Watch for the changes: A jazz scene rises in Roxbury

Boston Globe

21-03-2025

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The Regattabar and Scullers once packed patrons into their hotel jazz clubs six nights a week. Like everything else, they closed when the pandemic hit, and they've never fully returned, hosting shows only two or three nights a week these days. Both clubs showcased local acts early in the week, but no more. Ryles Jazz Club, a popular spot for local jazz musicians, closed in 2018.
That's not to say jazz has disappeared from Greater Boston. Wally's Jazz Cafe on Mass. Ave. is going strong after 78 years, providing Berklee College of Music students with a spot to workshop.
But something special is happening in Roxbury, and it started because Michael Feldman wanted to see live jazz and bring new life to his neighborhood.
'Roxbury and jazz,' he says, 'they just go together.'
Feldman is the CEO of Feldman Geospatial, a company that was founded by his grandfather in 1946 as a land surveyor and has grown into a high-tech construction engineering firm.
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In 2016, Feldman Geospatial bought into the former home of the Boston Piano Co., a three-story brick factory in disrepair. Feldman rehabbed the 162-year-old building, moved into the top two floors, and now rents the bottom floor to Long Live Beerworks, a brewery that started in Providence and operates its second taproom here.
Long Live Beerworks in Roxbury.
Golden Age Collective
Feldman, who grew up listening to the Brazilian and Afro-Cuban records his father played at home, says he dreamed of bringing music into the Hampden Street building and initially thought he would try to recruit Berklee students to perform. But it became apparent he could think bigger.
In January 2024 he began hiring local jazz groups to play on Thursday nights — Feldman's firm pays the musicians, even though they bring business to the brewery — and started with a trio led by bassist John Lockwood. Three weeks later Lockwood was back with The Fringe, saxophonist George Garzone's trio that has been playing around Boston since 1971.
'Boston's in bad shape,' Lockwood says, referring to the jazz scene. 'When I first came here, there were all kinds of clubs here — stuff in Boston, stuff in Cambridge. It kind of fizzled out, and when the pandemic hit it got kind of weird.'
The Long Live jazz series has 'snowballed,' he says, thanks to the strong lineup, free admission, easy parking, and great beer.
'Boston needs places like this,' says Lockwood, who is a bass professor at Berklee.
Sue Auclair, the longtime Boston jazz publicist, happened to come to one of those first shows. Lockwood introduced her to Feldman, and soon she was marketing and promoting the series.
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Feldman and Auclair say they have been pleasantly surprised by how easy it has been to lure musicians here.
Puerto Rican saxophonist Edmar Colón will play Long Live Beerworks on April 24.
Robert Torres
'We're booked for the year already,' says Auclair, who has done publicity over the years for Scullers, the Newport Jazz Festival, Miles Davis, and countless other jazz venues and artists.
Long Live's 2025 lineup is a who's who of Boston jazz, with a particular focus on Latin jazz. The next shows feature singer-pianist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora (March 27), Brazilian mandolinist Ian Coury's quartet (April 3), Israeli pianist Alon Yavnai (April 10), keyboardist Matt Jenson (April 17) and Puerto Rican saxophonist Edmar Colón (April 24). The Fringe has more gigs here, the next one being May 22.
Alex Alvear has three shows booked in May with different lineups, including his Boston-based Latin ensemble Mango Blue. Feldman saw that band years ago, became a fervent fan, and flies Alvear in from Ecuador to perform at Long Live.
'What Mike is doing is exceptional for a city that has lost its way when it comes to appreciation for live music culture,' says Alvear, who came to Boston in 1986 to study at Berklee and spent nearly 30 years here before moving back to Ecuador in 2015.
Mango Blue performs at Long Live Beerworks in Roxbury.
Eric Antoniou
By organizing and funding the music series at Long Live, Feldman is doing 'something absolutely out of this world for the Boston music scene,' Alvear says.
'The scene was really literally dying in Boston,' he says from his home in Ecuador. 'I was heartbroken when I found out that all of these really emblematic music venues had been dying and closing. The city, when I arrived in the '80s, was full of music. Live music was an essential component of the city's identity.'
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Feldman wants to make it part of Roxbury's identity. The potential effect on this part of town is as important to him as is the music.
'Kids who live in this neighborhood don't always feel good about their neighborhood because of the way people talk about Roxbury,' he says. 'I really hope that we impact this neighborhood.'
Bailey lives in the neighborhood herself, just a few blocks down the street. She came to Boston from New York in 2000 to teach at Berklee, where she is assistant chair of the guitar department.
She started coming to Long Live on Sundays for the beer and now performs in the room.
'Look at this space,' Bailey says. 'It's a beautiful space. There are cool people who come here, and the beer is great.'
Most of the seats are occupied by the time her quartet launches into 'Old and Young Blues,' a medium-tempo bop tune she wrote. It's an appropriate song: A young couple, clearly on one of their first dates, chat near the back of the room, while an older couple pay strict attention to the musicians. A middle-age woman taps her toes alone to the rhythm, and a group of five professionally dressed women sip beers at a hightop.
For two and a half hours on Thursday evenings, this is in fact a jazz club — a big, jolly room on the ground floor of a building that had sat derelict for years, used as storage for old vehicles and construction equipment, now alive with A-list music and friends.
'It's just good for our community,' Feldman says. 'It's good for our spirits. It's something that's needed.'
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Steve Greenlee is a journalism professor at Boston University. Reach him at
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