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.  

 

 

Thoughts about AI

Thought 1:

To put it mildly, I’m not a fan of AI.  I have many complaints about software (as opposed to hardware), and AI is like software on steroids.  The key problems offered by AI include: AI responses to human questions typically are erroneous or misleading.  Recently I’ve noticed that the version of AI that I use follows its “factual” responses with the message “AI can make mistakes, so double-check responses.”  Of course, AI does not tell us what “double-check” implies.  Wikipedia and other online information sources are not perfect, but they are functional, and they tell you which portions of the presented information lacks verification.   If the AI misinformation is not enough, it typically is offered as a first option, as in the case of search results or even as those godawful “suggested responses” in emails that I receive.  And on and on.  But the major threat (even beyond the prospect of it making moral and ethical life decisions in a future in which we cannot fix its lethal flaws because no human can understand how to fix the AI “object code”) of AI is its devastating environmental impact.  In recent polls (e.g. Gallup poll with 71% vs. 53%), more Americans said that they would rather live next to a nuclear power plant than an AI data center.  Also, the EU is failing in its attempt to obtain environmental impact statements from AI tech firms.  And tech-savvy observers are warning what out-of-control AI “can do in the hands of bad actors.” (Science News 5-1-26 p. 20 and 4-24-26 p. 20)  In other words, tech-savvy and average Joes are waking up.

 

Thought 2:

Sticking with the environmental problem, it is at the core of our technological failures vis-à-vis China.  China is completely committed to green energy sources.  It is leaving a Trump America in the dust with great emphasis on solar energy and (at the expense of Tibet and people downstream--after all, they are only disposable bodies) hydroelectric power.  Combine that with technological advances that are stunning, and it is easy to foresee the U.S. as a Third World disaster.  I do not overstate the case.  Because of Chinese current achievements in high-speed computing capability and post-binary program logic, we already are perhaps a decade behind them.  China’s processing capabilities are so advanced that the energy-sapping  AI data centers around the U.S. don’t exist in China because they are not needed for their super computers.  In other words, it’s a good time to sell your worthless Nvidia stock.  Nobody has to worry about China wanting to buy our worthless computer chips.

 

Thought 3:

Now, after that gloom and doom message, I admit that I do ask AI programs questions--at least partially for entertainment.  Sometimes the answers are so ludicrous that I try to reword the question to find out where the AI screwed up.  Sometimes I ask the AI an absurd question to see how the AI will handle it.  I admit that I use AI in situations in which other sources turn out to be dead ends.  Even in those rare occasions when the AI answers appear to be useful, I seek other corroboration. 

 

Thought 4:

Recently, perhaps as a result of being depressed by the absurdity of Trump’s “war” with Iran, I asked AI, “Has Trump surrendered to Iran yet?”  The image below is a copy of AI’s answer.  It is not a perfect answer.  Perhaps it is not capable of grappling with an absurd reality.  Because the image of necessity is squeezed onto this page, you may find increasing screen magnification helpful.

   

 

 

5/17 – The Allan Chase Quartet at 6:20 p.m. (MP) – The band includes Allan Chase (alto & soprano saxophones), Nate Radley (guitar), Bruno Råberg (bass), and Austin McMahon (drums).  They will be performing Jazz originals and rarely-heard compositions by Charles Lloyd, Joe Chambers, and others.   A terrific quartet bringing terrific sounds.  It happens at the Lily Pad where Pandemic regulations apply ($15) ...

  

5/22 – Upstairs@POSTunderground continues starting at 7:30 p.m. (MP) – According the John Purcell, “All performances are being offered in a welcoming upstairs room of unlimited capacity.  Bring up drinks from the downstairs bar and start an upstairs party. There's even room to dance!”  Ensembles scheduled include Station Street (7:30), Fenno Street Jazz (8:30), and the Hard Bop Cafe featuring Christine Emery (trumpet) and Dan Fox (trombone) (9:30).  No doubt Mr. Purcell will add note or two on the alto sax.  The music takes place upstairs at Rutledge VFW Hall, 386 Washington Street in Brookline.  For details go to postunderground.com…

 

 5/23 – The Makanda Project featuring Dee Alexander at 7:00 and 8:30 pm (MP/PA) – The concert is free.  Chicago-based vocalist Dee Alexander returns to Boston to perform with the ensemble, including Kurtis Rivers (alto saxophone), Seth Meicht (alto and tenor saxophone, flute), Sean Berry (tenor saxophone), Temidayo Balogun (tenor and soprano saxophone), Charlie Kohlhase (baritone saxophone), Jerry Sabatini (trumpet), Haneef Nelson (trumpet), Alfred Patterson (trombone), Richard Harper (trombone), Bill Lowe (bass trombone), John Kordalewski (musical director and piano), Avery Sharpe (bass), and Yoron Israel (drums).  It should be a fine reunion at the Shaw-Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library, 149 Dudley Street in Nubian Square, Roxbury.  For more information check this site: https://makandaproject.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.