No need to have the blues for summer’s end since the music is non-stop as proved by the ever-increasing number of global news updates coming in — from Chamber Music America’sc conference at our base in Chicago to Hard Groove happening in Japan!
[By the way, do you know that before Muddy Waters, Ann Cole sang these words written by Preston Foster?]
“Midstream, Crossing that River”: This month’s JJA award-winning podcast The Buzz features Ruth Griggs speaking of the Northampton Jazz Festival.
From rivers and lakes to airwaves, our newest members are in the current:
Allen Michie out of Austin writes for Arts Fuse online magazine, and publishes his own blog on the platform Medium with a recently posted review of Harry Skoler’s Echoes. He’s studied Miles Davis’ career, writes about modern big band, and is the administrator of two thriving online groups: the Mastodon instance for jazz people, Jazztodon.com, and the Miles Davis Discussion Group on Facebook. More to come from Allen as he transitions from his day-job to full-focus on jazz journalism. (Good choice.)
Terrell Holmes of The New York City Jazz Record (with our friend Laurence Donohue-Greene) does the ever-important work of preserving jazz history, conducts interviews with contemporary jazz figures, and writes reviews for albums, books, and concerts. Word has it he’s also into astronomy and the Yankees so I am looking forward to seeing what’s next!.
Molly Motherwell is the general manager/executive director for WEMU-FM, the public broadcasting service of Eastern Michigan University, which celebrates 50 years of its jazz format in 2027! A founding media partner of the Detroit Jazz Festival, WEMU broadcast 47 hours of live hosted jazz weekly and blues programs, while supporting the SE Michigan live music scene. Coming from near there — Thank you!
Dave Popkin performs audio and video interviews, jazz and blues coverage and festivals for WBGO FM – Newark. He’s also a feature writer for Hot House Jazz Guide in New York City. Check out his recent Art of the Story with “Stephane Wrembel – The Jazz Philosopher.” Popkin is also a radio announcer for Seton Hall basketball and was named the 2024 New Jersey Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, sings in the NJ-based band Porch Rockers. He hass chaired and played in eight ROCK HUNGER concerts that raise funds for the food pantry at Nutley Family Service Bureau, where he also serves as Board President. I’m going to listen to The Porch Rockers with new ears now!
Rob Wells hosts a two-hour weekly radio program, the Jazz Scoop, on KUAF, 91.3, NPR for Northwest Arkansas. He’s also associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and the author of two books on journalism history. He’s worked for 26 years as a news reporter and editor for; Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Dow Jones News Wires and The Wall Street Journal. Rob is also consulting with the JJA Board on future important programming. We’re grateful for his valuable input!
We look forward to hearing more jazz news and views from these talented members, and here’s more good news from our equally talented and international jazz journalism community: — Comments by Robecca Klobuchar, JJA Program Manager
Matty Bannond’s profile of bassist Linda May Han Oh appeared on the front cover of August’s issue of The New York City Jazz Record. He also reported from a live performance by violinist and trombonist Clara Wedel’s quartet in Hürth, Germany, for All About Jazz. He is now reviewing albums by Nicola Miller and How Now Brown Cow for Free Jazz Collective. In addition, Matty will report from Jazz Week and Hayden Chisholm’s “To Bee Ritual” in Cologne during September. He has written a creative non-fiction feature for the next edition of The Philly Jazz Voice.
Greg Bell recently published a post, Exploring Rochester’s Jazz Artists: Past and Present on JazzRochester with a short introduction to a recent project that Jim Lill, a local jazz enthusiast and amateur musicologist, has initiated, building a database of past and current jazz musicians who are from or have spent a significant amount of time in and around Rochester, NY. He has more than 400 jazz artists in the database so far.
Steve Braunginn, producer/host of Strictly Jazz Sounds podcast, just returned from LA, where the LA Jazz Fest was canceled. Steve had a great conversation with Grammy-winning tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano which can now be heard on Episode 35 of Strictly Jazz Sounds. He spent three hours with TS Monk and his son Thelonious Monk IV, creating the conversation that will be streamed on Strictly Jazz Sounds at a yet-to-be-determined date. Stay tuned!
