The whole list is posted at http://www.jazzhouse.org, along with photos of the Jazz Journalists Association’s 13th Annual Jazz Awards presentation, held Tuesday in New York City. A full report, with video, very soon. howardmandel.com Subscribe by Email | Subscribe by RSS | Follow on Twitter All JBJ posts |
Jazz “bloat” gone? Phoenix rising from ashes?
Forecasts vary in the wake of collapses of Jazz Times and the JVC Jazz Festivals. Brilliant Corners exults that mid-brow music is so over and revels in New York’s Vision Fest, while Jazz Chronicles asks what comes next — possibly something good? I think it’s irresponsible and delusional to believe that the demise of successful […]
Tina Marsh, Austin’s avant-jazz leader, gravely ill
The founder of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, a musicans’ cooperative of composer-improvisers on the model of Chicago’s AACM, is suffering late stage breast cancer. Beautiful Tina Marsh, age 55, whose disease was successfully treated in the ’90s but recurred in 2008, is resting in a private home, with friends close by. A pure-voiced vocalist who employs […]
JazzTimes “temporarily suspended,” staff “furloughed”
JazzTimes confirms rumors first reported here the 38-year-old monthly magazine’s deep financial distress requires it to stop publishing. Its management hopes for a brand-sale and re-emergence. But in a longer email to freelance contributors, those same managers adopt a can’t-help-you-pal shrug toward the brand’s freelance contributors. “The brand and operation will undergo reorganization and restructuring in […]
Jazz Times crisis confirmed
An associate editor of JazzTimes “until a couple of weeks ago when I was laid off” has confirmed that the magazine is in deep trouble. “There was some hope of a new buyer coming to the rescue,” he writes, “but as of my last contact with the guys it wasn’t looking good.” I’d heard previously […]
Domino effect of JVC Jazz Fest failure on Jazz Times?
New speculation on the jazz magazine crisis: Having no summer advertorial supplements for JVC Jazz Festivals (which aren’t happening) may have hugely hurt JT‘s seasonal revenues. How could the loss of three consecutive monthly multi-page inserts, all expenses paid for by the client, not shake a publication’s income stream? Complete disclosure: I edited the JVC […]
Blues fans grieve the Queen
Koko Taylor, singer and survivor of the grittiest Chicago blues, died yesterday (June 3) at age 80 following surgery for gastro-intestinal problems. She may be best known for her first hit, “Wang Dang Doodle” which she recorded in 1966 and performed with Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica for the American Blues Festival in Germany in […]
Losing a jazz mag?
Rumors abound that JazzTimes magazine is folding — it’s laid off employees, notified writers of waits for May payments, not shipped its June issue to the printers and failed to sell itself to a new publisher. A senior contributor says he was told not to write his next column until asked for it. These are rumors, […]
Cecil and Miles in NYC (and India)
Taylor, the pianist beyond genre (age: 80) and still-groundbreaking music of Davis, the trumpeter/conceptualist (dead 18 years) are at major Manhattan venues this week, continuing to provoke and gratify. Cecil Taylor performs at the Blue Note tonight (Thursday, May 28) while “Miles From India,” mixing veterans of Davis’ electric bands with South Asian improvisers, has […]
On The Corner program notes, Merkin Hall concert 5/25/09
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 full impact to be understood.
Hurray for the new NEA Jazz Masters
Dean of post-jazz Muhal Richard Abrams,  doyenne of vocalese Annie Ross and George Avakian, who invented jazz albums and reissues, popularized the LP and live recording, are among eight 2010 Jazz Masters named today by the National Endowment of the Arts. New York-based pianists Kenny Barron and Cedar Walton, exploratory reedist Yusef Lateef, big band composer-arranger […]
Take an “outside” chance on musical experimentation
My column in May’s City Arts NY urges Adam Rudolph’s conducted Go: Organic Orchestra improvs and the Mixology Fest (both at Roulette) and the 14th annual Vision Festival as ways to break out of conventions and celebrate spring. (In order to read the column, you have to zoom in on “Jazz”). I should have also mentioned […]
JVC Jazz Fest-NY cancellation reported
No major, mainstream, corporate-supported jazz fest will occur in New York City this summer, according to today’s New York Times report confirming my posting of April 15. Festival Network principal Chris Shields, purchaser in 2007 of the production company headed by George Wein which staged June jazz concerts at major mid-town Manhattan venues for 37 […]