The American Composers Orchestra readings of short symphonic works by jazz-oriented composers which I wrote of in my CityArts column and posted about here are now available to hear, thanks to Lara Pelligrinelli at NPR’s A Blog Supreme. The 23rd annual BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra concert, featuring “New Works for Big Band” and the naming (not yet publicized) of the winner of the 11th Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize. I’m looking for a third item regarding really large scale opportunities for jazz composers (and listeners), but the student competitions, festival appearances, and other emanations of a tradition which by the logic of the marketplace ought to be pretty much over are too plentiful to start to mention (ok, here’s one: Savannah’s 6th Annual Patriotic Big Band Salute on July 4 starring Jeremy Davis and the Fabulous Equinox Orchestra).
Jazz discoveries abound! Soundscape, Creative Music Studio, Varese
Amazing, historic, never-before-public recordings from an under-documented, under-appreciated but highly developmental era of jazz and new music comes to light! Complete sets and interviews from the international stars who gave birth to world jazz and downtown improv at the Manhattan arts loft Soundscape will be broadcast by WKCR-FM  and archived online starting Sept. 6 — and are also at the core of the subscription-based CMS Archival Project, recently launched by the Creative Music Studio (Woodstock, NY, circa 1971 – ’84). And oh yes: audio clips have emerged of Edgard Varese conducting Charles Mingus et al in “free” electro-acoustic improvisation, 1957. This should all be big news to musicians, musicologists, listeners and anyone interested in contemporary American culture, as these sounds got us to what we hear now.
Treasures of YouTube: Dolphy, flute; Mingus “Meditations”
Eric Dolphy solos beautifully then uses his bass clarinet for the ensemble line of bassist/composer/bandleader Charles Mingus “Meditations on Integration” in this 1964 clip, which warms my dank, chill afternoon in Brooklyn.
Jaki Byard on piano, and dapper Danny Richmond, drums.