I likely won’t be blogging for a bit. Starting Friday, and for nine days, I’ll be covering the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival for our public radio station, WXXI. It’ll be total immersion in music. An escape from a suddenly incomprehensible world where everything seems to be upside down. Where fiction is truth, where people seeking asylum from violence are equated with gangs.
It won’t be a total escape. Musicians, being smart and compassionate people, are likely to be poking holes in our festival cocoon and reminding their audiences of what’s going on in the outside world. Musicians have a habit of doing that. Speaking truth to power.
At the festival, I’ll see names you know: Seal, Alison Krauss, Bela Fleck.
And names you should know. Bluesman Jack Broadbent, All Our Exes Live in Texas, Ulysses Owens, Jr., and his “Songs of Freedom” show.
I’ll be providing daily web site content for WXXI. The first story, a preview of the event, has already been posted on wxxi.org. I’ll be filing reviews of each night’s shows, previews of the next night and interviews with musicians: The fabulous Moon Hooch, whose picture accompanies this post, is on deck.
You’ll hear me on the radio. On weekdays at about 5:50 p.m., I’ll be live from the festival site on WXXI-AM (1370) and WRUR-FM (88.5). And weekday mornings, at about 10:30 a.m., the “Jazz Corner” segment, and my sleep-deprived comments, returns for the third year on WRUR and Scott Regan’s Open Tunings show.
And yes, there will be jazz haikus.
Jeff Spevak is a Rochester-based writer. His web site is jeffspevak.com.