Local jazz enthusiast and amateur musicologist Jim Lill has created a database of jazz artists who were born, raised or spent a significant amount of time in Rochester, past and present. Jim operates the Jazz In Rochester NY Facebook group. The database also includes jazz musicians from Western New York and the Finger Lakes who perform a lot in Rochester. Right now there are nearly 400 names in the database, with their active years ranging from 1917 to the present. Jim’s goal is to gather data about Rochester’s jazz musicians for other researchers and to facilitate contact with current artists. It now also has databases of current and past jazz venues and links to local jazz resources (many of which are also in the right panel of JazzRochester). These databases are being maintained and may be accessed through a site Jim has set up.  

The database is a work in process. I’ve been lending a hand in the building. Jim encourages everyone to review and provide additions, corrections, and more detail where appropriate. You can leave them in a Comment on the site . Rochester area jazz musicians should check it out and make sure you’re on it and, if you are, it is accurate.