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.
7/7 – The Bevan Manson Trio featuring
guest Allan Chase at 7:30 p.m. (MP) – The trio--pianist/composer Bevan Manson,
drummer Matt Wilson, and bassist Bob Nieske--has been together for almost 40
years, and they are asking Allan Chase to join the party. It should be a terrific reunion at the Lily Pad
where Pandemic regulations apply ($20)...
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.”
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…
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.