News

Jazz-chester Festival Soon

[This is part of the June 11, 2008 edition of Genesee Sun.]

By Jillian Stevenson, News Editor

With the seventh annual Rochester International Jazz Festival on the horizon, music fans from around the greater Rochester region are gearing up to descend on downtown to devour a feast for the ears. But if you love jazz, if you crave live music even into the wee hours and even on a Monday, you don't have to wait for this yearly event to drag yourself from the suburbs and into the city. I've known about the Flat Iron CafÃ© for some time. I heard it was a sweet spot for local musicians to jam, and for musicians traveling through town to happen upon. I stopped in on a Sunday evening to grab the best cafÃ© mocha I've had in years, and asked the owner, Tommy LaBue, if he was getting ready for the Jazz Fest. I had heard that last year, there were several evenings of after hours, with famous musicians letting it fly into the thick summer air. LaBue said they'd have after hours every night this year during the festival, but admitted he'd like to see more of a crowd throughout the year. "Rochester says it's such a jazz town, but last night Wycliffe Gordon was here playing his trombone into the ear of one drunk guy." My eyes must have explained my reaction. LaBue invited me to come check out Big Apple Mondays, to get a feel for the place, the neighborhood, and the possibilities. The triangular building juts into the intersection of Lake Avenue, Lyell Avenue, Smith and State Streets. Customers reveling in the heat and the music sit almost in their own lane of traffic as vehicles zoom by even at midnight. Quinn Lawrence is just finishing up his set, and those who had just been cutting up the floor sprawl about the cafÃ©, catching their breath. But the night isn't over. Lawrence plays with his trio on Mondays, and hosts a weekly after hours on Saturday. "It's the only place you can swing dance to live music on a weekly basis for free," he says, and LaBue heads in to crank up some Latin beats.

There's a regular crowd from the Tango CafÃ©, a dance studio on Gregory Street, that's made the Flat Iron their home away from home. On Tuesdays, they dance the Bachata and the Merengue, and on Thurdays, it's Salsa. On three separate occasions, I'm greeted by Carlos Rodriguez, an instructor from Tango, Liz Garcia, an assistant, and Ashley Piper, a student and now a devout friend to them both. Despite my own inabilities on the dance floor, they never make me feel like I should sit down. I learned all three dances that night. I head back on Saturday, to see if the after hours really exists. It's 1:50 a.m. when I pull up, and the place is going strong. Lawrence is on the saxophone, John Pittman leans against the wall with his trumpet, Kate Gentile caresses her drum set, and Ben Thomas works his bass. I think I'm dreaming. No stranger to going out, I'm shocked that I'm not getting pushed out the door. Amador Vasquez is a childhood friend of LaBue's. He says they both grew up on Conkey Avenue, and that LaBue's transformation of this building, this corner, have been an inspiration to him. "Any night of the week, you don't see blacks, you don't see whites, you don't see old, you don't see young. You see a melting pot. And there's never been a fight. Never a 911 call," he adds. "Tommy's livin' the dream I had, so I help him, and I'm gonna go there with him." Vasquez says that this corner is the center of the city. He and LaBue point out the different businesses, "There are Asians there, Jamaicans there, Indians, Puerto Ricans, Vietnamese, Somalians...my crowd includes people from the neighborhood."

As for the neighborhood, the cafÃ© sits a little beyond the High Falls Entertainment District. Is it safe? Shuolun Ruan, a University of Rochester medical student, says "I feel like I'm amidst the safest group of people I can be with. At the end of every evening, someone offers to walk me to my car. So yeah, I feel fine."

Where were you at 3:00 a.m. on Sunday?

A night of jazz for Jazz@Rochester...

By Greg BellÂ June 02, 2008

Sometimes I forget my age, how much "fun" I've already had and how much I'll pay for it later (why do you think I'm doing this on Monday...?), and because sometimes I just feel like I don't want a particular evening to come to an end. Well, it does ... it becomes morning. I met up with Ken and Seth at the Strath to discuss strategy for blogging and podcasting during the upcoming jazz festival Saturday night and listen to John Eckert with the Bob Sneider Quartet, which that night was missing Bob for part of the evening as he was playing guitar with the RPO and Byron Stripling, Wycliffe Gordon, Peter Appleyard, and Chris Vadala over at the Eastman Theatre for the 85 Years of Jazz program, RPO's last concert of the season, which Dianna and I had the pleasure of seeing Friday night.

