Looking for proof that jazz is alive and well? You’ll find the most recent publications and other work reported by the extremely active members of the Jazz Journalists Association after the jump. We never sleep! If you are a JJA member and would like your recent activities included in the next installment of Member Updates, send a brief paragraph beginning with your name to membernews@jazzjournalists.org by November 3, 2016.
Saul Addison started out September catching Holli Ross at Grasso’s in scenic Cold Springs Harbor later in the month attended the 14th Annual Long Beach Jazz festival with Bucky Pizzarelli & Charlie Hunter. Also in September attended the 8th Annual Islip Jazz Festival with the Interplay Jazz Orchestra and NY Most Dangerous Big Band. Saul caught Melanie Marod for two excellent sets at The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook.
Jane Ira Bloom performs her CMA /Doris Duke new jazz work “Wild Lines: Jane Ira Bloom Plays Emily Dickinson” at two venues in October – the KC Jazz Club at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC on Fri, Oct 14, and the Bruno Walter Auditorium, Lincoln Center on Thurs, Oct 20. Bloom will be joined by her quartet featuring Dawn Clement on piano, Bobby Previte on drums, Kent McLagan on bass, and actor Deborah Rush.
Andrea Canter is pleased to announce she will be sharing studio space in the historic Casket Arts Building in northeast Minneapolis and displaying her photography during open studio events. She covered the Detroit Jazz Festival for Jazz Police.com and completed program notes for the Brad Mehldau Solo and Mehldau/Redman concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Stephanie J. Castillo, EMMY-winning filmmaker and former journalist, screened her acclaimed film THOMAS CHAPIN, NIGHT BIRD SONG at the Monterey Jazz Festival on Sept 18. Bringing Chapin’s story allowed him to “play” at Monterey and come full circle after almost 20 years when he had to cancel a MJF booking due to his leukemia diagnosis. Next screening and concert is in the Yukon Territories, Canada. A 90-minute version for TV/cable/VOD will be ready to screen in November.
Ken Franckling profiled singer Jane Monheit for the October issue of HotHouse. On the 25th anniversary of Miles Davis’s death on September 28, he looked at the flood of posthumous reissues in an extensive Boxing Miles piece on his blog, Jazz Notes, where he also previewed the 2016-17 southwest Florida jazz concert season.
Steve Griggs profiled trumpeter Nathan Breedlove for Earshot Jazz. His memoir piece “Quiet Bonds, Silent Boundaries” was accepted in the upcoming print anthology by Creative Colloquy. He will continue performances of his site-specific stories and music at Seattle’s historic Panama Hotel through a six-month extension of a grant from the National Park Service. He will perform Listen to Seattle, his program of stories and music about broken treaty promises to the Duwamish Tribe, at Seattle’s Town Hall on October 10.
James Hale wrote an essay for DownBeat about the legacy of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and its lasting influence on younger musicians. For SoundStageXperience.com, he wrote about Norah Jones’s latest recording.
Marcia Hillman begins this month writing a blog for Cadence Magazine.
Gloria Krolak writes “Rhythm & Rhyme,” a jazz poetry column for Jersey Jazz. The September issue includes her exploration of “Frankie And Johnny,” the true crime ballad written in 1912 by the Leighton Brothers and Ren Shields. With research from English author Paul Slade’s book Unprepared to Die: America’s Greatest Murder Ballads & The True Crime That Inspired Them, the fascinating facts and fiction are revealed.
Robin Lloyd interviewed Albert “Tootie” Heath for knkx.org.
Howard Mandel reviewed the Chicago Jazz Festival for DownBeat.com, amplifying coverage on his blog, where he also wrote about the Hyde Park Jazz Festival – at which he presented the video he co-directed, “Chicago’s Record Man: A Conversation with Bob Koester.” Mandel also reviewed records by Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Etienne Mbappe, and the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra for DB.
Steve Monroe‘s September “Jazz Avenues” column for the East of the River print and capitalcommunitynews.com online editions included a look at The Brixton restaurant in D.C., a hot Sunday jam session spot with star host performers like Aaron Myers, Pete Muldoon, Kenny Rittenhouse, Leigh Pilzer, Integriti Reeves and others. Monroe also wrote on bassist Jeff Denson’s homecoming, CD celebration concert at the Atlas and a review of saxophonist Jordon Dixon’s CD “A Conversation Among Friends.”
Bert Vuijsje has co–produced and written the booklet for the CD Cannonball Adderley: One For Daddy-O, released by the Dutch Jazz Archive in their series Jazz at the Concertgebouw. It presents never before released live recordings from 1960 of his quintet with Nat Adderley, Victor Feldman, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. Added to this is the music he recorded in 1966 in Amsterdam, originally for TV, with the Dutch rhythm section of Pim and Ruud Jacobs on piano and bass, guitarist Wim Overgaauw and drummer Cees See.
Member Updates are edited by Michael J. West. Use our JJA Member Directories to find JJA members qualified to contribute to your publication or production or to assist you with your jazz-related project. The directories can be searched by name, area of expertise and geographic location.
If you aren’t a JJA Member yet, consider joining us. Membership is open to both Professional Journalists (writers, bloggers, photographers, videographers, web producers and others who cover jazz) and Industry Associates (musicians, educators, presenters, promoters and others who work in the industry and support our work.)
