by Ken Laster

In 1967, bassist Paul Brown brought world famous musicians to downtown Hartford for free concerts during July and August. Monday nights were ideal to book these artists, because gigs in NYC were sparse on that day of the week. For the first concert, saxophonist Cannonball Adderley performed on Barbour Street.  “PB” had founded the Monday Night Jazz Series in Hartford. Through the years, the series attracted the genre’s most revered jazz icons; Horace Silver, Dexter Gordon, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus and Bill Evans among many others.

In May 1999, the Monday Night Jazz Series was recognized by the Library of Congress as the oldest free continuously run jazz festival in the nation. Sadly, Paul Brown passed away May 6, 2016. That summer, the festival was renamed Paul Brown Monday Night Jazz (PBMNJ) in his honor.

Now, in the year 2020 the Hartford Jazz Society was poised to present the 53rd consecutive year of the PBMNJ series. The artists had been contracted and the lineup was ready to be announced when the COVID-19 virus turned the world upside-down. The USA was under lock-down to prevent the spread of the virus. Virtually all music venues and summer festivals were forced to cancel. On May 29, the Hartford Jazz Society Board of Directors announced that the PBMNJ 2020 would be cancelled, breaking a 52 year tradition.

Click flyer to enlarge

However, jazz music fans and artists refuse to “go gently into the night” to quote poet Dylan Thomas. Under stay-at-home orders, an idea was born to bring the music into peoples homes, give local musicians opportunities to perform, and to allow the PBMNJ series to continue uninterrupted. This year’s PBMNJ will be live streamed. The parks may be closed to large crowds, but the concerts will go on as streaming events on the Facebook platform for all to enjoy. The Hartford Jazz Society re-hired the original opening acts that were previously cancelled. Some were unavailable, and others were hired to take their place. The events will be held in a large studio allowing the musicians to social distance and production crews will wear face masks to keep everyone safe. The concerts will utilize multiple cameras and quality audio.

The festival series will keep the original PBMNJ dates on Mondays, beginning July 13 through August 17 at 7PM for six free concerts. See the flyer in this post for the schedule, or go to the PBMNJ web page for all the details. Concerts can be viewed on the Hartford Jazz Society facebook page. Facebook members should LIKE the HJS page to make sure you are notified for all the events. Funding is provided through the Roberts Foundation, but if you would like to support the Hartford Jazz Society to host additional streaming concerts, please consider making a donation or becoming a member.