>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections and I'm Hannah Maier sitting in for Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was formed in 2002 with 15,000 attendees and has grown into something larger than life, bringing in over 200,000 concert goers every year for nine days.

In June, our city becomes a destination for music lovers from across the country and around the world.

Sidewalks fill with concert goers, venues come alive with performances and artists representing a wide range of styles and traditions gather to share their music.

It's a celebration that has become one of Rochester's defining cultural events.

It is the Rochester International Jazz Festival, now in its third decade, the festival has earned a reputation for bringing world class talent to our city, while also creating opportunities for emerging artists, local musicians, and audiences of all ages to discover something new.

Today, we're taking a closer look at what it takes to make an event of this scale happen.

We'll be talking with the founding members John Nugent and Marc Iacona, and we'll also hear from some of the musicians who will be taking the stage this year.

Joey Stempien is in the studio.

Joe Farnsworth is on the phone.

They'll be discussing their music, their influences, and what it means to be part of one of the nation's premier music festivals.

Please welcome our guests.

Hello, everyone.

>> Hi, Anna, how are you?

>> I'm doing great.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

I'm so excited to talk about the Jazz Festival for so many reasons.

One, as I said, it is a staple of the Rochester community.

It's been around for so long and there's always so many amazing artists playing, and it's just a fun time.

I love going, uh, but if I'm going to start with you guys, if you could take me back, what was the very first jazz festival like and what was your vision then versus what it has turned into today?

>> Well, I was living in New York City and producing a festival in Scandinavia, uh, Stockholm Jazz Festival.

And I came up as part of an educational, uh, uh, performance outreach, uh, situation.

And I saw what Rochester had to offer and decided to do some research and development and visited a lot of venues and talked to a lot of people.

And after about a year and a half, decided to start a festival here.

And, uh, in 2002, we, we launched a seven day event.

Uh, and there was some pretty, pretty memorable sort of historic things that happened during that festival, i.e.

Norah Jones showing up and Aretha Franklin performing and, uh, Dr.

John and the Blues Brothers and Sonny Rollins and so many great artists and, uh, uh, Marc Iacona here next to me, uh, joined partnerships and we've developed this thing into one of the leading festivals in the country.

So we're super proud of what we've done.

And we hope to continue with some fabulous music here starting next Friday night.

>> What made you settle on jazz as what you wanted?

The focus of the festival to be?

>> Well, I'm a jazz musician and Mark is a jazz musician as well, and a lover of music.

And, uh, for us, for me personally, it's all about the music first and foremost.

The, um, I've played at the jam sessions pretty much every night for the history of the festival, with only missing a couple.

And it's, it's what drove me to want to produce and represent artists and book artists and present artists.

Um, I've kind of worn all the hats in the industry.

Um, I think it just, there's a lot of serendipity behind, uh, how this event started.

Uh, I was partners with George Wein, who founded the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954.

And I remember going to him in 1999 saying, I'm thinking about maybe starting a jazz festival in Rochester, New York.

And he looks at me and he goes, give it away, kid.

So that's how the.

And I said, what do you mean by give it away?

He says, start of.

Give him a pass.

Give him something to everything.

So that's how we started the Club Pass series.

And it's not who you know, it's who you don't know.

Which led to traditional concerts like the big hard ticket reserve seat shows and all of the free things that we do here.

And, uh, Mark and I have been really, you know, we've had a wonderful partnership for a long time.

And as I said, we're super proud of what we've developed.

>> So how did you two meet and decide, hey, let's, let's do this together.

Let's make this happen.

>> Well, it's an interesting story.

It's a good one.

It's one that you want to tell.

20 years later, because, uh, the way I look at things, if you watch the evolution of any partnership in any business or an event or a cultural event, especially jazz festivals, look at the partnerships and where they are now.

And we're still together.

So that to me is something that, to answer your question is I knew there was a kindred spirit when we first got together, ironically, and I don't think anything happens by coincidence, the event that John was talking about that he came up for, I was a sponsor of that evening up at Woodcliff, and John gave me a call and said, uh, I'm thinking of doing something, but some people are going to contact you to talk to you.

And I said, okay, fine.

Um, and I had that conversation and I really didn't have a clear vision of really what it was.

And I'm the kind of person that I go right to the source.

And I picked up the phone and I said, I think it's the last time we called each other.

Mr.

Iacona and Mr.

Nugent type of thing.

And I said, do you have a few minutes for me to talk to you?

I said, well, I'm really busy.

I'm doing some things.

But when I said tonight and he said, really?

I said, yeah.

Um, and we got together, had a couple bottles of wine, a couple bowls of pasta at my house.

And, uh, you know, I had another business at the time that I just recently had a financial event with in terms of now being able to concentrate all on the music.

And I said, I'm interested in being a sponsor, but I need to learn a little bit more.

And by the end of that conversation, I didn't want to be only a sponsor.

I wanted to be a partner in it because I didn't want it to leave Rochester.

His vision and his energy, and I knew that we were a lot alike in terms of rolling the sleeves up, that I knew that we had something special that could happen, but it wasn't going to happen overnight and it wasn't going to happen very easily because it's a it's a town where people have seen events come and go.

Yeah.

Um, and I knew that being from Rochester would help the situation, but I knew that if he moved to Rochester, that we would really have like a, a power, uh, influence in terms of really showing people that we're here to stay.

>> Yeah, you've absolutely done that.

