Ed Bride, freelance writer and president of Berkshires Jazz, Inc., recently presented the first “Berkshires Jazz Living Legends” award to NEA Jazz Master Randy Weston. The pianist appeared in concert in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts for the first time in a decade. Berkshires Jazz organized the concert and included a “meet the media” panel chaired by Willard Jenkins, who co-authored Weston’s forthcoming autobiography.
Alex Dutilh, in addition to his daily broadcast on France Musique national public radio, did two recent six-hour programs, one on Radical Jewish Culture (related to a Paris exhibition on the same topic), and another on Keith Jarrett (including interview and unreleased 1972 concert). Click on “programmation musicale” from the links here and here.
Pamela Espeland is writing a series of articles on jazz improvisation for mnartists.org, a project of the McKnight Foundation and Walker Art Center. Focusing on artists who live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, she has spoken so far with Adam Linz, bassist for Fat Kid Wednesdays and jazz coordinator for MacPhail Center for Music; iconoclastic multi-instrumentalist Milo Fine; pianist Ellen Lease and saxophonist Pat Moriarty, jazz educators and performers who have been married for 30 years; and tuba player/composer Stefan Kac. Next up: Douglas Ewart, performer, educator, instrument maker and past president of the AACM. All of the interviews are available at mnartists.org: Type “Conversations on Improvisation” in the search box.
Enid Farber was prompted by the early demise of our dear colleague Gene Martin to finish what she started some 35 years ago, the attainment of her educational goal. As of June 10, 2010, she is officially a college graduate with a degree in photojournalism. Having previously attained 76 of the required 128 credit hours from various avenues, she earned remaining 52 from SUNY’s Empire State College in New York, a program that allows adults to design their own degree.
James Hale has signed a contract with Britain’s Elwin Street Publishers to write a book on the best of jazz for the publisher’s Le Snob series. The book will be published in 2011.
Thomas Jacobsen published book reviews of Thomas L. Morgan’s Historic Photos of New Orleans Jazz (2009) in the March issue of the Journal of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors, and Samuel Charters’ A Language of Song: Journeys in the Musical World of the African Diaspora (2010) in the March issue of the Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. In addition, Tom’s collection of his published and unpublished interviews with contemporary New Orleans musicians has been accepted for publication by the Louisiana State University Press.
Eugene Marlow was awarded the 2010 James W. Carey Award for Outstanding Media Ecology Journalism at the 11th Annual Media Ecology Association Conference (June 10-13, 2010, University of Maine, Orono, Maine). The award was first presented in 2007. Previous recipients include Philip Marchand, Marvin Kitman and Thomas de Zengotita. Named in honor of the late Dr. James W. Carey of Columbia University, the award was based on a series of 21 articles Gene wrote for the website Jazz.com between December 2007 and August 2009.
Tony Mottola and Mitchell Seidel, along with Jersey Jazz co-editor/art director Linda Lobdell, were honored with a 2009 “Excellence in Journalism” award by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Jersey Jazz is the 38-year-old journal of the New Jersey Jazz Society.
Michael J. West wrote a piece about the understated influence of Steve Coleman in the June issue of JazzTimes, and covered the DC Jazz Festival that same month for Washington City Paper. This summer he’ll write liner notes for Jon Lorentz’s Borderlands, as well as a piece on the Jazz Education Network (JEN) for the 2010 JazzTimes Education Guide.
Jim Wilke recently interviewed Sue Mingus on Public Radio International’s Jazz After Hours about the three different ensembles playing Mingus music in rotation on Monday nights at The Jazz Standard. Jim also recently wrote liner notes for Ray Vega and Thomas Marriott’s East-West Trumpet Summit, and for a forthcoming Denise Donatelli CD featuring arrangements by Geoffrey Keezer. Jim also recorded the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra in a concert performance of Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite for a future broadcast on KPLU and kplu.org.
