Swarms in the train station! Improv in the library! Video game hits and poetry! Must be Jazz Week–and there’s plenty more, including a major CD release by Argentinian bassist Fernando Huergo paying tribute to the land of the Albiceleste.
May 022012
Jazz songs by composer John Harbison? An ensemble devoted to the music of Björk? A quartet taking over a theatre and breaking the “fourth wall”? Jazz Week 2012 stakes out territory on the permeable boundary where jazz encounters other genres and even other art forms.
Apr 032012
A reprise of Fred Hersch’s Leaves of Grass highlights the key role of Boston’s educational institutions; plus, an abundance of performances celebrating CD releases.
From James P. Johnson to Thelonious Monk to Jason Moran, inspired mentors carry the past into the future.
Jan 162012
Is it winter? You wouldn’t know it by the weather, or by the rich array of jazz performances coming up between now and the end of March.
Jan 052012
It was with great sadness that I learned that on the day after Christmas 2011 pneumonia carried off an underappreciated giant of jazz, saxophonist and composer Sam Rivers. His 88 years took him on a long journey from his midwestern origins to decades here in Boston and later in New York to a rich late period in the somewhat improbable locale of Orlando, Florida.
Dec 242011
How did it come about that a manufacturer of office equipment developed–and then largely abandoned–the first personal computer?
If you’re reading this on an iMac, MacBook, iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad, you can thank the late Steve Jobs. But your gratitude should also be extended to another technology giant who passed away last Saturday.
Sep 092011
Autumn hasn’t officially arrived yet, but the fall season of jazz is already ramping up. First up are Mexican vocalist Magos Herrera, saxophonist Evan Parker, and a tribute to the late Joe Maneri.
Sep 022011
[Updated] The Beantown Jazz Festival kicks off this Friday evening, but the main event fills the afternoon of Saturday, October 24. Check out our recommendations below.
Aug 072011
Head (mostly) north for August’s jazz festivals, which take us to Newport, Litchfield, Stonington, Martha’s Vineyard, New Haven, Lowell, Bar Harbor, Salem (MA) and Bangor.
Jul 092011
Tornadoes in the Connecticut River Valley haven’t stopped this summer’s festivals in Springfield, Hartford and Greenfield. Plus, Boston celebrates Latino and African culture.
Honors for a Boston jazz institution and distinguished guests joining the Makanda Project highlight New England jazz in June, along with piano duos, CD releases, visitors from New Orleans and Senegal, and a genuine supergroup.
Updated: The 2011 festival season opens with big doings in Burlington, Cambridge, Brookline, New Haven, Manchester, Boston, Middlebury, Marblehead, Somerville, Worcester and North Adams
In the second of three articles inspired by Jazz Week 2011, the focus is on the full-time jazz venues that form the bedrock of the Boston scene.
Thirty years of Eric in the Evening, jazz in public spaces and libraries, jazz ensembles and their social networks, and getting the word out about jazz. (First of a three-part series for Jazz Week.)
Apr 152011
Composer/pianist Carla Bley and bassist Steve Swallow visit NEC as artists-in-residence, Brazilian guitarist Filó Machado and violinist/oudist Simon Shaheen wrap up their residencies at Berklee, outstanding musicians raise funds for Boston’s homeless and to fight climate change, Club d’Elf releases a long-awaited new double CD, and you get your pick of a string of guitarists.
Apr 012011
Early April showers us with 40 years of the Harvard Jazz Bands and a bouquet of Brazilian artists, including Dende and Hãhãhães, Sergio Brandão and Manga Rosa, and the astonishing young guitarist, Chico Pinheiro.
Mar 182011
Updated — A celebratory month: Pianist Nando Michelin honors one of his native Uruguay’s greatest poets, a legendary Ethiopian vocalist rejoins the Either/Orchestra, a stellar Jazz Piano Summit comes to Connecticut, and much, much more.
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