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).

Monday, January 20, 2025

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.  

Update (1-19-25): This will be the final update on the status of the incoming Trump administration.  Everything that precedes this update remains valid, but, once the new administration begins doing its damage, the ugliness of the implementation of the plans driven by the Heritage Foundation will be a daily revelation in the news media.  Updates here will not be needed to keep you up to date.  As a final gesture on the subject I suggest that (if you haven’t done so) you may want to read the December 3, 2024 New York Times article by Karen Yourish, Lazaro Gamio and Ashley Wu titled Project 2025, Mar-a-Lago and Fox News: What Connects Trump’s New Staff Picks which is available online and the Project 2025 document (titled Mandate for Leadership – The Conservative Promise) which apparently still is available at static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf The New York Times article is a valuable catalog of the remarkable politically incestuous relationship among the incoming presidential staff members.  It attempts (successfully, I believe) to present “some of the links between more than 60 potential members (in some cases pending confirmation) of the incoming administration.”  For example, it lists “at least 9 who are or have been registered lobbyists,” and explains the hypocrisy in that it is “one of the practices Mr. Trump pledged to eliminate when he said he would ‘drain the swamp.’”  And so on.  The Project 2025 document is an extraordinary way to predict and follow the dismantling of American democracy as we have known it and replacing it with a radical autocratic theocracy.  Yes, it is 992 pages long, but you can read a chapter per day and eventually get through it.  Or you could jump to a hot topic and focus on it as the damage is happening.  For example, there has been a lot of talk about the new administration dismantling the FCC while cutting all government support for PBS, CPB, and other FCC responsibilities.  Well, go directly to page 845 to begin reading what Brendan Carr suggests should be done about the FCC; after all, he seems to be a shoe-in for Federal Communications Commission Chairman under Trump.  Two things to keep in mind: that chapter of the document is fewer than 20 pages long, and at first the chapter seems almost common-sensical, but stick with it to the end to get a clear image of the carnage.  The first sections of the document are mostly a matter of introductory business--the names of people and institutions that support Project 2025, back slapping, and that sort of thing--with pages assigned lower case roman numerals.  But there is one section in that part of the document that tells the reader how lucky he is to be a part of the autocratic new America: A NOTE ON "PROJECT 2025."  On page xiii Paul Dans, Director of Project 2025 welcomes the reader to the beginning of the end:

We want you! The 2025 Presidential Transition Project is the conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next conservative Administration to govern at 12:00 noon, January 20, 2025. Welcome to the mission. By opening this book, you are now a part of it. Indeed, one set of eyes reading these passages will be those of the 47th President of the United States, and we hope every other reader will join in making the incoming Admin­istration a success.


1/23 – Updated New Language Collaborative at 7:30 p.m. (PA) – If my memory serves well enough, the New Language Collaborative has been actively pursuing the boundaries of improvisation for decades.  Glynis Lomon (cello, voice, aquasonics) and Eric Zinman (piano) were there at the beginning and keep soaring as high imaginable in a variety of contexts.  Joining them are two musicians rooted in the same pursuits and with international reputations: Vance Provey (trumpet) and Eric Rosenthal (percussion).  The music happens at Phinista Vietnamese Cafe 1876 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge ($15/$20)…  

 

Two events of note outside Boston – Today (1-20-25) in Manhattan artists of several different talents will be celebrating an Anti-Inaugural Event & MLK Day: “Exorcising the Tyrant” at St. Mark’s Church on Second Avenue and Tenth Street from noon until 5:30.  Readers will take turns reading the 133 sections of “The Decent of Alette,” Alice Notley’s epic visionary poem about a woman who confronts and finally defeats “The Tyrant.”  There will be music and dance interludes.  Participants include Laurie Anderson, Marc Ribot, Bob Holman, William Parker, Steve Swell, Joan Jonas, Patricia Nicholson, and many other poets, prose writers, musicians, and dancers.  The event is free, but tickets are required.  The other event of interest to Bostonian jazz fans is that Marshall Allen turned 100 years old on May 25, 2024, and two days he later recorded an album--his first as a leader and titled New Dawn.  Apparently, his time was so consumed with the Sun Ra Arkestra that he had no time to put his own album together.  Why am I bringing up this subject in early 2025, you may ask.  Well, although record companies are sometimes quick to record, they often are slow in getting the product out the door.  So, this information serves to tell you that the record is scheduled to be available as an LP on Valentine’s Day…

 

1/24 - The Upstairs@POSTunderground sessions continue starting at 7:30 p.m. (MP) –The early evening set begins at 7:30 with the Johnny Horner Quintet and continues at 8:30 with Fenno Street Jazz.  At 9:30 the House Band is hosted by saxophonist John Purcell and features Louis Stringer (bass) and Phil Grenadier (trumpet).  Admission is free and the full CASH bar features less than average prices.    The event takes place downstairs at Rutledge VFW Hall, 386 Washington Street in Brookline.  For details go to postunderground.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.  
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