AFRICAN JAZZ: Dee Dee Bridgewater brings her Red Earth tour to the Cutler Majestic October 10. |
Fall preview 2007
“Happy endings: Bad news begets good tunes.” By Matt Ashare.
“Busy busy: Something for everyone this fall.” By Debra Cash.
“Stage worthies: Fall on the Boston boards.” By Carolyn Clay.
“Basstown nights: The new scene emerges; Halloween preparations.” By David Day.
“Bounty: The best of the season’s roots, world, folk, and blues.” By Ted Drozdowski.
“War, peace, and Robert Pinsky: The season’s fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.” By John Freeman.
“Turn on the bright lights: Art, women, politics, and food.” By Randi Hopkins.
“War zones: Fall films face terror at home and abroad.” By Peter Keough.
“Locked and loaded: The fall promises a double-barreled blast of gaming greatness.” By Mitch Krpata.
“BBC? America!: The networks put some English on the fall TV season.” By Joyce Millman.
“World music: The BSO goes traveling, and Berlin comes to Boston.” By Lloyd Schwartz.
“Singles scene: Local bands dig in with digital.” By Will Spitz.
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The official kickoff to the season begins with the week of activities celebrating the 30th anniversary of the JOHN COLTRANE MEMORIAL CONCERT — a touchstone of Boston’s jazz calendar. It starts Sunday the 16th with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and concludes with two blowout concerts Friday and Saturday the 21st and 22nd. The crew who’ve worked on this event from the beginning will be out in force for those two shows, but there’ll also be special guests including Ravi Coltrane (John’s son) and his quartet, who play the Saturday show at Northeastern’s Blackman Theatre. See “Giant Steps” for more details on the week’s activities. You can also go to the JCMC Web site or call 617.373.4700 for ticket info.Meanwhile, another event that’s quickly become a signature of the Boston scene, the BEANTOWN JAZZ FESTIVAL, has its seventh annual hoo-hah September 27-29. Impresario and restaurant owner Darryl Settles — of Bob’s Southern Bistro and the Beehive — began this one as a jazz block party in the South End but has since turned over organization and production to the Berklee School of Music. The traditional free day-long Saturday event this year (Columbus Avenue between Burke Street and Mass Ave) will run from noon to 6 and include trumpeter CHARLES TOLLIVER’s big band, guitarist MIKE STERN’s band with bassist/vocalist RICHARD BONA, hard-bop legend BOBBY HUTCHERSON, the great trombonist (and Eddie Palmieri running mate) CONRAD HERWIG, Chilean singer CLAUDIA ACUÑA, Nigerian-Canadian singer DK IBOMEKA, the carnival-inspired BLOCO AFROBRAZIL, the GREG HOPKINS BIG BAND, and PHIL WILSON’S BERKLEE RAINBOW BAND.
The big-deal paid concert for the BeanTown Fest will be “A CELEBRATION OF JAZZ & JOYCE” Friday the 28th at Symphony Hall, organized by jazz fest doyen George Wein to establish a Berklee scholarship fund in memory of his wife, Joyce Alexander Wein, who died in 2005. The line-up includes HERBIE HANCOCK, BRANFORD MARSALIS, ROY HAYNES, LIZZ WRIGHT, REGINA CARTER, JOE LOVANO, JON FADDIS, GERRI ALLEN, TOSHIKO AKIOSHI, & LEW TABACKIN, KENNY WERNER, HOWARD ALDEN, JIMMY COBB, and RAY DRUMMOND in a mix-and-match of performers and performances organized by Wein and right-hand man Dan Melnick. Symphony Hall is at 301 Mass Ave, Boston; call 888.266.1200.
One of the venues involved in the BeanTown Fest is Scullers (in the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel, 400 Soldiers Field Road, Boston; 617.562.4111), and the club is geared for another heavy season: Miles Davis protégé WALLACE RONEY (September 20); the Swedish piano trio E.S.T. (September 26); Mel Tormé’s singing son STEVE MARCH TORMÉ (September 27); Jamaican pianist MONTY ALEXANDER and his Jazz & Roots Ensemble, handling the BeanTown Fest’s “cool-down” (September 28-29); the outstanding Boston jazz singer and composer DOMINIQUE EADE (October 3); pianist DANILO PÉREZ (October 4-5); freaky guitar wizard STANLEY JORDAN and his trio (October 11); jazz-pop sax man WARREN HILL (October 12-13); jazz-fusion stars the YELLOWJACKETS (October 19-20); excellent Boston pianist MARK SHILANSKY (October 23); veteran Boston blues harp-and-vocal man JAMES MONTGOMERY (October 24); New Orleans trumpeter CHRISTIAN SCOTT celebrating his latest Concord CD, Anthem (October 25); young jazz singer SOPHIE MILMAN (October 31); jazz-fusion pioneer ROY AYERS (November 2-3); Boston’s sublime AARDVARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA (November 8); sax star (and Berklee prof) WALTER BEASLEY (November 9-10); the superb Boston jazz guitarist JOHN STEIN (November 14); New York/Puerto Rican salsa-jazz giant EDDIE PALMIERI (November 15-17); and unclassifiable superstar contempo jazz trumpeter CHRIS BOTTI (November 23-26).
