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Jazz Beyond Jazz

Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation

jazz clubs in transit

It’s a sad day when an established stage for national and local jazz closes, as JazzWest.com’s Wayne Saroyan reports will happen to Jazz at Pearl’s in San Francisco’s North Beach (right across the street from City Lights Books ) at the end of April. One such closing does not signal a trend; small independent venues come and go. San Francisco does have its newly opened Yoshi’s in the historically fascinating Fillmore district.

However, here’s another unfortunate instance: The Jazz Factory in Louisville, Kentucky shut just last week after a five year run; pianist Harry Pickens led a Farewell Jam.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Joe Segal told the Tribune’s Howard Reich that his Jazz Showcase will reopen sometime this spring, well over a year since shutting at its old location. Serious, creative, progressive music inspired by the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians), including the Sunday early-evening Great Black Music Ensemble, continues at tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson’s Velvet Lounge, a rare model of success just two years after moving. 

Also, Good luck to HotHouse, a pan-cultural performance space which restarts presentations April 4 with Seneke, a West African band in partnership with Chi-town’s northside Viaduct Theater. Marguerite Horberg, HotHouse’s founder and longtime guiding force is not involved — she’s taking brave steps toward opening a new venue in (gasp!) Chelsea, in Manhattan. Details tba when she’s ready. . .



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Howard Mandel

I'm a Chicago-born (and after 32 years in NYC, recently repatriated) writer, editor, author, arts reporter for National Public Radio, consultant and nascent videographer -- a veteran freelance journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere, consulting on media, publishing and jazz-related issues. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association, a non-profit membership organization devoted to using all media to disseminate news and views about all kinds of jazz.
My books are Future Jazz (Oxford U Press, 1999) and Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge, 2008). I was general editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Flame Tree 2005/Billboard Books 2006). Of course I'm working on something new. . . Read More…

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