’ worth of newly-recorded music

Thirty years is a long time to keep any relationship going. It’s an almost impossibly long time to keep a secret. To a large extent the Jim Yanda Trio has managed to do both, creating exhilarating, spontaneous music together while remaining largely under the radar outside of those lucky enough to catch their sporadic performances in the New York area – despite the fact that the trio features Drew Gress, one of the music’s busiest and most in-demand bassists, and veteran
drummer/experimentalist Phil Haynes.

Yanda began his professional career playing Western Swing in Iowa honky-tonks near his family’s farm. He turned to rock in his high school years, inspired by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers, then finally discovered jazz in college. After a brief tenure in New York he spent six years in Chicago, regularly playing in local clubs, working with drummer/composer Damon Short and the Déjà Vu Big Band, and frequenting the legendary South Side jam sessions hosted by Von Freeman. He made his permanent return to New York in 1992.

Yanda was inspired to form the trio by his and Haynes’ shared mentor, trumpeter Paul Smoker, whose innovative trio work drew from influences that run the length and breadth of jazz history. “Paul went all the way back to field hollers, rags, New Orleans music, Louis Armstrong – primordial pre-jazz up through swing – then through Charlie Parker to free music, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the World Saxophone Quartet. As a listener it was so refreshing and gave the experience so much more depth to be able to draw on the entire history. The straight ahead stuff sounds fresher and the old stuff sounds more modern when you juxtapose those different eras and open up that wider history.”

https://www.jimyanda.com/

Tickets - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

View Event →
NEW ORIGIN TRIO featuring JOE FONDA, HARVEY SORGEN & CHRISTOPHE ROCHER
Nov
5
8:00 PM20:00

NEW ORIGIN TRIO featuring JOE FONDA, HARVEY SORGEN & CHRISTOPHE ROCHER

Finding the trace, taking the path, connecting the beginning to the horizon to be better carried deep into the present. The NEW ORIGIN TRIO vibrates the space-time through a free, colourful music connecting the United States to Europe, learned music and wild freedom.

On the one hand Christophe Rocher, at the head of the Nautilis Ensemble, an important musician in Europe who had the opportunity to play with the greatest (Hamid Drake, Nicole Mitchell, Rob Mazurek, Vincent Courtois, Edward Perraud… ), and who participates in international projects such as ARCH or “The Bridge”.

On the other, two internationally known American musicians, Joe Fonda and Harvey Sorgen. They have collaborated withWadada Leo Smith, Anthony Braxton, Barry Altchul, Dave Douglas, Oliver Lake, Hot Tuna, Brenda Bufalino, Karl Berger, Ahmad Jamal and many others.

Over many years of touring and recording, the members of this trio have left their mark on the history of jazz and improvised music. Numerous reviews, awards and distinctions have been given to each of them.

https://youtu.be/kp_xjl8TyBA

Tickets - $20 / $25 at the door

Half price at door for students with valid ID

View Event →
Eric Vloeimans & Will Holshouser
Oct
19
8:00 PM20:00

Eric Vloeimans & Will Holshouser

ERIC VLOEIMANS

Trumpeter Eric Vloeimans is one of the best-known musicians in his native country, the Netherlands. He has led a wide variety of ensembles over the years and is a frequent guest soloist with bands and orchestras of all kinds. He has won several Edison prizes (the “Dutch Grammy”) for his recordings. His own projects have included his "chamber-jazz” Fugimundi trio, Gatecrash, and Oliver’s Cinema. These groups perform a wide range of highly original music and have toured throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. Vloeimans' versatility, easy-going attitude and great sense of humor have brought him to play with artists such as Mercer Ellington, John Taylor, Peter Erskine, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Wayne Horvitz, Nguyên Lê, Jimmy Haslip, Joey Baron, the Holland Baroque Society, the Matangi Quartet, Bojan Z., the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and many others. He has played all over the world, and experiences from his travels can be heard in many of his compositions. Eric Vloeimans is a musician who plays from the heart; he has shown a remarkable power to create bridges and connect with audiences all over the world.