Jim Brock recently returned from covering the Newport Jazz Festival (as well as the Newport Folk Festival) where he had portrait sessions with Mohini Dey, Kamasi Washington, Chief Adjuah and Nduduzo Makhatini (among others), as well as capturing performances over the full three days. He continues to cover performances at the Blue Note Los Angeles and had photos included in Music and Religion, an Oxford publication by Jeffers Englehart. He is currently working on a book project of his own.
Kenneth K Martinez Burgmaier is currently in production on his Maui, Jazz and Blues Festival, bringing in some All-Star legends to Hawaii. He has produced over 75 festivals over the last 25 years in Hawaii and has traveled the world filming for his Jazz Alley TV series at festivals and music venues… This award-winning show has been the longest running Jazz and Blues TV series on the planet since 1992 and has aired all over the world to over 80 countries.
Steven Cerra’s A Companion to Jazz Interpretations of Porgy and Bess is now available as a paperback and eBook exclusively on Amazon. The book comprises 32 chapters by a variety of Jazz authors documenting jazz interpretations of the folk-opera Porgy and Bess, one of America’s great cultural achievements.
Stephanie Stein Crease is teaching a workshop online this fall for the Hudson Valley Writers Center, “Telling Stories: The Art of Biography,” from 6-8pm on Wednesdays, Sept. 16, 23, 30 and also Oct. 7, 2026. I know her last workshop became a big success and space was limited, so plan to sign up now.
Paul de Barros hosts a book release party October 9 at Seattle’s Black and Tan Hall to celebrate the publication of an updated edition of his 1993 history, Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle. The event is the opening concert of the 2026 Earshot Jazz Festival and features new and old arrangements of compositions by Ray Charles and Quincy Jones performed by the Sid Hauser Big Little Band.
Vilma Dobilaite attended and reported on the 2nd edition of the Jazz Festival MILESTONES DE JAZZ in Spain, where the project PERICO SAMBEAT PLAYS ZAPPA was presented on August 15. She is also in active meetings with JJA to inform a fresh approach to Seeing Jazz, scheduled to relaunch later this year.
Doug Hall has interviewed Grammy-award winning jazz drummer, bandleader, educator and humanist activist Terri Lyne Carrington. In his Talk About Jazz podcast, Terri Lyne discusses her recent release Trip the Night Fantastic.
Sanford Josephson interviewed vibraharpist Joe Locke, tenor saxophonist Lance Bryant, and tenor saxophonist Jacob Chung in the September issue of Jersey Jazz Magazine. He will also be hosting a concert by Nat Adderley, Jr. on September 13 at the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts in Toms River, NJ.
Yuki Kimura continues his research into the history of Hiro Tsunoda—the “Drum King” of Japan and a longtime friend of Taiwan’s “Drum King,” whom Yuki Kimura featured in his book Translocal Journeys Across the Jazz Scenes of Aomori, Japan, and Taiwan— he attended Erykah Badu’s concert in Japan, as well as a performance by The RH Factor—who carry on the legacy of Roy Hargrove’s Hard Groove (2003), remembering Roy appeared at the 1993 Nango Jazz Festival in Aomori, Japan at the age of 23, as documented in his book—and met Aida Brandes-Hargrove in person for the first time.
Howard Mandel reviewed Henry Threadgill’s Zooid album Cut You Where You Was, and Threadgill’s (with Dafnis Prieto and Vijay Iyer) Fifteen for Down Beat, and received an award as Arts Advocate of the Year from Chamber Music America at its annual conference, where he was on a panel moderated by writer Larry Blumenfeld with publicist-jazz festival producer Don Lucoff and WDCB music director Paul Abella.
Allen Morrison has had a busy summer. He wrote the cover story on Emmet Cohen for the July Downbeat; for whom he also reviewed the Montreal Jazz Festival and wrote a profile of Linda May Han Oh and husband Fabian Almazan that will be featured in the October issue. He also played solo and trio piano gigs in Boston and Long Island.
Chuck Obuchowski, host of Out Here & Beyond on WWUH Radio 91.3 FM in West Hartford, CT, is airing two intriguing interviews in September. On the 8th at 10 a.m. Eastern, he’ll chat with alto saxophonist Mike DiRubbo and play tracks from his his new release Way Out Northwest. Chuck will be interviewing guitar maestro Pat Metheny on Sept. 15th, also at 10 a.m. On Tuesday the 22nd, Chuck will devote his entire show to John Coltrane.
