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 August 3, 2015.
David Basse, besides several nights with the band at festivals and Dazzle in Denver, has found the time to launch his latest radio endeavor, Jazz with David Basse. The program offers 15 hours of new programming each week and can be found on PRX. David makes a brief stop The Cutting Room on Manhattan’s East side on July 10, with Joe Alterman, James Cammack, Matt Kane, and Anthony Smith.
Grace-Mary Burega is a new student member of the JJA and writes a jazz education website for teenagers, Kind of Pink and Purple, and a jazz poetry blog, Without a Poem. Burega recently went to the Montreal jazz festival as a journalist and wrote about her time there.
Andrea Canter served as staff photographer for the 2015 Twin Cities Jazz Festival, shooting a diverse line-up of artists including Dr. John, Dave Holland and Chris Potter, Francisco Mela and Nicholas Payton. She will cover the Iowa City Jazz Festival for Jazz Police.com (July 2-4).
Ken Franckling previewed the 2015 edition of the Newport Jazz Festival in his blog before heading north for his 34th time covering Newport for various publications in 35 years. He also scheduled several Jazz in the Key of Light book-signings in Rhode Island, including one July 30 at Barrington Books on the evening before the festival.
James Hale was interviewed on the CTV news and by Tourism Vancouver’s ‘Inside Vancouver’ blog in relation to his coverage of the 30th Vancouver International Jazz Festival for DownBeat. He also profiled the jazz program at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln for DownBeat.
Marcia Hillman was interviewed on her writing career by Cashbox Magazine and appears on the magazine’s online site. The interviewer has become the interviewee!
Reuben Jackson led a listening/discussion session during Burlington Vermont’s Discover Jazz Festival. The music consisted of compositions Wayne Shorter wrote during his tenure with Weather Report. He introduced the films Charlie Haden: Ramblin’ Boy, Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story, True Delta, and From The Crossroads To The White House. Finally, he was interviewed by Dan Bolles from Seven Days (newspaper) before the festival.
Kathryn King continues work on her documentary film Charting Jazz: The Mastery of Bill Holman. She has a collection of interviews about Bill Holman and considerable footage of him. She invites any interested parties with photos, film footage, personal anecdotes or perspectives on Bill Holman which might be of interest to the general public to contact her through JJA.
Kiyoshi Koyama was visited at his place near Tokyo last month by the John Coltrane documentary film crew (Director: John Scheinfeld) to film an interview with him. John Coltrane’s comments at his press conference (“I want to be a saint!”) in Tokyo (July 9th, 1966) were the main topic of the interview.
Robin Lloyd celebrated the close of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra’s most successful 20th season, and interviewed drummer/composer Antonio Sanchez prior to his appearance at Seattle’s Jazz Alley.
Howard Mandel reported on Ornette Coleman’s life and music for NPR’s All Things Considered, the BBC’s Newshour and Voice of America, and spoke at Coleman’s funeral. He wrote about the opera Charlies Parker’s Yardbird and the AACM at age 50 for DownBeat and produced the 2015 JJA Jazz Awards party at the Blue Note in NYC.
William Minor has just published Gypsy Wisdom: New & Selected Poems (available at amazon.com) and vocalist Jaqui Hope, bassist Heath Proskin, and Bill (piano and reading) will present a Book Launch at the Museum of Monterey on July 25th. The event will include Jaqui singing poems Bill has set to original music … The last post on Bill’s blog, “Good Deeds,” was on an amazing gift given local Monterey (CA) drummer/vocalist Dottie Dodgion.
Steve Monroe’s June Jazz Avenues for the East of the River print and capitalcommunitynews.com editions included previews of the DC Jazz Festival/East River JazzFest shows, congrats to JJA 2015 Award Winner Warren Wolf of Baltimore, and a review of Todd Marcus’ Blues for Tahrir. He also blogged reviews of CDs by Pete Rodriguez, Ryan Truesdell and Gillian Margot, DC Jazz Festival highlights, Nomadic Jazz and the Jazz And Cultural Society’s show with guitarist Tom Newman.
Jim Wilke recorded and produced radio broadcasts of Eric Alexander and Peter Bernstein from The Ballard Jazz Festival, and Montreal pianist Marianne Trudel’s Trifolia from Seattle Art Museum. Both aired on KPLU’s Jazz Northwest and are archived at jazznw.org. Also recorded for upcoming shows were concerts by the Anton Schwartz Quintet with Russell Ferrante and Thomas Marriott, and The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra playing music of Charles Mingus.
Deanna Witkowski performed June 25 at the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop showcase concert, and is happy to report that BMI has promised to continue the workshop’s focus on large jazz ensemble writing for at least the next two years. In mid-July, she’ll travel to New Orleans to participate in the international Hymn Society conference. She performs solo in NYC at Bryant Park’s Piano in the Park series on July 24 and again from August 3-7.
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.)