After the RPO gig was over, Bob and the whole bunch showed up at the Strathallan (which didn't surprise me as I expected they were staying there). Wycliffe took out his horn and blew some beautiful ballads with the band. My friend Jimmie Highsmith Jr. was there as well. A second set, a scotch and a beer later, as people were all packing up. I found out Wycliffe and Jimmie were heading over to the Flat Iron CafÃ© to play with Quinn Lawrence and his trio (Kate Gentile on drums and Ben Thomas on bass), at their regular after-hours gig on Sunday morning at the Flat Iron. I decided that it had been awhile since I saw Tom LaBue, Flat Iron's owner and I had a cigar burning a hole in my pocket, so I went over. Good choice . . . .

After awhile, Wycliffe and Jimmie showed up and unzipped their gig bags. They sat at tables facing the trio, or got up and joined them and faced us. They were just jamming. They weren't playing for a crowd-there was just me, Tom, a couple that Tom knows who enjoy hanging there, and a guy who spent most of the time sleeping on the table (that's him in the one picture . . . he's not ducking to avoid Wycliffe's slide). There's nothing like listening to great musicians jam early in the morning, just sitting around and playing for the sheer joy of it. The music flowed for several hours.

This type of thing happens with some regularity at the Flat Iron. I'm afraid jazz doesn't happen like this anywhere else (if I'm wrong, let me know), except for an earlier version of "after hours" during the festival (the Flat Iron has the real after hours all week during the RIJF). But there is one thing missing...you. Tom is fighting the odds to keep jazz music flowing at the Flat Iron. He's a true urban pioneer and has created a great oasis of music, dance, and libation at the corners of Corner of Lake, Lyell, Smith, and State Streets. Take a chance and check out something out there or any of our struggling jazz haunts. You don't have to do the 3:00 am thing, but you'll miss a unique experience of some great music if you don't.

Late night, low-key cool

The Quinn Lawrence Trio By Frank De Blase on Oct. 10th, 2007Jazz has always had a sort of cinematic allure to me; that quintessential smoky setting and tone that shines best in off hours, after hours, late night.

"To put it simply," says Lawrence, "I don't think anybody thought of it before because how this town is. They close up pretty early."

The Jazz Fest has definitely put Rochester on the jazz map, but a good deal of the crowds that choke downtown for its two-week run are out-of-towners. And folks around here are - perhaps just a little bit - fair weather jazz fans. They're not gung-ho enough to strike out late, late at night to hear a jazz trio play in an area of town that's a lot less pedestrian than the Jazz Fest's comfy East End digs.

"During the jazz festival, that's when the city feels alive, you know?" Lawrence says. "That's when things are happening and people are going out and doing something, hearing live music. And then when it's all over, you don't see that as much."

On a recent Saturday night - or rather Sunday morning - Lawrence, bass player Ben Thomas, and drummer Kate Gentile set up on the floor near the Flat Iron's open doorway. Latin music blasting shrill and distorted drifted in from down the street and cars whizzed close by in a southbound flash of red tail lights. This is typically the kind of neighborhood you drive through, not to.

Inside, however, the tables all bristled and buzzed with caffeine-clipped conversation and low-key cool. It was a righteous vibe. Lawrence began to sing "Witchcraft" in a casual, rich baritone. Yup the cat sings, and plays trumpet, and dabbles in bass and piano, too.

Trumpet came first. Lawrence was 10 years old and couldn't decide which instrument to choose.

"My mother said, â€˜Well, Louis Armstrong was famous for playing the trumpet,'" he says. "And I said â€˜Sure.'"

