Jazz in your Area?

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We have a small jazz scene due to some local schools, restaurants that have jazz brunches, and a couple of venues that have jazz combos once a week. We currently have two jams a month. I decided to broaden the jam opportunities by paying myself for a piano and upright bass on two Thursdays a month. I give them $100 each for a two hour gig and the tip jar proceeds go the the folks who sit in. The new venue is a local liquor store with a wonderful event room in the back. We are just starting up so will see how it goes. Remember what Frank Zappa said: " Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny".
 
A new club opened here in downtown Sioux Falls, SD this past year. They do Tues. - Sat night. It's mostly local players, but some regional. It's a great sounding room and was designed specifically for Jazz: A nice stage, grand piano, and a Gretsch house kit. I haven't played there, but have attended a few shows and have sat in a couple of times. It seems to be doing well.

Ever since Covid, I haven't played much Jazz - one gig each in '22 and '23 and two in '24. There just aren't as many gigs for private parties, corporate events, etc. as there used to be. There were definitely more gigs 10 - 15 years ago including a twice monthly 16 piece Big Band that I played with and a club where I was lucky enough to play with guitarist Mike Miller, trumpeter Ryan Kisor, and tenor saxophonist Matt Wallace each a few times. Mike sadly passed away this winter, I've lost track of Ryan, and Matt lives in Omaha and comes up to play a few times per year with his band. I've never considered myself a true Jazz drummer, but have managed to fool people for about 45 years. I enjoy playing, whether Big Band, Bop, Latin, or Fusion, and hope at 66 that I'll be able to play more than a handful of gigs in the future, but I wouldn't bet on it.
 
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5 Style said:
Yeah, I think that Portland has a lot to offer. it certainly has it's share of problems, which are well known, but I think that this has more to do with the fact that certain things have gotten worse here as the city grows than it has to do with it being any worse than other cities by comparison. More density, brings more problems, unfortunately, which isn't great but some of which is to be expected. Other than issues of crime and homelessness there's a lot to like about it. The city has more than its share of good places to eat, more breweries than any other city in the world (even Germany, so I'm told), is great culturally with a really good music scene and lots of folks doing creative work in all kinds of media... more park land for its size than any other city, etc.
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And is known for having GREAT coffee, too.
 
I live in northern NY (about 4.5 hours NE from Buffalo) and while the jazz "scene" is occasional performances by retired high school music teachers for retirees and heavily on the schmaltzy American songbook side of life, we do have a small avant-garde scene, slightly adjacent to our local punk scene. My partner and I were doing a piano/modular synth duo years before this and I started playing drums a few years back after being inspired by listening to Sunny Murray with Cecil Taylor and Rashied Ali with Coltrane. Experimental music and noise audiences are very open minded. I did attend a few local "jazz jams" with just a pianist and guitarist - I had to play at the bottom of my dynamic range (which was fine) but I was pleased that I could play trad.

Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester have been impenetrable to us, but we did just play a festival in Baltimore and have played NYC, Boston, and other smaller cities through the years.

TLDR: Pretty sleepy up here but we have a small avant-garde scene.
 
Taiko said:
I live in Mass. and it seems like there are some jazz venues in the the suburbs and a few jazz jams, such as one in Newton and another in Groton. I relocated here recently and have yet to fully check things out. I moved from Austin, TX where I didn't think the jazz scene was particularly good, although it had improved over the past few years until Covid hit.
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The jazz scene has always been minimal in Austin and Houston. Back in the 80s and 90s Htown had a really cool jazz club in an old house on Holcombe near the medical center called the Gallant Knight. It was what I imagine the small jazz clubs in homes looked like on the east coast years ago.
 
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DrumBob said:
Unless I'm mistaken, there's not much of a jazz scene here in Northern NJ. I mentioned in another thread that Shanhai Jazz in Madison was the only club I could think of that still featured jazz on a regular basis, but if someone can prove me wrong, I welcome that. There is a jazz society organization here with a magazine, and there is live jazz, but it's usually heard at performing arts centers for the most part. There's really no club scene to speak of. Trumpets in Montclair was a nice jazz club, but that's long gone. Gulliver's in Lincoln Park was another jazz venue, now defunct. The owner was a character named Amos. A drummer friend of mine regularly goes to a Bop jazz jam somewhere. I asked him about it, and knowing my style of playing, he subtly cautioned me against going, which means he thought I wouldn't fit in. I took his advice.

I used to go to traditional jazz jams years ago to sit in, but those seem to be over. I think most of those guys have passed. Some of them were the biggest jazz snobs imaginable. They looked down at rock music. If you told them you were in a rock band, their response was usually, "That's a shame."
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For us in North Jersey we have to go NYC - which is close - but far at the same time. Its a production and costly just to get to the club. On the other hand there's nothing quite like it. The shame of it is many of the musicians live in Jersey.
 
owr said:
Where in NH are you? I grew up for the most part out there, but I’ve been in California for the last 25 years.

From what I know now - Portsmouth is probably the best spot. Jimmy’s as you noted gets great acts but I’ve seen a lot of great regional players at the Press Room.

