While summer may be almost over, two successful concert series presented by Berklee’s Jazz Revelation Records – the Kendall Square Concert Series and Harborwalk Sounds: Berklee at the Institute for Contemporary Art – continue into the fall, offering opportunities to hear FREE live music in Cambridge and Boston every Thursday (complete schedule of dates and times below). Performers include Berklee students and alumni playing original jazz, Latin, r&b, folk, and funk music.
The Kendall Square Concert Series takes place at 300 Athenaeum Street, Kendall Square, Cambridge, every Thursday, noon to 2:00 p.m., June 5 through October 2. The series is sponsored by the Kendall Square Corporation. For more information, call 617 577-7354.
Harborwalk Sounds: Berklee at the ICA takes place at the museum’s Putnam Investments Plaza, 100 Northern Avenue, on Boston’s waterfront, every Thursday, 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., June 19 through September 11. For more information, call the ICA at 617 478-3100.
Jazz Revelation Records (JRR) has released five compilation CDs featuring Berklee musicians since its formation in 2003. The student-run label celebrated its most recent release, Common Ground, in April. The label plays host to Berklee’s finest jazz musicians as an outlet for what its president, Michael Borgida, calls a «new way» of jazz. Along with the summer concert series, JRR artists have a chance to tour in Costa Rica each year.
September 4: Manami Morita at Kendall Square and the ICA
Manami Morita, a native of Saitama, Japan, started playing classical piano at age four. At the time, she hated piano lessons because she wasn’t attracted to classical piano. She loved to play but wanted more musical freedom. At 13, Morita discovered jazz and became addicted, even learning improvisation on her own. In 2004, Morita put aside thoughts of becoming a flight attendant or English teacher when she received a scholarship to study at Berklee. She was recently awarded the Mary Jane Earnhart Endowed Scholarship. Morita appears on the latest Jazz Revelation Records CD release, Common Ground, with the track «Going Home.»
September 11: Katie Thiroux at Kendall Square and the ICA
Katie Thiroux, from Los Angeles, California, is the recipient of the Phil Ramone Presidential Scholarship to Berklee, a rare, full-ride award. Thiroux performed at the 2004 and 2005 IAJE conferences as both a bassist and vocalist. For four years in a row, she was selected to be a member of the elite Gibson/Baldwin Grammy National Honor Jazz Ensemble. She has also received fellowships to the prestigious Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony, and the Vail Jazz Festival. In 2005 she was awarded the Los Angeles Jazz Society’s «Shelly Manne New Talent Award,» and also received the Down Beat magazine Student Music Awards for Outstanding Vocal Performance and Outstanding Bassist in 2006.
September 18: Keppie Coutts at Kendall Square
Keppie Coutts is an Australian-born funk-folkstress, submerged and reveling in the new wave of folk fusion – an eclectic melding of acoustic-based songs that step inside jazz and soul. Coutts started out spreading her words as poetry at local Sydney arts haunts and indie spaces. Very quickly, the words found a canvas of music, and almost as quickly she was thrust into the studio, where she recorded her debut album, On the Edge of a Dream. Since coming to Berklee in 2005, she has earned the praise of peers, audiences, and mentors. She won both the Performing Songwriter Competition and the Songwriter’s Showcase Competition – two prestigious showcases that Berklee presents to display its best talent.
September 25: Hard Times at Kendall Square
Hard Times is a bluegrass band assembled of Berklee alumni and students who have a passion for acou
