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).

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

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.  

 

A variety of media around the country--and particularly in New England--are offering significant coverage of the April 19 celebration of the “shot heard ‘round the world.”  This year perhaps ironically the party at the bridge marks the 250th anniversary of our first major action toward a true democracy.  The irony is that the way things are going it is quite possible that we will prove we were not able to keep it; having replaced our democracy with an autocratic theocracy, Trump and his cronies/puppets are using the Project 2025 document as a guide book to this new autocracy for the rich at the expense of the rest of us.  To push that agenda forward on the ground, they are using the Hitler-Goebbels playbook to ensure that opposition is silenced and democracies are bullied (e.g., the horrific Oval Office encounter between Zelensky and Trump and enabler Vance) and dictatorships are celebrated as friends who will share the spoils.  Trump and his lackeys will do everything within their growing power to prevent anti-Trump voting blocks from voting and rejecting the votes against Trump’s team that do get cast in 2026.  Nevertheless, 2026 is our last hope.  To help build forces against that outcome perhaps it is time to sell t-shirts that say: 

I’m Unemployed

and I Vote!

 

 

Wednesdays in March and April – Classic Jazz on Vinyl at 9:00 a.m. – There are a few exam period radio shows from Harvard that would be of interest to most jazz purists (although the Sax Appeal broadcasts at 8 pm on Tuesdays do claim that folks such Cannonball and Getz will be featured).  But the Classic Jazz on Vinyl has real possibilities, although I suspect that few of the recordings presented will feature Classic (i.e., two beat) performances.  Harvard radio has hung onto its original jazz LPs and some of those will be broadcast on Wednesdays.  Given that back in the day, Harvard radio offered high quality jazz recordings as a significant part of its programming, this could be quite fine.  If, like Mats Gustafsson, you love the surface noise of LPs, no doubt you will be especially happy.  WHRB broadcasts are available at 95.3 FM…

 

We are hardly three months into the Trump Trainwreck and already the damage is piling up.  According to Reuters, layoffs by U.S. employers grew by 245 percent to 172,017 in February and during January and February the federal government laid off 62,530 workers (and that’s just the beginning).  Other damage comes in the form of international earthquakes.  The Financial Times tells us that wealthy Chinese investors are “funneling tens of millions of dollars into private companies controlled by Elon Musk.  Three Chinese-backed asset managers claim that over the past two years they’ve sold Chinese investors over $30 million worth of shares in SpaceX, xAI, and Neuralink.”  Closer to home, Semafor claims Goldman Sachs “drastically cut its growth forecast for U.S. GDP in 2025 from 2.4 percent to 1.7 percent due to considerably more adverse trade assumptions.”  Morgan Stanley, Chase, and other banks also lowered their GDP projections.  If that’s not enough, the use of political position for personal enrichment continues, perhaps recently most blatantly when Trump used the White House lawn for a Tesla showroom to help Musk with his slumping auto sales.  Of course, it is illegal for any U.S. official to use their office for “the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise.”  One of the best summaries of just how much damage has been done to our democracy in less than three months can be found in a terrific article produced by CBC News titled U.S. could lose democracy status, says global watchdog; Trump has escalated an authoritarian turn in last few days.  The Varieties of Democracy project operated out of Sweden’s University of Gotheburg produces an annual report on the varieties of democracy in the world and the status of democracy in 202 countries.  Staffan Lindberg, head of the project claims that, if the situation in the U.S. “continues this, the United States will not score as a democracy when we release [next year's] data.”  The CBC News staff then walks through what has happened to our democracy during this year.  The article is available online at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-democracy-report-1.7486317

But there is some sunshine: Tens of thousands of Tesla’s Cybertrucks have been recalled because rear side panels keep falling off.  Maybe that’s a prediction of what might happen to the whole Project 2025 game plan.  Also a positive development, George W. Bush appointee, Chief Justice John Roberts issued the following brief statement regarding Trump’s call to impeach judges who rule against him:

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.  The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Later Justice Roberts added, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.  What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”


4/6 – The Kassel-Zicarelli Group at 6:30 p.m. (MP/PA) – This is a terrific, ear-stretching group that both challenges and engages.  It consists of vocalist Melissa Kassel, Phil Grenadier, Tom Zicarelli, Bruce Gertz, and Gary Fieldman.  Pandemic regulations apply. This quintet returns to the Lily Pad where pandemic regulations apply ($15) ...

 

4/8 – Point01Percent presents a first set of Forbes Graham and friends and a second set of piano, saxophones, and drums.  At 7:30 the brilliant Forbes Graham will bring with him Jill Christensen (piano & synthesizer) and Aaron Jay Meyers (guitar).  Then at 8:30 p.m. two percussion instruments--piano (Pandelis Karayorgis) and drums (Miki Matsuki) will create sonic challenges with saxophones (Jorrit Dijkstra).  It should be quite a night at the Lily Pad, where pandemic regulations apply ($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.  
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