I mean, as somebody that's not originally from Rochester, the first festival that I heard of here was the Rochester Jazz Festival.

And I thought, oh, wow, there's free shows.

This is going to be so cool.

I'm going to go check it out.

At the very least, just walk around and see all the vendors and it's fun.

It's a good time, and it does feel so much rooted in the heart of the city, which I as now a a full Rochester.

I'm never leaving.

Uh, I love that.

And this festival is is at the heart of Rochester and it's been going on for 23 years.

This is the 23rd edition, uh, for our listeners, the Rochester International Jazz Festival this year is June 19th through the 27th.

And these two gentlemen, you guys have had a working relationship for so long.

So when you're thinking about the artists, you've had legendary performers, like you said, Aretha Franklin.

And this year we've got so many Gladys Knight, Robert Cray Band, Trombone Shorty, Soul Rebels, The Bad.

Plus, there is an amazing lineup, just like there always is.

What do you.

What's the starting process for where you sit down and say, okay, who are we bringing this year?

What local artists do we want to showcase?

Like, how do you decide big and small who you bring in?

>> Well, there's a, there's kind of a methodology that we've developed over the years and there are unsolicited proposals and submissions that people go to our website and they see our email address, and they send me their proposal, their pitch, however you want to describe it.

And we have a sort of a criteria, um, as a saxophone player and a musician, I've played a lot of a lot of gigs in my lifetime and made ten records and toured the world with different groups.

And, uh, I don't really book anybody I wouldn't want to play with.

That's kind of my M.O.

And I don't I don't want it to sound snobby or, you know, whatever, but I just try to keep a very high level of, uh, performing and, uh, there's no gratuitous bookings.

Everybody who's booked to play this festival has something to say on their instrument or with their music.

And I think that's part of the reason why the, uh, the level has been at a high pitch and recognized a lot of recognition outside of Rochester and nationally and internationally over the years.

You may recall, we've, we've had Nordic series, we've had made in the UK series.

Um, there's a lot of international flavor that's involved with this festival and, um, I brought a little bit of the European style to this event in the beginning.

And it's, it's rooted and it's grown and it's now a, you know, I look at it like Mark and I have talked about this, uh, our kids graduated from college.

Now, you know, uh, so, and now this is the real deal.

And this is a great event.

And, uh, to answer your question simply, there's a criteria I go through certain styles, fit certain venues.

Um, there's an old saying, he who has the gold makes the rules.

The Hollywood booking agents hold the keys to all the big name stars.

And so you have to fight with them to try to get a deal.

Whereas artists who are emerging and looking for recognition, we have the the stage that they want to get on.

So so there's different levels of how we go about choosing artists.

Um, and, uh, you know, there's a lot of email, a lot of communications, and a lot of hard work that goes into it.

And you get a painting at the end of the day.

Now the canvas as of July 1st will be blank.

We have to go make another painting for 2027.

So that's kind of how it works.

>> What makes you decide if you want to bring an artist back from a previous year?

Because there have been some that have repeated multiple times.

>> There are a lot that come back for other promoters.

Um, we, you know, we try to, there's a term in the industry called promoter of record, which nowadays doesn't really, you know, hold a lot of water.

Um, but it's fine.

I mean, there's so many great artists out there.

Mark and I are not territorial promoters.

If someone wants to come back quickly and play for someone else, that's their right to do that.

Um, so that's cool.

And a lot of people do want to come back because we as producers, we, we try to put together a really good team that takes care of the artists.

So the audience gets a good show, the artists are happy.

And if it goes well, generally they want to come back.

>> I think that's the unique thing about the festival, not just the headliners.

The Club Pass series.

People are investing in the pass, so the artists know that when they're there, the patrons are there to listen.

In these venues, they're specifically going to hear them and then go to another venue.

So when they feel that energy, it just they want to come back and play because it's truly a jazz festival for listening.

>> I could not agree more.

I think it's a great place to not only discover new music, but really, really hear the music and enjoy it.

I'd love to go to the artists now.

Now that we're talking about the music and getting booked and all of that, that goes into being in the music industry, it's a lot we've got in the studio.

Joey Stempien is here and we've got Joe Farnsworth on the phone to Joe is Joey and Joe.

Hi guys.

How are you?

>> Good.

How are you?

>> Good.

Thank you so much for joining us.

And Joe, thank you for calling in today.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> So we're talking jazz.

Okay.

Um, Joey, I'll start with you here in the studio.

Um, just for our listeners, can you give them a little bit of a background about yourself?

You're here today.

So are you Rochester based?

>> Yes.

I was, uh, born in Michigan, but I moved to Rochester as a as a very young boy.

And I spent my whole life here basically.

Um, you know, Mark and John mentioned that their kids are graduated from college now.

And I also just graduated from college.

So the Jazz Fest has been a staple basically my entire lifetime.

Um, and I was coming, you know, as a kid.

And when I was in school, my high school jazz bands played.

Um, and you know, I recently graduated with two degrees from University of Rochester and Eastman, one in music, one in environmental science.

And, um, just trying to plant roots here in the community and give back musically as much as I can with my big band and performing elsewhere as well.

>> So yeah, you're the band leader of the Joey Stempien Big Band.

So what instrument is your main instrument?

>> Uh, primarily jazz piano.

I also play a little bit of woodwinds, but I tend to leave that more to the professionals.

