Word: jazzing
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Quintet--1369 Jazz Club...
Bill Payne's Boston Jazz Band--Copley's Bar, Boston...
...glossy promotional hype surrounding the Boston Globe Jazz Festival has all but ignored the Festival's "Tribute to Bird, Coltrane and Mingus" concert this evening at Emmanuel Church. The program features pianistbandleader Jaki Byard, who must by this time be accustomed to such oversights. Byard's regular Wednesday night gig at Michael's with his Apollo Stompers band is one of Boston's best-kept secrets, and that's a shame--the Stompers are a young, growing group whose enthusiasm, tempered by Byard's experience and humor, makes their performances stimulating and very entertaining...
...Jazz musicians of Byard's generation found a variety of ways to cope with the lean years of the late '60s and the rampant commercialism of the '70s music scene. A very few were lucky enough to retain some following without compromising their musical ideals. Many were forced to resort to a) "crossing over" to the lucrative popular music field; b) giving up on music and starving as recluses; or c) simply dying young. Jaki Byard represents a growing number of jazz figures who have averted both personal and artistic disaster by "taking it easy" and weathering this hyper decade...
...professional musician for 40 of his fifty-odd years, Byard's background is a panorama of jazz experiences, all at a high level. He was part of the heyday of the big bands of Herb Pomeroy and Maynard Ferguson (this was Maynard's hot '50s group, not the bubblegum combo he leads today.) Byard left the Ferguson band to spend five years working in an entirely different context--the celebrated Jazz Workshop led by bassist Charles Mingus. After leaving Mingus. Byard spent several years working as a solo pianist and, significantly, filling in on piano for the Ellington band when...