JJA members — We as an organization need members’ support and participation in JJA activities, from contributing articles about jazz journalism and the music and business of jazz to attention, enthusiasm and promotion of the 15th annual JJA Jazz Awards.
What this means in practicality is that if you’re going to be in New York City on June 11, reserve tickets at www.JJAJazzAwards.org to attend our 15th annual celebration of excellence in jazz at City Winery (1 pm to 4 pm) — it’s always a fun gathering, and we have arranged for the performances of a fine lineup of musical talent. If you’re near one of our satellite parties (in Berkeley, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Tallahassee, Washington DC, maybe Chicago and Telluride) please find the details at JJAJazzAwards.org and attend.
The JJA, like all not-for-profits and all organizations representing media professionals, is currently experiencing new challenges not only of fundraising but of morale-boosting, which seems necessary to hold the association together. We need new members who can help us get a fix on the new media paradigms and advance jazz coverage into the 21st Century. We need more diversity of age, gender, race, geography, interests in our membership, to keep the discussions we have amongst us as lively and realistic as the world of jazz itself is. We need people adept with social media, videography, web-design as well as print publications and other tradition formats. We need to keep evolving.
JJA News in particular needs an infusion of energy via a team of contributors who understand what news is vital for our members to know and share. Writing for JJANews should not be a time-suck or onerous job, even though articles are not paid — posts may be quite short, as long as they are newsworthy and have been verified.
If you have ideas for JJANews, I’m happy to hear them; email me at President@jazzjournalists.org. And sorry for the brevity of this note — but I hope to see you at the Jazz Awards (or read your tweet about it).
Best to you all for a great summer ahead — Howard Mandel
