Jazz
By J. R. Carroll Even on the Labor Day Weekend, September 2012 gets off to strong start with a Billy Strayhorn tribute in Hyde Park and some special visitors from Brazil. Saturday, September 1, at 2 p.m. at the Martini Shell on Truman Parkway, the third annual Hyde Park Jazz Festival offers a triple bill…
The plans to serve the jazz community that WGBH offered to JazzBoston during the meeting, from an internet jazz station to making Eric Jackson more visible on the station’s talk shows, are only part and parcel of the strategic dithering, a cover for lowering standards and doing little.
A rare visit from trumpeter and composing improviser/improvising composer Arthur Brooks, a farewell evening of Ecuadorian fusion by ÑAWI, and trumpeter Brian Lynch’s “Unsung Heroes” project are the high points in a surprisingly full second half of August.
Bassist Michael Feinberg has done many things right in his richly varied tribute to the great percussionist Elvin Jones.
Updated Aug. 9 at 3 p.m. In the second week of August, the power of percussion is much in evidence, with Mikael Ringquist and Marcus Santos, Manolo Mairena, Gary Fieldman, and Vicente Lebron. New Orleans adds some flavor with Christian Scott and Galactic, and Berklee Summer in the City just keeps rolling along.
Wadada Leo Smith’s album contains avant-garde music with a human face, intimate and appealing and beautifully played by a band of virtuosos.
Updated: Brazilian jazz vocalist Leny Andrade performs at the Deer Isle Jazz Festival on Saturday, July 28.The first half of July, dominated by Independence Day festivities, is–fireworks aside–pretty quiet in New England. But then the festival season really kicks into gear.
According to former WGBH Jazz DJ Steve Schwartz, “In retrospect, the writing was on the wall. About a year and a half ago, our shows were cut by an hour; before that, we were told we could no longer use the names of our shows or our theme songs.”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but in Boston this summer (and throughout the year) free concerts are as easy to find as upset fans at Fenway Park.
Arts Commentary: The Kennedy Center and the Boston Symphony Orchestra — A Tale of Two Crises