Great weekend at Jazz Week

By

Doug Ruffin

President,

Boston Music Coalition

I know it’s the middle of the week, but I gotta’ tell ya’, I had a great weekend attending Jazz week. In my last blog, (see below) I gave you an overview of the Jazz Week events. When Jazz Week concluded on May 8^th, I was truly satisfied as to what I saw, what I heard and the great people I met. I want to tell you about two highlights for me at Jazz Week this weekend.

Eric in Two Evenings 2: Regent Theatre, Arlington MA, Friday 7:30 – until ….

Eric Jackson celebrates 30 years of Broadcasting on WGBH. His Jazz Broadcast, “Eric in the Evening” is a corner stone of Jazz Broadcasting in Boston. To celebrate Eric Jackson, one needs to take two evenings. This second evening took place at the regent theatre in Arlington on Friday night.

Hal Miller is a music historian, Jazz percussionist and life long Jazz fan. He has an amazing collection of Jazz film clips and shared some of Eric Jacksons’ favorite music clips. I like Jazz; but I didn’t realize how much I knew. The information presented by Hal Miller was engaging and the clips were crisp, full sounding and generated an exciting energy throughout the audience.

After an intermission, Eric Jackson got up to thank the audience and all the support he received through the years. He talked about his early beginnings with WHRB and WILD Radio before landing the gig at WGBH. For me, his broadcast history was personal. I was a student at a small high school in Boston called, “Roxbury Medical Technical Institute”. The effort was to encourage students to explore professional career choices. Lucky for me, Broadcasting was one of the schools’ career choices. The instructor was Eric Jackson. Eric and I stayed in touch every so often. We have been talking a lot about the Boston Music Coalition by phone but we have not met in person for over 20 years. Eric was happy and surprised to see me and he introduced me to the leadership in Jazz music in Boston including JazzBoston.

Evelyn Rosenthal & Steve Kirby at the Sunset Café, Cambridge MA. Saturday 7:30

A great Brazilian dinner goes well with a Brazilian music fusioned jazz dual. That’s what a packed room enjoyed at the Sunset Café in Cambridge. Evelyn Rosenthal and Steve Kirby sang and played through the night for the dinner audience until 10:30. During a break, I talked with Evelyn Rosenthal. She has several gigs coming up and we’ll talk to her about her music, influences and her gigs this Summer in a later blog.

Jazz week was full of great music, fun, informative and for me, personal.

To learn more about other events from JazzBoston, visit http://www.jazzboston.com/ .

Know a Jazz band or a Jazz event we should hear about? Become a BMCiReporter. Send band, artist or event information to BMCiReporter@BostonMusicCoalition.com.