Um, and mainly writing and, uh, doing the managerial side as well for this group.

>> Beautiful.

So Joe, I'd love to go to you next.

Uh, Joe Farnsworth, a jazz drummer.

Yes.

I love jazz drummers.

I feel like you guys are just a completely different breed from the rest of the drummers of the world.

Can you talk about your music and, um, just your groups and who you're going to be playing with at the Jazz festival this year?

Joe, are you there?

Well.

>> He might be on mute.

>> He might be on mute.

That's all right.

We'll get him back.

We'll come back to Joey and, uh.

Oh, there he is.

Hi, Joe.

We could hear you.

Oh.

>> Can you hear me now?

>> Yes, we can hear you.

Thank you so much.

>> I'm very sorry.

Very sorry, very sorry.

>> No.

>> No, Mr.

John Nugent was speaking.

I had a flashback to something I hadn't remembered until now.

Uh, a long time ago.

I got a call from the great Cedar Walton, and he was like, uh, Mr.

Farnsworth, I need your services at a jazz festival at Newport for George.

Wein.

And then after that, we're going to head up to a young upstarts festival, a man named Nugent.

Who's that?

He says you might know him as a great tenor player.

I'm like, John Nugent.

And who went to school with my brother?

So that was my first, um, my first time going up to Rochester with Cedar Walton.

We hit the Newport first, and then we went to Rochester.

So it was a great memory being up there with Cedar.

>> Oh, I love that story.

So what, what made you decide to settle on not only drums, but specifically that you wanted to play jazz drums?

>> Uh, very simple.

I lived in a room with my brother David, who was the original drummer in the Farnsworth family, and all we did was listening to was, uh, Sonny Payne April in Paris and Buddy Rich, West Side Story.

And from the day one when I played the drums, I specifically the ride cymbal.

It sounded out.

It felt like I was at a party and everything was fun.

I could I could be who I wanted to be, and I could just swing along with Sonny Payne.

And I felt like I was in heaven, like no one could get to me.

It was a very safe place and a joyful and it's the same as today.

I feel like every time I play, I'm at a party.

>> I was just going to ask, what can our listeners expect to see from you during your performance?

But I'm just going to go ahead and say it.

It sounds like it is going to be like a party.

Is that what you try to put on when you play with whoever you're playing with?

>> Yes.

Well, if the people have to have a good time, they got to pat their feet and, you know, snap their fingers and get up and shout and dance.

Because that's what I used to do when I saw Art Blakey and I saw Elvin Jones, and we just we would shout and scream and like, and just it was just the best time ever going to see them.

So I want the same thing.

The energy has got to be way up high.

And another person I played with, Pharoah Sanders, had the same thing.

The energy has to be way up.

So we're bringing, um, uh, the first group is, uh, a youngster group that John recommended, uh, featuring the great Sarah Hanahan, a young alto player who's carrying on the tradition of, um, Jackie McLean and Pharoah Sanders and Johnny Griffin, those guys.

And the second group, uh, is an all star group with the great, uh, Eric Alexander.

My, my, one of my best friends since 1986, a tenor player.

And, uh, the great Jeremy Pelt on trumpet.

So that's the front line.

And, um, a young piano player named Luther Allison is playing with us, so we're very excited.

>> It's going to be a great lineup.

And yeah, you're playing with a bunch of different amazing artists.

So very excited to see you play.

And you know, I have a question for pretty much everybody in the room here with the, uh, but we'll start with you, Joe, since you're here on the phone with us, uh, with the 250th anniversary of the country coming up, what do you see as the cultural significance of jazz in the United States?

>> Uh, well, first and foremost, I got to say something that, uh, has to be recognized that Rochester is indeed a one of the very few true jazz festivals.

It's not just a jazz festival name and playing rock and roll or whatever.

It's actually a festival that has jazz artists in it.

And it's, it's time to swing.

When you come up to Rochester.

So that's very important because jazz festivals around the world are, uh, are not really jazz festivals anymore.

So kudos to Mark and John Nugent for that.

And the people of Rochester, you know, they live in New York, so they expect swing.

They expect a high level.

And this music was born in USA, you know, from the great Louis Armstrong and Buddy Bolden and Duke Ellington and, uh, Victor Jones, Jelly Roll Morton, Jelly Roll Morton.

All right, here in the United States.

And so when we celebrate this country, we celebrate the people that, uh, orchestrated the development and, uh, created a whole brand new music right here in this land.

So that's what we're going to be.

So we gotta celebrate those guys every time we play.

And thank you for the Rochester Jazz Festival for staying with his roots.

>> Well said Joe.

Well said.

>> Absolutely.

You know, when I when I do think about jazz, I think about those roots.

I think about how ingrained it is into American society.

And, uh, do you do you feel that as well, Joey?

Like, is that something that you think about when you're playing or have you done research on the historical side of the instruments and everything that they have to offer as well?

>> Yeah.

So when we're on stage and when I'm writing music and performing out in the world, I am trying to think what is the best way that I could be serving this culture and this heritage?

Um, because like you said, and like Joe said, it's a primarily American tradition.

It was, it was brought here and it grew its roots here.

Um, as it has for the past century, century and a half, almost.

And when we play, it's really a matter of how can we take in everything that's come before us and also pay it forward, take it in new directions, but continue to stay true to what it has been all along as a culture.

