Jazz Revival in the West End 1970—1975 The Old West Church, Debbie’s, and New Directions for Boston Jazz

Thursday, November 6, 2014 @ 7:00 pm

@ The West End Museum

Donation $10 / $5-members

Register for this event 

A presentation with live music by Mark Harvey

Mark Harvey will explore the jazz revival that happened in the West End in the early 1970s from activities at the Old West Church to those at Debbie’s Jazz Club. The Jazz Celebrations series, All Night Jazz Concerts, Boston Jazz Week, and the Jazz Coalition, Inc. were launched at the Old West Church while Debbie’s also became a hotbed of musical activity. Visual images and archival audio recordings of Kenny Dorham, the Mark Harvey-Claudio Roditi Allstars Big Band, and others, will illustrate this historical overview. To conclude, a short program of live music will be presented by Arni Cheatham, Peter Bloom, and Harvey, all mainstays of the 1970s scene and beyond.

Mark Harvey, musician, minister, and educator teaching jazz studies at MIT, was a catalytic agent for much of the West End’s Jazz Revival. With his Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and other groups, he has been involved with the Boston jazz scene for more than 40 years. He has performed at Fenway Park and with the Boston Pops as well as with Gil Evans, Sheila Jordan, and George Russell. He serves on the board of JazzBoston, and last April, performed for the Boston City Council in celebration of International Jazz Day.