Here are the most recent publications and other work reported by the extremely active members of the Jazz Journalists Association. We never sleep!
Angelika Beener spotlights both veteran and rising start pianists on her Alternate Takes jazz blog. Geri Allen discusses her new album, A Child Is Born, the first Christmas album from the jazz master. A feature is in the works on 2011 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition winner Kris Bowers, who just debuted as a leader with a performance at New York City’s Jazz Gallery. As a contributing writer for Nextbop, Angelika is busy working on year-end lists for both blogs.
Ken Franckling is preparing his traditional Year In Jazz rundown of trends and significant happenings for year-end posting on allaboutjazz.com. The cover and spine of Warner Music France’s five-CD boxed set Miles Davis The Warner Years: 1986-1991, released in October in Europe, features one of his Miles Davis photos.
Steve Griggs wrote features on the Duke Ellington Sacred Music Concerts and the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra for Earshot Jazz. He is also leading the fundraising activities for composer Jim Knapp, who mentored ECM’s Manfred Eicher while stationed in Germany.
Marcia Hillman has written the cover story on “Bending Towards The Light: The Jazz Nativity” for the December issue of The New York City Jazz Record. The story. Includes comments from Jon Hendricks, Jon Faddis, Warren Vache, Lew Soloff. and Candido who have appeared in the show over ther years.
Patrick Hinely recently traveled to Germany, visited with Emil Mangelsdorff, a subject of continuing research, and crossed paths twice with Steve Swallow’s new quintet during their debut tour, at Birdland in Neuburg-am-Donau and again in Berlin, on the closing night of JazzFest Berlin 2011, which he photographed from start to finish, staying in town an extra day to catch the Impossible Gentlemen at the A-Trane.
Thomas Jacobsen has begun working seriously on a book devoted to discussing in some detail New Orleans jazz (both traditional and “modern”) from 1970 to the present. The Louisiana State University Press, which did his recent Traditional New Orleans Jazz (2011), has offered to publish the new book as well. Jacobsen, however, has yet to make a final decision about a publisher…and is happy to entertain other offers.
Barbara Januszkiewicz is collaborating on a jazz multilevel project called The Composerwith NY’s Matthew Shipp. This incredible opportunity brings together their passion for music and art. see http://www.kickstarter.com/
Janice Jarrett is happy to announce the release of her CD: Blue Nights & Sunshower, featuring the music of Kenny Barron & George Cables on 7 of 9 tracks. Her lyrics have been sung for years by the likes of Jay Clayton, Diane Schuur, Jeri Brown, Wendy Fopeano, Jane Irving, Sunny Wilkinson and Leila Thigpen, and recently on Barron’s CD, “The Traveler”, by Gretchen Parlato, Anne Hampton Calloway and Grady Tate. This time she sings them in her own arrangements; instrumentalists include award-winning guitarist Alieksey Vianna, NY pianist Mike Eckroth and guest artists Dmitri Matheny, flugelhorn and Michael Fan, violin. Please visit janicejarrett.com for more info and,or review copies.
Matthew Kassel wrote CD reviews for The New York City Jazz Record and Exclaim!, a Canadian music magazine. He wrote a feature article for the Princeton Echo about a 20-year-old open mic series and interviewed the comedian and sometime bluegrass banjoist Steve Martin for that publication. He has also been writing on his blog, Cold Jazz (coldjazz.blogspot.com), from time to time.
Rozanne Levine performs with her ensemble Chakra Tuning on Monday, December 12th as part of the Vision Festival’s Evolving Music Mondays ongoing series at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan. Her band mates are Mark Whitecage, Perry Robinson and Rosi Hertlein. Their set begins at 7:30PM.
Eugene Marlow’s article on the September Tanglewood Jazz Festival (“Its Whole, Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts”) appears in the November 2011 issue of JAZZed Magazine. On December 5, 2011, Dr. Marlow–in his capacity as senior curator of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Concert Series at Baruch College (City University of New York)–hosts a sold out gala concert in honor of the series’ 20th year. Marlow leads his own Heritage Ensemble for a “Judeo-Latin-Jazz Holiday Adventure” on December 5 (4 p.m.) at Congregation Mount Sinai in Brooklyn Heights (Brooklyn, New York), and again on December 15 (7 p.m.) at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.
