Jazz’s Battle With Covid-19 in Boston
Boston has a rich history of Jazz all the way back to the Jazz era in the early 1900’s. Many people have been affected by Jazz over the years as it has played a role in shaping Boston. The past year has been very hard on the Boston jazz community and all musical communities around the world because of Covid-19. Covid-19 is a disease that has caused a worldwide pandemic, forcing all non-essential businesses to close or transition to working remote. Some industries have not felt too much of an effect because they can work remotely rather easily with all the technological options that are available. The music industry, however, has taken a big hit. We are going to see how small time Jazz musicians and Jazz clubs are being affected by Covid-19. This is important because of the mass amount of people who are struggling to get by and all the businesses that are closing permanently. Using interviews, articles, field work and recordings, we can see the effects Covid-19 is having on the Jazz community in Boston.
Initial Impact of COVID-19 on Musicians
The jazz community not being able to host music events has led to thousands of people losing their jobs. In an article in the Boston Herald, Anita Walker said, “More than 15,000 Massachusetts workers in the cultural sector have been laid off, furloughed, or are working reduced hours or with reduced pay”. Many of these people are in the Jazz community. Jazz musicians in Boston are struggling to make a living during this time because their main income comes from live performances. Joe Kitz is a small-time jazz musician in Boston who I got the chance to interview. During this interview Joe explained how he and a couple of his friends had just recorded some songs and were about to start trying to find small gigs around Boston. Unfortunately, just as they began to search for gigs, Covid-19 caused all the small Jazz clubs and restaurants in Boston to close temporarily. Although Joe is a student and would not have been surviving off of the income from these small gigs, it shows how he would have lost his income.
(Joe Kitz, 19 November 2020, playing his saxophone)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkD6Z85FleM
In this recording you can hear how disappointed Joe was with the jazz clubs closing. From this Joe lost a few things that were especially important to him like most Jazz musicians. The biggest lost Joe stresses upon was losing the chance to play with his friends. This is saddening for him because what makes Jazz so amazing is being able to come together with other people and different instruments to create something wonderful. Joe and his friends also lost their chance to share their music with other people. One of the most intriguing parts of Jazz Joe says is being able to share it with other people and is why he hosts his Jazz radio show that I will talk about later. Finally, they also lost their chance to make money which is not as important to him or his friends because they are all students, but to other people this is a much bigger problem.
Jazz Clubs
Individual Jazz musicians are not the only people in the community that are struggling. Jazz restaurants and clubs are going through a very tough time because Covid-19 made them all close for a few months. This has led to the closing of some of the few spots left in Boston you can still find live Jazz. A performance space called Out of the Blue was struggling to stay open even before the pandemic occurred. This is because it is hard to attract a big crowd of Jazz fans. The link right below is to an article called Coronavirus Closures Put Boston’s Arts, Cultural
Institutions in ‘Dire’ Situation. In this article it talks about the many restaurants and clubs that are being closed permanently because of COVID-19.
Interview with Joe Kitz
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/06/28/coronavirus-closures-put-bostons-arts
Joe Kitz playing with his band
Wally's
One Jazz club that is still managing to pay its bills is called Wally’s. Wally’s is a 73-year old Jazz club that has hosted many jazz legends such as High Hat and Savoy Ballroom. I wanted to know why this Jazz club has been able to survive even through the pandemic when many others could not, so I took a closer look. Immediately, when you walk into Wally’s you understand the Jazz community is not meant to be like the other musical communities with the huge concerts. At those events, it is a different type of entertainment that people are looking for. At Wally’s, it is a very calm, but upbeat vibe at the same time. Wally’s itself is small and narrow jazz club with some tables on the left and a bar on the right. At the far side of the Jazz club there is a small section for musicians to perform. You know it is more of a casual or calm vibe because the lights are dim and the music being played is not too loud. It’s clear that they want you to feel close to the music and almost a part of the music. They do this because when the musicians are playing, they play with a lot of feeling so you can connect with them. Wally’s
has been able to stay in business because of two reasons I believe. The first reason is because they have such a friendly environment that it has led to them having a lot of loyal customers. The other reason Wally’s has been able to survive the pandemic is because of the impact they
have had on the community. Wally’s has organized a program called The Student Music Project. This project gives students in less fortunate areas the chance to learn how to play instruments. Wally’s also offers a Jam session every day. In this jam session, any musician can bring their instrument to the club and play with other musicians. This is a unique experience Wally’s offers and is one of the main reasons it remains so busy. Now that restaurants can open back up, Wally’s is able to host more live shows again, however, it is still limited to the number of people that can attend. This is why Wally’s is on the verge of having to close. The link below goes to Wally’s main website where you can learn more about their jam sessions and The Student Music Project.
https://www.wallyscafe.com/music-project.html
Since Covid-19 has closed so many restaurants and areas where musicians perform, Jazz musicians have had to relocate where they work. Musicians were unable to see anyone face to face so new methods of teaching had to be made. One of the most common ways for Jazz musicians to teach now would be over zoom. Zoom during the pandemic became one of the most used applications in the United States because it allows everyone to communicate in groups easily. Although it helped jazz musicians to be able to continue to play and teach, it also caused a lot of problems. The biggest problem zoom has with music is the delay it causes. Since there is a delay it makes it impossible to play with a group of people at once. Instead, you need to play one at a time. In a jazz band the average amount of people would be about four or five.
Without all of the different instruments playing at once the Jazz music is just not the same and is why people do not like zoom concerts.
Joe Kitz’s Radio Show
Joe Kitz has his own Jazz radio show and would go into the studio every Thursday and host until the pandemic made him have to host from home.
(Joe Kitz, 19 November 2020, Joe sitting in his studio)
In the pictures above you can see the setup the studio has on the left and the setup Joe must use now on the right. In the studio you can see there are three nice microphones that give the host the chance to have a cohost or even multiple guests. Covid-19 closed the studio down temporarily, so Joe has to make do with the equipment he has at home. As you can see, he only has one microphone, and it is not as nice as the Studio mics. For a radio show this is not a big deal because Joe is easily able to continue his show with the equipment he has, but the quality of him speaking declines. Not all bad has come from Covid-19 though. Joe actually prefers hosting from his house because he no longer has to make the trip all the way to the studio anymore. Other Jazz musicians are not as fortunate and have had to stop performing or hosting their shows.
Jazz Moving Forward
Now that Covid-19 restrictions have gotten looser, the Jazz community is able to start to repair itself. As the Jazz community looks to the future it still needs to figure out a way to grow the community. Joe Kitz had some ideas on what the community could do when I was interviewing him. Joe brought up the point that Jazz is different from other music genres and it is why the events are different as well. When you are watching a Jazz performance the band is always in-front of the audience. Joe said he once saw Jon Batiste (a famous Saxophone musician) perform in the middle of the audience. He mentioned how much cooler this was because he felt immersed in the performance. This made sense to me because they want to make you feel like you are part of the music so you should make the band part of the audience. Another factor the Jazz community should consider is making the music more accessible to people of lower class. In order to find a live performance in Boston they are most commonly found in high end hotels or restaurants. By performing in more diverse places that would help the Jazz community grow once the pandemic is over.
Work Cited
Doughty, Craig. Keele University (United Kingdom), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. 10766973.
Beuttler, William. Make It New: Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century. Lever Press, 2019.
Wilf, Eitan Y. School for Cool: the Academic Jazz Program and the Paradox of Institutionalized Creativity. University of Chicago Press, 2014.