Headliners
Launching New Online JJA ‘Office’
After months of internal labor, the JJA’s new online office http://members.jazzjournalists.org (no “www” here) has opened for business. Members must update their organizational profiles and information as soon as possible — go to this online office and follow login directions to establish your password and status for future participation in the JJA.
Articles
Raising the stakes of media “musts” for free, city-supported jazz performances, the Detroit International Jazz Festival has announced it will stream video of live and taped performances, news flashes, artist interviews and informed commentary throughout its Labor Day weekend activities, September 3 through 6.
Mark Gridley, author of Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, a leading textbook introducing the music to undergraduates for three decades, has called for color action photographs of almost two dozen post-1950 jazz stars for inclusion in an 11th edition forthcoming from Pearson/Prentice -Hall. Concurrently, Gridley has faced criticism from a veteran JJA photographer for the rights agreement governing compensation… [read more]
The joys of jazz-related summer travel in Italy have long been known. I detail some of the fun I had at the Siena Jazz Workshop and Tuscia in Jazz Festival in Soriano nel Cimino in this lengthy blog posting.
But here are some tips for jazz journalists considering such trips. Though based on my experience of only ten… [read more]
The passing of photographer Dennis Stock earlier this year (at age 81) inspired me to dig out my copy of a now 50-year-old volume, published by Doubleday in 1960. Looking through these black-and-white photographs is like seeing old friends again, though so many of those pictured — and now their chronicler, too — are gone.
In 1982, Ralph Pomeroy wrote… [read more]
Announcements
Time to take stock of the finest jazz releases of the year to this point! We’ll be gathering for an informal jukebox jury and panel discussion on Wednesday, September 15th, 6-8 p.m. at the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music performance space, 5th Floor, 55 West 13th Street in Manhattan.
Howard Mandel will moderate the event. He’ll be joined by… [read more]
From the Editor
After many years of producing Jazz Notes, the quarterly publication of the Jazz Journalists Assocation, we are now announcing the launch of JJA News.
This new online venture will take the place of Jazz Notes, yet it will include all the content you’ve come to expect from it — book reviews, stand-alone features and think pieces, a frequent President’s Report,… [read more]
President's Report
#Jazzlives is a Twitter campaign meant to demonstrate there is indeed a healthy, happy, young and tech-savvy audience for live jazz. I’ve posted at length about it on my blog in hopes of reinforcing the campaign’s popularity during these last weeks of August and early September, high season for jazz festivals where audiences can be encouraged to tweet,… [read more]
Member Updates
John Abbott and Bob Blumenthal will be discussing and signing copies of their new book Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins (Abrams) at the Tribeca Barnes & Noble, 97 Warren Street in Manhattan, on Tuesday, September 14 at 7 p.m. Sonny Rollins has graciously agreed to participate.
Larry Appelbaum reviewed jazz festivals in Vancouver and Molde, Norway for JazzTimes.… [read more]
Book Reviews
Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw
By Tom Nolan
W. W. Norton, New York, 2010; 430 pp.; $29.95 hardcover
I was wrong about Artie Shaw. I thought, since I heard that he stormed off the stage at the peak of his career over a fan’s umpteenth request for (fill in the blank) “Begin the Beguine,”… [read more]
