ONE WAY TO KNOW you’re getting old is when you have to pause while climbing stairs. But if you’re a jazz great, it’s when they start headlining you at Orchestra Hall. Granted, the new Jazz at Symphony Center season is more balanced than 2002-03’s, which featured Oscar Peterson (then 77); Von Freeman (80); Roy Haynes (77) honoring Charlie Parker (dead); McCoy Tyner (64); and Gary Burton (59); or 2003-04’s, which had Ornette Coleman (73); Herbie Hancock (63); Wayne Shorter (70); Charles Lloyd (65); Ray Barretto (74); Jack DeJohnette (62); Hank Jones (86); Clark Terry (84); Ernestine Anderson (75); and Dave Brubeck (84). But the new series still has Haynes, Dick Hyman (80), Ahmad Jamal (77), Shorter and tributes to Django Reinhardt (dead) and Thelonius Monk (dead). Jazz is part of the problem, since good new artists get few chances to make a name anymore. But the CSO could surely do better than brag about being “the only venue in town that brings you the hottest legends.” Huh?
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