Regattabar

The number of jazz clubs in Boston is a fraction of what it was in the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s, when The Hub was teeming with joints that hosted top-tier acts on a near-nightly basis, among them Cocoanut Grove, The Hi-Hat and Storyville, but the scene in and around the city is still cooking with gas. In fact, thanks to the throngs of jazz- and fusion-focused students at Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory and venues such as Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club, Scullers Jazz Club and Berklee Performance Center, Boston continues to be one of the leading spots in the United States for jazz and its myriad subgenres, along with New York City, Chicago, Kansas City and New Orleans.

And another reason why the area has maintained its global reputation for the quintessentially American genre is a 220-seat club just across the Charles River in Cambridge: Regattabar. Since opening in early 1985, it’s presented hundreds of regionally, nationally and internationally acclaimed solo artists and bands, been featured in publications including DownBeat, All About Jazz, The Boston Phoenix, The Improper Bostonian and Boston magazine (which has included the club in its “Best of Boston” list 13 times) and become a cultural landmark in the same way as The Plough and Stars and Club Passim.

Located at 1 Bennet Street on the third floor of The Charles Hotel, which owns and operates the venue, Regattabar’s ever-impressive roster, superb acoustics and bird’s-eye view of Harvard Square have made it a go-to spot for locals and a must-see destination for music-loving tourists, especially ones from jazz meccas like London, Berlin, Cape Town and Tokyo. Along with showcasing a cornucopia of established and up-and-coming jazz acts (plus some notable blues, R&B, folk, rock and pop ones), it’s hosted Cambridge’s longest-running annual jazz festival every July since 1985 (except for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023).

NOTABLE APPEARANCES, LIVE RECORDINGS

Regattabar hit the ground running when it opened on January 29, 1985, with vibraphonist and Berklee professor Gary Burton headlining the club’s debut concert that night, backed by a combo that included then Cambridge resident Pat Metheny. A variety of other Boston and Cambridge-based artists took the stage later in the ‘80s, among them Ran Blake and Either/Orchestra, as did a smorgasbord of jazz greats from outside the region including Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson and double bassist Ron Carter. The talent parade continued in the early ‘90s, when acts included Sun Ra, Elvin Jones and Al Di Meola, followed later in the decade with shows by Sonny Rollins, Michael Brecker, Chucho Valdés and Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, among dozens of others. New England-rooted acts that appeared in the ‘90s included Rebecca Parris, Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters and Roomful of Blues.

By the dawn of the 2000s, Regattabar was one of the best-known small venues in New England and the greater Northeast, with a roster that included enough major acts and household names to make any club owner as jealous as a cat watching a fishbowl. Jazz acts that appeared during the first two decades of the new century included Ahmad Jamal, John Scofield, Coco Montoya, Bill Frissell, Stanley Jordan, Karla Bonhoff, Branford Marsalis, Billy Cobham, Phil Woods, Grace Kelly, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. Among others were bluesmen Albert Cummings and Joe Louis Walker; singer-songwriters John Hammond, Suzanne Vega and Maria Muldaur; NRBQ; Johnny A.; and groups that left Regattabar regulars wondering if they were in the right place, among them rock legends Aerosmith (2003), a capella chart-toppers The Persuasions (2006), surf-rock pioneers The Ventures (2007) and synth-pop megastars Duran Duran (2008).

A number of solo artists and bands have recorded live albums or parts of live albums at Regattabar, which has helped the venue immeasurably in terms of building global name recognition. Among them are saxophonist-flautist Oliver Lake, cornetist Ruby Braff, pianist Chris Neville, guitarist Jim Hall, pianist-organist Michael Benevento, saxophonist-trumpeter-clarinetist-vocalist Benny Carter (with saxophonist Phil Woods), The Michael Brecker Quartet, The Lello Molinari Quintet, The McCoy Turner Trio, The Charlie Kohihase Quintet, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Revolutionary Snake Ensemble and Sun Ra.

COVID CLOSURE, REOPENING, NOTABLE RECENT APPEARANCES

The area’s jazz scene faced a gap after Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge shuttered in June 2018, though the closing was a boon of sorts for Regattabar in terms of drawing top acts: the benefits were short lived, however, due to the arrival of the Covid pandemic in early 2000. The club closed on March 17 that year and didn’t reopen until three and a half years later, on September 15, 2023, when Blue Note recording artist and Berklee Woodwinds Department Chair Walter Smith III appeared as part of a quintet. Grammy-nominated vocalist Gretchen Parlato, guitarist Lionel Loueke and others took the stage in October, followed in November by nine-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Tierney Sutton, pianist-composer Bevan Manson and vibraphonist Joe Locke, among others.

According to The Charles Hotel’s General Manager Alex Attia, jazz fans and players alike were anxious for the venue to reopen sooner than it did. “We’ve gotten a minimum of a dozen emails a month from regulars, both artists and customers, that are looking forward to getting back to the Regattabar,” he told WGBH’s Haley Lerner a few days before the reopening, noting that Regattabar has “a really great list of artists and a great community of jazz lovers.” Echoing Attia’s message was drummer-composer-producer Terri Lyne Carrington, who said she missed the club when it was closed. “It’s really important that we have those size clubs and that the jazz community doesn’t take these places for granted, and supports them,” she told Lerner. “With the reopening, I hope that people support and make sure they show up for the artists.”

And they certainly have, allowing Regattabar to pick up right where it left off as one of the most celebrated jazz-centric spots in United States. It’s continued to present an extraordinary assortment of solo artists and bands since reopening, among them pianist-composer and Berklee professor Laszlo Gardony, Jamaican-American pianist-composer Monty Alexander, singer-songwriter, Nellie McKay, Minneapolis-based quartet The Bad Plus and Rhode Island-born-and-raised bluesman Duke Robillard.

Asked what makes Regattabar a particularly unique place to play, saxophonist-flautist Ken Field, president of JazzBoston and founder/leader of Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, noted how its management values performers and holds all of them in high esteem. “Their commitment to both local and international artists is admirable and appreciated, giving audiences and musicians opportunities to hear and be heard,” he said, calling the club “a critical and valued part” of the Boston-area jazz scene. “Musicians are treated with the respect they deserve, which goes a long way towards making performances there special and engaging.”

(by D.S. Monahan)