Welcome to Boston Jazz Scene

Welcome to the Boston Jazz Scene web site--the place to find out what happened, what is happening, and what is coming in jazz and other improvised music in Boston and surrounding communities. The most recent post is listed below this information. Words listed below the Topics heading to the right refer to information you can find here about jazz and other improvised music, the arts in general, food, and travel in and near Boston.

If you click on the Scheduled Jazz Highlights topic, you will see a selection of upcoming jazz gigs that we think are particularly noteworthy.

If you click on one of the History - Jazz Journal topics, you will see a selection of journal entries covering performances and relevant events that have taken place in Boston since the 1970s.

If you click on the History - Major Contributors topic, you will see a list of Bostonian musicians who have made significant contributions to the development and evolution of jazz in Boston and elsewhere.

If you click on the Images - Musicians topic, you will see a selection of photos of current and former Boston area jazz musicians and significant visiting jazz musicians. If photos of musicians are displayed on this page and you click on Older Posts at the bottom of this page, you will see earlier image pages eventually going back to page 1.

If you click on the Images - Venues topic, you will see a selection of photos of current and former Boston area jazz venue locations.

If you click on the History - Jazz Timeline topic, you will see a brief list of significant events in the development and evolution of jazz in Boston beginning with the first groundwork in colonial America.

If you click on the Essays on Music topic, you will see essays about the development of jazz and other music since the late nineteenth century and particularly the evolving context in which the music has been and continues to be created.

If you click on one of the Travel options, you will see a variety of information that may be of interest to people visiting Boston (or even some people who live here).

Saturday, March 16, 2024

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.  

The season of national and local primaries and elections has begun.  It may well be the most important voter decision-making year since the Civil War.  Various types of media are flooded with lies, voices of hate, and much confusion coming from both the right and the left.  I recently finished reading a book about our current political situation that is both factual (something refreshing) and funny.  It will make both liberals and centrists laugh--and think.  I am unaware of such a book that would appeal to MAGAs, although I often see clever and funny right-wing cartoons, as in the case of one titled “Bumps in the Road” in which Biden is driving his election campaign bus and thinking, “I should have taken Air Force One” as he encounters a road filled with large bumps, each with a label identifying troubles he’s carrying during his time in office, such as “Inflation,” “Age,” “Israel-Hamas War,” “Third Party,” and so forth.  But, of course, the book is longer and funnier for those whose politics are of the center or left.  The title of the book pretty much defines the nature of its contents: Profiles in Ignorance--How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber.  It’s probably available at your local public library, if you live in a town in which book banning is not a popular pastime.  The author is Andy Borowitz.  The book is organized roughly chronologically, and I recommend reading it in that order.  Whether you know who Dan Quayle is or not, reading about his “exploits” in the early Dumb period in U.S. politics will set the stage for you for all that follows.  Also, to my surprise, Quayle plays a significant role on January 6, when Dumbest almost prevailed.  The book is not flawless.  Sometimes Borowitz wastes his arrows targeting low-hanging fruit (when there are plenty of substantial examples of ignorance and stupidity to go around).  But hardly a paragraph goes by without reader laughter.  And the laughter is needed because of the bitter pill of the impending demise of democracy.  In the book’s “Conclusion” the author does describe a plan for preventing doom.  Not surprising, his plan requires more than donations to good causes and the wringing of hands.  It requires serious and relentless work.


3/21 – “Third Thursdays” with Dave Bryant and Friends at 8 p.m. (PA) – Once again Dave brings a killer group to Cambridge: Ken Field, Jeff Song, Jacob William, and Curt Newton.  The music happens at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Waterhouse Street, Cambridge, MA ($10)...

3/22 – The Upstairs@POSTunderground continues at 7:30 p.m. (MP) – This gig brings you three groups and free admission, free food, and fine live jazz.  The early evening set begins at 7:30 with Epistrophy and continues at 8:30 with Fenno Street Jazz.  The last set at 9:30 features the House Band hosted by alto saxophonist John Purcell.  The music takes place at Rutledge VFW Hall (downstairs), 386 Washington Street in Brookline.  For details go to postunderground.com…



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.