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 September 3, 2017.
Saul Addison: attended and photographed the Coltrane Day 2017 music event in Huntington NY. There were workshops for kids thru adults. A community jams session, an artist village for local artist showing their art work. In the afternoon there was a live performance by Matt Garrison, Brandee Younger and Kenny Garrett closed out the evening with a moving set that got the crowd moving. The event was to raise funds to restore the Coltrane home.
Jane Ira Bloom performed her piece commissioned by the Chamber Music America/Doris Duke new jazz work program, Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson at Buckley Recital Hall, Amherst College, Amherst, MA on August 11 . The piece is scored for her quartet featuring Dawn Clement (piano), Dean Johnson (bass), and Bobby Previte (drums) and actor Deborah Rush who narrates excerpts from Dickinson’s poetry and prose. The performance was part of the Emily Dickinson International Society 2017 Annual Meeting.
Christopher Burnett launched his new online arts magazine: Jazz Artistry Now online at www.JazzArtistryNow.com with a review of the Brooklyn, NY based Common Quartet’s debt, “The Hive” and a feature article/interview about the US Air Force Band’s (Washington DC) Airmen of Note. Upcoming reviews include Brian Landrus Orchestra, Bobby Watson, Dan Arcamone, Fred Hersch, and David Binney. Commentary and article topics will explore jazz economic infrastructure issues and other relevant aspects of jazz artistry now.
Andrea Canter covered the Healdsburg and Iowa City Jazz Festivals for Jazz Police.com and served as Staff Photographer for the Twin Cities Jazz Festival. She recently “retired” after two years of weekly broadcasts of “The Lead Sheet” on KBEM “Jazz 88” radio in Minneapolis, but will continue the online edition in her role as Senior Editor for Jazz Police.com.
Stephanie J. Castillo, filmmaker of acclaimed biopic Night Bird Song: The Incandescent Life of Thomas Chapin has signed with a U.S./Canada distributor. Random Media will distribute the film to streaming platforms, cable TV, DVD outlets and other avenues in the US. and Canada. Preparations are being made at this time to deliver the needed files and components to the distributor. Castillo is now seeking international distributors and has launched her search for sales agents able to help.
Steve Griggs read excerpts from his anthologized essay about John Coltrane in Seattle at the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference on the 50th anniversary of Coltrane’s death. The Seattle Public Library exhibit Rhythm in Colors included several books and recordings from Griggs’ collection of Seattle jazz history. Griggs was selected to be jazz contributor for City Arts magazine. Griggs hosted Chicago drummer Joel Spencer and pianist Joan Hickey at the Royal Room on August 9 to perform repertoire from the classic Blue Note recording Blowing in from Chicago. Griggs also presented his free programs of stories and music inspired by Seattle social justice history at Dr. Blanche Lavizzo Park through Arts in the Parks.
Patrick Hinely is commencing his final year as University Photographer at his alma mater, Washington and Lee University, working only part-time, which frees him up to do two full hours of his weekly radio program Open Ear on WLUR-FM, Mondays from 4 to 6 p.m. east coast time, streamed via wlur.wlu.edu (warning: jazz is not the only music one will hear on Open Ear).
C. Andrew Hovan has recently been busy on the jazz festival scene, having covered both Pittsburgh Jazz Live Festival and Tri-C Jazz Fest Cleveland. His photographs and reviews of both festivals can both be found at www.allaboutjazz.com. Furthermore, his photos from the Pittsburgh festival will be seen in Down Beat’s coverage of the event as well. Hovan also recently interviewed jazz organist Ronnie Foster for a profile posted at AAJ.
Sheila Jordan performs September 2 at the Chicago Jazz Festival with the Brad Williams Trio and September 3 with the Steve Kuhn Trio; September 14 – September 24 on a tour of Austria and Germany; and September 30 at Deer Head Inn, Pennsylvania with Rosanna Vitro.
Robin Lloydreviewed the Sarah Vaughan biography and interviewed author Eliane M. Hayes, and hosted a Jazz Caliente Dance Party for the Seattle Art Museum and Earshot Jazz featuring Carlos Cascante y su Tumbao at Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park. Robin continues to host Mid Day Jazz and Jazz Caliente on KNKX-FM.
Howard Mandel posted blogs of “Great new jazz photography” at ArtsJournal.com/JazzBeyondJazz, featuring work by JJA members Marc PoKempner, Sánta István Csaba and Jazz Hero Lauren Deutsch, as well as Dee Kalea; wrote liner notes for the first CD issue of Ornette Coleman’s Ornette at 12 and Crisis, and a press release for Ancestral Memories by Yosvany Terry and Baptiste Troginon’s quartet.
Michelle Mercer presented on jazz festivals in Seoul, and will moderate a panel discussion at the Detroit Jazz Festival. This month she became a Downbeat Hot Box reviewer, one of two women to break into the section. She continues to review for NPR’s All Things Considered, and also wrote a widely shared piece on jazz and sexism for NPR. Her article on interdisciplinary art and music projects appears in Chamber Music’s summer issue.
Lew Shaw has been writing about jazz museums in the three most recent issues of The Syncopated Times: the 40th anniversary and grand re-opening of the Ted Lewis Museum in Circleville, Ohio; groundbreaking for the Educational & Visitor Center for the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, New York; and the long-awaited opening of the Bix Beiderbecke Museum & Archive in Davenport, Iowa.
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 bothProfessional 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.)
