Michael Ambrosino has completed Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones), an audio documentary on the unique historical, cultural and artistic contributions encompassing the Latin experience in jazz (supported by the Mass Cultural Council). The program explores the viewpoints and music of award-winning artists, scholars and activists. It premieres in March.
Matty Bannond reviewed a new album by the Georg Demel Quartett in March, as well as a new album by Volker Jaekel. Both reviews were published by Free Jazz Collective. He also wrote a report about a concert in Krefeld, Germany, which was published on All About Jazz.
Alfie Coates interviewed Ron Carter in February on behalf of the members of his forum jazzcord.org. The interview took the format of a Q&A with submitted questions selected beforehand. It was broadcast live over Zoom and the full recording is now available to watch on YouTube.
Steve Dunfey is writing about Gene Krupa for the Seacoast Jazz Society in New Hampshire. “I have written for Modern Drummer Magazine and Not So Modern Drummer Magazine. If anybody has anything to share on this topic please email me.”
Ken Franckling wrote about and photographed the 40th edition of the Sarasota Jazz Festival for his blog. He also put Jazz on a Summer’s Day and the Newport Jazz Festival in context at a Sarasota screening of the film. Ken blogged about trumpeter-singer Jeremy Davenport’s February 11 guest appearance with the Dan Miller-Lew Del Gatto quintet in Fort Myers and continues to track jazz-related COVID-19 deaths since March 2020, now exceeding 130.
C. Andrew Hovan covered a recent performance at the Cleveland Bop Stop by Wayne Krantz, Keith Carlock and Tim Lefebvre. His review and captures are featured on the website All About Jazz.
Sanford Josephson is teaching an online course, “Giants of Jazz: Great Innovators of America’s Art Form,”in the spring semester of Rutgers University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In the March issue of Jersey Jazz Magazine, Josephson interviewed vocalist Anais Reno and New Orleans clarinetist/soprano saxophonist Aurora Nealand.
Chuck Koton saw quite a month in February on the Los Angeles area jazz scene as The World Stage presented hard swingin’ NYC-based trombonist and shells master Steve Turre with saxophonist Teodross Avery, pianist Theo Saunders, bassist Henry “the Skipper” Franklin and drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith. On a sad note, Derf Reklaw, the Chicago-born master percussionist, flautist, alto saxophonist and vocalist, passed away suddenly and shockingly on February 24. Let’s remember to seize the day!
Howard Mandel spent most of March preparing elements of the JJA’s 2022 Jazz Heroes posts for JJAJazzAwards.org and overall campaign to support the 27th Annual JJA Jazz Awards. He was involved with nominating committees for Album Art and Photo of the Year, creating the ballot, fundraising, editing bios and photos, corresponding with contacts, editing articles for JJANews and just generally having JJA fun. He snuck in reviewing guitarist Benji Kaplan’s Something Here Inside for DownBeat.
Dom Minasi’s new recording, Me Myself and I, has come out on UR Records. JJA members (and others) interested in reviewing it, please send Dom an email and he will send you the link. His website and blog (with the series “Guitarists who need more exposure”) been updated, and he got the “Meet-a-Member” treatment at JJANews.
Luciano Rossetti had a very intense March. The first stage of his personal exhibition took place at ArtActs Jazz Festival in St. Johann in Tirol (Austria). In the next few months that exhibition will be in four places in Italy and one in Slovenia. He has also been the curator, together with Marco Pierini, of Jimmy Katz’s exhibition for Bergamo Jazz Festival.
Mike Shanley knows what the people prefer. His profile on composer/saxophonist Allen Lowe appeared in the March issue of JazzTimes – a few pages from the 2021 Readers’ Poll in which Lowe snagged Artist of the Year. Mike’s ShanleyOnMusic blog recently reviewed tenor saxophonist Julieta Eugenio’s debut album and a Pittsburgh appearance by the Cookers.
Rob Shepherd interviewed Michael Leonhart on his latest Orchestra album, The Normyn Suites. He also interviewed saxophonist Stuart Bogie on his new recording, The Prophets in the City. Both interviews are available at PostGenre (postgenre.org). Rob also contributed to the JJA’s 2022 Jazz Heroes appreciations.
Carol Sudhalter has embarked on writing her memoirs to mark 50 years of house-to-house private music teaching. In the process, realizing that the teaching memoir is only a piece of the whole picture and can best be understood as such, she has decided to expand this project to an overall autobiography.
Neil Tesser is now heard Thursdays at 8 PM (EDT), broadcasting from Chicago but over KSDS in San Diego, as part of the station’s new “Jazz Across America” featuring a different city’s jazz host each weeknight. (The program streams at jazz88.org.) He recently completed a 7500-word essay for the upcoming 4-LP set Birth of Bop drawn from the Savoy catalog, as well as liners for previously unreleased concert albums from saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Brew Moore.
Scott Thompson PR is working new releases by veteran Giacomo Gates, Vienna-based Katherine Kostoff (w/ Gil Goldstein), the Saturn Quartet and a single by Grammy® winner Nestor Torres. He is also assisting with publicity for Portugal-based Patrina Morris (also a Vogue model), singer Sylvia Brooks and from legendary Brazilian vocalist Flora Purim in Brazil.
Michael J. West profiled new NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart for the Washington Post, discussing how his native Washington, D.C., shaped Hart’s approach to the music.
Deanna Witkowski released her seventh album, Force of Nature, in late January on MCG Jazz. As of March 21, the record is #6 on the JazzWeek national radio chart. The recording documents the musical and spiritual connection between Mary Lou Williams Williams and Witkowski. On March 26, Witkowski performed the US concert premiere of Williams’s Mass for the Lenten Season in New York in collaboration with the Stonewall Chorale. She also contributed to Morgan Enos’s recent GRAMMY.com feature on Williams.