But it was Terrence Bruce's playing in church that dragged Lawrence over to the reed side. "Just the way he captivated the crowd," Lawrence says. "I was like, â€˜Yeah man, that's really cool.' And that just basically sparked everything for what I wanted to do."

Lawrence got his undergraduate degree at the Eastman School of Music and his masters in music/jazz studies at The University of Cincinnati, and then returned here to his hometown. He has laid down a few demo tracks and is actively writing material for his first album. This all may take some time as Lawrence, though a full-blown jazz cat, won't be fenced in.

"There are so many different sides to me musically," he says. "At one point I was two-dimensional; classical and jazz and everything else was pretty much crap. That's what I was exposed to. As far as what people call â€˜high-level music,' that's all I was interested in. A lot of musicians go through that phase and some of them get stuck in it. Not me. One day I popped in a James Brown record and I was like, â€˜I am feelin' this.' And I really like rock because of the character of the music. I may not be playing rock per se, but I go at it with that attitude."

It's with this attitude that Lawrence's music is taking shape. It's magical and comfortable and a thrill to see a trumpet player approach the saxophone like a trumpet player - or is it the other way around?

"Basically I wanna confuse people like I've always been doing," he says. "There's just so much that I like that I want to share my passion for."

You're just gonna have to stay up late to hear it. No sweat: the Flat Iron serves a good cup of joe.

The Quinn Lawrence Trio

After-hours jam at the Flat Iron CafÃ©, 561 State St

Sunday mornings at 1 a.m.

Free | 454-4830

(August 2, 2007)

- Flat Iron CafÃ©. This State Street cafÃ© has become a late-night hot spot for jazz. Jams that last into the wee hours of the morning attract the best the city has to offer from artists here to play concerts to Rochester's home-grown talent.

Atmosphere. Located in a historic building just north of the Kodak tower, this modern-looking, tiered, triangular-shaped cafÃ© makes you feel comfortable yet ready to experience the best. Artwork is on the brick-exposed walls. It's also WiFi accessible.

Drinks. Flat Iron now serves beer and wine and has a modest selection. But the cafe made its name on its espressos, lattes and smoothies, as well as an excellent $4 panini sandwich and its desserts, including 7UP and coconut cake.

The crowd. Different, depending on the night or artist. Monday is swing dance night. Tuesday and Thursday feature salsa dancing. Weekends bring the late-night jazz jams. There's a comedy night the first Friday of each month. The jazz crowd is very laid back and casual, caring more about the music than how they look or if the "in crowd" is there. You can also find quite a few experts on the music there, if you want to know more about what's being played.

Late-night jams. Flat Iron really made a name for itself as the place to be in the early morning hours during the Rochester International Jazz Festival in June, with guests from Wycliffe Gordon to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. This weekend, it will be the official venue of the Puerto Rican Festival After Hour Jams. The Friday-through-Sunday festival is moving to the Frontier Field parking lot. On Friday, the Flat Iron jam will feature Son del Barrio. Deborah Branch, the Freddy Colon Latin Jazz Quartet and Quinn Lawrence Trio will play on Saturday. But it's not just the established artists who play at Flat Iron. Many up-and-coming Eastman School students and others also can be heard at the cafÃ©.

The details. 561 State St., (585) 454-4830 or www.flatironcafe.net. Noise factor is 5, Hook-up factor is 4 (1 being the lowest, 10 the highest).

-CATHERINE ROBERTS

June 04, 2007It's 2am and You STILL Want Jazz?. . . Catch Some Local Rochester Talent at the Flat Iron CafeI've been saying for a long time that there needs to be something during the Rochester International Jazz Festival to sate the jazz needs of folks who are just not ready to stop (and many of whom have taken days off or are on vacation here in Rochester) that would highlight some of the great talent we have here. According to the website for the Flat Iron Cafe at 561 State Street (585.454.4830) and Aaron Staebell, who plays drums with the Bill Tiberio Group and his own band Bending and Breaking, there will be live jazz at the Cafe starting at 2 am, conveniently when it wraps up at the Crowne Plaza Hotel with Bob Sneider each night just down the street. Aaron's group will be playing on June 11th and 13th starting at 2 am (and at 8:30 pm on the 12th at Boulder Coffee). I don't know who else is playing, but will update this post as I find out more.

