Blessings come doubly this week, from Lowell and Leverett. The good news from Lowell is that the Art Hodes band, which S/Sgt. George Avakian raved about in this column two weeks ago, will be down from the Lawrence Hofbran for an afternoon jam session in the Lowell House dining hall, Saturday, August 14, from 2 to 5 o'clock. The band's young drummer, William Hines, has been replaced by the great veteran, Kaiser Marshall, who once played with Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, and who was in Wild Bill Davison's great mixed band at the Ken last spring. The other members of the group are Mezz Mazzrow (clarinet); George Lugg (trombone); Jack Butler (trumpet), who once played with the Hot Club of France; Jack Bland (guiter), who was a member of the original Mound City Blue Blowers; and, of course, Art Hodes, at the piano. College musicians are urged to sit in with the band and make the affair a real jam session. But whether or not you play, you shouldn't miss this. There hasn't been any such jazz in these parts for months.

The good news from Leverett is S/Sgt. George Avakian, famous jazz critic, writer, collector, arranger of recording dates, and contributor to this column, has made arrangements to do a series of "Jazzmen" programs every Thursday night at 9 o'clock over the Crimson Network. For the next three weeks, starting this Thursday, S/Sgt. Avakian will discuss the Chicago Jazz Album which he did for Decca three years ago, taking it session by session, and showing the development of the musicians, styles, and numbers involved. Recorded music is entirely different from live music, and with a man like George Avakian running things, the "Jazzmen" series should prove just as exciting, in its own way, as the Lowell-Hodes jam session. Things are looking up in Cambridge.