Guest Column: Hub Cats of Jazz
There’s been a lot of chatter on Jazz Collector this week about record stores in various locales, including New York and San Francisco. One of our regular readers and commentators, Jason, has submitted a guest column on jazz in Boston — not the stores, but the music itself from the 1950s and 1960s. So here’s Jason:
“When I first thought of writing a post about jazz in Boston during the 50s/60s, I thought it would be easy. It wasn’t, and the problem is Boston itself. When one considers jazz and geography it is usually New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City and New York come to mind as sources of talent and innovation. Not Boston. New Orleans could claim Dixieland. Kansas City had swing and jump blues. New York and Chicago shared bop. But Boston never promoted a unique style. Every style was played here and that’s why it’s so difficult in placing Boston within a specific jazz tradition. Consequently, it is a story not easily told.
What initially made me think it might be simple is that a lot of notable musicians and industry players came out of the greater Boston area: Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Sonny Stitt; Roy Haynes, George Wein, Bobby Donaldson, Shorty Rogers, Dick Johnson, Charlie Mariano, Ruby Braff, Teddi King, Max Kaminsky , Serge Chaloff, Nat Hentoff, and Joe Gordon are but a few. Likewise, more than a few jazz venues were concentrated along Massachusetts Avenue. You could hear Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, and Charlie Parker at places like the Savoy Café, Roseland, and the Hi-Hat. When George Wein opened Storyville, Billie Holiday, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, John Coltrane all played there. Then there was the Jazz Workshop, Paul’s Mall, Lulu White’s, and Wally’s Cafe (the oldest continually running jazz club in the United States).
But Boston’s proximity to New York and NYC’s importance to the jazz community meant that sooner or later any musician worth his salt would migrate there. That and the loss of great jazz journalists, like Nat Hentoff, that followed them to New York was another factor, as the exodus hurt the telling of the story. But maybe that is the story. I guess it wasn’t as hard as I’d thought.
(For those of you who don’t know ‘The Hub’ is a nickname for Boston, hence the title.)”
Interesting contribution, thank you!
Note also that “The Hub” saw 2 record labels of more than passing interest: Storyville and Transition, recording not only Boston musicians.
When I think of Boston, my first thought goes to Serge Chaloff, who, at least for me, more than anybody else, personifies the fifties Boston scene.
Of a slightly later period long past the golden age, I still had the joy of attending great Jazz performances at Pauls Mall/Jazz Workshop and Lenny’s in the early 1970’s. Many memorable experiences like seeing Airto & Flora Purim, Jim Hall, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones and many others. In the Workshop one night as an “underage” 17 year old jazz fan, I pondered the hot, smokey air and the annoying “ka ching” of cash registers and constant din of ice being scooped into glasses at the worst musical times – and wondered how the musicians really felt about performing there. Don’t think they were appreciated much even as they still managed to produce great music under less than ideal circumstances…
Oh – and lest i forget – the many loud obnoxious conversations of people more into making the seen than listening to the music…