Now, what about some alternative venues. While I understand the reasons that the main event is down at the Crowne Plaza, I expect the crowds at this year's after hours sets will hit the tipping point. I'm still going to check them out, but it's nice knowing that alternatives are at least beginning to be in the mix.- Gregory V. Bell jazz@rocheseter

June 14, 2007The After After Hours Spot . . . the Flat Iron CafeThis morning at 2:00 a.m., I left the following the end of the last set of the after hours gig at State Street Bar & Grill at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and headed over to Flatiron Cafe down the street to see what would transpire at the jam sessions that are starting up there each night at 2:00 a.m. Although I always enjoy hearing the after hours house band of Bob Sneider, Mike Melito and Phil Flanigan, there wasn't much happening last night other than some really talented students of Bob, plus two members of 5 Corners Quintet from Finland. I wanted to say hello again to Tom, the owner at Flatiron and check out the scene so I headed on over (don't know where the energy came from, but Tom's large cup of coffee was a great help). Aaron Stabell's Bending and Breaking band was playing and I really enjoyed the set. While some members of Christian Scott's band and sax player Timo Lassy of the 5 Corners Quintet were present, by the time I left only Scott's drummer had sat in and Lassy had left without playing. However, talking with the owner I found out the night to be there was the previous night when it all had come together beyond his wildest (well he has some even bigger ones for tonight's session) dreams.

In the early hours of Wednesday, those who were at the Flatiron Cafe were in for a real treat as Wycliffe Gordon, Robin Eubanks and Gray Mayfield, as well as members of Bonerama showed up and jammed with the musicians Quinn Lawrence put together for the event (how many trombones does that make?). New blogger for the Democrat & Chronicle Anna Reguero was there and apparently it was an amazing night (as listening to Wycliffe blow often is...). As Anna put it:

Big shots like these guys don't come to jam sessions at 3 a.m. in small cities to show off. For example, Gordon plays in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra - trust me, he doesn't need to prove himself to anyone. They come because they love to play - anywhere and with anyone.

That is what makes these after-hours gigs special. When they click, they REALLY click and leave you with a music experience that is indelibly inked into your memory. The after after hours gig at the Flatiron will be going on until the end of the festival. Who knows who will show up each night?

Next urban comeback: at Lyell and State?on December 7, 2005

http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/archives/2005/12/Next-urban-comeback-at-Lyell-and-State/

When you think about the area around Lyell Avenue and State Street, you probably don't envision a thriving international district with Wi-Fi coffeehouses and loft-style apartments. But that's exactly the vision that animates Mitch Rowe.

A veteran City Hall employee, Rowe took his first plunge into commercial real estate about two years ago when, along with his neighbor Tom LaBue, he bought the flatiron building at 3 Lyell Avenue from the city for a thousand dollars.

Today, the rehabbed building is home to the Flat Iron Cafï¿½. Sandwiched in between Lyell Avenue and Smith Street, the building anchors what could become a significant city intersection.

If that sounds like an overstatement, consider two of the biggest projects being undertaken in the city: the construction of PaeTecPark and the remaking of the Port of Rochester. True, questions remain about both projects; the Rhinos are awaiting word on whether the state will chip in $15 million to pay for key amenities. And though the city has contracted with a Boston firm to redesign riverfront land at the port, the ferry's lackluster performance has cast a pall over the resurgence of the area.

But while these concerns are real, both developments are going to happen; it's just a question of how big and how successful they'll be.

The state Department of Transportation finished a massive repaving of Lake Avenue this year, in anticipation of a boost in traffic between the port and downtown Rochester. Among the improvements was the installation of flagstone crosswalks and iron street lamps along the Lake Avenue-State Street corridor: the same ones that that have been installed in Charlotte. These are installed at key intersections, including the five-corners area where the Flat Iron Cafï¿½ is. The idea is that having similar elements as part of the streetscape will help link together neighborhoods along the whole corridor.

