Rochester jazz fest free shows bring fiery blues, Cajun funk, and the return of Sheila E.

Rochester's annual jazz festival will be bookended with freebie shows from the Deep South — a Mississippi Delta blues master performing on the second night and the festival finale a week later with a return to a seminal New Orleans funk album that is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

On the first Saturday night, June 22, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram, whose blues guitar has been likened to B.B. King (more on that momentarily), performs at the stage at East Avenue and Chestnut Street. (The festival opens Friday, June 21.)

Then, on Saturday, June 29, the festival's final night, a free show at Parcel 5 will celebrate the anniversary of the 1974 album "Rejuvenation" from the New Orleans group The Meters. Considered one of the best albums ever of the genre, the record is foundational because of its amalgam of funk and New Orleans flavors.

That concert will include some of the original band members, along with Ivan Neville, who grew up with the Cajun-ripe musical influences of his family, the Neville Brothers. Centerpiecing the music will be a popular New Orleans band, Dumpstaphunk.

Bringing back the blues

"Kingfish" Ingram is the real deal, a bluesman with respect for his musical elders and a willingness to prod the venerable blues in new directions. His career has skyrocketed so much that he was the recent focus of a "60 Minutes" segment about his place in the blues pantheon.

The schedule: Rochester International Jazz Festival free shows 2024

He has been likened to B.B. King, but even he acknowledged in the news show that he is much rawer than B.B., who was a one-of-a-kind guitarist who could be delicately subtle unlike any other.

Ingram can, like B.B., settle into a relaxed (a word that belies the skills) yet emotionally evocative riff with the guitar. Still, more often than not, he displays the lightning chops of a Stevie Ray Vaughan or Buddy Guy. Ingram, who is 25 years old, has already scored a Grammy for a blues album.

Like New York's own Joe Bonamassa, Ingram was performing by the time he was 12.

Trombone Shorty in Belgium

New Orleans' own Trombone Shorty has been a longtime favorite in Rochester — and he has acknowledged reciprocally that the festival is one of his favorites — and he often closes out the festival week with a jubilant free show for thousands. However, he starts a European tour the week of the festival and is in Belgium its final night.

"He wasn't available during the time period, so I wanted to do something that is New Orleans-flavored," said John Nugent, a festival co-producer and artistic director.

The festival was able to land the "Rejuvenation" rebirth and also secure another New Orleans mainstay, Jon Cleary, as an opener on June 29. "We went after it," Nugent said of the double bill of Louisiana musicians.

Cleary carries his own near-legendary status in New Orleans, an heir to the energetically bluesy music of Professor Longhair and Dr. John.

Parcel 5 free shows continue

Cleary and the "Rejuvenation" show will be part of a series of free concerts downtown, performances that include others steeped in rock and pop history, among them Los Lonely Boys, and Sheila E. and her band E-Train. (Sheila E., a collaborator with Prince, was here two years ago and wanted to return, another sign of the appreciative Rochester crowds.)

The free shows with major artists started in the aftermath of COVID. In 2022, the first year back after the pandemic, the festival used arts-designated funds secured by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer to pay for free shows at Parcel 5, said Marc Iacona, also a festival producer.

For 2022 the festival scrapped ticketed shows at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre and instead had its headline performers at Parcel 5. Now, Iacona said, the festival has been able to keep both sets of shows, with Wegmans Food Markets supporting the Parcel 5 performances.

The festival, along with the annual Rochester Fringe Festival, has showcased Parcel 5, once envisioned for development. Instead, the plot of downtown land has become a hub of community activity.

Look for plenty of that activity in the days ahead.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Rochester Jazz festival free shows 2024 bring fiery blues, Sheila E.