Jazz

Boston is not a jazz town. I mean not in the New York sense of the word. There are no clubs where you can see, say, Cecil Taylor playing piano for weeks and weeks on end.

And there are no late night lofts where you may be able to hear Thelonius Monk sit-in at a late night session with a couple of local musicians.

But it does have a couple of quasi--clubs, that is places that exist simply to push the latest names that the record companies are featuring.

There are only two large clubs in Boston proper which feature jazz, but they don't make a habit of doing so weekly. The clubs, Paul's Mall and Jazz Workshop on 733 Boylston St. will sport the headliners. It won't be unusual to see McCoy Tyner, Sonny Rollins, or even Charles Mingus playing at these jointly--owned establishments. But these bookings are about as innovative as the management gets.

The prices are a lot more creative though; the owners having pioneered the one-hour, five-dollar show. The advertisements put the admission price in the $3.50-$4.00 zonebut you won't get out without buying a very expensive, watered-down drink.

And then there's Sandy's Jazz Revival out on Rte. 128 in Beverly--quite a drive and virtually non-existent without wheels. They book more exotic names than the clubs in town, but again, just for short visits--restricting the best people to one night stands.

Of course there are the rock clubs that turn into one night jazz stands when they care to, and a couple of local and collegiate talents that occasionally get booked in obscure auditoriums. All that I can say about those is keep your eyes open. And your ears attuned to WBUR at 90.9--the best jazz in Boston. Without it you would never know what's going on, in terms of clubs and the latest albums.

Right now the workshop is featuring Mose Allison while Paul's Mall has Billy Paul. Neither is anything to rave about, considering that this is the start of the season.