Here are the most recent publications and other work reported by the extremely active members of the Jazz Journalists Association. We never sleep!
Lena Adasheva‘s jazz photographs were on display during the major Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo 2011 in Moscow, Russia on April 14-17. Lena’s black and white jazz photographs are in permanent exhibition in Yaroslavl Jazz Center, Russia. Lena was interviewed by Bret JazzvideoGuy Primack for his Jazz Portraits video series. On April 11 Lena attended the NARAS meeting about the elimination of categories affecting jazz music and produced video on it that’s gotten more than 900 views so far.
Larry Appelbaum curated an April jazz film series at the Library of Congress; interviewed Martial Solal, Roger Kellaway, and Eddie Daniels for LC’s pre-concert webcasts; interviewed Kenny Werner and Gretchen Parlato for upcoming “Before & Afters” to appear in JazzTimes; interviewed Kevin Eubanks and Honey Ear Trio for radio broadcast; and participated in a panel discussion on the new Smithsonian Jazz Anthology at Politics & Prose bookstore in Washington, DC. His video oral history with Sonny Rollins has begun to appear on Rollins’ website, and his Before & After with Jimmy Heath is in the current issue of JazzTimes.
Toni Ballard’s jazz performance TV program Studio 3 is featured on the Interactive Jazz History Multimedia Museum. Ninety plus shows that she produced and hosted for WGMC-TV3 in Worcester from 1993 to 2000, featuring such artists as Herb Pomeroy, James Williams, Larry Coryell, and Karrin Allyson, have been digitized and archived for the multimedia database of recordings, videos, and photographs.
Steve Belkin‘s company UE3 Promotions had activity with its client Lena Prima (daughter of Louis Prima) performing at the French Quarter Fest in New Orleans with several radio and television interviews and Guitarist Grant Geissman performing new material in Los Angeles while on hold for the fate of the hit TV show Two and a Half Men.
Jane Ira Bloom was recently awarded tenure at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, where she has been full-time faculty since 1998. Courses that she has designed and taught include “Standards: The Art of the Ballad”, “Linear Composition for Improvisers,” and “The Music of Ornette Coleman.”
Andrea Canter has 16 photos (including the book jacket) published in the new book by Jay Goetting, Joined at the Hip (A History of Twin Cities Jazz), published by the Minnesota Historical Society. She has also begun reviewing CDs for JazzTimes, starting with the May 2011 issue.
Don Heckman wrote the Charlie Haden cover story for the May edition of JazzTimes. He also has a brief feature on the late singer Carla Zilbersmith in the Spring edition of JazzIz. His blog site, the International Review of Music, includes his weekly live performance Picks of Week for Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Washington D.C., London, Paris and beyond. The site also includes reviews by Don and his staff of writers, covering performances and CDs by Katia Moraes and Samba Guru, Steve Huffsteter’s big band, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Jimi Hendrix, Victor Wooten, a Stan Kenton DVD, Bryan Adams, Arlo Guthrie, Toots Thielemans, Bill Frisell, Dale Fielder and others.
Ziga Koritnik is opening his biggest photographic exhibition to date on 6 May in his hometown of Ljubjana, Slovenia. Open until 31 July, it will include 142 large photographs from the very beginning of his work in music photojournalism until today. The show is realized in cooperation with the American embassy in Ljubljana and Tourism Ljubljana.
Brian Madden presented his videotape Jazz Journals, showing 50 years worth of coverage as a reporter/anchor for CNN, Fox, and other television and radio outlets. He presented April 12, at Columbia-Greene Junior College in Hudson, New York, for the Jazz History class of Malcolm Cecil. Madden (tenor sax) and Malcolm played several duets before and after the presentation, pointing out some of the ways genres differ in the world’s most magical, magnificent, and marvelous music. As one student offered: “It was great!
Roberta Piket completed and released what may be the first ever jazz “music video,” to the composition Idy’s Dance, featured on her new release, Sides, Colors. The humorous video, which features the dancing antics of drummer and composer BIlly Mintz as well as some surprise lip-synching by Roberta, can be viewed on YouTube.
Florence Wetzel has published a jazz mystery novel called Dashiki (iUniverse), the story of a jazz journalist who finds Naima Coltrane’s long-lost tapes from the Monk-Coltrane 1957 Five Spot gig. The novel interweaves historical jazz figures with fictional characters, and takes place at locations such as the Blue Note and the Institute of Jazz Studies. The book was reviewed at AllAboutJazz.com, and has been featured in the Hudson Reporter and the Daily Freeman, as well as KUVO (89.3), Denver’s jazz radio station.
Jim Wilke was emcee for Seattle concerts by Kurt Elling, The Ballard Jazz Festival (Ray Vega, Thomas Marriott and Mitchel Forman Quartet), and Joe Lovano’s Us Five. Jim also recorded five concerts including three for radio broadcast on Jazz Northwest, KPLU. Jim’s notes for Chuck Deardorf’s Transparence (Origin Records) were published with the CD, and an interview with pianist Lynne Arriale aired on Jazz After Hours. A full concert by the Lynne Arriale Trio at Jazz Alley will air in May.
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 are a JJA Member and want your update to be included in next month’s roundup, send it to membernews@jazzjournalists.org by June 1, 2011.
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.)
