Jazz journalism is alive and well, as JJA members are getting their news and views about the music out in every media platform — locally, nationally and internationally. We never sleep! See the most recent publications and other work reported by the extremely active members of the Jazz Journalists Association after the jump.
If you’re a JJA member and want your recent activities included in the next installment of Member Updates, send a brief paragraph beginning with your name to membernews@jazzjournalists.org by May 3, 2019.
Jim Anderson worked at Marin County’s Skywalker Sound mixing Jane Ira Bloom’s Wild Lines for 5.1 release and subsequently at Capitol Studios mixing it in immersive listening in Dolby Atmos.
Jane Ira Bloom performs at the Yale Jazz Festival with her quartet featuring Dominic Fallacaro (keyboards), Cameron Brown (bass), and Bobby Previte (drums) on Fri, April 12, 8 pm at Yale University’s Loria Center, 190 York St, Room 250, New Haven CT. The concert will highlight selections from Bloom’s Like Silver, Like Song recording project on Artistshare.
Noal Cohen participated in a “Celebration of Art Farmer” on March 16, 2019, at The Nash, in Phoenix, AZ, the city where Farmer was raised. The Dmitri Matheny Quintet provided music. Matheny was mentored by Farmer and plays one of the NEA Jazz Master’s flugelhorns. Cohen and Lynne Mueller, Farmer’s manager in his later years, spoke about Farmer’s early years in Phoenix and musical legacy.
Jose Dos Santos collaborated on creating an improvisation contest of the Cuban radio station CMBF, for the 50 years of the existence of the Jazz Corner program, for which Jose has been writer and producer for 25 years. The contest ended March 21 and on March 24 we produced a gala with the winners and guest jazz players in Teatro Aérica.
John Fenton has had a confronting month in New Zealand. His country has struggled to make sense of the massacre of fifty innocents by a visiting neo-Nazi. Then, reluctantly, he went out to his local Jazz club and the healing began. These evil attacks are sadly familiar to many JJA members, but like Norway, another peaceable egalitarian country, we learned that nowhere is far enough away to hide from evil. This is John’s post on the healing power of music.
Ken Franckling reviewed keyboard player Charlie Dennard’s newest CD, Deep Blue (Deneaux) for Offbeat magazine and wrote the liner notes for bassist/composer Brandon Robertson’s forthcoming CD, Bass’d on a True Story. JazzTimes published one of his classic Miles Davis portrait images in its April issue in conjunction with a fresh assessment of the trumpeter’s controversial “Electric Miles” phase that started 50 years ago.
Joe Maita published a new edition of Jerry Jazz Musician, including a piece called “What are some of your all-time favorite record album covers?” Many noted personalities, musicians, writers, jazz journalists, etc. participated. Joe also interviewed Romare Bearden biographer Mary Schmidt Campbell, Dexter Gordon biographer Maxine Gordon, and published a collection of 20 jazz poems by 18 poets.
Eugene Marlow, Ph.D., has been invited to contribute a 4,000-word article on jazz in China to the forthcoming Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. This article will draw from his 12th book, Jazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression (University Press of Mississippi 2018). Dr. Marlow will be talking about his 18-year journey researching and writing this book in Aspen, Colorado at the Pitkin County Library on May 30.
Carol Sudhalter returned to play at Hamilton College — after a hiatus of 50 years! The quartet concert comprised works of women composers including Petkere, Swift, Hipp, and more for Women’s History Month.
Joan Watson Jones’ “The Jazz Room,” on cyberstationusa.com Radio Network, in March featured interviews with vocalists Rene Marie, Catherine Russell, and Cathy Segal-Garcia. April features one more Vocalist, Shirley Crabbe, and a two-part interview with bassist Reggie Workman. The show airs Wednesdays at 10:30 PM. Older shows are archived here. Also check out upcoming shows here.
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.)
