JJA Member Updates: February 2013

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 March 1, 2013.

David R. Adler wrote the liner notes for Dave Douglas’s forthcoming Greenleaf release, Time Travel. He also wrote a short preview of Winter Jazzfest for The Village Voice, and reviews of CDs by Kenny Wheeler, Rez Abbasi and Michael Blake for Stereophile. His feature article on Steve Kuhn ran in the February 2013 issue of JazzTimes; his feature on Chris Potter will appear in an upcoming issue.

Nancy Barrell has reached a milestone after seven years of broadcasting with her 200th program. She is now ranked 25 out of over 400 jazz programs on Live365.com and she says, “It is a passion. Please give a listen.”

Jane Ira Bloom, soprano saxophonist/ composer, appeared with her trio featuring drummer Bobby Previte and bassist Dean Johnson at the Music of Now Marathon at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Peter Norton Symphony Space..

Shaun Brady talked to Chris Potter about his new ECM release for the spring issue of Jazziz, where he also talked with Ethiopian pianist Samuel Yirga and ’80s teen star-turned-vocalist Molly Ringwald. He also wrote features on Gary Clark Jr. in Downbeat and Benny Green in JazzTimes.

Kenneth K. Martinez Burgmaier produced his  annual  Hawai’i Jazz FESTs! 3rd Annual Lana’i Jazz Festival  with Delfeayo Marsalis and Eric Marienthal performing.

Stephanie J. Castillo takes her jazz film about “gone too soon” saxophonist/flutist Thomas Chapin to KICKSTARTER. After 10 months of preparation, she is working with jazz community supporters and jazz PR specialists to spread the word and  launch a 45-day campaign to raise $50,000. With the money, she will begin shooting Night Bird Song: The Thomas Chapin Story. “It’s time to tell his story,” is her slogan.

Bill Crow continues online the humor column “The Bandroom” that he originated in 1983 for Allegro, the monthly newspaper of Local 802, American Federation of Musicians.

Renetta DeBlase sent a thank you note to W. Royal Stokes for having provided a photo of Duke Ellington for her audiobook, With Stars in My Eyes.  Jazz vocalist Teri Roiger sent Renetta a copy of her CD, Dear Abbey, and she is interested in reading  Renetta’s jazz history book. Renetta also listened to Tisziji Munoz and John Medeski’s Beauty as Beauty and Franklin Kiermyer’s Home Is Where Your Heart Is.

Brett Delmage and his news site OttawaJazzScene.ca published jazz community rememberances of Jacques Emond following his sudden in January. Emond was the first program manager of the Ottawa Jazz festival (continuing for two decades), a jazz radio show host for three decades, and was recognized as a JJA Jazz Heroe in June 2012.

Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor of The New York City Jazz Record (TNYCJR),  reports that TNYCJR’s publishes its special “Women in Jazz” Issue in March, in conjunction with Women’s History Month. Feature subjects will range from Jenny Scheinman, Claudia Acuña, Min Xiao-Fen and Lakecia Benjamin to Valerie Capers, the late Patti Bown, Satoko Fujii’s Libra Records and there will be a special section of CD reviews.  Available in print and online by Feb 23.

Steve Griggs wrote a preview of the 38th Annual DeMiero Jazz Festival with Artistic Director Dee Daniels for Earshot Jazz.

J Hunter represented Nippertown at the Jazz Connect conference on January 10-11. In addition to seeing great speeches by Arturo O’Farrill and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, J also covered the Kendra Shank Quartet at  Hotel Kitano and Rez Abbasi’s Invocation at Cornelia Street Cafe. Back home in New York’s Capital Region, J covered shows by Duke Robillard  at the Van Dyck Restaurant & Lounge and Joe Lovano – Us Five at  the Egg.

Matthew Kassel wrote about the Brooklyn jazz scene for The Village Voice. He also wrote about Duke Pearson for BlueNote.com and reviewed Judeo, a new album by Hillel Tigay, California’s rock cantor, for The Forward.

