(It's All About) The Music, Man
It’s not hard to see why Jared Sims was BMA’s 2025 Jazz Artist of the Year
Jared Sims, director of jazz studies at Milton Academy and a versatile and prolific musician outside the classroom, was named the 2025 Boston Music Awards Jazz Artist of the Year. (photo courtesy Jared Sims)
Do you remember where you were on December 17, 2025? (Go ahead and check your Google calendar, it’s an open book test.)
Jared Sims remembers where he was.
“I had a gig. I was leading my own band.”
Nearby to where Jared was leading his band that evening, the Boston Music Awards ceremony was underway at Big Night Live on Causeway Street, near North Station and TD Garden. Jared was nominated for the 2025 BMA Jazz Artist of the Year award, as were some folks with fairly big name recognition – folks like NEA Jazz Master and four-time Grammy winner Terri Lyne Carrington, saxophone prodigy Grace Kelly, George Garzone and Gregory Groover, Jr. (both master saxophone players and professors), and pianist/professor Laszlo Gardony.
Yet it was Jared who took the award that night – “And afterward I found out. It was pretty shocking, honestly,” he told 8495Jazz.
But – and I may be speaking out of turn here as an observer for whom playing music is a hobby, not a profession – it was very fitting he was gigging the night of the awards.
Jared, whose main instrument is the sax, but who is proficient with numerous axes, exemplifies the spirit and the state of jazz as well as anybody might be able to. He leads numerous bands/projects and also plays duet pieces with MacArthur “genius grant” holder Ran Blake, with whom he studied while getting his master’s degree at New England Conservatory.
He is also embedded in the academic ecosystem in which contemporary jazz has planted itself. He holds a doctorate from Boston University in classical woodwind performance, yet it was Third Stream pioneer Gunther Schuller who paid Jared what he told 8495Jazz in an earlier conversation was the greatest compliment he had ever received. After hearing his capstone performance of an “insanely hard” duet for baritone sax, Jared said Gunther told him the piece “wasn’t long enough. Meaning he liked it and wanted to hear more.”
But he’s seen the downside of the current crisis in music within higher education, too. In 2024, his position as director of jazz studies was eliminated – as was the entire program, in fact – by West Virginia University, where he himself got his bachelor’s degree. Such cuts, disproportionately affecting a wide range of humanities courses and curricula, are now endemic across many universities.
He landed on his feet as director of jazz studies at Milton Academy, a suburban Boston prep school which the term “elite” probably underdescribes. Academically, the school sent more graduates to Harvard than to any other institution between 2023 and 2025. In jazz terms, the program, which was founded in 1974, has also received top honors. Its combo has twice been Downbeat’s best high school jazz group in the country, and Milton jazz students have traveled the world and played with A-list names.
So, there is a certain amount of confidence and comfort in teaching at a place as committed to education as Milton. But (and maybe but is the wrong word), the position also affords a position to assess the tenuous hold arts and humanities have in far too many places.
In this region of the country, budding jazz musicians are blessed with an abundance of academic options in which to pursue their dreams – Juilliard, of course, the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford, SUNY-Purchase, Berklee and New England Conservatory in Boston, and flagship state universities in Connecticut and Rhode Island, which employ many of the extremely talented folks we see in concerts and clubs as professors. Then you have the state colleges such as Western Connecticut State University and its powerhouse music ed program.
So, as a reaction to the larger forces at play in higher ed market dynamics, one might be tempted to dismiss the gutting of humanities elsewhere as a boon for New England institutions and the regional music community in general. But such concentration also introduces a profound dilemma: where might a talented but impoverished kid from Wheeling, WV, for whom private or out of state tuition is simply too expensive, go to thrive?
“I think where a kid grows up will have a tremendous impact on what they will be able to do,” Jared said. “In the center of the country they are collapsing programs. I think it’s going to be a winner-take-all kind of situation. I told a student recently to not think about going to one college in particular. I felt guilty about it, but I said ‘If you go there, you’re not going to have anybody to play with.’ A lot of these big schools are in the middle of nowhere, or if they are in a large town, there may not be much of a jazz scene.”
So he does what he can with his students to provide them a firm jazz foundation, whether they are obviously gifted or of average ability (“the wisest thing I think someone told me is you are not measured as a teacher by what you can do with your best student.”). And he recognizes that “success” for his students after they leave Milton can be painted on a wide canvas indeed.
“I don’t like to try to be the judge of what’s a legitimate thing for a student to do. How do we judge success in jazz? Maybe sometimes it’s somebody who’s touring, playing drums in a reggae band. To me, that seems like a pretty good success. It’s not necessarily being in the Village Vanguard band every Monday night. There’s a lot of gray area. I think desire, determination, is a pretty big factor. If a student really has that desire they can do interesting things.”
