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, August 2, 2011

A Review of Ken Burns' Jazz Series

In March of 2001 I sent a review of the PBS Jazz series to Chris Allen for his web site. Chris at the time was a wonderful trombonist and band leader who started a Boston jazz web site. I contributed a few things to that site before it folded. Eventually (to the disappointment of myself and others) Chris walked away from jazz to pursue his passion for software development. Although he has picked up his trombone on occasion since that time, I’m guessing he’s happy with that decision. It’s the rest of us who suffer.

In any event, I thought there were serious problems with the PBS series--assuming it was not meant to be fiction or a pseudo-documentary along the lines of Spinal Tap. (I suspect that, although fictional, Spinal Tap was closer to the TRUTH of what it is to be a Rock musician than Jazz was to its subject.) Since Chris’ web site disappeared I have noticed several references to my essay (e.g., check out the PBS Jazz series on Wikipedia). However, there was no place available on the internet that people could check out to see the essay for themselves. For all those folks--and anyone else who’s interested--here it is.
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