David R. Adler wrote liner notes for vinyl reissues of Reid Anderson’s The Vastness of Space and Walter Smith III’s Casually Introducing Walter Smith III for Fresh Sound New Talent.
Jane Ira Bloom announces the October release of Celestial Mechanics by M’Lumbo and Jane Ira Bloom on Ropeadope. The album is a two-and-a-half-hour compendium of space age jazz, electronica, rock and exotica created by M’Lumbians Rob Flatow, Jaz Sawyer, Cecil Young, Vincent Veloso, Paul-Alexandre Meurens, Brian O’Neill, Dehran Duckworth, Maureen O’Connor, Page Hamilton, Andrew Hadro, Emanuel Ruffler, James McClean and Eduardo Guedes.
Noal Cohen published a profile of pianist/vibraphonist Terry Pollard, including her discography, on his JazzHistory site.
Ken Franckling reviewed this year’s college and university jazz program CDs in the 2020-2021 Jazz Education Guide that was published in JazzTimes’ November issue. He also blogged about catching his first live concert performance in nearly eight months, featuring the Naples (FL) Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra. The sextet has just begun its 11th season, with social distancing.
James Hale is beginning work on an official history of his hometown TD Ottawa Jazz Festival as it prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary. He wrote a review of Cindy Blackman Santana’s Give the Drummer Some for SoundStageXperience.com.
Jerry Maita’s newly published content this month on Jerry Jazz Musician includes an interview with Will Friedwald, author of Straighten Up and Fly Right; a conversation with Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on the historic legacy of Erroll Garner; an interview with Nicholas Buccola, author of The Fire is Upon Us, a collection of jazz poetry; and a fourth volume of Jerry Jazz Musician-anthologized poetry entitled “Poetry during the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter and a heated political season.”
Howard Mandel reviewed Chapter 10: Taking Cover by Papo Vazquez and the Mighty Pirate Troubadours for DownBeat, and published articles on the JJA’s Members Survey results and JazzFuel’s Covid-Impact-on-Musicians Survey as well as Jeroen de Valk’s report from the Netherlands and Sammy Stein’s articles about jazz in the UK on JJANews.
Greg Masters has a new book of poems, It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This. The bulk of the book is taken up by “My East Village,” which chronicles the downtown neighborhood Masters has lived in for the past 45 years, enshrining some of its poets, musicians, artists and activists.
Steve Monroe’s Jazz Avenues editions for Twitter and Facebook for October and November included live streaming news on performers Cyrus Chestnut, Lafayette Gilchrist, Geri Allen, Roy Ayers, Kush Abadey, Paul Carr, Sharon Clark, Eric Kennedy, Lionel Lyles, Robert Glasper, Fred Hersch, Todd Marcus, and others. Jazz Avenues also reviewed concerts by Davis Whitfield, the Melissa Aldana Quintet, and Carl Grubbs and The New Generation and CD reviews of Noah Haidu’s Doctone and Lafayette Gilchrist ‘s NOW.
Fiona Ross recently interviewed the creative team behind the new Billie film for Jazz in Europe. The film, which is being released in the UK as part of the London Jazz Festival, includes previously unseen footage and interviews with a range of Billie Holiday’s friends and colleagues. Fiona has also completed several interviews as part of the “Women in Jazz” series for Jazz in Europe; reviews including Clare Cope, Skeltr and Vertaal, and an interview with the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.
Mike Shanley profiled drummer Whit Dickey in the November issue of JazzTimes, chronicling the drummer’s lengthy career and the launch of his own Tao Forms label. On his ShanleyOnMusic blog he has covered a diverse batch of releases, from the recently discovered Thelonious Monk album to new works by drummer Dan Weiss and the trio of Charlotte Greve, Vinnie Sperrazza and Chris Tordini.
Scott Thompson has more than a half-dozen clients in the Grammy® chase: Bill Warfield, Fahir Atakoglu, Mark Fox, Petros Klampanis, Francesco Cataldo, Raices Jazz Orchestra featuring Tony Succar & Pablo Gil and Sandro Norton with Gary Burton. New clients include the Uptown Jazz Tentet, jazz-pop singer/pianist Laura Fernandez, vocalist Janis Mann w/ Kenny Werner and singer Kari (Kirkland) joined by Shelly Berg. Thompson is also assisting Cuban Pianist Elio Villafranca with his new children’s book release Who Ate The Pie?
F. Norman Vickers was featured in August Issue of The Syncopated Times by jazz writer and JJA member Lew Shaw. Vickers was founder of Jazz Society of Pensacola and a charter member of American Federation of Jazz Societies and as president of AFJS in 1991. Vickers writes for own blog www.jazzpensacola.com and his CD reviews are frequently published by The Syncopated Times.
Adam Weissler just posted his new interview with three-time Grammy nominee Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah at Extratv.com. Other recent interviews with London based saxophone star Nubya Garcia and Brooklyn vibraphone sensation Joel Ross will air and post soon.