The flatiron building's renovationand the cafï¿½ are emblematic of what backers hope the area could become. It almost didn't happen. In 1999 the city moved to demolish the building, saying it was suffering from neglect and was becoming a hazard.

Among those who objected was John Lippa, now the president of the Lyell Avenue Business Association (he was vice president at the time). "We said, this was historic," he recalls. "We didn't want that torn down." The group went to the Landmark Society to research the building's history and bolster the case for saving it.

After a couple of months, Lippa and others were able to persuade the city to back off. Still, the building wasn't exactly an asset to the neighborhood. Businesses came and went, the most memorable being an adult book store. And during that time the original entry, which faced the intersection at the point of the building, remained cut off, a window, not a door.

After Rowe and LaBue bought the building, among their improvements was restoring the double doors that open out onto the five corners.

The changes they've made are welcomed by Lippa and others in the neighborhood.

"We're very pleased with the appearance of the building," Lippa says. Lippa and Bob Seidel, a retired Empire State College professor who was also active in the campaign to save the building, believe it is a keystone for the area.

"A lot of people see it going down the avenue," Seidel says. Positive changes there are a hopeful sign for the rest of the area, he says.

Rowe hasn't been the only person to recognize the neighborhood's potential. There's a slow but steady flux of businesses opening or expanding in the area. In a small space in the back of the flatiron building, a group of seniors from St. JohnFisherCollege, led by Mark Foti, are opening a comic-book store. Win Fa, an Asian market from a few blocks south, is reopening in a larger space across the street. Deepak Marwaha, who owns a cell-phone store next door, has bought a few more storefront buildings from the city and plans to renovate them for retail space.

Bryce and Doyle, a maker of upscale kitchen cabinetry, has bought another building to use for a showroom.

Although the pace of business activity hasn't been conspicuous, it hasn't escaped notice, either.

"If you walk in a two-block radius of that intersection, you encounter a whole lot of businesses that you didn't know existed until you walk there," says Seidel.

Though he tries to remain modest about it, Rowe clearly relishes the thought that his project is acting as a catalyst for a comeback in the neighborhood. Instead of spending a lot of money on the flatiron building, he and LaBue did much of the restoration work themselves.

"Before that, there were a lot of people who had written the area off and decided it wasn't worth investing in," Rowe says. "I'd like to think that the interest that Deepak and the others showed is connected to the fact that they saw two people willing to roll up their sleeves."

Marwaha says that's a fair assessment. Changing an adult bookstore to a coffeehouse is "definitely changing the look and feel of the neighborhood," he says, and that prompted him to invest some sweat equity of his own.

"It really comes down to the effort people put into the buildings," he says.

Some of the flurry of activity is also surely connected to the coming of the soccer stadium.

"I would've done this even if the stadium wasn't going to be two blocks to the west," says Rowe. But he admits that's not the case for everyone. "Properties on Lyell have been bought up in the last 18 months that probably wouldn't have if the stadium wasn't going there," Rowe says.

Of course, the neighborhood is more than just the five-corners intersection. Despite the draw that PaeTecPark may provide, a true revitalization will hinge on having a regular flow of people patronizing retail outlets.

One of the area's advantages is that it already has a population base. Several businesses have plants in the area. And a major non-profit group, the Center for Disability Rights, is moving its headquarters from rented space a little to the south into a building it has bought at Jay and State.

Chris Hilderbrant, the Center's director of advocacy, says he hopes CDR's newly renovated building can act as a counter-balance to the stadium, an anchor for pedestrian traffic when there are no soccer games.

"We want to serve as a hub," he says.

CDR has been at its current location on State Street for six years, says Hilderbrant. It's outgrown that space, but its leaders wanted to stay in the area, partly out of a conscious choice to remain connected to the city, and partly because that section of State Street has good access to bus routes, something critical to both staff members and their clientele.

"The move to that location is consistent with our commitment to the city," says Hilderbrant. "Our organization has grown up in this area. It's a great location for us."

