The first was at the Lily Pad in Cambridge and was called The Fringe. The Fringe features the amazing George Garzone and they play at this venue every week! The cover is $10 which goes to helping the small venue pay their rent and give the band whatever they can. There was decent attendance here, but the place was certainly not packed to full as it should have been because no one can argue that this group is anything but incredible!
The second group I saw was at the Regatta Bar in Cambridge on Wednesday night, it was the Miguel Zenon group. The Regatta Bar is definitely a more upscale sort of establishment so the ticket price is a little higher but it is one of the staple "jazz clubs" in the Boston Area and well worth a visit. The group was fantastic but what struck me silly was that the place wasn't even half full! I figure this could be because it was at 7:30pm on a Wednesday night, but still, this is a fairly well known group and they really put on a great show.
Now the third performance I saw last week was Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Hardvard's spectacular Sander's Theatre. Now this show had free admissions and the house was packed! Now this was on Thursday night at 7pm so it leaves me wondering again why there was such poor attendance at the Regatta Bar the night before. This group is also very well known but it wasn't even a performance it was a lecture given by Wynton about the history of jazz and the band only ever played short excerpts as examples for the audience. Overall this show was really incredible, as a musician I did enjoy hearing about the history of jazz but I really would have loved to hear the band do a short set! the concert was 3 hours long afterall.
Now to come to the conclusion of my blog post, I managed to take in 3 AMAZING live performances all in one week all on weeknights! So there is absolutely no excuse for people to claim that live music is dead! Just get on out there and see these groups! They're out there, and they're waiting for you!