Meet the stars of JazzBoston’s 12th appearance
at the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival

All photos by Jean Hangarter unless otherwise noted.
The stars weren’t just onstage at the annual Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival last month. We offer this photographic recap as a thank-you to our own stars – the volunteers, members, and friends who made it all happen at the JazzBoston tent. We couldn’t do it without you.
Trumpeter and JazzBoston Vice President Jason Palmer drew crowds onstage and off. First he performed with his quintet – Noah Preminger on sax, Kevin Harris on piano, Max Ridley on bass, and Lee Fish on drums – for an enthusiastic audience.
Jason’s next stop was the JazzBoston tent, where he set up the equipment and prizes for his Jazz Face Trivia quiz. Beside Jason is photographer Jean Hangarter, another JazzBoston star. You see Jean shooting at our most important events – Beantown, our Members & Friends Party, City Hall concerts. She never lets us down. (JazzBoston snapshot)
Jason was quickly surrounded by fans eager to test their ability to identify the jazz greats shown on the monitor. “Everyone could pretty much guess the easy ones, like Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie,” says Jason. “People also did okay with the intermediate ones.”
“I also had a lot of difficult ones, like Blossom Dearie, Vi Redd, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill. People seemed intrigued by the difficult ones.”
“I think I gave away about 30 CDs as prizes.”
The sign in front of our Brigham & Women’s partnership booth invited passers-by to “Check how well you breathe,” “Test how strongly you can blow,” and “Learn how jazz musicians do it.” Once again, Dr. Matthew Moll (at right), Pulmonary Fellow at the BWH Lung Center, presided and people lined up.
Equipped with a peak flow meter and a carton of disposable mouthpieces, Dr. Moll, who also plays a starring role as co-leader of our music/medicine research project, simultaneously entertained and educated visitors about the importance of lung health.
Visitors are always fascinated to try the peak flow meter, a simple device that measures how well you expel air from your lungs. Your result is compared with the average result for people of the same gender, age, and height, which gives you a goal to aim for and a reason to congratulate yourself if you exceed it.
For the younger generation, brightly colored kazoos with the BWH logo provided an incentive to test their blowing power.
JazzBoston’s busy merchandise and community information booths are where we put our most dedicated and experienced volunteers to work. This star couple, Beth and Bobby McDermott, are longtime Beantown volunteers. For years Bobby was also our tabler-in-chief at jazz venues all around town, signing up members and newsletter subscribers and mentoring novice tablers. He also helped set up our earliest databases.
Beth McDermott ably anchored the merchandise booth once again this year.
Berklee Provost and longtime JazzBoston Board member Larry Simpson stopped by to greet Don Carlson and Beth McDermott. A big thank-you to Larry and Berklee for the generous space they give JazzBoston every year!
Signage designed by another JazzBoston star, Executive Director and Board member Jon Taubman, pulled it all together.
Jon’s careful planning and energetic execution also made everyone else’s job easier. He more than earned a few minutes of relaxation at the back of the booth with the irrepressible, ageless Fred Taylor, one of JazzBoston’s founding Board members.
By the time the music stopped, it was apparent that a new JazzBoston star volunteer had been born. Early in the afternoon, Ken Astrove (at right) noticed that we were short-handed. He asked how he could help, then made himself indispensable until 6 PM. He quit only after he, Don, and Jon had dismantled everything, reloaded Jon’s car, and Jon took off at THE END. (JazzBoston snapshot)