Dan Polletta is excited to be hosting jazz again in Northeast Ohio. He served as WCPN-Cleveland evening jazz host from 1987 to 2009, and is now back on-air as part of Ideastream public media’s new jazz station, JazNEO. Dan hosts afternoon drive Monday-Friday from 4-8 p.m.
Fiona Ross has recently published the 16th Women in Jazz Media magazine which includes contributions from fellow JJA members Brad Stone, Alice Hill, Enid Farber and Tatiana Gorilovsky. Platforming women from across the globe, this edition includes interviews; Danish trombonist Lis Wessberg, South African artist Rorisang Sechele, New Zealand Flutist and composer Keyna Wilkins and more. It has also just been announced that the magazines will be included in the UK’s National Jazz Archive for prosperity. Fiona spent a few days at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival reporting on the SPARK: Jazz from the Netherlands partnership bringing Dutch jazz musicians to Scotland. Fiona is also still touring as part of her award winning ‘Moments In My Notebook’ album tour and has recently come back from performing at the Black Mountain Jazz Festival in Wales.
Hilary Seabrook keeps busy with reviews of recordings and live shows. The summer began with a weekend at the Love Supreme Jazz Festival (Ezra Collective, David Kayode, Courtney Pine, Bill Frisell, Sultan Stevenson et al). Now she’s enjoying tutoring (sax, flute and clarinet) on the Great British Music Camp before a few days away and returning to business as usual on 24 August.
Mark Sheldon wrote “Jazz, and All its Extensions, Dominate at Newport” for Downbeat and “Nate Smith’s First Newport on the Books: Jazz Festival Joy in a Rainy Northeast” for JazzTimes. Mark also contributed photos for Newport Festival “Field Reports” on JJA News.
Emily Springer interviewed Wynton Marsalis on behalf of the Association of Marshall Scholars and has made the entire interview, along with a full transcript, available on her Substack. She is also in the final stages of completing her dissertation, which will yield an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Emily Steinhilber attended her first Newport Jazz Festival as credentialed press this August. Her Newport reporting includes “Gold in My Veins: A Writer Comes for Jazz Fest, Leaves in Love with Newport,” published by Newport Life Magazine. Her interview with Seattle soul band The Dip will appear in the October issue of Earshot Jazz. Her review of Branford Marsalis Quartet & Dianne Reeves’ Dedicated to You will appear in the October issue of The New York City Jazz Record.
Carol Sudhalter, saxophonist/flautist/translator is launching a Backyard Jazz series this month, September 23rd from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m, at El Barrio Artspace P.S. 109. Based on the House Concert model, the trio (including illustrious guitarist Ilya Lushtak) will be paid through ticket sales and donations. She hopes to continue the series monthly, with the adjacent Art gallery providing an alternative indoor space in case of rain! Art and jazz lovers, plan on attending Backyard Jazz in New York!
Robert I. Sutherland-Cohen’s photographs will be included in the September group show “Framing the Village” at St. Mark’s in the Bowery Parish Hall in NYC. Also, the New York City Jazz Record featured his photo of Barry Altschul on their cover for their inside story on him.
Ed Trefzger, publisher of JazzWeek, noted the 25th anniversary of the website’s first radio chart on August 2. Each week radio stations in the U.S. and Canada report their airplay of current jazz releases which are tabulated into a weekly chart. JazzWeek hosted industry conferences called the JazzWeek Summit from 2002 to 2019, followed by three virtual events during the pandemic. Plans have begun for an in-person event in 2027.
Jesse “Chuy” Varela, at KCSM JAZZ 91, interviewed Vickie Burns, Javon Jackson, Nnenna Freelon, George Brooks & Steve Smith, Ben Flocks, Nick Phillips, Bobby Sanabria, Denny Zeitlin, Christen Vela (new San Jose Jazz Artistic Director), and Rhonda Sauce. He’s currently writing for El Tecolote in San Francisco (the oldest bilingual newspaper in the U.S.) and just finished a piece for the KCSM JAZZ 91 Newsletter on Latino Heritage Month featuring his JJA colleague, Wilbert Sostre Maldonado and Puerto Rican Jazz.
Michael J. West wrote the cover story for the August issue of DownBeat on guitarist Mary Halvorson, artist of the year in DB’s 2026 critics poll.
