Beantown Jazz Festival
Grant Beighley
Issue date: 9/27/07 Section: Weekender
The streets are filled with people from the ages of five to 95. The air smells of funnel cake and fried chicken. There's music coming from three different stages, each located a block apart. Some people are deep in a trance, while others simply bounce their heads to the music.
Yes, you're going to have to leave Davis Square for this one.
Starting Thursday night, the BeanTown Jazz Festival returns triumphantly to Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Darryl Settles, the owner of Bob's Southern Bistro, a landmark bar and jazz club in the South End, started the festival in 2000. After many successful runs, it blossomed even more last year as the Berklee School of Music took over the reigns of the operation, opening the doors to a new collegiate audience.
Settles started the festival as a sort of "jazz-based block party," but the event has exploded in recent years, becoming increasingly corporate - to the dismay of some but to the joy of many others. This year's festival is sponsored not only by Berklee, but other large names such as Target, Sovereign Bank and Borders. The assistance of these large companies has helped the event grow from a few hundred people to 50,000 last year. For that exposure (and funding), a few Target banners hanging from tent ceilings seems a small price to pay.
The opening concert, which will be held Friday, Sept. 28 at Boston Symphony Hall, was produced by George Wein, the founder and producer of the Newport Jazz Festival. The Newport Jazz Festival is one of the largest, if not the largest, jazz festival in the US, largely thanks to Wein's production.
This year's festival is also remarkable due to its unprecedented artist lineup.
"This is such an amazing lineup ... almost unheard-of in Boston" said Allen Bush, head of Media Relations at Berklee. "There will be as many jazz luminaries as there will ever be in Boston, so we're very lucky to have this. George Wein himself describes it as the 'jazz concert of the century,' and that means a lot, coming from him."
Yes, you're going to have to leave Davis Square for this one.
Starting Thursday night, the BeanTown Jazz Festival returns triumphantly to Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Darryl Settles, the owner of Bob's Southern Bistro, a landmark bar and jazz club in the South End, started the festival in 2000. After many successful runs, it blossomed even more last year as the Berklee School of Music took over the reigns of the operation, opening the doors to a new collegiate audience.
Settles started the festival as a sort of "jazz-based block party," but the event has exploded in recent years, becoming increasingly corporate - to the dismay of some but to the joy of many others. This year's festival is sponsored not only by Berklee, but other large names such as Target, Sovereign Bank and Borders. The assistance of these large companies has helped the event grow from a few hundred people to 50,000 last year. For that exposure (and funding), a few Target banners hanging from tent ceilings seems a small price to pay.
The opening concert, which will be held Friday, Sept. 28 at Boston Symphony Hall, was produced by George Wein, the founder and producer of the Newport Jazz Festival. The Newport Jazz Festival is one of the largest, if not the largest, jazz festival in the US, largely thanks to Wein's production.
This year's festival is also remarkable due to its unprecedented artist lineup.
"This is such an amazing lineup ... almost unheard-of in Boston" said Allen Bush, head of Media Relations at Berklee. "There will be as many jazz luminaries as there will ever be in Boston, so we're very lucky to have this. George Wein himself describes it as the 'jazz concert of the century,' and that means a lot, coming from him."
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