Events Feedback
New This WeekAround TownMusicFilmArtTheaterNews & FeaturesFood & DrinkAstrology
  HOME
NEW THIS WEEK
EDITORS' PICKS
LISTINGS
NEWS & FEATURES
MUSIC
FILM
ART
BOOKS
THEATER
DANCE
TELEVISION
FOOD & DRINK
ARCHIVES
LETTERS
PERSONALS
CLASSIFIEDS
ADULT
ASTROLOGY
PHOENIX FORUM DOWNLOAD MP3s



Road and home
Montreal's pure jazz festival, Emmylou comes to Boston Folk, the smell of success for All the Queen's Men, and Amy Rigby



Montreal jazz

If we were going to name the Big Three of North American jazz festivals, they would be New Orleans, Newport, and Montreal. For jazz purists, Montreal probably tops the bill: in sheer size it competes with New Orleans, and it’s also noteworthy for its unsullied all-jazz line-up as opposed to New Orleans’s mix of jazz, roots, and pop. The list of heavy cats is just about endless: Wayne Shorter, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Gary Burton with Makoto Ozone, David Sanchez, Roy Hargrove, Medeski Martin & Wood, Jason Moran, Steve Coleman, Billy Bang, Arturo Sandoval, Joe Zawinul, Charlie Hunter, Abdullah Ibrahim, and on and on. A special "invitation" series splits the week between Jack DeJohnette and Lee Konitz, with each artist performing in a different setting each night. There’s a special "chanteuse" series capped by Sheila Jordan and Carmen Lundy, and a whole host of lesser-knowns that will undoubtedly be worth the trip. That’s the 24th annual Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, from June 26 to July 6. Call (888) 515-0515 or visit www.montrealjazzfest.com.

Boston folk

The Newport festival gets most of the folk press this time of year, but the annual Boston Folk Fest, which must perennially play second-fiddle to its southern neighbor, has a pretty damn fine headliner this year — namely, Miss Emmylou Harris, Godmother of alterna-country (her voice has illuminated country-rock seekers from Gram Parsons to Ryan Adams) and possessor of one of the most bitterly angelic voices in pop music. The festival, which takes place on the UMass-Boston campus, and has been expanded this year to a three-day event that’ll kick off on Friday September 19 with a songwriting and flatpicking contest. On Saturday, the headliners will include Kate Campbell, Carol Noonan, Tom Rush, and the Tarbox Ramblers; Harris will be on Sunday’s bill with Richard Shindell, Greg Brown, Paul Brady, and Catie Curtis. Two-day passes (Saturday and Sunday) are $50; single-day admission is $30, and Friday night’s opener is $10. Call (617) 287-6910 or visit www.bostonfolkfestival.org.

Smells like Queen spirit

Ah, the sweet smell of success. Most groups have to wait for platinum success before they start getting their own cosmetics deals, but Boston electro-pop up-and-comers All the Queen’s Men already have their own fragrance, "Alive." And they’ve returned from a European tour with the news that a German label is putting out a 12-inch remix of their single "More." Combining their love of rock and roll and teen-spirit smells, they’re providing the tunes for "Beauty Rocks," a fashion-show fundraiser teaming the breast-cancer-research institute Silent Spring with area beauty parlors to raise awareness about the potentially harmful chemicals used in everyday cosmetics. The benefit takes place at the Roxy, 279 Tremont Street in the Theater District, on June 15. Tickets are $50 in advance, $60 at the door; call (617) 332-4288 extension 25 or visit www.silentspring.org.

Mother’s day

Amy Rigby spent the ’80s crashing around in bands including cowpunks the Last Roundup, and she spent the early ’90s with the indie-pop girl group the Shams, who had a couple of records on Matador. But it wasn’t until the later ’90s that she found her calling as a singer-songwriter with an unusually persuasive take on the veering-toward-middle-age life of a not-quite-reformed hipster with 1996’s Diary of a Mod Housewife (Koch), an album that made her something like the patron saint of rocking single moms. She’s still feisty, funny, and heartbreaking on her new Til the Wheels Fall Off (Signature Sounds), on which she’s traded Williamsburg for Nashville, enlisted top-notch producers and players, and come up with a new batch of gems including the hilarious "Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex Again?" Rigby shows up for a record-release party at the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, on June 6 with insurgent-country gentleman Robbie Fulks. Call (617) 547-0759, or for advance tickets, visit www.virtuous.com.

Issue Date: May 23 - 29, 2003
Back to the Editors' Picks table of contents.