Boston has a decorated jazz history, but it's no longer as easy to find jam sessions

<p>Jazz, one of America’s great art forms, has a decorated history in Boston. <a href="https://www.jazzmessengers.com/fr/73599/charlie-parker/bird-in-boston-live-at-the-hi-hat-1953-54" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Charlie Parker</a> performed here in the early '50s. Clubs from the <a href="https://huntnewsnu.com/68080/lifestyle/bostons-rich-jazz-history-gives-way-to-bright-future/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hi-Hat</a> to Savoy Café lined the streets. And <a href="https://www.richardvacca.com/june-26-1981-at-kix-we-want-miles/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Miles Davis</a> resuscitated his career here in 1981, playing a string of sold-out shows. <br> <br> Sue Auclair helped coordinate Davis' return. She described the moment she broke the news to <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/09/17/legendary-gbh-jazz-host-eric-jackson-72-has-died" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Eric Jackson, </a>who spearheaded decades of radio programming at GBH: "I said, 'You're not gonna believe this but Miles is coming to Boston.' I told him the details, he cut the music midstream — which no one ever does — and he announces this. ... We sold the thing out four nights."<br> <br> But the prevalence of jazz in Boston is not what it once was. From a change in culture to a lack of clubs and gentrification, Auclair and other <em>Under the Radar</em> guests discussed the past, present and future of jazz in Boston.<br> <br> Tessil Collins, host of the Jazz Gallery at GBH, laments today's lack of dedicated jazz venues.<br> <br> "When you look at these places, though, you're talking about playing jazz at a restaurant ... you're having a meal, people are talking, and there's a band over here in the corner doing background music," he said. "It's unfortunate that we have to settle for that."<br> <br> Gentrification and "nightclub apartheid" has impacted the scene as well, says George "Chip" Greenidge Jr., founder and director of the nonprofit Greatest MINDS.<br> <br> "12 years ago [I told a Boston Globe editor], 'Boston