Howard Mandel's Urban Improvisation
I'm a Chicago-born and New York-based writer, editor, author, arts reporter/producer for radio including NPR, and nascent videographer -- for more than 30 years, a freelance arts journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association; 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) Read More…
What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the jazz beyond, behind, under and around jazz - could enrich your life? What if jazz is the subtle, insightful, stylish, … [Read More...]
A 1990 interview with drummer Rashied Ali, about his relationship with John Coltrane. In 1990 I interviewed drummer Rashied Ali for The World According to John Coltrane, a documentary produced and directed by Toby Byron. It was the first but not … [Read More...]
Miles Davis intended On The Corner to be a personal statement, an esthetic breakthrough and a social provocation upon its release in fall of 1972. He could hardly have been more successful: the album was all that, though it has taken decades for its … [Read More...]
Interview with Joe Zawinul, The Wire, 1996 JOE ZAWINUL AT 65 - © Howard Mandel 1996 Joe Zawinul has a loft in the Village, on the fifth floor of a modest elevator building that also houses the controversial human rights-monitoring law practice … [Read More...]
Over the course of three decades, I've been privileged to get behind the scenes and meet heroic creators of jazz as well as up-and-comers, innovators and exemplars of many other genres. Please enjoy these archival interviews and articles. Maria … [Read More...]
Jazz Beyond Jazz
Jose Reyes’ Jazz Con Class
Roanna Forman’s Boston Jazz Blog
David Hadju’s The Famous Door
Matt Miller’s tuneOUToptIN
Richard Mitnick’s Musicsprings
A Blog Supreme (NPR)
George Grella’s The Big City
Sebastian Scotney’s LondonJazz
Alex W. Rodriguez’s Lubricity
Ralph Mirlello’s Notes on Jazz
an ArtsJournal blog
