News & Updates — Boston

Today we honor another underrated reedsman of the '60s/70s creative jazz scene, Makanda Ken McIntyre. While his main axe was the alto sax, he recorded on many different wind instruments: flute, oboe, bass clarinet, tenor sax, soprano sax, bassoon. In addition he was a capable pianist and drummer. He wrote or arranged hundreds of tunes, incorporating bebop, blues, calypso, avant-garde into his style. He composed for jazz combos, chamber groups, orchestra, woodwind quartets, film & television scores and made several classic, if under-known, albums as a leader. He had a long and distinguished career as an educator, both in the NYC schools...

Massachusetts native Jaki Byard brought a wide range of styles and a dose of good fun into his piano playing. Also a saxophonist (often at the same time as piano!), he worked with Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Art Blakey, Roland Kirk, Sam Rivers, Charlie Mariano, Quincy Jones (on the groovy Smackwater Jack), Booker Ervin, Elvin Jones and others, including a duet record with Earl Hines. He even filled in for Duke Ellington at times when the leader was ill! He had been an educator in colleges since the late '60s and continued to record and tour around the world. Disturbingly,...

Happy birthday to the underrated microtonal composer and reedsman Joe Maneri. In 1963 he recorded a demo of 12-tone music with ethnic influence and a sort-of free jazz for Atlantic Records that didn't see release until 1998 (Paniots Nine, released on John Zorn's Tzadik label, and later used in the movie American Splendor), which would've placed him in the avant-garde of jazz had it seen the light of day at the time. Instead, nothing much happened for Maneri, outside of Boston, until his son Mat encouraged him to be more active in the 1990s. He made several records in the...

(Photo, Paul Teeling) Well here's a wonderful treat! Peace & Rhythm and Klezperanto team up to bring you the official world premiere of the brand new Klezperanto video for "Arroz Con Coco", a tribute to the great Lucho Bermúdez of Colombia. Clarinetist Ilene Stahl is a veteran of the Klezmer Conservatory Band (often with violinist Itzhak Perlman) and she formed the Boston-based six-piece ensemble Klezperanto in 1999 to stretch into other styles of dance music. "We formed Klezperanto to play everything BUT traditional klezmer music!” she says. Indeed, the mix includes Balkan & Mediterranean styles, Eastern European, cumbia, danzas, ballads,...

You don't want to miss this special concert event with Klezperanto, Sun Feb 19 at The Arts Block, Greenfield MA, for one night only! World-renowned clarinetist Ilene Stahl brings her Boston-based band to "the 413" for a night of cumbias, car chases, and Romanian surf guitar! Try some smokin' hot latkes and an ice cold "belt" of boozy borscht for an un-beet-able night of dance music. 6:30-10pm, at The Arts Block, 289 Main St, Greenfield MA Details here Poster by Thom Dudley / Sightlab http://klezperanto.com/ http://theartsblock.com/