The cost of the renovations to CDR's new building --- which include a power wash to remove 100 years of grime from the building's brick faï¿½ade --- is about $3 million, says to Hilderbrant. When the organization moves in, it'll have 60 fulltime staff members working there, plus about 65 more who'll split their time working there and elsewhere for CDR.

Those numbers make CDR's project the second largest investment in the area (after PaeTecPark), according to their own reckoning.

Along with the new building, the group also bought the adjacent storefronts that line State Street, and though they're not part of the initial rehab, Hilderbrant says CDR hopes that with some help from the city, they'll eventually become an important part of the neighborhood's rebirth.

But reviving a neighborhood takes more than just filling a few storefronts. Problems abound. First there's the area's reputation.

"There's probably still a perception on the part of a lot of people that that area's not safe," says Mitch Rowe. That perception is false, he says; he's been at his building working "at all hours of the day and night," he says, without trouble.

In addition to being thought of as generally a tough neighborhood, Lyell Avenue is known as a red-light district. If the perception that the area is unsafe or unsavory persists, people who otherwise might patronize coffeehouses and restaurants in the area may take their business elsewhere.

Then there's parking. Unlike downtown or the East End, there are no large municipal parking garages within easy walking distance from the five corners. Even large lots can be difficult to find and are often off limits to the public. What little parking is available is street side.

And finally, the area suffers from a weaker form of the same problem that ails the HighFalls entertainment district: lack of housing. Although there is some housing in the area, it's limited in the immediate neighborhood. For a critical mass of people to exist, more housing, particularly for middle-income families and young professionals, will need to become available.

For the first problem --- the area's bad rap --- help may be on the way. John Lippa and Bob Seidel are both involved in the startup of a prostitution task force that's being put together. Working with the Rochester Police Department, NET offices, the County Health Department, the County Human Services Department, and representatives from the faith community, local residents and businesses are hoping to clean up the illicit sex trade in the area.

"If we can reduce the odium that's attached to Lyell Avenue, that will help," says Seidel.

Parking and housing remain more intractable obstacles, for now. CDR's new lot will be the biggest in the area. However, at least initially it won't be open to the public. Hilderbrant says that could change.

"I could foresee exploring that," he says.

With the coffee shop all but finished, Rowe and LaBue have turned their attention to the second and third floors of the flatiron building, which they plan to convert to loft-style apartments. Rowe is hoping the trend of upscale lofts that's spreading downtown will reach north toward his neighborhood. One positive sign: Buckingham Properties' current conversion of the ArtcraftBuilding, not far to the south, into lofts.

And then there are a few bonuses, positives that many prospective business owners or investors might not have counted on but will get anyway. One is Empire Zone status; part of the city's zone covers the five-corners intersection, and businesses will be eligible for tax exemptions. (Longtime observers will note with some irony that this is exactly the type of revitalization the Empire Zone program was intended to boost when it was begun.) The intersection also represents the northernmost edge of the CenterCity area in the zoning ordinance. That means property owners have fewer restrictions about such things as providing a minimum number of parking spaces.

Looking into the future, it's tough to tell what's in store for the area around the five corners. Lippa would like to see a design charrette as a start. But he's also well aware that a lot depends on the response from a BobDuffyCity Hall.

"We'll have to see how the new administration deals with this," he says.

Plans for at least one charrette --- in nearby JonesPark --- had been in the works. The Interfaith Action organization had argued that it was immoral to spend loads of public money on a new stadium while the needs of the poor in its shadow went unmet. Deputy Community Development Commissioner Larry Stid had met with the group about its concerns, Rowe says. Stid died last month, however, and plans for the charrette are now up in the air.

Rowe declines to speculate much about the area's future growth. He mentions looking forward to small changes like better signage for local businesses and getting trees planted in empty tree grates. (That last wish seems to have been granted. A City Newspaper photographer, assigned to find an empty grate, couldn't; all had recently been filled with saplings.)

Rowe does make one prediction, though.

"I know for sure next year is going to be better than this year," he said. "In less than 10 years we'll have full occupancy of all the retail space in that area."

Lippa puts it more succinctly still:

"We're looking for a renewal," he says.