>> What do you guys think about the Rochester audience as far as the bands that you're curating for the festival or for the musicians, the music that you're playing, do you feel like you're leaning towards a specific sound for our city?

>> I think first and foremost, we should state that we are in a very highly educated, artistic community.

>> Yes.

>> So not just the music, all the arts, but the people that are coming to, for the most part to the jazz club series.

They know the music and they may not be professional musicians.

They may be, you know, novice type, but they know the music, they do their research, but they have great ears and they know the blessing.

It is during these nine days that we're bringing, you know, not only the country but the world, for them to come and listen to.

So I think it's a testament to what John's vision was, and that's why I supported it so much and learned so much over the years, is that there's a personality.

Each one of these venues.

So they're different genres of jazz, right?

And the interpretation, um, one thing I've grown to really realize that if I wasn't involved in this festival, but I loved music and I was coming here, the one thing that has really resonated with me over the years is that it's, it's dialog that's happening.

It's conversation that's happening.

It's just not a song.

And these are musicians that come together that are really gifted, obviously, and it's got form and freedom.

That's one thing about jazz to me is what really struck me is that you've got form, you've got structure, but then you have dialog and you have freedom, and then it comes back to the form.

And to watch that happen, whether you're following a bassline, whether you're, whether it's, it's not all about solos, but it's really about conversation.

That to me is if you get to that level as a person that's just coming to listen, then your, your appreciation for the music goes to another level each time.

>> So I want to talk about something that we probably don't want in the jazz world.

AI is AI finding its way into jazz music as a performer, or also, are you guys being sent AI music as potential?

>> I, I, I don't believe that AI, I mean, look, you can put a digital piano in a lobby of a hotel and have a computer play it for you and repeat solos of other great artists.

But when it comes to live performance, a robot or an AI, instant AI, we're not going to book any AI bands.

I can guarantee you that it'll always be live and real and real time music that will present here.

If that happens, I'm.

I'm out.

>> I think that's what's going to bring the value of my concern is, is that, first of all, I think in anything, any, uh, business or in the music industry, those who embrace the tool of AI to help their creativity enhance their own human creativity, that we're going to see that.

And I think you're going to see them excel.

However, I think my concern would be, is, is the future generations, the five year olds right now, what are they going to grow up to hear and be able to decipher between the human element or something that's synthetic?

And to me, that's why I want to stay involved in the music as long as I can.

And the next generation coming in and running our festivals and being involved is that never forget the live music.

Those are human beings, right?

So to be able to decipher and discern that.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, for me, AI has pretty much zero place in the, in the, in as far as bands are concerned.

I think it has a place in the music industry, in the business side of things, possibly, or bouncing off ideas off of it, trying to figure things out.

But music is about the performance.

It's about the human connection.

It's about playing with your friends.

It's about performing for your family, for people that love to hear what you have to offer.

So, um, I'm very happy to hear that you guys feel that.

>> Way.

To touch.

You can't touch physically oral things that are in the air.

>> Yeah.

>> Right.

And with AI, you can, you know, get a robot to make a, a bottle or it can make a robot to make a car or whatever and replace human beings.

But when it comes to playing an instrument, sure, you can have a robot play a saxophone, but it's not going to have that integrity of a brain, a human brain.

I just don't think that's possible.

I can't see that happening in my lifetime.

>> I yeah.

>> I think that's another leg up that jazz has to, in comparison to some other genres, because you could ask an AI software like Suno to generate a pop song that is has very basic form, or you can ask it to generate classic rock, but jazz specifically, especially with respect to modern jazz, there is so much that changes from performance to performance to recording in terms of improvization, in terms of feel.

That I don't think is as easily replicated as some more of the mainstream genres.

Um, in terms of the broader music industry as a whole.

Um.

>> I could not agree more.

Well, you're listening to Connections today.

We're talking about the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

We're going to take our one break of the hour.

And when we come back, I've got more questions and I can't wait to hear more about the festival, about the lineup specifics, specifically.

So please stick around and, uh, continue tuning in with us.

>> I'm Evan Dawson coming up in our second hour, we wrap up our look back this week at Housing Conversations on Connections over the past year with a conversation about some proposals from the Trump administration.

The president says he wants to lower the cost for homeowners.

So how about 50 year mortgages instead of 30?

A lot of people didn't like that idea.

And some of the professionals on our panel will explain why.

Next, our.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield working with members to find health coverage for every stage of life, helping to make care and coverage more accessible in more ways for more people across the Rochester community.

Details online at Zelle.

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Located in downtown Honeoye Falls and online at bleak House, books.com.

>> From WXXI News.

This is.

Connections.

I'm Hannah Maier sitting in for Evan Dawson.

Today we're talking about the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

I've got three great guests in the studio and one on the phone.

Marc Iacona is the executive producer and director of the Jazz Festival, John Nugent here as well.

The producer and artistic director.

We've got Joey Stempien in the studio, composer and band leader of the Joey Stempien Big Band and Joe Farnsworth on the phone, a jazz drummer playing with the Joe Farnsworth Quartet with Sarah Hanahan.

So much going on at the Rochester Jazz Festival.

For our listeners, it's the 23rd edition, June 19th through the 27th.

If you'd like to join in on our conversation today, you can give us a call at 844295825 5 or 5 852639994, or you can leave a comment over on our YouTube page.

Hello everyone.

Welcome back from the break and thank you once again so much for joining me this afternoon.

