The Fringe

Feldman Geospatial has created a superb ‘critic’s choice’ jazz and Latin music series at Long Live Roxbury, a new and hip craft brewery and taproom located at 152 Hampden Street in Boston. And all of it is FREE of charge. It’s a beautiful gift from Feldman Geospatial to the neighborhood communities who love great live music in Boston and beyond.

The Fringe will perform on Thursday, February 22, beginning at 6 pm.  Free admission.  Free parking

Boston’s legendary jazz group The Fringe was formed in 1971 by tenor saxophonist George Garzone, bassist Richard Appleman, and drummer Bob Gullotti as an outlet for their free jazz improvisations. Bassist Appleman left the band in 1985 to become Chair of the Bass Department at Berklee and was replaced by veteran bassist John Lockwood.

With the passing of drummer Bob Gullotti in 2020, Francisco Mela has taken over the drum seat for the group.

George Garzone is the founding member of the Fringe. The group has released several albums and Garzone has appeared on over 20 recordings. Garzone toured Europe with Jamaaladeen Tacuma and performed with Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano, John Patitucci, Danilo Pérez, Rachel Z, Bob Weir and Ratdog. Garzone is also on the faculty at the Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music, New York University and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. He pioneered the triadic chromatic approach. In 1995 he recorded a tribute to Stan Getz on NYC Records called Alone. Four’s and Two’s followed a year later with Joe Lovano and in 1999 Garzone returned with Moodiology. Fringe in New York was released in the summer of 2000.

Acoustic and electric bassist John Lockwood has toured the U.S. and Europe with Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton, the Mel Lewis Big Band and The Fringe. He has also performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, MIT Symphony, Pat Metheny, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, Toots Thielemans, Stan Getz and Art Farmer.

Francisco Mela was born in Bayamo, Cuba. Mela studied at the Music School of Arts El Yarey as a teenager before furthering his studies at the National School of Arts for Teachers, el CENCEA. He taught at Rafael’s Cabrera Conservatory of Music and played with some of the country’s top Latin jazz musicians, as well as leading his group, MelaSon Latin Jazz Band, that toured throughout Mexico. In 2000, he moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music and was invited to join the percussion faculty there. He also became the house drummer at the Wally’s Café. It was there that he developed the concept for what would later be his own group.

In 2005, Mela joined a quartet led by saxophonist Joe Lovano. Of particular note was the group’s 2008 album on Blue Note entitled Folk Art. Later that year, Mela was approached by McCoy Tyner to join his trio. Mela was also named the Twin Cities Jazz Festival’s first artistic director in 2014, and before appointment, he served as artistic director for the Xalapa Jazz Festival in Veracruz, Mexico (2010-2013). In late 2016, Mela was part of an inaugural ensemble that joined Afro-Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and saxophonist Joe Lovano for an international tour throughout Europe and North America. He also leads his own group, The Crash Trio.