BONZAI! Descends on Rochester

Look up in the sky! BONZAI! is about to descend onto Rochester once again! This annual music event brings together over a half dozen groups as they perform alternative rock, post grunge and more. The event will be held at the Riverside Festival Grounds on Sunday August 1st. Here’s a sample of recent CDs from three of the groups scheduled to appear:

Get ready for the Rochester International Jazz Festival…2010 edition. As the name clearly announces, Rochester will be welcoming musicians from various points on the planet, but the festival will shine the spotlight on some great artists that live and work in the area as well. Here’s a quick look at a few CDs by some of the artists scheduled to perform this year. See complete coverage in Freetime Magazine and at FREETIME.COM.

Michael Kaeshammer

Lovelight

(Alert Music)

Just You, Just Me

Madeline Forster

There’s a reason countless singers and groups keep coming back to the classics of the 1920 – 1940’s. They may have a “time stamp” on them when they were first written and recorded, but they are indeed “timeless.” Gershwin, Lerner and Loewe, Jobim, Porter and more are all present on this disc, and with singer Madeline Forster in control, the journey back in time is an elegant and sophisticated one.

Dion – Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock

“Rock & Roll, you rock and you roll, all rock and no roll is not a good thing.”

-Dion.

Country Club

John Doe and the Sadies

(YepRoc Records)

Local Releases, World Class Talent

How about a holiday gift list that includes CDs by a few of the performers who visited some of the northeast jazz festivals this year? Here are a few discs from artists that appeared at the Rochester, Ottawa or Montreal Jazz Festivals in 2009.

Vietnam: Reflections

Billy Bang

(Rochester Jazz Festival)

In Summary

Colin Cannon

In Summary is Colin Cannon’s debut recording. His sophisticated technique is rooted in the training that he received in his early teens under Steve Greene, right here in Rochester. It progressed further under Bob Sneider of The Eastman School of Music and at Berklee College of Music, with instruction from Tim Miller and Mick Goodrick.

U2

No Line On The Horizon

(Interscope Records)

A symphony is like a house: the frame and the foundation form the structure and the unity but, while each chamber may be similar, you’re always one step away from something that’s just a bit different. A surprise here, something familiar over there. U2 returns with No Line On The Horizon, their version of a symphony and their first studio album in six years as they present us with something’s familiar as well as a number of shiny new things.