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.
2/4– The JazzNOW Series featuring saxophonist Godwin Louis at 7:15 p.m. (MP) – WGBH radio continues its Friday night jazz show
with Al Davis, and it has been working with Ken Fields and Jazz Boston for a
couple years to expand its coverage of jazz.
One of its pursuits is the JazzNOW Series, which takes place in
Brighton. Godwin
Louis will be accompanied by Billy Buss (trumpet), Johnny Mercier (organ),
Dabin Ryu (piano), Or Bareket (bass), and Julian Miltenberger (drums). There is a pre-concert reception at 7:15 p.m. to be followed by the actual
concert at 8 p.m. Paris Alston, of GBH News Rooted, will host the
performance, which will be filmed for later broadcast on GBH2. The event takes place at GBH Studios, One
Guest Street, Brighton, Massachusetts 02135.
There is further info at , Get
Tickets , 617-300-3300, info@wgbh.org,
and https://www.wgbh.org/ Tickets are $38.09
…
2/9 – 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) ...
2/10 – Point 01 Percent at 7:30 p.m. (MP/PA) – Here we have an interesting
double bill consisting of quartets that have piano and drums, but one has two
saxes and the other has brass and acoustic bass. Up first at 7:30nwe have Anna Webber (sax), Jorrit
Dijkstra (sax), Pandelis Karayorgis (piano), and Noah Marks (drums). Up next at (approximately) 8:30 we get Stephen
Haynes (trumpets/cornets), Steve Lantner (piano), Joe Morris (bass), and Jerome
Duepree (drums). That should be quite a
treat. As a bonus, we get to witness a
reunion of Joe and Jerome, a partnership that goes back to the days of cave
painting. How many of you remember the
beginning of the last two decades of the twentieth century? These folks might rewrite some ongoing sonic
history on this gig. ($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/
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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.