Upcoming performance highlights

Among the more attractive performances scheduled in the near future in the Boston area are the ones listed below.  With the exception of some gigs that feature Magazine Cover (MC) groups (which can range in quality from very good to terrible), the gigs listed below are ones that I wish I could attend.  And—if time and circumstances permit—I will be there.  

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For now some locations indoors are open for music performances.  Distancing and mask restrictions apply.  If people exhibit safe behaviors, such gigs may not be shut down.  Let's hope things improve soon.  

Science News is one of the better science periodicals in the U.S.  The December issue is available now at newsstands and likely at your local public library.  This issue, in addition to the science- rooted news and feature stories, offers a special section on that damage that the Trump administration is causing nationally and internationally, because of its unwillingness to accept scientific facts and the joy it is exhibiting by assaulting major science institutions.  One article focusses on the destruction of NASA by Trump and friends to cause the U.S. to lose its role as a space science pioneer, pointing out the drastic budget cuts in 2026 for Astrophysics, planetary science, earth science, and heliophysics.  Another article explains that the USAID cuts, if not reversed, has the potential to cause more than 10,000 new cases of TB and more than 2,000 deaths.  With all that, there is much said about the anger Trump feels toward Harvard (supposedly for the school’s antisemitism) and the resultant withholding of federal funds.  The issue offers a nice overview of the disastrous impact of the administration on science.  Of course, that’s just one part of the incompetence unleashed… 

 

When jazz performance producer Alex Lemski moved to Boston in 2012, he moved his Denver-based Creative Music Series with him.  Musicians in the Boston area appreciated and respected his efforts and put on a benefit performance to raise money to help pay for medical expenses in his losing battle with cancer.  He died on December 5.  There is a fine Steve Perovizer tribute available at https://artsfuse.org/321148/arts-remembrance-tribute-to-jazz-producer-alex-lemski/ …

1/9 – The Construction Party at 7:30 p.m. (PA) – This ensemble has been working together with very few personnel shuffles for more than a decade.  Former Boston area resident Dave Rempis returns with his alto saxophone to perform with Forbes Graham (trumpet), Pandelis Karayorgis (piano), Nate McBride (bass), and  Luther Gray (drums).  This should be quite a positive-energy gig.  They perform at the Lily Pad where pandemic regulations apply ($20/$15 students)...

 

1/10 – The Tim Ray Trio at 8 p.m. (MP) – Tim Ray is one of those Bostonians who performs outside this area more frequently than here.  Like fellow local musician of wide repute Gray Sargent, Tim worked for years touring with Tony Bennett.  And here he is making music with the superb John Lockwood and Austin McMahon.  The gig takes place at Peabody Hall, Parish of All Saints, 209 Ashmont Street, Dorchester.  For more information including ticket prices look up mandorlamusic.net.   

  

1/18 – The Allan Chase Quartet at 6:20 p.m. (MP) – It’s mostly original compositions this time, performed by superb musicians: leader Allan Chase (alto & soprano saxophones), Nate Radley (guitar), Bruno Råberg (bass), and Mike Connors (drums).  Pandemic regulations apply at the Lily Pad ($15)...

  

1/18 – The Joe Hunt Group at 8:30 p.m. (MP) – The master percussionist returns with Mark Pinto, Yuka Hamano Hunt, and John Lockwood.  Joe says, “We pay tribute to a special composer or performer at most performances. Recent shows have included Burt Bacharach, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans, and Gigi.  Future shows will include the music of Paul and Carla Bley, and arranger, Johnny Mandel.”  This is a superb group.  Pandemic regulations apply at the Lily Pad ($15)...

 

 

Every Monday – Monday night at the Lily Pad returns with Jerry Bergonzi, Phil Grenadier, guest bassist, and Luther Gray.  Then The Fringe Duo, John Lockwood and George continuing the fire no doubt inspired by the memory of Bob Gullotti.  It begins around 8:30 pm and continues forever ($15 per group; $10 students)…

Ongoing – Non-Event online Music – Performances at various times plus an archive of music (PA) – Non-Event is offering music via online audio files and video files plus real-time performances.  The emphasis is on new music, some of which is improvised music.  For example, Matt Samolis (who unfortunately for us moved from Boston to central Massachusetts) is presenting his bowed cymbal meditation recorded on May 1, 2020.  Keep in mind, money helps support these events.  The URL is: http://www.nonevent.org/

 

If you would like to read Science News’ fine coverage of the pandemic and its implications (including dozens of articles so far), go to the site’s page of coronavirus feature articles.  On that page also is information about how to receive that publication's coronavirus update newsletter twice each week.   Science News will try to answer your questions at feedback@sciencenews.org. …

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Key codes: The abbreviation in parentheses following the name of the event or band/musician performing indicates roughly the type of music that you can expect if you go to the gig.

MC= Magazine Covers.  These musicians/bands are popular with jazz fans and therefore often find their photos on the covers of jazz magazines.  This type of band may or may not be any good qualitatively.  However, many fans like to know “what’s hot.”

MP=Mainstream/Post-Bop.  This is the music that most people think of today when they think of jazz.  It runs the gamut from Parkeresque bebop and Websterish ballads to the post-bop work of people such as Bergonzi and Lovano.

PA=Post-Ayler.  This is Anthony Braxton’s term for all the adventure that came out of Ayler, Ornette, Cecil and others (including Mr. Braxton, of course).  In some ways it is the most diverse jazz and jazz-rooted music being performed today, including everything from near zero dB whispers (e.g., undr, John Tilbury) to eardrum demolishing walls of sound (Keith Rowe, a ton of stuff from Japan) to performances built on combinations of composed and improvised material (Liberation Orchestra, Charlie Kohlhase’s ensembles) to completely improvised offerings (Evan Parker, Laurence Cook).

S=Swing.  It don’t mean a thing…  Maybe “nothing” means “anything” if you are a fan of swing.  Sadly, fine swing music seems to be approaching extinction, at least in the Boston area clubs.  The reasons are obvious and elusive.  The great names of Swing (such as Lunceford and Barnet) have passed on and taken almost all of their band mates with them.  In addition, in spite of the fact that some of the finest music of the swing era was produced by the combos of Goodman and Basie (among others), people continue to think of swing in terms of large (and therefore economically untenable) ensembles.  You can find it happening in some dance halls, but mostly at weddings and Bar Mitzvahs.  For years such names as Whitney, Winniker, and Hershman have held the fort in the Boston area.  But you’ve got to keep your eyes peeled. 

T=Two-beat/Trad.  Some of the finest contemporary two-beat jazz anywhere has been nurtured and grown in Eastern Massachusetts since the 1970s.  Everyone knows about the New Black Eagles, and a host of other musicians are held in equally high esteem around here.  Some of the better-known are Jimmy Mazzy, Stan McDonald, Jeff Hughes, and Guy Van Duser.  Unfortunately for city dwellers, two-beat jazz (and, to a lesser extent, the blues) has moved to the suburbs.  But the best of it is worth the drive.