Buffalo saxophonist Will Holton books Batavia Downs for Dec. 17

The Western New York sax man and concert-series curator plays Batavia Downs on Thursday, Dec. 17, a short drive down the Thruway for Rochester listeners.

A week before Christmas, on a Thursday night when the Thruway is full of people heading somewhere warm, there's a good argument for pulling off at Batavia. Will Holton just gave Rochester a reason.

Will Holton plays Batavia Downs on Thursday, Dec. 17, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 to $40 through Eventbrite. The show was announced Oct. 29. Holton usually headlines rooms of around 300, so this is a night built at his scale, and the seats at that price range won't hang around through December.

If you don't know the name, Holton is a Buffalo saxophonist who has spent more than a decade building a following not just as a player but as a host. According to his bio with Lewiston Jazz, he has showcased local and national talent through a string of his own concert series, among them Love Cadenza, Night of Stars, Soulful Spring, Christmas to Remember, Generations and Sax in the City, and he has shared the stage with many of the music's big names. The historic Colored Musicians Club, the Buffalo institution that has been a home base for Black jazz musicians for generations, has presented him, and Buffalo's WKBW has had him on as its go-to sax player for a New Year's Eve booking.

That curator's instinct matters for what you'll get. Holton's shows tend to be revues as much as solo sets: a band, featured vocalists, guest horns. When The Batavian covered an earlier Holton date at this same venue, Will Holton's Soulful Christmas in the Park Place room, the bill featured singers Carlton Wilcox and Jetaun Louie and jazz trumpeter Brian Freeman, a member of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame. Who joins him this time hasn't been posted, so check the Eventbrite page as the date nears.

Holton's nights tend to be revues as much as solo sets: a band, a couple of singers, a guest horn or two.

Batavia Downs itself is an odd and very Western New York kind of music room. It's a harness track and gaming hall run by Western Regional Off-Track Betting, a public benefit corporation owned by 15 Western New York counties along with the cities of Buffalo and Rochester, per a New York State Senate release on its expansion. In other words, Rochester has a stake in the place. It has a hotel on site, too, which Hotel Online reported opened as a four-story, $7.5 million build, so the drive home is optional.

For Rochester listeners, the pitch is simple. You're splitting the difference with Buffalo, catching a player that city has embraced for years, in a room your own city co-owns, on a weeknight that sits right in the middle of holiday-party season.

Bring someone who says they don't like jazz. Holton's brand of soul-leaning saxophone has a way of fixing that by the second song.

Sources: Will Holton (Lewiston Jazz) (lewistonjazz.com); The Historic Colored Musicians Club presents Will Holton performing live at the AKG (thecoloredmusiciansclub.com); Saxophonist Will Holton performs New Year's Eve (WKBW AM Buffalo) (wkbw.com); Photos: Will Holton's Soulful Christmas at Batavia Downs (The Batavian) (thebatavian.com); Batavia Downs Breaks Ground on $4 Million Expansion Project (NY Senate) (nysenate.gov); Batavia Downs hotel opens in New York (Hotel Online) (hotel-online.com); Will Holton at Batavia Downs (Eventbrite) (eventbrite.com); JamBase show listing (jambase.com)