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 is pleased to be a new member of The Jazz Journalists Association. This month, Angelika interviews producer, DJ, and one third of the iconic hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, for her Alternate Takes jazz blog. Muhammad discusses the 20 year anniversary of the band’s seminal album, The Low End Theory. She has also just wrapped up writing liner notes for pianist Robert Glasper’s upcoming Blue Note album, Black Radio, which is scheduled to be released early next year.
Jane Ira Bloom performs an All Ballads program at the Jazz Presents Series at the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in NYC on Thursday, Nov 17th at 8 pm. She’ll be joined by bassist Dean Johnson, NSJ graduates pianist Dominic Fallacaro and drummer Adam Sorensen.
Nate Chinen profiled Roy Haynes for the November issue of JazzTimes. His essay “Direction Nowhere,” about Miles Davis and Neil Young at the Fillmore East, was selected by New Yorker critic Alex Ross for the anthology Best Music Writing 2011 (Da Capo Press). A free reading will take place at Dec. 8 at Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby Street in SoHo.
Enid Farber had four of her classic jazz and world music images selected for a juried photography competition exhibited at The Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn’s Dumbo District from October 19th-November 3rd. Her iconic photos of Ray Charles, Fela Kuti, Wynton and Branford Marsalis and John Blake (“It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t on That Swing”) were amongst only 80 total images of various musicians of all genres, chosen from thousands submitted worldwide. Farber will be giving a presentation on her music photography at Baruch College on November 28th for Dr. Eugene Marlow’s jazz studies class.
Gary Giddins will speak with Geoffrey C. Ward, a writer who has uniquely made his mark in both the world of books (A First-Class Temperament) and documentary films (Ken Burns’ The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, etc) at The Skylight Room on November 7. He will discuss the problems and pleasures of writing about contemporary figures with the authors of two new biographies – Charles J. Shields (And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life) and Patricia Bosworth (Jane Fond: The Private Life of a Public Woman) at The Skylight Room on December 7.
Steve Griggs wrote a feature profile of Robin Holcomb and previews of her concerts with SWOJO and Talking Pictures for Earshot Jazz in Seattle. He performed duets on alto saxophone with drummer Adam Nussbaum for a masterclass at the Drummer’s Collective in New York City.
David Hajdu‘s profile of pianist Fred Hersch for The New York Times Magazine is included in the Best Music Writing 2011 anthology, edited by New Yorker critic Alex Ross and published this month by DaCapo Press.
James Hale is writing about the Quebec City Jazz Festival for Signal To Noise, and writing biographical notes for singer Molly Johnson.
Rui Horta Santos will be submitting a list of 40 records to the Jazz.pt magazine column that publishes guests’ favorites.
Sanford Josephson will be reading from his book, Jazz Notes: Interviews Across the Generations (Praeger/ABC-Clio) and playing recordings of some of the artists featured in the book at the November 13 Jazz Vespers meeting of the Universalist Unitarian Church in Montclair, NJ. On November 17, he will be reading from the book again at a Local Authors’ Panel at the West Orange, NJ, Public Library. On November 20, he will be curating the first of a series of three jazz concerts at the Luna Stage in West Orange. The November 20th concert will be “Jazz and the American Songbook” featuring vocalist Sarah Partridge and pianist Allen Farnham.
Matthew Kassel reviewed Amanda Monaco’s CD, Pirkei Avot Project, Vol. 1, for the Jewish Daily Forward. He also wrote CD reviews of Gilad Hekselman’s Hearts Wide Open (Le Chant du Monde) for The New York City Jazz Record and Dead Cat Bounce’s Chance Episodes (Cuneiform) for the Canadian music magazine Exclaim! He previewed performances of the SFJazz Collective and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones for the Princeton Echo. In addition, he is posting stray thoughts and links on his blog, coldjazz.blogspot.com.
Willard Jenkins is doing some research on jazz radio and would appreciate hearing from JJA members who are also jazz radio deejays or programmers, or recollections of the jazz radio deejay who is most meaningful to your appreciation for the music, or the jazz deejay who may have shaped your perceptions of the music during your formative years. Please e-mail your current jazz radio programming information, and your recollections to willard@openskyjazz.com. Check out Willard’s blog, The Independent Ear, for more answers on what qualities musicians look for in the writer and the writing when they read music criticism and journalism.
Wolfram Knauer wrote the jazz chapter for the two volume Dokumente zur Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts (Laaber 2011: Laaber), a book of source texts and annotations about 20th century music history. Knauer also wrote the preface to SoPhotoCated Lady (Bad Oeynhausen 2011: Jazzprezzo), a book of photographs by Susanne Schapowalow taken from the late 1940s into the early 1960s. At the book release in Berlin’s Hotel Ellington on November 2nd Knauer will involve the 89-year-old Schapowalow in a conversation about her experiences, among them working with Duke Ellington and traveling with Quincy Jones.
