Bill Beuttler’s oral history of Wally’s Jazz Cafe was published in the January/February issue of Boston magazine. Wally’s, the city’s first Black-owned nightclub, is now in its 75th year. Terri Lyne Carrington, Greg Osby, and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah are among the musicians quoted. The Boston Globe published Beuttler’s preview of Continuation of a Dream: Requiem, a NEC Black Students Union tribute to alumna Coretta Scott King and Black lives lost in 2020.
James Hale wrote about Theo Bleckmann/The Westerlies, Hafez Modirzadeh, and Miguel Zenón’s tribute to Ornette Coleman for his Art+Tech column on SoundStageXperience.com, and continued his work on the 40-year anniversary project for the Ottawa Jazz Festival.
David Haney premiered a new short film, Circadian World Clock, on YouTube on January 25 with the help of submissions which were recorded worldwide on Jan. 24. 2020. A soundtrack album was completed on January 29 for release later this year on Big Round Records/Parma Recordings. David was featured for three hours along with percussionist Dave Storrs on Dave Sewelsen’s Music for a Free World on Give the Drummer Radio, WFMU, on January 9.
Howard Mandel moderated Chico Freeman’s international band in Zurich on Zoom, hosted the JJA Book Nominations Authors Zoom, reviewed solo bassist Clovis Nicolas’ Auto-Portraits and reported on “Into The Mist,” an interactive online jazz/vaudeville show, for DownBeat; prepared photos of the late Lona Foote for exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, worked on the JJA’s Jazz Heroes!
Steve Monroe’s Jazz Avenues editions for Twitter and Facebook for January into February 2021 included live streaming news on performers Reginald Cyntje, Lew Tabackin, Melissa Aldana, Charles Rahmat Woods, Christie Dashiell, Nasar Abadey Lionel Lyles, Stephen Arnold, Lafayette Gilchrist, Luke Stewart, Ronnie Burrage, Tedd Baker, Paul Carr, and The Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival. Jazz Avenues also reviewed the new album El Arte del Bolero by Miguel Zenon and Luis Perdomo.
Dr. Tish Oney had an excerpt of her book Peggy Lee: A Century of Song published in JazzTimes (December 2020) as “A Caffeinated Centennial” (online: “An Examination of Black Coffee by Peggy Lee”); gave a research presentation at the Jazz Education Network Conference, “Peggy Lee at 100: A Singer’s Artistry Revealed in Black Coffee and Mink Jazz,” and published “Alice in Wonderland” for her Anatomy of a Standard column at AllAboutJazz.com.
Paul Rauch reviewed two new releases for All About Jazz in February: The Democracy Suite! from Wynton Marsalis with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet, and Uncivil War from blues singer Shemekia Copeland. He wrote the cover feature in the February issue of Earshot Jazz, speaking with musician and community activist Benjamin Hunter. Paul wrote the liner notes for the album Second Wave from Meridian Odyssey, an ensemble of young musicians featuring Ben Feldman, Xavier Lecouturier, and Santosh Sharma.
Rob Shepherd recently interviewed Joe Dyson for PostGenre regarding the drummer’s debut album as a leader. He also interviewed saxophonics expert Skerik and bass legend Marcus Miller. The Miller interview gives a glimpse into a larger Miles Davis themed project scheduled for later this year.
Sammy Stein has a new book, Pause, Play, Repeat, which documents the effect of the pandemic on musicians at the top of their game from all over the world. Eighteen musicians tell of their experiences before, during and after the pandemic – they discuss finances, helo, keeping creative and how the support of fellow musicians helped. Sammy’s previous book, Women in Jazz: The Women, The Legends and Their Fight, was used in the UK’s parliament as a reference work to help members understand the impact of the pandemic on the arts.
W. Royal Stokes was profiled by the Washington Post’s Chris Richards as the cover story of the paper’s Weekend section. His recently published The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader was reviewed in All About Jazz by C. Michael Bailey. Royal is currently at work on his tenth and eleventh books: a memoir and an additional volume to his trilogy of novels Backwards Over. For information about all of his books see Royal’s Amazon page.
Scott Thompson PR is currently working the following releases: Clifton Anderson, Been Down This Road Before; Richard Howell, Moon Over Tiburon; and Janis Mann & Kenny Werner, Dreams of Flying (January DownBeat Editor’s Pick). Vocalist Omar Kamal’s new single “In the Wee Small Hours” is a new project. Another client, the Uptown Jazz Tentet, remains on the JazzWeek charts. Thompson has been assisting an old friend with PR: Todd Barkan and Keystone Korner Baltimore.
Adam Weissler completed a new interview with Kamasi Washington about his Grammy nomination for the Michelle Obama Netflix doc Becoming, being creative during the pandemic, the real L.A. Underground Music, his friends in the West Coast Get Down collective, and what’s next for him. This interview will air and post soon on Extra TV—and also be part a new podcast, “Inside Music with Adam Weissler,” launching this month.
