Gary, Have to tell you I may not know quite as much about jazz as Chas, Russ or Tony but going back to my 20s thru late 40s that’s about all the music I listened to. A good part of my social life was heading to jazz clubs in Boston, locally here in Providence and to a lesser degree NYC. I’ve probably been to more jazz venues than any other type musical performance. I’ve seen McCoy Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Michel Camilo, Stanley Turentine, Harry Allen, Greg Abate, Bill Easley, Flip Phillips, Groove Holmes, John PIzzarelli, Mose Allison, Gray Sargeant, Makoto Ozone, Rhode Island native Mike Renzi, Laszlo Gardonay, Alan Broadbent, Bill Charlap, Dave McKenna, Carole Sloane,Dianne Reeves and Jessica Molaskey ( wife of John PIzzarelli). Those are the top ones and there was some excellent locals too who never made it to the top.

My regret is I never got to see Oscar Peterson. About 18 months ago Joey DeFrancesco was playing in nearby Ct. I missed seeing him. Ironically I have never been to the Newport Jazz Festival which is held about a 45 minute ride from where I live because I prefer hearing jazz in a club not in a large field


When it comes to audience size it’s the same reason when I wrote we went to the Knickerbocker in Greenwich Village on a Thursday evening that they were only 6 people listening to pianist James Williams.