It might be more dinner/bar centric, but I’d bet Nashua, Concord, or Manchester gotta have a spot or two. Last time I was in town a few years ago I was pretty impressed how much nicer Manchester is now then when I was growing up near by. Seems to be a nice night scene with restaurants and the like.
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I live in Chichester, just outside of Concord. You are right about Portsmouth being likely the best place for it. It's just kind of far for me to go, though I suppose the right situation could make it worthwhile. I have been playing since the summer of 1982 and I started gigging out in the spring of 1991. When I started out, everyone here was playing blues as it was just after Stevie Ray passed. I did a LOT of blues gigs as well as playing with a few original bands. Jazz kind of popped up a bit around the mid 2000's as there seemed to be a crop of players into it and there were a few clubs that supported it. As you mentioned, Portsmouth has likely always had a scene but it's just not close to me and sans the occasional gig, I have never spent a lot of time there. It's a great city though and it's always fun to visit there.

As I mentioned, I was always playing with guys much older than me so I am thinking a lot of those guys either no longer play or have sadly passed away.
 
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We had a good jazz scene in the 70's and 80's, some great jazz clubs and world class players that came through. That mostly died out in the 2000's. Then there seemed to be a bit of a resurgence in the years before the pandemic. Since then I haven't paid much attention to it. I'm aware of a couple of venues (one of which I've played a few times). Other than that UM has/had a world renowned jazz program which sometimes hosts famous guests. But, I haven't paid much attention to any of it in the past few years.
 
For a local scene, I’d think Manchester is your best bet. I never got to know Concord well.

Maybe start something up? We used to have a little Irish pub in town that some friends set up an open mic at on Saturday afternoons. They were open, but usually empty, so it was a win win.

We do have an incredible little jazz club here in Santa Cruz, CA called the Kuumbwa. It’s celebrating its 50th anniversary, is set up as a non-profit, and gets amazing talent. We’re 1.5 hours south of SF and 5.5 hours north of LA, so we get a lot of the touring artists for a night as they jump from residencies in the 2 big cities. A very special place.

Outside of that, there is a local jazz society, mostly older retired folks. They have a jam once a week at a local bar/restaurant, and used to offer workshops set up through the city parks/recs activities.

If there really is nothing in concord, it probably means there are others craving something as well. Be the guy to start it up!

wflkurt said:
I live in Chichester, just outside of Concord. You are right about Portsmouth being likely the best place for it. It's just kind of far for me to go, though I suppose the right situation could make it worthwhile. I have been playing since the summer of 1982 and I started gigging out in the spring of 1991. When I started out, everyone here was playing blues as it was just after Stevie Ray passed. I did a LOT of blues gigs as well as playing with a few original bands. Jazz kind of popped up a bit around the mid 2000's as there seemed to be a crop of players into it and there were a few clubs that supported it. As you mentioned, Portsmouth has likely always had a scene but it's just not close to me and sans the occasional gig, I have never spent a lot of time there. It's a great city though and it's always fun to visit there.

As I mentioned, I was always playing with guys much older than me so I am thinking a lot of those guys either no longer play or have sadly passed away.
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Pedal_Pusher said:
We have a small jazz scene due to some local schools, restaurants that have jazz brunches, and a couple of venues that have jazz combos once a week. We currently have two jams a month. I decided to broaden the jam opportunities by paying myself for a piano and upright bass on two Thursdays a month. I give them $100 each for a two hour gig and the tip jar proceeds go the the folks who sit in. The new venue is a local liquor store with a wonderful event room in the back. We are just starting up so will see how it goes. Remember what Frank Zappa said: " Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny".
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Update - the liquor store changed their mind. They would rather have singer songwriter wallpaper music. I am trying the same thing with other venues. Two doors down is a non profit "Museum of Information Explosion". They seem interested. Venue hinting is a new thing for me so this too is a learning process.
 
groovemastergreg said:
The jazz scene has always been minimal in Austin and Houston. Back in the 80s and 90s Htown had a really cool jazz club in an old house on Holcombe near the medical center called the Gallant Knight. It was what I imagine the small jazz clubs in homes looked like on the east coast years ago.
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Wow... really? I've only been to Austin once, back in the late 90s, though I thought it was great. It seemed to have a higher concentration of music happening than just about anywhere. I'm kind of surprised that more of it isn't jazz. Ditto with Huston (I've never been there), which I know is a huge metropolis and is supposed to be very multi-cultural - just the kind of place that I'd expect to see jazz clubs...
 
A couple photos from Jazz gigs in Buffalo over the last few days. I’m doing some pit work this week so less jazz gigs but I’ll post more over the next few weeks to give you all a taste of what Buffalo is really like.
 

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I live 45 min. south of Santa Cruz and about 2 hours S. of S.F. Up there are a ton of venues. The venue in Santa Cruz is great, too. We have a few small clubs but they are not dedicated to jazz. There's a lot of older players around here, all are good and all are connected, so good luck sitting in! Especially for a hack like myself who can't read and would be weakest link by far!

There is jazz every Wed. at a local jazz/blues club and they let you sit in, but the drummer, Leon Joyce Jr., is very good, the stage at the venue is named after him, and I don't have the guts to ask to sit in on his band. He brings in old dudes from back in the day. Last time I went, they had a guy on sax and xylophone. Afterwards, I told him he had a great Cal Tjader vibe - he said he was in Cal's band! Like that level good......

We of course have the Monterey Jazz Festival every year, which is top shelf, and I try to go every year. My older son is in the local MJF high school band and he performed at MJF last year which was amazing. They get to do a lot of local charity gigs and play jazz, too. You just have to get out and look to find them. I have been to San Jose Jazz (1 hour north) through my kid's playing with MJF and that was very good, too. We saw Herbie Hancock, Mavis Staples & Preservation Hall Jazz Band last year!

I am looking forward to the boy playing MJF this year since Bill Stewart will be playing too and I plan on finally seeing (and and meeting) him!
 
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