Jazz matters: Appreciating Doug Ramsey, an admired colleague

by Harris Meyer  While he was far better known in jazz circles as a writer than a musician, Doug Ramsey loved playing trumpet and cornet with local musicians in his adopted hometown of Yakima, Washington. “I’ve never stopped playing, despite many requests,” he once said with his characteristic self-deprecating wit. On May 19, 2026, Doug died in Yakima at age 91, and the jazz journalism community is mourning his loss. “Doug’s writings about jazz are so artfully done that opening an LP or CD” and finding that the liner notes…

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Spreading the word on European jazz, and how it should go global

Work permits, visas, bureaucracy, money, and transport issues, labels, distribution, accessibility to foreign jazz magazines, streaming platforms, booking agencies, media pitches, getting coverage, reaching out to a vast audience — to youngsters — inclusion, collaboration, economic imbalance, gender balance, sustainability … That’s a long list of challenges, but confronted with “an impulse to change,” as publicist-blogger Matt Merewitz put it, among those in today’s European and U.S. jazz industry. There’s said tor be a desire among musicians and audiences to get to know each other better. Artists and publicists attending jazzahead!, the annual international…

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WHAT WE DO

Awards

The annual Jazz Journalists Awards, established in 1996 and conferred by vote of JJA professional members, celebrate accomplishments in music and music media

Events

Educational webinars, panel discussions, members’ meetups and professional symposia, held across the U.S. or online for international access.

Heroes

“Activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz” – members of jazz’s ‘A Team’– are recognized by the JJA and in their communities throughout the U.S.

Podcast

Insights and interviews from JJA members on new music, publications and films about jazz, and on the the state of jazz journalism and evolving mediums.

Jazz Journalists Association Sponsors

VIDEOS

JJA Resources

Photojournalism

SEEING JAZZ is a monthly live master class series led by past JJA Photographer of the Year award winners and other professional photo journalists

Videojournalism

eyeJAZZ is a series of webinars used created out of a JJA's Video Training Program for short, news, jazz videos made with simple tools and distributed online

Webinars

TALKING JAZZ webinars feature jazz world leaders and experts discussing the issues that are shaping the way we perform, program, promote –and fund– jazz now and in the future.

Promotion

Resources for producing and promoting events for International Jazz Appreciation Month (aka: April) and beyond.

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