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.  

 

 Page 6 of the 6/26 issue of The Week offers two upbeat factoids to brighten your day:

“Multiple bars in the Boston area, where Scotland’s national soccer team played its first World Cup Match, ran out of beer due to heavy consumption by Scotland’s ‘Tartan Army’ of traveling fans.  ‘We’ve been here for over 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it,’ said Noelle Somers of Hennessey’s bar.”

 “Paige, a 4-ton African elephant being paraded through the Texas Republican Party’s annual convention in Houston, abruptly halted and, in the words of New York Times correspondent Lauren McGaughy, ‘took a giant pee’ on the auditorium floor.”

7/11 – The Makanda Project at 1 p.m.  (MP/PA) – Music director John Kordalewski brings the band that celebrates the music of Makanda Ken McIntyre.  It’s one of Boston’s great reassures.  In addition to two sets of music by the Makanda Project, there will be a poetry open mic at intermission, along with musical performances by young community members.  Scheduled band members include Kurtis Rivers, Sean Berry, Temidayo Balogun, Brian Price, Charlie Kohlhase (saxophones); Jerry Sabatini, Woody Pierre (trumpets); Alfred Patterson, Richard Harper, Randy Pingrey (trombones); John Kordalewski (piano); Avery Sharpe (bass); Hector Falu Guzman (drums).  The free performance takes place at First Church in Roxbury at 10 Putnam Street, Roxbury, MA.  It takes place outdoors on the lawn; if it rains, the concert moves inside the church…

 

Even with the best of intentions, most arts awards are less than functionally effective.  The reasons are various but typically suffer from such problems as “committee think” and good old politics.  A few of the better-known examples in the world of music include the very first sentence of chapter one of the essential arnold schoenberg by Charles Rosen in which the economically stressed composer in 1945 has his application for a grant turned down by the Guggenheim foundation.  One of my favorite examples is Milton Babbitt who in 1992 was awarded a doctorate degree by Princeton University 46 years after his dissertation on the 12-tone system was rejected by the music department.  Better late than never.  Of course, the most famous example in the history of jazz is the Pulitzer Prize governing board’s rejection of the Pulitzer music jury’s award to Duke Ellington “for the vitality and originality of his total productivity” in June 1966.  At age 67, Ellington’s public response was, “Fate is being kind to me.  Fate doesn’t want  me to be too famous too young.”  Like Princeton with Babbitt, the Pulitzer board noted its mistake by offering him a special citation to commemorate the centennial of his birth in 1999.  But Ellington was no longer alive to accept the citation.  The good news in light of these introductory comments is that there are too rare but notable exceptions.  Such a fine exception has been announced by Catalytic Sound and other sources.  To wit, Joe Morris was awarded the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vision 30 Festival during the June 23-28 celebration.  There was a lot of wonderful music, but the opening evening featured a killer lineup of five different Joe Morris groups.  Talk about “too much is not enough”!  Here’s the URL to find out more about the celebration: https://www.artsforart.org/vision-festival-2026-lifetime-achievement-award-joe-morris/  Back in the early 1980s Joe lived in the Boston area, and he worked with such pioneers as Lowell Davidson, Laurence Cook, Jerry Deupree, Sebastian Steinberg, and Thurman Barker and all would find a way to get booked at a few local venues--the 1369, the Boston Film/Video Foundation, and others.  I was among the handful of audience members who showed up--not by accident--but to listen to the music so brilliant that most local fans were not ready for it.  My ears were simply lucky.  Over time--not just people in Europe--but jazz fans in such places as Boston and New York caught on.  And now Manhattan’s Vision Fest has made the love official.  How fine it is…

 

7/13 – The Jerry Bergonzi Quartet at 8:30 p.m. (MP) – The jazz giant is joined by Luther Gray on drums and two surprise guests.  The music happens at the Lily Pad where Pandemic regulations apply ($15/$10 students) ...

 

 

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.