As I said, we're talking jazz.

We're talking festival details, the ins and outs of everything.

And I want to talk about a little a little bit about the local businesses.

So with the festival coming through, obviously you have to get local businesses involved, not only for sponsorships, but also because you're taking over the streets, you know, you're taking over their storefronts.

Um, how important is it for you guys to get them involved and get them on board for that?

>> That's a great question.

Fortunately for us, we've been embraced for the last almost 20 years.

It was a little tough in the beginning, but we communicate way much in advance.

Our logistics director sends out communications.

I say we're embraced because most of their business around the festival are restaurants or hotel, um, and their business increases during that nine days leading up to it.

You know, John mentioned there's some residual economic impact that happens from some of the venues, rebooking some artists or starting their own jazz series, which is really, really a cool thing to watch have happened over the last two decades.

So the so what we're proud of is that over over 90% of, of the services that we use, we outsource, um, as the festival is going on.

So those organizations are looking forward to us.

And like I said, the restaurants and the hotels, they're pretty much, you know, booked throughout the nine days.

>> Have you guys ever gotten any pushback from the local businesses about putting it on or closing the streets or.

>> No, I think, you know, the element of what we're programing and, and bringing in in for those nine days, it's just, you know, I hate to use the word vibe.

The vibe is just a laid back vibe.

Although we have different genres of music to get people to come down that think they don't like jazz.

Um, but Joe was right about the what John and his programed over the years in terms of that, that, uh, personality, each one of these venues is jazz, right?

The clubhouse series.

So the element of the vibe that we have and the people that are coming down and hanging out, it's families, it's, it's all ages, you know, it's 8 to 108.

Um, we really don't have that kind of like, why are you having a festival here?

It's disrupting my My business.

>> Yeah.

I mean, like you said, it's it's good for the businesses and there's restaurants and I'm sure that there are business increases as people are just, just walking by and scoping it out.

Um, Joe on the phone, I want to just say thank you once again.

Uh, I know that you're busy, so I want to give you the time to, uh, just let you go and get back to your business.

But thank you so much for us, and we can't wait to see you playing at the festival.

>> Oh, I can't wait to be there.

And, uh, I just want to say a couple of things quickly that these, the fans that the Rochester families, they were talking about, the real jazz fans and they, they come, they, they cite ten years before.

Ah, they saw you down at the Vanguard.

They saw you.

And so they're really knowledgeable.

And the one thing that goes unnoticed because of the amount of musicians that these guys bring up there, it gives a chance for musicians to be together, a fellowship where they might not be together in the rest of the time.

So one of my favorite moments was in the lobby four years ago, when George Benson was there, and I and I woke up Harold Baber and come down, and we had a nice lunch together.

And Harold hadn't seen George Benson since their, uh, they made a record for CTI in the 70s.

And that's, that's another thing that goes kind of unnoticed about is the fellowship between the resistance, because it's such a big festival, there's so many great players.

It's a great chance for people to get together.

And, uh, and especially at the jam session too.

So I, I can't thank you guys enough.

>> Well, Joe, we love you, man.

You're one of our great drummers in the entire industry.

And, uh, we look forward to you tearing it up here in the next week.

Can't wait.

All right, brother.

>> Thank you Joe.

Thank you so much.

>> Thanks, Joe.

>> Love you buddy.

>> So let's talk about the lineup.

It's a great lineup.

Is there a particular booking this year that you guys are especially excited about?

>> We were just joking.

In the lobbies is like it's like, who's your favorite kid?

>> You know I.

>> Know we love all these artists.

And again, we don't program anybody that we don't feel is worthy of this.

So all of these artists, there's some repeat, uh, like Catherine Russell will be back.

We're so thrilled.

Alexa Tarantino is coming with her own group.

I have an incredible South American artist, Camila Meza, who no one really knows here.

But when they go to here, they're just going to be absolutely gobsmacked by how brilliant this artist is.

Uh, Raul McDonnell will be back again.

A lot of familiar faces, uh, so many different things to talk about.

The Coltrane 100th celebration this year with Joe Lovano.

Uh, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, celebrating the music of John Coltrane.

We've got Bob James Trio here.

We've got Bill Frisell with Cecile Mclorin Salvant.

>> Don't forget the trumpet players.

>> Yeah, there's some great trumpet players.

Let's see.

>> So many great trumpet.

>> Emerging artist named Brandon Woody, who signed a Blue Note Records on the opening night at Innovation Theater.

Fabulous musician.

Um, I just I mean, there's just so many I again, it's not who, you know, it's who you don't know.

Download our app, listen to their Spotify links in the app and you can hear, you can make your own schedule.

You can go hear things that really excite you.

Uh, I'm excited about all of it.

Harumi's coming to Rochester.

>> Oh, yeah.

>> That's awesome.

You know, and that's a past show.

You'd never get an entry on a pass with Harumi.

She's a hard ticket artist in any other city in the country.

So with your club pass, you just walk right in there.

This 2000 seats in there, you're going to get in.

You can sit where you want.

And that's the fun thing about this year.

All these Eastman Theater shows from the 19th to the 24th are part of our Club Pass series.

Get a day ticket.

If you don't, you can't go all nine nights.

>> That's a great point that he's bringing up, because so many people in our community that come to the festival, they're geared that if the theater is open, that's a headliner, ticketed show.

