On Feb. 5, at the Iron Horse, in Northampton, Massachusetts, Lee Konitz, in his trio comprised of Matt Wilson on drums and Dennis Irwin on bass, performed an extended 2 sets: two hours of beautifully basic continuity. As the trio arrived, slowly the instruments crept up on the platform: Wilson’s drums came first-- set up to the right. Then all the speakers at the front of the stage disappeared. Then the bass arrived and was placed on the left. Even further left of the bass and a little c

For the closing concert of the season of the Boston Creative Music Alliance, at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Joe McPhee and Trio X performed two sets. The members of the Trio are Joe McPhee on brass and reeds, Dominic Duval on electrified string bass and Jay Rosen on drums and percussion. The Trio began with a blast of abstract sound larger and more aggressive than can be imagined coming from three musicians. McPhee had his tenor; he stood in the middle of the slick black stage. Du

On last Monday night, at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA, Branford Marsalis performed with his quartet: Jeff "Tain" Watts on drums, Eric Revis on bass and Joey Calderazzo on piano. Marsalis played both the soprano and tenor saxes. It is not surprising that the hall was packed to hear this quartet. The Marsalis name is almost like a magnet to listeners. I attended because I wanted to hear Branford, whom I believe has an edge to his playing that puts him in a category other th

On Saturday, the 14th of September, The Fire in the Valley Festival in collaboration with the Boston Creative Music Alliance moved to the Institute of Contemporary Art Theater venue where over a dozen musicians collected in five groups took to the stage to perform from their hearts, their minds, their souls. I must have taken 50 pages of notes, sequenced with arrows & lines & drawings & words intended to coalesce my experience of six hours of music so that I could write a coherent, truth

Drummer Ben Karetnick artfully drew together a quartet of seemingly out of balance proportions: the members of the group could be described with a graph that measured hyperbolic waves of maturity and experience of each individual. Joe McPhee played tenor & soprano saxes and pocket trumpet; Cliff White, a player from the Western Massachusetts area, was on alto & tenor; Joe Fonda, who has worked with Anthony Braxton among numerous other musicians, was on amplified double bass, and Karetnick, also