Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Vocalist Sheila Jordan Dies at 96
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
Nick Iacona (left) and John Nugent, producers of the Rochester International Jazz Festival
(Photo: Courtesy of RIJF)The Rochester International Jazz Festival announced that it is postponing its next festival until 2022. In a letter to the press and fans, Mark Iacona and John Nugent, the event’s producers, outlined ongoing pandemic issues that made a July 2021 festival impossible to pull off.
“After intensive efforts to deliver a festival this year, and despite holding onto hope that a socially distanced festival could take place this year at a more spacious location, it will not be viable from either a business or health safety perspective due to necessary [New York] State health guidelines and capacity restrictions,” they said in the letter. “We will be back in 2022 and are committed to making every effort to move forward in downtown Rochester and also explore expanding the festival with programming at Rochester Institute of Technology.”
Traditionally held in June, Iacona and Nugent had rescheduled the festival to the end of July in hopes of a more positive outlook for holding live events in New York. But state guidelines would require capacity restrictions that made producing the festival economically unfeasible, according to the letter.
“We fully realize that the loss of live music has created a huge void in our lives and it has been career-ending for many musicians,” Iacona and Nugent said. “We will bring RIJF back next year with the high level of superior artistry our patrons have come to expect, and in an environment that will be inspiring and uplifting.”
Founded in 2002, the fest has been a staple of summer in upstate New York, drawing more than 200,000 attendees for more than 300 shows in 2019. For more information about the festival, see rochesterjazz.com. DB
Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.
Aug 12, 2025 10:24 AM
Sheila Jordan, a vocalist who was celebrated for her scatting and lyric-improvising abilities, died Aug. 11 at her home…
“I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.
Aug 12, 2025 10:33 AM
Famed Latin jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Eddie Palmieri passed away in his New Jersey home on Aug. 6. He was…
“What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.
Aug 26, 2025 1:53 PM
Buster Williams, who at the age of 83 has been on the scene for 65 years, had never done a Blindfold Test. The first…
Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.
Sep 3, 2025 12:02 PM
On the last Sunday of 2024, in the control room of Van Gelder Studio, Don and Maureen Sickler, co-owners since Rudy Van…
The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.
Aug 26, 2025 1:32 PM
Record producer and “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman has launched his next endeavor, the archival label Time Traveler…