There is no Golden Globes, Emmies, Oscars or highly hyped Grammys for jazz. So the National Endowment of the Arts’ Jazz Masters award is, as acting NEA chair Joan Shigekawa said at ceremonies crowning its 2013 inductees on Jan. 14, “the greatest honor the nation can bestow” on veteran creators of America’s world-beloved vernacular yet “classical” […]
NYC’s hot Winter Jazzfest, and Macy Gray with David Murray Big Band
The second weekend of January is now the fullest on NYC’s jazz calendar, with continuation of the high energy, two-night showcase Winter Jazzfest in multiple Greenwich Village venues, and aspirational ensembles elsewhere playing (they hope) for booking agents and curators attending the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters convention. Having responsibilities of my own Friday […]
Images of a Jazz Conference
Jazz Connect, a confederation of jazz activists including principals of JazzTimes magazine,  AllAboutJazz.com and Thirsty Ear Recordings, produced a free multi-meeting conference with no specific theme other than what’s happening in the musical “community” now, on Jan 10 and 11 at the New York Hilton. (Correction: JazzTimes is NOT part of Jazz Connect, but did organize […]
Jayne Cortez — poet, activist, muse of the avant garde — dies, age 76
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 […]
2012 Top Jazz Beyond Jazz recordings
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 […]
My suggestion for 2014 NEA Jazz Master: Reggie Workman
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 […]
“Latin” Jazz Master Eddie Palmieri, both innovator and conservator
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 […]
DeJohnette the jazzer of 54 artists getting $50k USA fellowships
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 […]
Found in Heidelberg: Transatlantic jazz connections
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 […]
Critics, scholars, musicians @ Enjoy Jazz Fest, Lost in Diversity conference
International jazz journalists, academic scholars, presenters and musicians rarely meet together, but that’s the plan for the “Lost in Diversity” conference during the 14th Enjoy Jazz Fest, which I’m attending tomorrow (Nov 7) through Sunday in Heidelberg, Germany. Curated by ethnomusicologist and sociologist Dr. Christian Broecking of the Heidelberg Center of American Studies in the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität (oldest in Germany, founded 1386), this is […]
NYC jazz this weekend, post-Sandy
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. […]
We’ve got rhythm: Masters meet prodigies @ Jazz Foundation Loft Party
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 […]
There is nothing like a blog (the freelancer’s recourse)
I’ve been a freelance writer for almost 40 years and it hasn’t gotten easier, but I’m glad to have this blog. Why? is the question to be addressed at the JJA’s webinar “Blogging: Tales from Veterans” by Pamela Espeland (Bebopified), Willard Jenkins (The Independent Ear) and Marc Myers (JazzWax), which I’ll moderate, on Tuesday Oct. […]