Jason Berry has been attending one-off screenings of his film City of a Million Dreams, about New Orleans’ funeral culture and its context, which got a bang-up review from the Santa Fe Reporter prior to his appearance at the SF Center for Contemporary Arts. Berry also had the pleasure of presenting the Jazz Hero Awards to heritage activists Cherise Harrison-Nelson and her mother Herreast Harrison.
Anita Brown’s Jazz Orchestra performs Thursday, July 21 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Nyack Jazz Festival for the “Jazz in the Garden” summer concert series at The Hopper House, 82 North Broadway, Nyack, New York. Suggested donation $15. Bring a chair!
Ken Franckling profiled saxophonist Greg Abate in the June issue of JazzTimes and tenor saxophonist Harry Allen in June’s Hot House. He also wrote about/photographed Southwest Florida concerts by B-3 player Tony Monaco and singer Halie Loren in hisJazz Notes blog.
Chuck Koton’s June highlight was a concert at Disney Hall’s RedCat theater featuring the Pan African People’s Arkestra. The late, great Horace Tapscott’s “baby” is celebrating its 60th anniversary and the group again demonstrated why they are one of the powerful forces of musical and spiritual resistance to commercialism and technology still around today. This Leimert Park-based organization lives by the words of the founder: “I am Horace Tapscott and I am not for sale!”
Howard Mandel wrote about You Need This!, a London-based anthology vinyl label, for DownBeat, and (with Kent Richmond) the second episode of “Louis Armstrong in Chicago, 1922” for the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Jazzgram. He was interviewed for Music Journalism Insider (being posted July 18), judged video submissions for the International 7Virtual Jazz Club competition, edited two articles about jazz fests in Eastern Europe for JJANews, and has launched production of the JJA’s Carnival for Heroes and Winners, scheduled for afternoon of Sept. 11 2022 – a multi-media extravaganza that JJA members will attend for free. More info on this to follow!
Bill Milkowski wrote liner notes for Alex Acuña’s upcoming album, Gift, as well as notes for Franco Ambrosetti’s romantic strings album, And Then She Spoke…, and the Leon Lee Dorsey-Mike Clark-Mike LeDonne album, Blues On Top. He also did feature stories on guitarist-banjoist Brandon Seabrook (Jazziz), pianist-composer Marta Sanchez (Absolute Sound) and Jimmy Katz’s Giant Step Arts label (DownBeat) along with CD reviews of Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Erskine, the Burton/McPherson Trio, and Jane Ira Bloom/Mark Helias.
Steve Monroe’s Jazz Avenues D.C. editions for Twitter and Facebook for May/June included promos for artists including Imani-Grace Cooper, John Lamkin III, Antonio Parker, Nasar Abadey, Ebban Dorsey, Sharon Clark, George V. Johnson, Lionel Lyles, Lena Seikaly, Michael Formanek and Carl Grubbs, with reviews of new albums by Jacopo Ferrazza, Xose Miguelez, and Melissa Aldana.
Rob Shepherd interviewed Oliver Lake and Julius Rodriguez for PostGenre. As part of PostGenre’s ongoing series on the Newport Jazz Festival, Rob also interviewed acclaimed signmaker Nan Parati. Additionally, Rob interviewed Benoit Delbecq for The Jazz Gallery on prepared piano and the quartet, Illegal Crowns. Finally, Rob presented the JJA’s Jazz Hero Award to Harold McMillan for his work preserving East Austin’s Black cultural community.
Michael J. West profiled wrote liner notes for drummer Richard Baratta’s Music in Film: The Sequel (HighNote). He reviewed Herbie Hancock at the Kennedy Center and Dupont Brass at Strathmore for the Washington Post.
