Jazz Fest looks to the future with Gen Z performers 

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Whenever Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, a 25-year-old Mississippi guitarist and vocalist, is asked to describe his own music, he’s got a phrase at the ready.

“Smooth but edgy blues,” he said. “I come up from teachers who taught blues showmanship. I try to keep that in mind.”

Ingram exists in a lineage of Delta musical legends like Albert King and B.B. King, to whom he’s often likened, as well as Texas players like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Stevie Ray Vaughan. He’ll express his take on those traditions performing a free show onstage at East Avenue and Chestnut Street on Saturday, June 22.

Ingram is one of three headliners at this year’s Rochester International Jazz Festival born in 1999. That makes the bluesman, along with jazz singers Laufey and Samara Joy, part of Generation Z — not necessarily the perceived target age group for their particular genres.

“There are more young fans piling in,” Ingram said of his own shows, “but in the beginning, it was more older people.”

Yet the multi-genre, cross-generational nature of the Jazz Fest has been built-in from its inception. Afro-Cuban rhythms mingle with string ensembles and spoken-word experimentation, all within a few blocks of each other. A 23-year-old Norah Jones headlined the fete’s first year in 2002, months before runaway commercial and critical success made her an in-demand star.

In 2024, Icelandic TikTok sensation Laufey is helping boost Gen Z’s power over the fest. Tickets to her June 26 show at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre sold out in 15 minutes.

John Nugent, the festival’s co-producer and artistic director, said her 5.5 million followers on the video app have boosted much of the hype for her set.

“We have a several thousand-person waitlist for tickets for (her show). We only have 2,100 tickets at the Eastman (Theatre),” he said. “It’s like The Beatles when she comes onstage.”

It’s not necessarily a calculated decision to bring talented young performers like Laufey, Ingram and Joy, who revel in creating new spins on beloved styles. But Nugent said it can certainly help get younger crowds into seats for their first-ever jazz fest experiences.

“These young kids, for some of them, it's their first major concert in their early twenties,” he said. They might know CMAC or Darien Lake Amphitheater, but many “haven't sat in a concert hall” before.

Inside Kodak Hall, or even at East and Chestnut, the stages this year are filled with Grammy winners. Joy’s formalist approach to vocal jazz helped her pick up the coveted Best New Artist award in 2023 and has propelled her to play bigger rooms in Rochester.

A charming set at the 150-cap Max of Eastman Place marked her first appearance at the fest in 2022; last year, she played to 400 at Kilbourn Hall. Joy’s headlining set on June 28 is in a theater that seats well over 2,000.

“She's one of the leading vocalists in the industry today,” Nugent said.

Laufey nabbed Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2023 for her album "Bewitched." Ingram, meanwhile, won in the Best Contemporary Blues Album for "662," his second release, in 2022.

That word “contemporary” sits just fine with Ingram. He forges his own path, touring with experimental pop band Vampire Weekend and  even opening for The Rolling Stones a few years ago.

This fall, Ingram will channel the spirit of arguably the most famous blues-inspired guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix, during a traveling roadshow honoring his music and legacy, alongside folks like Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Taj Mahal (who also performs here in Rochester on opening night, June 21).

The work of a young ambassador never ends.

“I just want to be one of the ones that shows young kids, young Black kids specifically, that there’s an interest in the blues,” Ingram said. “You can tell by my style and the way that I dress that I play this retro style of music but I’m still young.”

Christone "Kingfish" Ingram performs a free show at the East Ave. and Chestnut Street stage on Saturday, June 22.

More information on Laufey, Samara Joy and the rest of the 2024 Rochester International Jazz Festival here.

Patrick Hosken is an arts writer for CITY. He can be reached at [email protected].