Larry Blumenfeld never thought he’d file 7,000 words about opera premieres. Yet he did just that in two separate pieces for Daily Beast. His piece on Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones places the Met Opera premiere in the context of Blanchard’s life and career; another, on Wayne Shorter’s Iphigenia, traces the development and idea of the project for two years before its opening. (Paywall blocking you? Please email lblu@aol.com for a copy.)
Noal Cohen wrote articles for Jersey Jazz magazine on Art Farmer (October 2021 issue) and Frank Wess (January 2022 issue).
Jordannah Elizabeth, with her book She Raised Her Voice! just published, has been asked by Tulani Bridgewater-Kowalski to be a Mentor Presenter for The Woodshed Network‘s 2022 Fellowship program, conceived to provide educational resources, professional support and accelerate careers through mentorship, knowledge sharing and community interaction for women in jazz.
Ken Franckling reviewed and photographed several Southwest Florida concerts on his Jazz Notes blog. They included Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino’s performance with the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra at the sextet’s All That Jazz concert series at Artis-Naples, and the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto sextet’s Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn tribute at the Charlotte County Jazz Society in Punta Gorda. His comprehensive listing of jazz-related deaths in 2021 was posted at JJANews; he helped unearth information about the demise in 2020 of jazz journalist Don Heckman, and he continues to document jazz-related COVID deaths, now totaling more than 120, with at least three so far in 2022.
Andrew Gilbert previewed a Palo Alto residency by Caroline Davis’s Portals quartet for the San Jose Mercury News and considered Django Reinhardt’s legacy for San Francisco Classical Voice. He interviewed Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding for a story on the West Coast premiere of their opera Iphigenia for the San Francisco Chronicle and previewed a Black history month residency by jazz/blues vocalist Faye Carol for The Oaklandside. He watched with resignation as half a dozen assignments fell through due to omicron cancellations.
James Hale is a year into his new monthly column — Art+Tech on SoundStageXperience.com, where he’s recently looked back over his favourite recordings of 2021 and reviewed the forthcoming 1973 Town Hall concert recording by the Cecil Taylor Unit. For DownBeat, he wrote HotBox reviews of Kenny G(!), Ethan Iverson, Nicholas Payton, and the vocal group Mirrors.
Doug Hall is hoping for more opportunities for live performances, particularly outdoors, as winter moves to spring. He is starting to research an interview-based piece on New England Conservatory’s Jazz Studies Artist in Residence program. He posted a long-form profile on Brazilian Bossa Nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim for WICN Public Radio). He also made a “Best Albums of 2021” listing for Allaboutjazz.
Geoffrey Himes wrote a feature story on the harp in jazz for Jazz Times, an obituary on Stephen Sondheim for Paste and liner notes for a Graham Parker reissue.
Howard Mandel reviewed albums by Taru Alexander (Echoes of the Masters) and Scatter the Atoms that Remain (Franklin Kiermyer’s quartet – Emancipation Suite) for DownBeat; assisted in production and video posting of the JJA Authors Book Zoom and edited several articles on JJANews.
Tim Masters’ July 1989 interview with Dave Frishberg was rebroadcast on WPFW 89.3 FM in late December 2021. He decided to re-air the interview after Mr. Frishberg passed away on November 17 at the age of 88; In the mid-‘90s he had his archive of programs re-mastered and digitized by Dr. Toby Mountain at his Northeastern Digital Recording studio in Southborough, MA, enabling him to carry out the re-broadcast.
Author Bill Milkowski presented a series of Zoom lectures for college students about his latest book Ode to a Tenor Titan: The Life and Times and Music of Michael Brecker. He wrote features for DownBeat on trumpeter-composer-arranger Steven Bernstein, the late, great guitarist Pat Martino, and Vancouver-based guitarist-oud master Gordon Grdina, and liner notes for a career retrospective of Boston-based guitarist-composer and longtime Berklee College of Music professor John Stein (Lifeline on Whaling City Sound).
Marcus J. Moore is writing his next book, a cultural biography of De La Soul. While being published in The New York Times, TIME and NPR, among other outlets, he continues his full-time gig as Director of Hip-Hop at the “record of the month club, Vinyl Me, Please.
Luciano Rossetti has used 2021 as a restart year. He had the opportunity to work for festivals and take photos at concerts all year long. On his new website, you can see a selection of his 2021 work.
Rob Shepherd interviewed Bob James on his career in music and Feel Like Making LIVE! Rob also interviewed Greg Spero on The Chicago Experiment and music technology, including NFTs. Rob spoke with Marshall Allen and Sun Ra Arkestra bandmate Tyler Mitchell on two forthcoming albums. Finally, Rob is finalizing a conversation with MTV co-founder Fred Seibert, who will release a lost Cecil Taylor concert recording in February. All interviews are available, or soon will be, at PostGenre.
Scott Thompson, publicist, is working a variety of new clients. Among those releasing jazz singles are Nestor Torres, with “Thank You, Willie.” Others include singer Katherine Kostoff w/ Gil Goldstein “It Happens Like That,” and Giacomo Gates “YOU.” Both were featured as “Song of the Day” at Jazziz and AllAboutJazz. Also working Harold O’Neal’s The Adventures of Mr. Grey.
Michael J. West reviewed tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene’s quintet at the Kennedy Center for the Washington Post, finding the music “timeless. . . exquisite.”