ERIC'S WEBSITE

WILL HOLSHOUSER

Will Holshouser is an accordionist, composer and improviser whose music draws on a wide variety of inspirations, from traditional accordion folk styles to jazz, hymns, classical and experimental music. Embracing clear melodies, pulsating rhythms and contrapuntal textures, Will’s music relates to many different musical languages. As a working musician in New York who plays with artists in many genres from around the world, he distills these experiences into his own compositions, exploring new sounds while staying in touch with the accordion’s expressive qualities and sense of fun.  Three albums of music for his trio were released on the Portuguese label Clean Feed. A collaborative trio with Matt Munisteri and Marcus Rojas, Musette Explosion, made an album that received widespread acclaim. Will has performed all over the world with artists such as Regina Carter, David Krakauer, Antony & the Johnsons, Han Bennink & Michael Moore, Uri Caine, Andy Statman, Mark Morris Dance, Guy Klucevsek, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, Suzanne Vega, and others. Will studied accordion and composition with composition with Tania León and Dalit Warshaw at Brooklyn College.

WILL'S WEBSITE

Watch ERIC & WILL here

Tickets - $20

Half price at door for students with valid ID

View Event →
THE MAT MANERI QUARTET : DUST to ASH featuring: MAT MANERI, LUCIAN BAN, RANDY PETERSON and BRANDON LOPEZ
Oct
13
8:00 PM20:00

THE MAT MANERI QUARTET : DUST to ASH featuring: MAT MANERI, LUCIAN BAN, RANDY PETERSON and BRANDON LOPEZ

The violist and his band continue to defy easy categorization as they draw from their varied pasts and mesh genres from classical to Eastern European folk, producing novel results.  Larry Blumenfeld

Mat’s deepest memories are buried within particular musical phrases or renditions. One track here, “Brahms,” is based on the Andante from Johannes Brahms’s Viola Sonata No. 1, Op. 120, as Mr. Maneri remembers it played by violist James Bergin, who studied with his father. The brief yet dramatic phrases that form the basis of Mr. Maneri’s “Earth” were drawn from a 1964 “Peace Concert” by his father (in duet with drummer Peter Dolger), which Mr. Maneri listened to obsessively on a reel-to-reel tape (it was commercially released in 2008).

Mr. Maneri is one of modern music’s most distinctive string players, and one of its freest-ranging talents. He has played with past masters including pianists Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley, and is an essential element in several important groups (pianist Matthew Shipp’s String Trio, including Mr. Maneri and bassist William Parker, is a singular and wondrous ensemble).

If his playing knows no genre and often defies standard notation, it’s because he was raised in the spaces between those styles and notes. Joe Maneri’s music and scholarship placed modern jazz, composer Arnold Schoenberg’s Second Viennese School, and Eastern European folk styles on equal footing; his abiding fascination was with microtonalism, music that uses intervals smaller than the semitone, the smallest by Western music standards (and which occur naturally in most folk music and blues). The quartet Mat played in and assembled in the 1990s for his father to lead focused on, he told me, “pitches within pitches, rhythms within rhythms, dynamics within dynamics.”

That same sense of granular expression, of continuums rather than fixed points, animates Mr. Maneri’s current quartet, which made its debut on his 2019 release, “Dust.” These musicians now mine their own communal memories. Mr. Maneri began playing with Mr. Peterson in the 1980s and with Mr. Hébert a decade later. His close bond with Mr. Ban, who was born and raised in central Romania, began in 2010, and includes their 2013 duet recording, “Transylvanian Concert.”

On the new release Mr. Ban’s composition “Dust to Dust” extends his “Mojave,” from Mr. Maneri’s previous recording, into a 10-minute-plus piece; Mr. Maneri plays its bittersweet melody with brilliant clarity and complex shades of feeling. For his own composition “Cold World Lullaby,” Mr. Maneri draws upon three references: Sol Kaplan’s score to “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” (a favorite film of his childhood); a Sicilian lullaby his grandfather taught him; and “Lume, Lume,” a traditional Romanian song he learned from Mr. Ban. On another original composition, “Glimmer,” Mr. Maneri’s viola often sounds like a horn in a jazz band—a quality that he said owes as much to his studies of Baroque music with Juilliard String Quartet co-founder Robert Koff as to his listening to Miles Davis recordings. It also results from the way he combines his instrument’s natural qualities with deft use of amplification and a volume pedal.

In Mr. Maneri’s hands, the viola is both acoustic and electric; each tone is neither this note nor that; his quartet, which sometimes sounds larger than it is, mostly moves as one; and his music speaks simultaneously of a distant past and a present moment.

Mat Maneri

Tickets - $25

Half price at door for students with valid ID

View Event →