Bill Milkowski saw two of his book projects released simultaneously in November, 2011 — “Legends of Jazz” (published by Italy’s Edzioni White Star) and “Here And Now: The Autobiography of Pat Martino” (Backbeat Books), which he wrote with Martino. He is currently working on a biography of Keith Richards for Edzioni White Star and is consulting on a documentary film now in production on the late bassist-composer Jaco Pastorius. He recently reached two writing milestones — his 500th set of liner notes and his 250th concert summary for the online site Wolfgang’s Vault. He also recently interviewed Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck and Junior Mance for Jazz Times.
Ralph A. Miriello has recently done live reviews of Denny Zeitlin’s Trio at the Kitano; James Darcy Argue’s Brooklyn Babylon at SUNY Purchase, Martha Reeves at Jimmy Mak’s in Portland Oregon, and The Westchester Jazz Orchestra at Irvington Town Hall as well as reviews of Tim Hagans and Sammy Figueroas latest albums for his blog and the Huffington Post.
Roberta Piket has been performing music from her 2011 release, Sides, Colors. A free download is available by emailing roberta@robertajazz.com. She was recently featured on WKCR’s Musician’s Show. Roberta records her first solo piano CD at the end of December.
Jim Rice‘s exhibit “Caught IN The Act” will be hanging at The Falcon for the rest of the year. Profit from sales of the exhibit will be donated to Flood Aid, to help the people of the Hudson Valley who were hit the hardest by Hurricane Irene. Artists he photographed this month at The Falcon were AngelBand, Jay Collins & The King County Band, Howard Fishman, Becca Stevens & Mike Miz, Jonah Smith, Ignacio Berroa, Alexis P. Suter, and Richie Kaye, and Eddie Bert.
Frederic S. Sater photographed the French Quarter Festival, Ellen Rowe/Andrew Bishop concert, Heather Pierson/Davy Bishop concert, Al Hawkes show, Heather Massey Band concert, Duke Ellington Society/Jann Parker, Billy Bang Memorial, Frank Foster memorial, Opening Night Jazz at Lincoln Center, Sidney Bechet Society/Evan Christopher, All Nite Soul/Randy Weston honoree, Jazzmobile Awards Celebration honorees Taylor, Wein, JPMC Foundation, Duke Ellington Society/Joe Wilder, Sidney Bechet Society/Olivier Franc, Jazz Foundation of America/Jimmy Norman and others.
Lew Shaw has been writing a series of personality profiles for The American Rag. Among those he has profiled in the past year are Joe Ascione, Michael Kaeshammer, Meschiya Lake and Dem Lil’ Big Horns, Sonny Leyland, Ed Metz Jr, New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Ed Polcer, Randy Reinhart and Bria Skonberg.
Daniel Smith completed the third of three recent East Coast concerts featuring his ensemble ‘Bassoon and Beyond’ at the Brooklyn Conservatory Concert Hall on Nov. 18th. Along with Daniel Kelly (pno), Guku Takanashi (bs), Vincent Ector (drums), and Ron Jackson (gtr), Sol Yaged was again featured as special guest on clarinet. In December, Universal Music plans to re-release his earlier classical and crossover albums worldwide via digital on the Internet. Larry Hollis of Cadence Magazine gave his ‘Bassoon Goes Latin Jazz! album an outstanding review along with it being chosen for inclusion in Ed Love’s prestigious ‘Highly Recommended New CDs for 2011.” Check his website for more information.
Adina Williams is the new Senior Manager of Public Programs at the American Museum of Natural History. She is working with a fantastic team of curators, artists, musicians, scientists, space explorers, educators, fellow cultural institutions, community organizations and more! A big part of Adina’s new job is to create and develop major cultural programs and festivals for the many visitors (5 million annually!) who come to explore the treasures of the Museum. She hopes there will be opportunities for future collaborations! A special jazz-infused program will be presented at the Museum’s annual February African-American History celebration. More details soon!
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 January 1, 2012.
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