Salem’s Jazz and Soul Festival kicked off on the right foot with Afro-Cuban Jazz musician Juan Chavez and his band made up of fellow Berklee students.
The weather might have been chilly Saturday afternoon but the band was hot, playing a mix of salsa and jazz that had everybody on the front steps of the Old Town Hall tapping to the music. People young and old brought their chairs, grabbed some food, ice cream and coffee and gathered in Derby Square for the first performance of this years festival.
Juan’s outstanding violin and vocals were backed up by some great musicians playing an interesting mix of viola, cello, base, sax, trombone, guitar, percussion, and keyboards. If you missed this fun energy filled set you can hear some tunes on his myspace page. Chavez’s band will be a hard act to follow and if the turnout was any indicator of future events, plan to get there early.
The only downside to this out door free event was the proliferation of unsupervised children running around yelling and constantly pestering the onlookers and band alike. At one point it got so bad the band leader mentioned it between songs. We love free cultural events but if pet owners can keep their dogs on a leash certain parents should take a lesson from them. (End of tangent.)
Salem’s history with Jazz
Most people are unaware that Salem used to host many Big Bands during the golden age of Jazz and Swing. The Salem Willows once was home to the Charleshurst Ballroom, now the Willows Casino. When jazz greats like Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong would tour, they would do a few feature nights in major cities and supporting nights in smaller venues. Ballrooms like Mosleys on the Charles in Dedham and Charleshurst in the Salem Willows were just as important as the Coconut Grove in Boston.
Back in the Twenty’s Boston was much further away than it is now. Luckily for Salem, Charlie Shribman who operated a chain of ballrooms in New England and handled bookings for Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey and other bands, owned the Charleshurst Ballroom. In the summer of 1927 the Duke played nine performances at the Ballroom along with a variety of other top musicians throughout the years.
2008 Festival Schedule
The 2008 Salem Jazz and Soul Festival will continue through the summer with three different locations concluding with a blowout weekend at the Willows. Make sure to swing by and enjoy some of the bands. Free music this good doesn’t come around that often.
Derby Square
June 14th 5-7PM
Zach Hillyard Band
July 12th 5-7PM
Paulo Stagnaro
August 9th 5-7PM
Manami Morita
August 10th 1-3PM
The Nat Simpkins Band
Museum Place Mall at the Fountain
August 10th 2-4PM
Boston Horns
Salem Willows
Aug. 15, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
The Dan King Band
Aug. 16, 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Ken Clark Ogan Trio
Brothers from Another Planet
Parker Wheeler Blues Project
The Mystics
Los Sugar Kings
Aug. 16, Noon - 4:00 p.m.
Eric Reardon and the Juke Joint All-Stars at
Hobbs’ Juke Joint
Aug. 17, 1-4 p.m.
Follow Hymn Gospel Choir
Marty Rowen and Last Call for Blues
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Larry // May 26, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Thanks for the coverage, Glen. We enjoyed your review but for one point — the “unsupervised children” reference. We want the residents of Salem, and the surrounding communities, to know that all Salem Jazz and Soul Festival events are family-friendly and if your child wants to dance or run around in your vicinity, feel free to let them do so. I was at the Juan Chavez show on May 10 and the only child that went up to concertgoers was the son of a musician, who was handing out promotional cards. Most people saw this as a cute gesture. The fact that you likened children to dogs, and advised putting them leases went overboard. I hope you were kidding. Good luck with thesaleminsider.com. I wish you success.
2 Glen Hughes // May 27, 2008 at 9:12 am
Larry,
I saw you there and am astounded that you didn’t see the group of children running around to the front of the band. Most of them were well behaved and courteous of the audience. However a couple of them were not only distracting to the band (as Juan mentioned between songs) but were annoying patrons. Many of the people who were sitting near by were remarking about it through out the entire performance, which is why it is important to mention. One child knocked an ice cream out of the hands of an elderly woman and the child’s mother, who was in a verbal spat with its father, told the child not to play with the ice cream while ignoring the elderly womans loss.
I know that if my child was acting in a manor that intruded on the enjoyment of others in this free public event, I would feel a responsibility to remove him for the benefit of others. There were actually more dogs at the concert than children and I didn’t see one pestering other people. I equated dogs and children because like dogs, young children don’t have the capacity to police themselves. So perhaps your comment is valid, maybe it is the parents of the distracting children who need choke chains.
That being said, I am looking forward to more of these great shows and hope that the distractions will be kept to a minimum for the enjoyment of everyone.
Keep up the great work.
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