By J. R. Carroll
Now that we’ve reached the midpoint of the festival season, the early summer festivals have wrapped up or are in their final weeks, and some of the late summer festivals have firmed up their rosters.

Photo by 18 Brumaire
The ageless Newport Jazz Festival returns to Rhode Island the weekend of August 6–8 under [...]

By J. R. Carroll
Vacation time? Not for the musicians of New England. An amazing amount of live music this month, not a little of it free and open to the public.
Photo by Denise Sullivan
Treme trombonist and vocalist Glen David Andrews bridges gospel and New Orleans jazz at Johnny D’s in Somerville, MA at 9 p.m. [...]

By J. R. Carroll
Not going away doesn’t mean you have to stay at home; there’s plenty of live jazz within easy reach.
The summer jazz festival season goes into high gear this month (watch for a Midsummer Festival Update in mid-July), but even if you’re stuck with another “staycation” this year, local and regional artists will [...]

By J. R. Carroll
Photo by Nicole LeCorgne
Jazz festivals come in all shapes and sizes these days, even within the modest geographical confines of New England.
Up in Vermont, the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival is still in progress; among others, you can still catch Jim Hall on Friday, June 11, and Sonny Rollins the following evening.
On the [...]

By J. R. Carroll
June brings a cupful of world jazz. [Updated: See Mose Allison item below]
Photo by Daniel Sheehan
While the eyes of the sporting world may be on the stadiums of South Africa, there will be plenty of international flavor here in New England this month.
Brazilian born but now Seattle-based, pianist/composer/arranger Jovino Santos [...]

By J. R. Carroll
The academic calendar winds down in May, but jazz in New England just begins the transition to summer in a month packed with tributes and celebrations.
Substitute vodka for cachaça and you get a caipiroska; mix three Russians and two South Americans and you get Tridos, an intoxicating twist on Latin jazz. They’ll [...]

By J. R. Carroll
Coming Attractions in Jazz for April 2010 unfortunately was washed away by the Waters of March (”It’s the mud, it’s the mud”), but we couldn’t let this year’s Jazz Week slip by without highlighting a few of the numerous events taking place in the Boston metro area from Friday, April 23, through [...]

By J. R. Carroll
March is the month for Elder Statesmen—and drummers.
Bassist Buster Williams has played and recorded with, well, damn near everyone, and currently leads his own Something More Quartet; they’ll be coming to Scullers on March 2 at 8 p.m.

Photo by Mandy Hall, available under a
Creative Commons Attribution license.
Drummer Cindy Blackman, who’s made several [...]

There may not be any Lester Young tributes scheduled for Presidents’ Day, but the entire month of February is nothing less than a valentine to jazz piano.
By J. R. Carroll

Pianist Jason Moran hasn’t yet encountered a piece of music (or even raw sound) that he couldn’t transform into a jaw-dropping improvisation. Johannes Brahms, James [...]

By J. R. Carroll
If January inspires a desire for warmer climes and a trip to the tropics isn’t in the cards, you can still come in out of the cornstarch and dry your mukluks as musicians who’ve brought their traditions to Boston from around the world turn up the heat.

Zili Misik and their distinctive mix [...]