Rooftop Riffing
Drummer Cameron Spann takes flight on the roof at Kendall Center on Tuesday, 22 July 2025.
Joined by three jazz friends as part of the concert series Berklee Summer In The City.
This is the day that Ozzy Osbourne died.
Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix
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Hump Nights
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️
Hump Nights
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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix
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Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️
Cameron Spann & Friends
Cameron Spann & Friends
Percussionist Cameron Spann led a flock of fellow Berklee College of Music students through their jazz paces on a rooftop garden in Kendall Square the day Ozzy Osbourne died.
Down below the city mourned. Every dive (and dive-adjacent) bar in town had the Wizard of Ozz flowing through the house mix. Flat Top Johnny’s favored the Black Sabbath era. The Jungle remembered the Prince of Darkness’ solo career with middle and late selections. All the while eyeliner-stained tears filled the streets with sadness.
Except in the breezy upper reaches of the rooftop garden. The sky was blue and the outlook sunny as four young musicians warmed up on the stage overlooking biotech office high-rises in various states of being and becoming. A combination of bass, keys, drums and saxophone proved the magic elixir to remind you that even as one candle gets snuffed out, yet more creative flames are enkindled.
Like Dr. Ian Malcom once said: “Life finds a way.”
Music found a way in Kendall Square, the rare neighborhood where the landscape still looks like the architect’s digital renderings years after construction has been completed. Full of copied and pasted trees. Bizarre urban design ornamentation straight out of SimCity. Empty office park cul-de-sacs used for nothing by nobody. It’s a place where the je ne sais quoi of spontaneous human interaction has trouble taking root.
Berklee College of Music to the rescue. The school is collaborating with local municipalities to produce the Berklee Summer in the City series, featuring more than 200 pop-up concerts by faculty and staff throughout the Boston area. From Kendall Center to the ICA, from Regattabar to Spectacle Island, from Club Passim to the Prudential Center there are signs of life in places where you might and might not expect them.
The audience at Urban Park perked up when it heard Spann rattle off the opening drum line of Bel Biv DeVoe’s classic “Poison.” What followed was an expansive progressive jazz interpretation of the Boston R&B group’s 1991 hit, which sizzled as an instrumental even if you didn’t get to hear smooth as silk lyrics such as “Never trust a big butt and a smile.”
An irreverent selection? In the staid and overpaid glassy offices of Kendall Square, a little irreverence is just what the doctor ordered. At least Spann wasn’t biting the heads off live bats.
Photo Gallery
Cameron Spann takes flight on the roof at Kendall Center.