Kiyoshi Koyama‘s interview scene with Charles Lloyd in a studio at NHK (Tokyo, Japan) will be seen in a film called Charles Lloyd: Arrows Into Infinity. Filmed by Dorothy Darr & Jeffery Morse, the full-length documentary has been accepted to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and will be screened in Los Angeles at the Pan African Film Festival this month.

Rozanne Levine will be performing at The Blue Door Gallery on Thursday, March 7th, from 6-8PM as part of their monthly PoJazz series, curated by Golda Solomon.  March is Women’s History Month and Rozanne will be joined by violinist/vocalist Rosi Hertlein, bassist Miriam Sullivan, and a number of noted poets including Ms. Solomon.  Rozanne is also featured on bassist William Parker’s recent 6 CD box set, Centering / Unreleased Early Recordings 1976-1987.

Bill Milkowski, having rekindled his working relationship with Down Beat after a 17-year absence from the pages of that magazine with his January 2013 cover story on John McLaughlin, is now working on his next feature for DB, a piece commemorating the 50th anniversary of Money Jungle, the 1963 historic collaboration between Duke Ellington, Max Roach and Charles Mingus.

Steve Monroe‘s January “Jazz Avenues” for the Mid-City DC edition of capitalcommunitynews.com included new year wishes for artists, venues and others, in the D.C. area. Monroe also reviewed and blogged on guitarist Mary Halvorson’s group at the Atlas and Jacqui Simmons singing at Sala Thai-Petworth, and noted saxman Todd Marcus’ new CD “Inheritance” being named as a top recording of 2012 by NPR.

Martin Mueller   moderated a January panel with Javon Jackson, John Clayton, Bob Mintzer, and Don Braden at the  Jazz Education Network Conference, participated at the NYC JazzConnect conference in a panel hosted by Willard Jenkins, and cohosted the  Winterjazzfest kickoff reception with JJA and NPR. Martin also attended a two-day College Music Society summit on “Artist Citizen” models in music higher education at  Southern Methodist University.

Al Perlman’s Web site, JazzCollector.com, is now averaging close to 1,000 page views every day. Al says, “We haven’t done anything specific to spike traffic but it is clear from watching eBay auctions that interest in collectible jazz vinyl is continuing to grow worldwide.”

John Pietaro, percussionist, doing final mixes for the debut disc by his band The Red Microphone and in performance with them (Feb 5, Shapeshifter Lab),(Feb 10, ABC No Rio); plus playing with The Dissident Arts Orchestra (Feb 16, 17 Frost) and Ras Moshe’s Music Now! (Feb 17, Brecht Forum)

Daniel Smith will be resuming his jazz/classical bassoon career, after a year of inactivity, in concert settings in the USA and overseas. The first of these will be a jazz concert with his quartet ‘Bassoon and Beyond’ at the Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia on Feb 19 as part of their lunchtime concert series. Backing Daniel will be bassist Michael O’Brien, drummer Vincent Ector and pianist Lafayette Harris.

Ron Sweetman will be presenting four two-hour Black History Month programs in February on his weekly radio program In A Mellow Tone on CKCU-FM in Ottawa, Canada.

Dragan Tasic photographed the Suisse Diagonales Jazz 2013 Festival in Switzerland for Jazz’n’More Magazine.

Michael J. West covered Winter Jazz Fest for Downbeat, wrote short features on Mike Longo and Enrico Rava for the January and March issues of JazzTimes, and euologized Donald Byrd for Washington City Paper.

Deanna Witkowski made her debut with the Westchester Jazz Orchestra on February 2. On February 20, she plays a concert of Mary Lou Williams’ sacred music at Park Avenue Christian Church with a 12-voice choir and Virginia Mayhew, Linda Oh and Willard Dyson. On March 4, her trio performs at the Bar Next Door at La Lanterna.

JJA Member Updates are compiled and edited by Mike West with assistance from Tanya Ellerbee.