Howard Mandel produced an NPR segment about Anthony Braxton, which aired October 15 (and is archived), also writing a column for CityArts-New York about Braxton and the new Roulette performing arts space in Brooklyn, and creating two videos of Braxton from his ensemble class at Wesleyan University. He had guitarist-singer Junior Mack as a special guest in his NYU class “Arts: The Blues”. His long feature on hearing Jimi Hendrix three times, live, was translated into Ukrainian (by JJA member Viachek Krystofovich) for the publication Counterpoint. And he filed a final report on the JJA’s eyeJAZZ video training program with Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, source of the JJA’s grant (with generous support of Doris Duke Charitable Foundation) for the project.
Eugene Marlow’s review of the early September Tanglewood Jazz Festival appears in the November 2011 issue of JAZZed Magazine. His article (with multi-Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria) on the cross-cultural collaboration of Hebraic melodies, jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian rhythms that are part of his Heritage Ensemble’s repertoire appears in the November issue (online) of Latin Beat Magazine. On November 11, Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble will give a one-hour concert entitled “An Intimate Evening of Brazilian Inspired Music” at the Brazilian Endowment for the Arts, 240 East 52nd Street, with guitarist Ben Lapidus. Dr. Marlow is also teaching an honors course on “Jazz: Cultural Touchstone of the 20th Century” at Baruch College this semester.
Gordon Marshall‘s artist feature on percussionist and composer Lukas Ligeti will be appearing in the December issue of The New York City Jazz Record. Ligeti discusses his blend of influences, including African percussion and polymetrics–and of course what he learned from his father, Gyorgi Ligeti. Marshall argues that Ligeti is a formidable musical mind who must ultimately be regarded from how he wrested and is reconstructing the tradition inherited from his late father.
Mark Miller’s 10th book, Way Down That Lonesome Road: Lonnie Johnson in Toronto, 1965-1970, a biographical study of the legendary singer and guitarist based on the last years of his life, has been published by The Mercury Press/teksteditions.
Patricia Myers was interviewed by KTVK-TV Channel 12 for a Sept. 12 feature about the Phoenix Playboy Club that existed from the 1960s-’80s. She talked about the classy supper-club ambience and great jazz performed by touring jazz stars whom she interviewed and reviewed. She also told of local musician Keith Greko, the club’s music director, whose LP record was shown playing on her vintage turntable. Also, Patricia worked on arrangements and promotion for a benefit event at the Rhythm Room for Paul Anderson, jazz saxophonist and KJZZ-fm radio DJ who has been hospitalized since late August and has no health insurance; more than 50 musicians donated their time and talent to raise funds for medical costs.
Roberta Piket has been having a great time this fall performing with some phenomenal musicians including Billy Mintz, Louie Belogenis, Hill Greene, Newman Taylor-Baker, and Virginia Mayhew. She was also interviewed by Richton Thomas on WHPK in Chicago, and by Michael Foster on WVUD in Delaware.
Bobby Ramirez wrote two articles for BebopCity! Magazine: “Mostly No Real Jazz Artists Performing at the Upcoming ‘Jazz in the Gardens’ Music Festival,” and “Jazz is Creating Jobs and Keeping People Working in South Florida.”
Jim Rice started October off with a show of photographs called “Caught In The Act Musicians Making Music” at the Falcon in Marlboro NY. He also shot a recording session for Scott Sharrad (of the Greg Allman Band) doing a solo album with a great Duke Ellington cover, as well as shows by Wicked Knee; The Hal Galper Trio with Hal Galper; Jeff Johnson and John Bishop; Honey Ear Trio; Big Joe Fitz & the Lo-Fi’s; Carmen Souza; Todd Coolman’s Four For; Leni Stern; Bow Thayer & The Perfect Trainwreck; Pucho Brown; and Pedro Giraudo’s Jazz Orchestra. It’s been a fun month so far!
Daniel Smith, following a sold out performance at the Kitano in NYC on Oct. 26th, will be performing with his ‘Bassoon and Beyond’ jazz quartet at the Brooklyn Conservatory Concert Hall Friday, Nov. 18th. The performance starts at 7:30 and will consist of two one hour sets. The line-up will have the same players as at the Kitano: Daniel Kelly on piano, Gaku Takanashi on bass, Vince Ector on drums, Ron Jackson on guitar, and special guest Sol Yaged on clarinet. Prior to this event, Daniel Smith was showcased for a full week on the JazzNetwork website which did an extensive feature on his career.
W. Royal Stokes has posted several items on his newly-created blog (wroyalstokes.com/weblog/), including a 1978 interview he did with John Fahey. On November 14 Royal will present a guest lecture at Davis and Elkins College, Elkins, WV, for Professor Bob McCutcheon’s freshman seminar “From the Bible to the Blues,” playing cuts by Robert Johnson, Pine Top Smith, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, Hot Lips Page, the Rolling Stones, and others. Royal is currently compiling for publication a memoir and a W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues, and Beyond Reader.
Carol Sudhalter returned in late October from a six-week tour of Italy, covering Puglia, Lazio, Tuscany, Lombardy, Veneto, Piemonte and Liguria. Highlights were the Attilio Donadio festival in Cuneo, where she led a quintet of local musicians and presented her ‘English Diction for Singers,’ a masterclass; and a ‘house concert’ presented with her trio at the home of Licia Barcaro in Vicenza. Inspired by the captivating, intimate atmosphere of the latter, she plans to start a series of such concerts in both New York and Italy. Carol’s next Italian tour plans are underway for July 2012.
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