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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.
Recently the Trump campaign has been attacking the economics of the Harris-Walz team and celebrating how great the Trump 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act has been for the middle class and poorest Americans. Keep in mind, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act is still in place because Democrats never had sufficient congressional power to fix that mess. In December 2018 I was getting my income tax data ready for filing in 2019. The filing procedure for 2018 taxes was different from previous years, and I wanted to get started on it. Also, being a member of the middle class, I was curious as to whether or not the Trump 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act really made lower and middle income citizens better off financially. I found an H&R Block handout on the subject helpful. H&R Block provided a fictitious single female who made $29,350 in both 2017 and 2018. I followed the procedures specifically for a single person in that tax bracket to discover whether that fictitious person was better off economically as a result of her 2017 or 2018 taxes. For the sake of having useful tax comparisons, it is important that the gross income is the same for both years. Different income amounts and/or other factors such as marital status and dependents would have made a valid comparison basically impossible. Just to check my calculations, I asked my H&R Block accountant if my calculations were valid. When she said, “Yes,” I asked what would be the effect for a millionaire or a billionaire. She said, “An even greater benefit. The greater the gross income, the greater the benefit.” With all of that in mind, I submit for your perusal a statement of my observations and conclusions about Trump economics as they appeared in the December 2018 Jazz Journal:
By now most people are aware of the fact that the national debt is very large and growing. Instead of compromising on the most recent budget (you know, that masterful process in which neither side gets all of what it wants and the citizens benefit), the two parties decided not to do much haggling. The result is that both sides got what they wanted, and the American public lost. The tax burden was exacerbated by a tax bill that gave people in the bottom 80% of the economy virtually meaningless tax breaks but huge tax breaks to the top 20% economically (of course, including almost everyone in Congress) and big business. For example, according to an H&R Block handout regarding the new tax law, a single fictitious worker named Jessica A. making $29,350 annually in 2017 and 2018, would get a tax break resulting in her paying $604.00 less in Federal taxes in 2018. That works out to slightly less than $1.66 per day. On the positive side, I do not believe there is a tax stipulation that Jessica has to spend her tax break in more than one place. On the other hand, if Jessica were in the top 20% income bracket (not even near the top of that bracket; let’s say a half million dollars annual income) she would have made out a little bit better on her taxes. Our better-off fictitious worker named Jessica B. making $500,000 annually in 2017 and 2018, would get a tax break resulting in her paying $58,927.85 less in Federal taxes in 2018. Hey, that tax break is significantly better than the less well off Jessica A’s total annual income, in fact slightly more than double the non-rich Jessica A.’s annual gross income. I’m guessing if the less well off Jessica worked out the tax law, it probably would be different. Yes, there is no question the Jessica Tax Cuts and Job Act would be different from the Trump Tax Cuts and Job Act. In addition to throwing money at people who do not need more money, the tax bill is a problem for all of us. It’s a two-pronged pincer movement against the average American--a huge tax burden coupled with significantly reduced federal tax income to pay for the burden. So here’s the fallout: Ritholz.com recently released the research report of Deutsch Bank on the state of the U.S. economy in 2017. Yes, 2017. It takes a while to crunch those numbers. As Deutsch Bank tells us, “Interest alone on the U.S. Government’s rising debt reached $1.5 billion a day in 2017.” That’s $1.5 billion per day in interest. To put that figure in context, consider the Bal Harbor Shops, the high end shopping mall in Miami Beach, FL. Total annual sales for that mall are approximately $1.5 billion. That’s per year. That information makes the federal deficit mess a bit clearer. There are ways we can lower the debt. We can make the rich slightly more uncomfortable by cutting back the tax breaks for the top 20% income folks, or we can screw the bottom 80% by cutting back on entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. Or some kind of compromise. But our politicians have lost the will to compromise…
10/13 - The Jazz Composers Alliance presents the JCA Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. (MP/PA) – The durable “composers’ band” presents music--both favorites in the book and brand new works--of local arrangers/composers performed by some of the best musicians in the Boston area. As the promo piece for the performance aptly says, “Adventurous new music for the 21 piece JCA Orchestra. Jazz with a huge variety of influences and inspirations, ranging from traditional sounds to free playing.” Pandemic regulations apply. This fine big band returns to the Lily Pad ($20, $15 for students/seniors and “pay what they want”)...
10/17 - “Third Thursdays” with Dave Bryant and Friends at 8 p.m (PA) – Dave (pianist/host) will be joined by Scott Robinson (saxophone), Hill Greene (bass), and Barry Altschul (drums), another superb lineup in this series. Dave notes, “After a couple of years concentrating on great musicians from the Boston area, as well as my fellow Ornette Coleman sidemen, ‘Third Thursdays’ is beginning to broaden its scope to include more musicians from out of town. It’s a real pleasure to reunite with Scott and Hill, who were two favorite musicians from my Berklee days in the late ‘70s. And it’s a thrill to get to collaborate with Barry, whose work I’ve long admired.” The music happens at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Waterhouse Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 ($10)...
10/17 – The NEC Jazz Orchestra inaugurates new season with tribute to Charles Ives at 7:30 p.m (MP) – This free of charge performance offers new Ives arrangements by Ken Schaphorst and is the first event in NEC’s celebration of Ives’s 150th birthday. The See’r: Charles Ives at 150 features Schaphorst’s new arrangements of some of Ives’s most celebrated compositions including “Three Places in New England,” “A Set of Pieces for Theatre Orchestra,” and “Ragtime Dance No. 4.” The concert also will be livestreamed. For information about the concert visit necmusic.edu…
10/19 – The Jason Robinson Quintet at 8:00 p.m (MP) – Joining him are Michael Dessen (trombone), Joshua White (piano), Drew Gress (bass), and Ches Smith (drums ). More information is available at mandorlamusic.net. The performance takes place at the Universalist Church, 1859 Centre Street, West Roxbury ($20, $15, $10 students, under 18 free)…
ave notes, “After a couple of years concentrating on great musicians from the Boston area, as well as my fellow Ornette Coleman sidemen, ‘Third Thursdays’ is beginning to broaden its scope to include more musicians from out of town. It’s a real pleasure to reunite with Scott and Hill, who were two favorite musicians from my Berklee days in the late ‘70s. And it’s a thrill to get to collaborate with Barry, whose work I’ve long admired.” The music happens at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Waterhouse Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 ($10)...
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/
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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.