Jazz journalism is alive and well, as JJA members are getting their news and views about the music out in every media platform — locally, nationally and internationally. We never sleep! See the most recent publications and other work reported by the extremely active members of the Jazz Journalists Association after the jump.
If you’re a JJA member and want your recent activities included in the next installment of Member Updates, send a brief paragraph beginning with your name to membernews@jazzjournalists.org by August 5, 2019.
Nate Chinen’s book Playing Changes: Jazz For the New Century publishes in paperback on Vintage Books
on July 23. It now has an Italian edition (La musica del cambiamento) on Il Saggiatore, with a preface by Ashley Kahn; a Spanish edition is forthcoming. Nate continues to helm the editorial content at WBGO, while contributing regularly to NPR Music.
Ted Gioia has a new book, Music: A Subversive History, coming out from Basic Books on October 15.
James Hale James Hale wrote a feature for DownBeat about the storied jazz program at the University of North Texas and the school’s plans for the future. For SoundstageXperience.com, he wrote about Bruce Springsteen’s latest recording and its ties to the West and the pop music of the late 1960s.
Doug Hall enjoyed a wonderful 90th birthday celebration for legendary Boston-area jazz promoter (and JJA Jazz Hero) Fred Taylor. A coinciding fundraiser was held for the Fred Taylor Scholarship Fund for Berklee College of Music in Brookline, MA with performers Grace Kelly, James Montgomery and Livingston Taylor. He also reviewed a CD release by jazz conductor/pianist Tom Pierson.
Patrick Hinely has a couple of photos in the CD booklet for When Will the Blues Leave, a new album of a 1999 concert recording by Paul Bley, Gary Peacock and Paul Motian on ECM, and the entire booklet, inside and out (total: 23 photos) for the Vosbein Magee Big Band’s latest, Come and Get It, on Max Frank Music.
Andrew Hovan‘s photo of George Benson appears in the July issue of Down Beat. In addition, Hovan is one of the voting critics polled for the 67th Annual Down Beat Critics Poll. His photo also accompanies the piece on Wayne Shorter’s win for album of the year. Hovan covered both the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival and Tri-C JazzFest Cleveland for All About Jazz.
Sheila Jordan performs July 26 at the 75 Club in NYC with the Royal Bopsters. JJA board members Mandel and Neil Tesser, member photographers Michael Jackson, Marc PoKempner and JJA Jazz Hero Jim DeJong were in the audience during her stint at Chicago’s Green Mill.
Gloria Krolak is available for poetry readings from her new book Jazz Lines …free verse in the key of jazz. This is a unique collection of found poetry, built entirely of jazz song titles around a central theme. She lives in New Jersey and Hilton Head Island. Photographs (most previously unpublished) are by Ed Berger. Check out the book at www.gloriajazz.com.
Robin Lloyd hosted KNKX-FM a studio session with the cast of “Nina Simone 4 Women,” presented JJA’s Seattle Jazz Hero award to the founders of the Ballard Jazz Festival and the JJA Female Vocalist of the Year award to Cecile McLorin Salvant, served on Washington Blues Society’s judges panel for an International Blues Challenge semifinal competition, and wrote a remembrance of Jim Coile, one of the original members of Seattle’s premier Latin jazz band, Sonando.
Joe Maita published an interview with Mosaic Records co-founder Michael Cuscuna on his website Jerry Jazz Musician. He also published a collection of jazz poetry,and a piece in which the question “What are 4 or 5 of your all time favorite Blue Note albums?” was posed to Gary Giddins, Nate Chinen, Michael Cuscuna, Dianne Reeves, Eliane Elias, Louis Hayes, Scott Yanow, Ashley Kahn, and many others. He also reviewed six jazz recordings,
Howard Mandel wrote about Transcending Toxic Times by the Last Poets and Jamaaladeen Tacuma for DownBeat.com, produced a “Jazz Chicago Revisited” program heard on WDCB.org, and moderated a panel on Chicago vocalists at the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s 50th Birthday Bash. For the JJA, he organized presentations across the U.S. of 2019 Jazz Awards to their winners.
Mike Shanley profiled guitarist Jon Lundbom, the leader of the band Big Five Chord, in the June 2019 issue of JazzTimes. This comes a few months after his feature in the magazine on upcoming bassist Adam Hopkins. He blogged about the self-titled album by Nature Work and CDs that resulted from saxophonist Stephen Gauci’s Live at the Bushwick Public House series on Monday nights.
Lew Shaw’s 2013 book JAZZ Beat: Notes on Classic Jazz is now available on Amazon as an eBook and paperback. The 212-page paperback is a compilation of 47 interviews of musicians and jazz advocates that present close-up and personal looks at what is special about jazz musicians. He is currently working on a second book of the 45 profiles he has written over the past six years.
Sammy Stein is now a contributor to Smooth Jazz magazine. She reviewed Tom Pierson and William Parker and is researching for her second book on women in jazz music. She also presented and curated a programme on new discoveries in jazz for Jazz Bites Radio. Her book Women In Jazz is scheduled for release in September through 8th House publishing and is already generating a lot of interest.
Denise Sullivan is a frequent contributor to DownBeat and a columnist for The San Francisco Examiner where she recently wrote about the unique stage at Bird & Beckett Books and Records, an independent bookseller that hosts jazz artists almost 300 nights a year — and pays musicians to perform.
Scott Thompson has been enjoying working with the best in the business with Scott Thompson PR, most recently with Lenny White, Patricia Barber, Ted Nash, Dave Bass, Monty Alexander, Elio Villafranca (2017 Grammy® nominee for Best Latin Jazz Album) and many more. He is a top writer for Jazz In Europe and continues writing the lead Playbill features for Jazz at Lincoln Center (more than 150 since 2004).
Adrien H. Tillmann‘s photography has been the subject of a monthlong exhibition at the Jacob Burns Film Center as part of the “Jazz Sessions: Beyond the Notes” event series of jazz documentaries, performances and conversations. The event was filmed by the Criterion Collection for an episode of their series Art-House America.
Member Updates are edited by Michael J. West. 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 aren’t a JJA Member yet, consider joining us. Membership is open to both Professional Journalists (writers, bloggers, photographers, videographers, web producers and others who cover jazz) and Industry Associates (musicians, educators, presenters, promoters and others who work in the industry and support our work.)