So that first Friday through Wednesday, if you have a club pass a one day, a three or a nine day, you can go into the Eastman Theater, Kodak Hall and go to those shows.

>> There's two a night at 7 to 8 and 930 to 1030.

So, you know, go.

Just don't even worry about getting there super early because it's a massive venue.

You will get in, guaranteed.

You'll get in.

So, uh, take advantage of that.

And if you don't have a pass, you can still just pay at the door, tap your card and go boom, sit where you want.

It's free flowing.

It's a great value.

Uh, all the venues Killborn Max montage in on Broadway, hatch, Recital Hall, the Duke, the Little Theater, the Temple Theater, all past venues.

Take in as much as you can, listen to a few tunes, pop out to the next venue, stay for a whole set, come back for the second set.

Every.

Every artist has two shows in our.

All of our venues, except for the Eastman Theater.

And, uh, Harumi is doing two and Arturo, Arturo.

Arturo Sandoval is with an orchestra on Sunday.

Go hear Arturo Sandoval, one of the great trumpet players ever.

So again, it's not who you know, it's who you don't know.

But there are some known artists in that in that club past series lineup.

>> So if we're talking passes, we're talking prices of shows.

There is a ton of drama around price gouging going on right now with Ticketmaster and Live Nation and all of these companies that are charging an arm and a leg.

And not only that, but resellers going around and charging even more just to go to a concert.

You know, I mean, the prices have gone up so much.

How do you guys battle that and how do you choose your prices?

>> Can I speak to this?

>> Well we'll tag team it.

Yeah.

>> But yeah.

Okay.

So what happens in the secondary ticketing market is people will buy a ticket.

They don't even know or care who the artist is.

In most cases, they just want to sell it for a profit.

And if they don't sell it, they dispute the charge.

And then it falls back on the promoter.

We dealt with a lot of that last year.

Um, I think that Congress is trying to break up the monopolization of Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which are, you know, sort of joined at the hip.

And all these secondary markets are owned by people who run Ticketmaster.

So there is definitely, um, a market monopolization or I wouldn't say racketeering, but it's, it's legalized scalping, which they call dynamic pricing.

It's caveat emptor.

Look, a New York Knicks ticket the other night was up to 30, 40, $50,000 to sit courtside.

And that prices out the general population.

There's a lot of greed associated with it.

Uh, unfortunately, promoters like Mark and I, we're our hands are tied because we have to sell our tickets through our website.

But then the bar codes, which are all digital these days, they're taken in, they're either scratch and posted online for sale and they're fake or they're real.

You don't know.

So we always recommend anybody going to our shows.

Buy it from Rochester, jazz.com directly.

It's real.

It's valid.

It's face value.

You buy it from StubHub, SeatGeek ticket, you know, whatever other sites there are out there.

We can't guarantee that ticket is valid.

>> Yeah, yeah, I, I found that a lot with not only tickets, but also with like hotel rooms and stuff like that.

There's a lot of secondary markets.

And I did see on your website, you guys make it really easy to see what the passes are and everything like that.

>> Yeah.

I mean, just to add on to that, just one.

Note, it's really tough for us because we empathize with the artists because whether it's whoever the organization is, and then the bots and the resellers, they're getting their margin, they're buying our ticket for face value.

The artist sees that and says, wow, I went online and saw what these.

But that's not us.

And I said, well, then I need to up my fees.

Now we're restricted to the capacity and the venue.

We're really not the guys that want to sell in a 2300 seater balcony, seats at $200 or $300 to get an act.

Now that is almost twice as much or more to book in Kodak Hall.

So we're we're we're stuck in a rock and a hard place because I empathize with with the artists.

But at the same time, you know, the agencies are taking those dates and it is what it is.

You know, I mean, what we do is focus on what we do well.

And that's what we do is pivot.

So what we've seen, what we've done in the Eastman, some people will say, well, you don't have all the headliners, like six of them.

Well, at the end of the day, we're going to book shows that we know people can afford the tickets, want to come to those shows and stay true to the form of the jazz festival, right.

>> So it's just a little switch this year.

And, you know, we did deal with a lot of, uh, having to refund, uh, ticket disputes because a person bought our ticket, couldn't resell it, didn't want to go.

Then they disputed the charge.

So we ended up having to try to find their order within a, you know, a land mine of information.

Oh, goodness.

And no matter what the credit card companies will always side with the customer.

So we lose the ticket and we lose the revenue.

So that that put a little bit of pressure on us.

And of course, artists fees, as Marc said, go up and up and up and up to double or triple because the artists are not seeing any of that secondary ticket market revenue, nor are the managers of these artists.

And the agencies are forced to ask for higher fees, which shuts out our ability to buy some talent.

And that's been a that's been a thorn in our side.

>> So but we'll figure it out.

>> We will.

>> We're all figuring it out.

>> Yeah, there'll be more surprises next year on how we go and book some bigger acts.

>> Absolutely.

>> Now we do have a caller.

We've got Keith calling in from Victor and we'll bring we'll bring Keith in.

He wants to talk about AI music.

Uh, we got Keith on the line.

Hi, Keith.

>> Hello.

Hey, thank you so much for calling in.

>> Uh, I was listening a part of the, AI and, um, to me and I, and I don't think people realize it.

Musicians make music.

They have a talent.

They pick up a piece of equipment, sit by a piece of equipment and create a sound that we enjoy, which we call music.

Computers don't make music.

They make music sound.

