Matty Bannond reported on a double concert for International Jazz Day. It featured solo pianist Kari Ikonen, followed by the Marc Copland Quartet. The report was published in Jazz Journal. He is now working on several album reviews for June and July.
John Chacona previewed the world premiere of a composition by classical percussionist and sometime jazz drummer Timothy K. Adams for the Erie (PA) Times and profiled “Black Lives: From Generation to Generation” for AllAboutJazz.com. In his ongoing project to fill the gap in coverage in northeast Ohio of improvised music in the Black American tradition, he published weekly previews of Cleveland area concerts on his blog, let’s call this.
Jose Dos Santos was nominated by Cubadisco 2022 (the Cuban Grammy award) for his notes to the album Los Herederos (an 80th birthday celebration of Chucho Valdés).
Rob Evanoff is working with Gordon Goodwin, who’s playing at the inaugural Hollywood Bowl Jazz Fest on June 26 (rebranded from the Playboy Jazz Fest). He also made his acting debut in a feature film called Knights of Swing. His two-hour Saturday radio show, Phat Tracks w/ Gordon Goodwin, is now running on KSDS 88.3 San Diego, after a 5-yr run on KJazz in LA. In June, the show is set to go nationwide via PRX.
Ken Franckling profiled drummer Quincy Davis and previewed singer Tierney Sutton’s five-night Birdland run in the May issue of Hot House. He also blogged about young pianist Brandon Goldberg’s April 10 performance with the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto quintet in Naples FL, Makoto Ozone’s first U.S.performance trip since the pandemic, and a Charlotte County Jazz Society 2021-22 concert season finale. He wrote about the March 28 passing of veteran music journalist and friend John Swenson for JJA News.
David Hajdu was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the National Council on the Humanties. David, music critic for The Nation and professor at Columbia Journalism School, was appointed to the council by President Biden.
Doug Hall published an artist of the month profile of Joey DeFrancesco and interviewed Mary Halvorson, both for WICN. He also attended the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for two days, sampling a very diverse and incredible line-up of performances including a tribute to Ellis Marsalis Jr. which included his son Jason on drums, lots of Dixieland jazz marching bands and even southern balladeer Randy Newman filling a tent for his eclectic set and humor.
John Edward Hasse has written articles for The Wall Street Journal on, among others, Ellington, Mingus, Kenny Burrell, Ira Gershwin, and Aretha Franklin. For the Smithsonian, he has lectured on Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Ray Charles. For the JAM Music Lab University in Vienna, he has presented a series of lectures on Ellington. And at Indiana University, he presented five lectures, including “Jazz and Baseball” and “Curating American Music at the Smithsonian.”
Ralph Lampkin, Jr./LMG has had a busy two months, with providing PR/promotions for Chicago-based singer Josie Falbo and California-based singers Maripat Davis and Richard Osborn. He is readying the PR/promotional campaign for the forthcoming EP by saxophonist Danny Lerman, and finishing up the PR/promotional campaigns for award-winning songwriters Amanda McBroom and Michele Brourman. He is continuing to promote Tony nominee Austin Pendleton and his duet partner, Barbara Bleier, and their return to the popular Don’t Tell Mama nightclub.
Robin Lloyd contributed to the KNKX/Jazz24 “A History of Jazz” project for Jazz Appreciation Month with pieces about boogie-woogie, Bossa Nova and Afro-Cuban Jazz. She also interviewed pianists Josean Jacobo and Aldo López Gavilán, profiled Omar Sosa’s SUBA trio, and promoted a tribute to master arranger and pianist Bob Hammer.
Howard Mandel wrote an appreciation of Snarky Puppy’s just-dropping album Empire Central for the band’s label GroundUP Music and liner notes for Evocation, a 2011 live recording by Andrew Cyrille, Elliott Sharp and Richard Teitelbaum. He’s cooking up an immersive, interactive celebration of the JJA’s 2022 Jazz Heroes and Awards winners for later this summer which he promises will be “the most fun with jazz than you’ve ever had online.”
Mike Shanley reviewed Pittsburgh appearances by vocalist Vanessa Rubin and the trio of Jason Stein, Damon Smith & Adam Snead on the Shanleyonmusic blog. Mike also traveled to Cleveland for a double bill of Vandermark/Wooley/Lytton and the trio Ballister. A write-up of that show, and Mosaic’s recent Lennie Tristano box, also appear on the blog.
Rob Shepherd interviewed percussionist Bill Summers on ‘Forward Back’, Mary Halvorson on her two new string albums, Ron Carter regarding his 85th birthday, Ches Smith on his trio album ‘Interpret It Well’ featuring Bill Frisell, and bassists Bill Laswell and Ulf Ivarsson on their album ‘Nammu.’ All interviews are available at PostGenre.
Scott Thompson PR is going strong with several artists; Heidi Martin with an All-Star band, Andrea Brachfeld & Infinity (w/ Bill O’Connell & friends), ARC Trio (Jimmy Haslip), the John Daversa Big Band, L.A. vocalist Sylvia Brooks, Vienna-based songwriter and singer Katherine Kostoff (w/ Gil Goldstein), Nikos Chatzitsakos Tiny Big Band, the Saturn Quartet and Anthony Gonzalez, who launches Nine-PM Records.
Michael J. West profiled Mary Halvorson for JazzTimes and previewed DC’s Home Rule Music Festival for the Washington Post.
Deanna Witkowski and the Stonewall Chorale performed the U.S. concert premiere of Mary Lou Williams’s Mass for the Lenten Season in New York. She received a New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship to work at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture on her project “Catholic Parishes and Jazz Composers in the 1960s: The Harlem Vicariate, Eddie Bonnemère, and Mary Lou Williams.” Her Williams tribute recording, Force of Nature, remained on the JazzWeek radio chart for ten weeks.