Outside of the classroom, he exemplifies those “interesting things” in the best “Do as I do” tradition. Among the bands he leads are: Hellbender, which takes the tired old term “jazz fusion” and injects it with vital energy from rock, funk and dub reggae; The Catalyst, which he describes as a “Latin project”; Firecracker, which features the always cool Hammond B3 organ; and Aftershock, “similar to” Firecracker, sans organ. Add in his duos with Ran Blake and you have a guy who keeps the beat flowing. This variety is a vital component of sustaining himself as a working musician
“I think some of that is taken from the audience perspective,” he said. “I think most bands will only get people who want to see them a small number of times per year. Not every week. Not every month. I’m thinking realistically it’s a different scene because we don’t have that many jazz clubs. We have to find opportunities. We can’t wait for the phone to ring.”
Looking ahead, Jared said he sees an increasing emphasis on composing (which can be inspired by anything at any time, including 8 AM classes at Milton). And, as a scholar of music from every angle, he’s even thought about the incursion of artificial intelligence on creating it. And his observations help others with intellectual and emotional interest in – and concern about – the future of music to also put things into perspective.
“I kind of joked when Hellbender was playing at Regattabar that it is AI-proof music,” he said. “You can’t use AI to come up with that. You can use AI to come up with a country song, a guy strumming and singing about pickup trucks, but not real jazz. Jazz with interesting layers and a fair amount of cacophony or that beautiful chaos factor we have.”
The beautiful chaos factor. Taking it all in and helping students navigate it and listeners enjoy it. Befitting an Artist of the Year winner.
“Infinite Colossus” is a Jared Sims original, performed by his Hellbender band. The band combines jazz, rock, funk, and dub reggae and builds a killer groove.
Out and About with 8495Jazz
These listings are a curated sampling of shows in the region. As an independent resource for jazz news, 8495Jazz does not receive any consideration, free tickets, or affiliate fees for these listings. Please confirm events are still happening directly with the venue.
8495Jazz Wild Card Gig of the Week
The Side Door, Old Lyme, CT
Reggie Watkins Quintet (trombone, combo), Friday, May 22, 8 pm. GA $54.45, students $27.98 including service fee. Reggie Watkins brings serious Pittsburgh roots with the brass community cred that comes from having been Maynard Ferguson’s music director. His quintet features folks based right here in the 8495 (Matt Dwonszyk on bass and Matt Parker on saxes) as well as Litchfield Jazz Camp and festival veterans Orrin Evans on piano and Byron Landham on drums – folks who are no strangers to area stages.
8495Jazz Spur of the Moment Gig TODAY
The Falcon, Marlboro, NY
Brock, Lanzetti, Ogawa (violin, guitar, percussion), 7:30 pm. Suggested donation $30. Snarky Puppy folks’ trio. IYKYK.
Other Upcoming Shows
Pump House Music Works, Wakefield, RI
Dan Moretti & Brazilia (sax, combo – celebratingLatin twist/tribute to Wayne Shorter). Friday, May 22, 7 pm. $20 advance, $25 at the door.
Elicit Brewing Co., Manchester, CT
Hartford Jazz Orchestra (big band), Monday, May 18, 7:30 pm. Free.
VFW Post 399, Westport, CT
Melissa Newman (vocals, combo), Thursday, May 21, 7:30 and 8:45 pm. $20.76 for 7:30 set, $10.76 for 8:45 set. Student/vets $15.76 for 7:30 set.
The Parlour, Providence, RI
The Thomas White Trio (piano, combo), Saturday, May 23, 5 pm. GA $10.
Alchemy, Providence, RI
The John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, Monday, May 18, 8 pm. GA $20.77
MoCA/CT, Westport, CT
Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play (trio), Tuesday, May 19, 7 pm. GA $55.20 including service fee.
Jams
Cafe Nine, New Haven CT
New Haven Jazz Underground jam, usually 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month: free admission
Saturday jazz jam most Saturdays, 4 pm. Free.
Blackeyed Sally’s, Hartford, CT
Jazz Wednesdays, featured set 7 pm, jam session afterward.
Carmine’s, East Hartford, CT
Paisley’s All Star Memorial Jam, various Tuesdays, click link for dates, 7:30 pm. House band set followed by jam. Free.
Mahoney’s, Poughkeepsie, NY
Poughkeepsie Jazz Project, every Tuesday, 7 pm. Free.
Park City Music Hall, Bridgeport, CT
Scott Cushman and Friends followed by jam, first Wednesday of the month.
The Parlour, Providence, RI
First Sunday Jam (first Sunday of the month) with Ben Shaw Quartet followed by jam, music starts at 6. Jammers $5, audience $10.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA
Jams every second Tuesday of the month through June, 7 pm. $10 at the door, no advance sales.
Jazz Societies and Organizations (great info on events, festivals, and more)
Jazz Society of Fairfield County
Jazz Fridays at Three Sheets New Haven 1st/3rd Fridays from 6-9pm
Jazz Thursdays at The Cannon New Haven every other Thurs from 7-9pm.
8495Jazz takes its name from the two Interstate highways that cross our region, I-84 and I-95. Within short driving distances from either, you can find incredible entertainment, from local jams to world-famous festivals in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. 8495Jazz: From Newburgh to Newport!
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