Jazz journalism has been bustin’ out in June, following the re-start of live,
in-person performances. Our new members are Luis Cubells of Valencia, Spain, the radio/tv program host/producer of the podcast 99% Jazz, and Joanie Harmon of San Pedro, California, blogger at Making Life Swing and director of communications at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.
David R. Adler wrote liner notes for two trombonist-led albums, Ed Neumeister’s forthcoming What Have I Done? and Altin Sencalar’s Reconnected. He is also writing the notes for pianist Victor Gould’s forthcoming album In Our Time. David has also written a new series of personal essays which can be found at adlermusic.medium.com. His reviews of new jazz releases have been appearing monthly at the web publication Jazz Artistry Now (jazzartistrynow.com).
Mirian Arbalejo wrote the essay “I Do Write. So Let Me Write” for Jazz In Europe, reflecting on better standards in jazz journalism. She has been reviewing a number of albums during springtime. She’s started an educational jazz series in Twitter Spaces named #MadBop. Mirian is now a member of the Women In Jazz Media Team.
José Dos Santos once again served on the jazz and instrumental juries at The Cuban Recording Festival (Cubadisco 2021), with a lot of excellent jazz music, which finished with great success on Sunday, May 23.
Ken Franckling previewed saxophonist Greg Abate’s June 19 appearance at the Deer Head Inn for the June issue of Hot House. He examined the long, winding road back to festival normalcy in his Jazz Notes blog.He continues to track jazz-related COVID-19 deaths around the globe, now up to at least 96, for JJA and hisblog. Ken also photographed the University of Central Florida’s jazz faculty recording session in Orlando for the group’s forthcoming recording, Blues and Cubes: The Jazz Professors Play Picasso.
Doug Hall, while in Taiwan, sought out long-established jazz club the Blue Note Taipei and interviewed co-owners/co-managers. Doing the heavy lifting 7 nights a week, they are dedicated ambassadors for jazz. Also contributed a profile (long-form) piece on the late jazz maestro pianist Erroll Garner. Looking forward to upcoming live shows!
James A. Harrod’s research and writing is focused on keeping events, clubs, and jazz artists from the past alive for the audience of today. Last October he blogged about Arv Garrison, a talented jazz guitarist who blazed a career in the mid-1940s. He pitched the idea of a commemorative CD set to Jordi Pujol of Fresh Sound Records. The Unknown Arv Garrison – Wizard of the Six String, FSR-CD 1104, was released May 28th.
C. Andrew Hovan interviewed music curator John Shannon for a piece on the expansion of the Con Alma jazz club franchise in Pittsburgh. Expanding from their Shadyside location, a second Con Alma will be opening in June in downtown Pittsburgh. One of Hovan’s captures of Roy Hargrove will be featured in the booklet of Resonance Record’s upcoming release In Harmony, a previously unheard session from Hargrove and Mulgrew Miller.
Richard Kamins hosts a bi-monthly Thursday afternoon program (4 p.m.) on WESU-88.1 FM in Middletown CT. Earlier this year, he decided to record interviews and, as of this week, has spoken to blues guitarist Peter Parcek, saxophonist/ composer Ted Nash, Wesleyan Professor/ pianist, composer Neely Bruce, saxophonists Dan Blake & James Brandon Lewis, pianist/ composer Steven Feifke, trumpeter/ composer Wadada Leo Smith, and drummer/ composer Ches Smith. He also writes reviews for his blog.
Chuck Koton has for the last nine months been photographing the weekly Friday night jazz series at The World Stage in L.A.’s Leimert Park. The series is video streamed at 8 p.m. on Fridays and is archived at Youtube for future viewing. And now, fortunately, Los Angeles is slowly opening up and it looks like live jazz is coming back!
Dee Dee McNeil published several cover stories in May, including “Leslie Baker: A Bass for all Seasons” for www.LAJazzscene.buzz and a story featuring trumpeter Marcus Belgrave for quarterly Michigan History magazine The Chronicle. Her blog Musical Memoirs featured Detroit-based drummer George Davidson and several articles reviewing newly released jazz CDs.
Howard Mandel reviewed XXXX by Wollny-Lefebrve Parisien Lillinger for DownBeat, and wrote about Yusef Lateef upon his induction in the magazine’s Jazz Hall of Fame. He started an aggregation column, Beating the Drum, on JJANews.
Mike Shanley profiled the quintet Cowboys & Frenchman and saxophonist/composer Hafez Modirzadeh in the June issue of JazzTimes. His reviews of Harold Land’s Westward Bound appeared in the same issue. The magazine’s website posted his review of two new releases by trumpeter Lina Allemano. Shanleyonmusic blog recently highlighted albums by Steve Tintweiss, Matthew Steckler and James Brandon Lewis.
Lew Shaw has donated some photographs of Louis Armstrong taken at the Berkshire Music Barn where he was publicist for three summers in the 1960s to the Louis Armstrong House Museum archives.
Sammy Stein is currently working with new writers to help get them published and writing a piece to accompany a recording inaugurated into the Library of Congress. Sammy is from the UK, so this is a huge honour. She is also working on a new book revealing bullying, intimidation, and copying within the jazz industry. In addition, she is enjoying the success of her last book Pause, Play, Repeat: The real impact of Covid-19 on Musicians.
Scott Thompson has been busy with a Van Gelder Studio streamed performance by Joey DeFrancesco w/ Houston Person and friends. He is publicist for Strata-East at 50, streaming June 16th. He is doing publicity for a Ramsey Lewis streaming series and working the new single by Ann Hampton Callaway, “Revelation.” Thompson is working with Nanny Assis on two projects: Japanese Bossa Nova singer Karuna Shinsho and the Requinte Trio w/ Janis Siegel and John di Martino.
Jim Wilke produced over 200 live radio broadcasts from The Penthouse in the 1960s, and several airchecks from those shows have been issued in album format (LP & CD) in recent years. The most recent is Harold Land’s Westward Bound, featuring the tenor saxophonist on three different dates with three different pianists: Buddy Montgomery, Hampton Hawes, and John Houston. Wilke also contributed some of the notes for the booklet accompanying the album which was released by Reel to Real.
