Party

Like any music, jazz has its revolutions; its sudden incidents in infrastructure; its disruptive presences of unprecedented sound. Mostly it's slower than that, though, with years and generations of accretions before it seems to call for new vocabulary. That's one way to look at Winter Rockfest, whose latest incarnation occupied a dozen or so venues in downtown New York City last weekend. In a decade and a half of steady growth, a one-night showcase oriented toward industry insiders has become nearly a weeklong landmark of the city's cultural calendar. Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. Winter Rockfest's expansion has changed its aftertaste somewhat — this year's significantly greater geographic distribution spread out the festival's crowds across a wider swath of territory — but its model remains the same: more music than you can possibly see, by more […]