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 [...]

By J. R. Carroll
December is always an exasperating month for jazz fans: The first week is crammed with more events than any human without self-cloning abilities can possibly attend; after that, the major clubs close their doors many evenings in order to host private parties (hey, something has to pay the bills). The [...]

By J. R. Carroll
After the New England Conservatory’s well-deserved turn in the limelight last month in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their jazz studies program, the Berklee College of Music comes to the fore in November with a strong series of performances on- and off-campus.

Photo by Jesus Angel Hernandez de Rojas, available under a [...]

For a genre that supposedly expired in the 1950’s, the big band’s vital signs seem remarkably robust here in Boston.
By J. R. Carroll
A welcome recent addition has been the compositions and arrangements of tenor saxophonist Florencia Gonzalez, which layer vivid sonorities and intricate counterpoint atop Afro-Uruguayan candombe and Argentinian tango. She brings [...]

By J. R. Carroll
Violinists are a fortunate lot. Granted, many years of painstaking study and practice are required to master the instrument, but once achieved, that mastery can be taken in almost any direction–or in many directions. As part of what she describes as her “never-ending quest for new vocabulary,” Mimi Rabson has headed off [...]

by J. R. Carroll
Just a heads up to our readers that Patricia Barber will bring her quartet to the Regattabar for two shows on Wednesday evening, February 11th, and, for those in the Metro-West area, to the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton on Thursday evening, February 12th. We expect she and her [...]

by J.R. Carroll
“Singer/songwriter” is not a description often applied to jazz musicians, and generally with good reason: Jazz instrumentalists have demonstrated again and again that as wordsmiths they are, well, outstanding instrumentalists. At best, the typically after-the-fact lyrics strive uneasily for either social uplift or hipster knowingness; at worst, they are just embarrassingly [...]

By Bill Marx

“Boston is adrift in the brave new competition among big American cities vying for tourist dollars.” Maureen Dezell, WBUR
Maureen made that charge back in July 2006 in an article that turned out to be one of the last posts on the late WBUR Arts Online. Now that the quote, along with a link [...]