Paul de Barros, a veteran Seattle-based writer, editor and educator, has joined the board of the Jazz Journalists Association.
Doing so, he joins Bob Blumenthal (Boston), Susan Brink (New York Capitol Region), Andrew Gilbert (Bay Area), Janis Lane-Ewart (Minneapolis), Carolyn McClair (NYC and Newport), Don Palmer (Baltimore) and Neil Tesser (Chicago) in directing the 29-year-old organization of writers, broadcasters, photographers, videographers and new media professionals, presided over by Howard Mandel (Chicago). De Barros takes a chair on the board vacated by Seattle writer Paul Rauch.
De Barros has long written about jazz for Down Beat magazine and
The Seattle Times, where he has had a weekly column and served as an arts editor. He has been involved with the JJA since its earliest meetings, circa 1986. The founder of Earshot Jazz and former program director for Northwest Folklife, de Barros has taught jazz history at the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University and Cornish College of the Arts.
He won the Washington State governor’s Writer’s Award for his 1993 book Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle; his 2012 biography Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland was selected as book of the year by Jazz Journalists Association. He was a 2003-04 fellow in the National Arts Journalism Program.
The JJA welcomes de Barros to our governing council.
