Jayne Cortez, a no-nonsense poet who often declaimed her incisive lines of vivid imagery tying fierce social criticism to imperatives of personal responsibility with backing by her band the Firespitters, died Dec. 28 at age 76 (according to NYT obit, age 78). Her deep appreciation of American blues and jazz was another of her constant themes; her son Denardo Coleman played drums in the Firespitters, with whom she recorded six albums. An activist in the Civil Rights movement, organizer of Watts writing and drama workshops, founder of the … [Read more...]

Checking out new recordings is the motivation of much jazz journalism, though at top-10 time having so much new stuff can be a bedevilment, if not a curse. Here's a baker's dozen of my favorites from among the 11-some-hundred sent by record labels, publicists and, increasingly, the artists themselves. They reward multiple listenings, so I keep learning about them. Maghostut Trio – Live at Last (RogueArt) -- In  Oct 2003, five months before his death, Malachi Favors Maghostut,  the profoundly sure bassist who co-founded the AACM and … [Read more...]

Things may be somewhat up-for-grabs at the National Endowment for the Arts, with chair Rocco Landesman  stepping down at year end (NEA Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa will serve as the agency's acting head), but assuming the show will go on I urge Reggie Workman (b. 1937, Philadelphia) receive a 2014 NEA Jazz Masters Award. Workman is an oak of a bassist who has helped sustain, secure and advance jazz before and since the revolution started by John Coltrane. He's been a messenger of jazz with many of the music's leading lights … [Read more...]

Eddie Palmieri is a new NEA Jazz Master -- to be inducted Jan. 14 in a ceremony at Dizzy's Club in Jazz at Lincoln Center, to be webcast live. He is, contradictorily, the spark-plug/conservator of the Americas' indefatigable Afro-Caribbean music. He turned 76 yesterday (Dec. 15), celebrating with a a "career retrospective" featuring his jazz band and dance ensemble at JALC's Hall. Here's Palmieri's portrait with his timbalero José Claussell, taken last night by Sánta István Csaba, a Budapest-based photographer currently visiting New York … [Read more...]

Drummer/composer/pianist Jack DeJohnette, an NEA Jazz Master, is the sole jazz-associated artist among 54 fellows selected by United States Artists (not a governmental organization) from 438 applications to a grants program initiated by United States Artists in 2006. USA fellows received $50,000 in unrestricted funds. Citing "cutting-edge thinkers and traditional practitioners from the fields of architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts, dance, literature, media, music, theater arts, and visual arts," USA also rewarded the … [Read more...]

The Enjoy Jazz Festival in south-western Germany two weeks ago culminated in an unexpected celebration of jazz's deep traditions, led by formidable saxophonist Archie Shepp and serene reeds explorer Yusef Lateef. It was a fitting end, also, for an international symposium titled "Lost in Diversity: A Transatlantic Dialogue on the Social Relevance of Jazz," held at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies at Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg (est. 1386), which convened musicians, scholars, journalists and presenters to forge new … [Read more...]

A lot of jazz joints are "dives" -- in basements -- but since Hurricane Sandy it's not flood waters keeping cellars like the Village Vanguard, the Jazz Standard, Fat Cat, 55 Bar (Sat: open with candlelight), Cornelia Street Café and Smalls closed. There's simply no electricity. So they, like every other music venue below 26th St. (including the Blue Note, which hopes to be back Saturday, with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke; Village Bistro, Arthur's Tavern, the Metropolitan Room, the Jazz Gallery, Jazz at Kitano -- which is on Park Ave. … [Read more...]

NEA Jazz Masters pianist Randy Weston and alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, both 86, played the same room as two astonishing 12-old prodigies -- trumpeter Geoffrey Gallante and organist Matthew Whitaker (see their video clips, below) -- at the Jazz Foundation of America's annual benefit Loft Party Saturday night  (Oct 27),. It proved again that America's improvised, vernacular art form appeals to kids of the 21st century as to 70-year world-class professionals. Entertaining a suitably diverse, all-age audience, these musician spoke same language, … [Read more...]