And I'll give you an analogy, it's a PG&E analogy.

My wife has a Tesla, and then the the plethora of things that you have with the Tesla is, uh, you can create when somebody sits down, you can create a sound.

>> Okay, okay.

All right.

Yeah, we can do that.

>> The computer, the computer creates the sound.

It doesn't create.. And that's what AI does.

It creates a music sound.

And to see this best, watch the HBO special about earth, wind and fire.

And you want to see something emotionally moving.

You watch the videos of their earlier performances where not only are they playing the instruments to create the real music, their whole body is into it.

And that's what makes music special.

Now, I we've seen performances that are, oh, I've seen Hans Zimmer twice.

I've seen Bruno Mars a couple of times.

So we try to expand, you know, our musical horizons.

But music generated by a computer will never be the same as real music.

It will be a music sound.

>> Amen to that.

>> And I think and I think you have to start calling it what it is.

And feel free to use the Tesla analogy.

>> You know what, Keith?

I am going to use that analogy.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us and, uh, talk about AI a little bit.

And I think most of us in the room here, I think we all could agree with.

>> You on that.

You're lucky you don't.

>> Have comedians on the show because it could go sideways real.

>> Fast.

>> Could go a different direction.

>> Yeah.

>> That's why I brought up about it's the five year olds right now.

Those are the ones that we have to make sure that they know what the human element is.

>> Truly, truly, I've been thinking a lot about that as well, about our future generation, what their impact is going to be, what they're going to know and grow up with.

I mean, when I was growing up, we had flip phones in high school and that was a big issue.

But, uh, now little kids like five year olds, you know, they've got smartphones at school.

It's impacting them.

Not only their education, but of course, their impact on the arts and on music and all of that.

So we're all very aware of it.

We're all keeping our eyes on it, keeping tabs on it, if you will.

Uh, Joey, hey, I want to come back to you and talk a little bit about the performance at the jazz Festival.

My first question, have you performed at the jazz festival previously?

>> Yes.

So this would be my big bands, fourth time on the Jazz Street stage.

And before that I was playing with my high school jazz band and with the Eastman Youth Jazz Orchestra and some other community groups.

But for us, it's our fourth great.

>> So what day and time and venue are you at this year?

>> We'll be on Father's Day, Sunday, June 21st, 4:30 p.m.

On the Jazz Street Stage, which is the the outdoor stage between the corner of main and, uh, main.

Easton.

Gibbs.

>> Yeah, right by the ticket shop.

>> Yep.

>> Right by the ticket shop.

We love it.

So, Joey, as far as your performance for the festival or for festivals in general, what do you think the difference is as far as being on, on the stage of, let's say, a small jazz club versus a festival stage where there are obviously hundreds of thousands of people attending?

>> Yeah.

So we're a pretty versatile band stylistically.

Um, that's something that we pride ourselves on.

And when it comes to a festival show like this, where you have throngs of people in the crowd, um, that you can as far as the eye can see, you really want to bring the energy.

So every year when we play this, this show, we're always pulling our most energetic tunes, um, stuff that people can dance to, um, things that, you know, like the jazz listeners will hear and appreciate, um, whereas maybe for an intimate live show, we'd be playing some more traditional or laid back material.

>> Yeah.

I mean, obviously there's tons of jazz standards and jazz songs that everybody knows and loves, and we'll probably want to hear.

But do you also write your own music, and will you be performing original material at the festival?

>> Yeah, so my big band is all of my original material and original arrangements of jazz standards.

So we do our best to honor the culture by playing some of those staple pieces.

But I'll also be presenting some of my own original music as well.

>> I love hearing about how jazz musicians write their songs, because I come from a. I also write songs coming from more of a folk or like a rock kind of a standpoint where we've got the structure.

That's the song.

I'm going to play it the same way every time.

But jazz isn't really like that, you know, there's room for improvization.

So are you.

When you're performing, are you improvising and sort of bouncing off the other people in the band, or do you try to stick to the structure of the song as it has been originally written?

>> Absolutely.

Improvization is a huge thing, and what people in the audience will hear is when, if I'll play something and then my drummer will pick it up, or during a solo, the rhythm section will will latch on to whatever the soloist is doing and try to mirror that.

And that.

I think that energy is really palpable on stage.

And thus it is also really palpable in the audience.

Another part of that is that when I'm writing, I'm writing for my friends, my colleagues from Eastman, people that I know.

And so I can write out space for them to go wild based on the strengths that I know they have.

So that's a really cool aspect of getting to do what I do.

>> If you're just tuning in with us, you're listening to Connections.

Of course, we're talking about the Rochester International Jazz Festival.

It's the 23rd edition coming to our fine, fine city, June 19th to the through the 27th, you can go to Rochester jazz.com, see the whole lineup and where everybody's playing.

So we were talking about the tickets earlier.

I want to know what make what is the tipping point for you guys to decide what's a free show and what's a ticketed show?

>> Well, there's a number of factors.

Fee, of course, what our budget will allow is a driving factor.

And just style.

And, uh, timing.

Uh, we never know, you know, the pieces of the puzzle every year it's different.

Like you see this big grid here with all these artists, that's their all their out there.

We just have to assemble them.

And it's generally, uh, monetary in some cases and other others.

It's artistic.

Uh, but we always, like I say, look for a high level of artistry and we've figured out a formula over the years that we've, we've stuck with and, you know, tweak every year as we go by.

>> Yeah.

And just to add on to that, I think really what we're committed to is that, you know, our top sponsors, uh, Rochester Regional Health, M and T Bank, the city, the county, the state, um, we have made a commitment that we are going to have a major percentage of their sponsorship toward free, especially within our city.

So that drives it.

And there's usually artists that, um, I'm not going to say they, they're more gracious on, on, on their, on their fee because it's like John said before, it's all about, you know, what the agencies feel that they should be getting.

But we also want them to know they know when it's free.

They know it's not ticketed, and they bring an energy for that.

And, you know, it's, it's hit or miss on the fees.

But we are committed to the free part of it.

So, you know, it's depending on the artists availability.

>> I'll give you a little analogy too.

It's like, would you rather play in front of 10,000 people for this fee or in front of 1000 people for that fee?

Right?

Because most of the artists will sell tickets and they know what their sort of gross potential is.

Whereas if we're giving the audience a free show and there's no tickets, then the budget we have to work with has to cover everything.

The production and the artist's fee.

So, and a lot of times the artists will choose to play in front of a bigger crowd.

It depends on the agent and how they communicate to the manager or the artist directly.

So, you know, there's no blueprint in how events come together.

Every year there's a sort of a, you know, pieces to the puzzle, but the blueprint is it's always moving and shifting every year.

>> Yeah, I think it's great that you guys do the free shows because as you know, let's say you're a broke college kid, but you want to go see some great jazz.

And like a lot of us have been, you know, or like your kids and they just want to go walk around and there is the ability to be able to go to the jazz festival, just walk around, see what's going on, and then walk into a show and not have to worry, oh, did I get a ticket?

Or am I allowed in this area or whatever?

And being able to work with the venues and everything like that.

I applaud you guys for that because I think it's a great part of the festival and and important for Rochester.

>> It wouldn't happen without our sponsors, the city of Rochester, Rochester Regional Health, you know, all of the organizations, Wegmans, all the organizations and businesses that get behind us and market speak more.

>> Yeah, those shows on parcel five, obviously, I mentioned the sponsors, but also the Wegmans family.

Um, made a commitment to us when they knew that Covid had hit us and we were coming out of it.

And Danny and his team said, look, what do you need?

And I explained to him, this is what we'd like to continue to do.

However, I'm not sure that we can keep sequestering more financing because of budgets from the city and that.

And he said, okay, let me think about it.

And he came back with the team and said, here's what we'll do.

So these shows that are from Wednesday through Saturday, primarily, a lot of that funding is is well, coming from Wegmans and the Wegmans family.

So we don't take that for granted at all, nor do we with all these sponsors.

>> Absolutely.

Now, the jazz obviously is the center of the festival.

It's the focal point and the right in the title.

But there are so many other genres and different musicians that you guys have brought in in the past.

You know, we've got bluegrass, we've got Americana, we've got maybe even a country band or artist here or there.

What made you decide to maybe branch off the jazz for.

>> Well, a bit.

Let's look at the first lineup at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954.

Any idea who played on that first jazz festival?

I don't Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Louis Armstrong, or, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Frank Sinatra.

So I asked George Wein about that.

He was the creator of the Word Festival.

The Newport Jazz Festival was the very first one.

It's the grandfather of all festivals today, he says.

If it's creative and if it's improvised, you can present it on a jazz festival.

And I thought, wow, that's pretty cool.

So being true to the integrity of the art form and and creativity, jazz spawned all these different elements over the past 100 years from New Orleans all the way through, you know, big band era, the, you know, the rock and roll Elvis Presley, the 60s with funk and soul and groove.

Miles Davis, brew all those all the way.

Music developed as a genealogical chart.

It all has its roots in jazz, so that's why we say if it's creative and it's improvised, we.

And it has integrity, we can present it on our festival.

>> And I think the thing that comes full circle is what you see happen on Jazz Street.

So we're very fortunate to have the community foundation in the city of Rochester help us sponsor nine days of free shows there.

You have high school jazz bands, and then you have regional.

And then you have some national acts that are playing and it's different genres, but then there's some straight ahead jazz that's there.

So you're getting exposed to that without even going into a club past venue.

>> We even have, uh, you know, the military group, the Navy Jazz Commodores coming here from Washington to perform for us.

So we've had the airmen of note.

We've, the government has sends us a fabulous group every year, which is part of our taxpayer dollars.

So we're very thankful for that support.

And, uh, you know, you're going to hear some great music on the free stages for sure.

>> I love that and I couldn't agree more.

There's a fantastic, fantastic lineup this year.

And as you were just saying, jazz is the root of it all.

And we were just talking about the 250th anniversary of the country.

Uh, jazz is what started most genres.

So we're excited to hear more of it.

Once again, thank you all so much for coming in.

My name is Hannah Maier, sitting in for Evan Dawson, and we were speaking with Marc Iacona John Nugent Joey Stempien.

And then we had Joe Farnsworth on the phone talking about the Rochester Jazz Festival.

It's the 23rd edition happening June 19th through the 27th, and I cannot wait to hear some amazing acts like Gladys Knight, the Robert Cray Band, Soul Rebels, so many, so many fantastic bands.

You can go to Rochester jazz.com and see the full lineup.

Thank you all so much for joining me this afternoon, and we'll see you out there moving and grooving.

>> We'll see you.

On Jazz Street.

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