{"id":3122,"date":"2024-10-16T17:57:39","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T21:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2024-10-16T18:22:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T22:22:27","slug":"introducing-the-jazz-omnibus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2024\/10\/introducing-the-jazz-omnibus.html","title":{"rendered":"Introducing The Jazz Omnibus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m proud of my two published books (Miles Ornette Cecil – Jazz Beyond Jazz<\/a><\/em> and Future Jazz<\/a><\/em>) and my unpublished ones, too; the two iterations of the encyclopedia of jazz and blues<\/a>; I edited, and my collaborations with some musicians creating their own books<\/a> \u2014 but right now I\u2019m crazy enthusiastic about The Jazz Omnibus: 21st-Century Photos and Writings by Members of the Jazz Journalists Association<\/a>, <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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published in e-book, softcover and hardbound formats by Cymbal Press<\/a>, most readily available from you-know-where<\/a>. So crazy I\u2019ll brazenly go all advertisements-for-myself<\/a> to promote it. Here\u2019s the story :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six-hundred pages of profiles, portraits, interviews, reviews, inquiries and analysis of music, all from the past 20 years by dozens of the people far and wide who make it their business to cover jazz in its multifarious, ever-permutating forms. Created by a team comprising editor David Adler, photo editor Patrick Hinely, copy chief Terri Hinte, me as editorial consultant and readers Fiona Ross and Martin Johnson,, with a dazzling cover photo by Lauren Deutsch<\/a> (of Roscoe Mitchell, from her \u201cTangible Sound\u201d series), and dedicated to the memory of JJA emeritus member Dan Morgenstern<\/a> (1929-2024) The Jazz Omnibus<\/em> strikes me — involvement admitted! \u2014 as unique and multi-dimensional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t claim to be a comprehensive history yet it provides a sweeping overview of the topics addressed by music journalists, with many different perspectives conveyed in words and pictures. It offer newcomers numerous entry points, introductions to emerging artists as well as in-depth discussions of icons. Connoisseurs will find plenty to argue about as well as some work they\u2019ve probably never come across before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s great about this anthology is the diversity of voices and viewpoints focused on the incredibly resilient creative expression we call jazz (acknowledging that some practitioners reject the term). There is been nothing quite like it in the jazz literature \u2014 most anthologies represent a single writer or photographer\u2019s pieces. Here we\u2019ve got Ted Panken, Paul de Barros, Suzanne Lorge, Nate Chinen, Ted Gioia, Willard Jenkins, Enid Farber, Bob Blumenthal, Bill Milkowski, James Hale, Larry Blumenfeld, Jordannah Elizabeth, Ashley Kahn, Luciano Rossetti \u2014 observers immersed in their subjects. DownBeat\u2019s The Great Jazz Interviews<\/a><\/em> is similarly valuable, as is The Oxford Companion to Jazz<\/a> <\/em>(I\u2019m in that 2004 anthology, writing about jazz to and from Africa), but I daresay The Jazz Omnibus<\/em> is more freewheeling and multi-faceted.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In its early gestation I thought of it as a descendent of two volumes I\u2019d loved as a child: This is My Best<\/a> and This is My Best Humor<\/em> (now completely disappeared) both edited by Whit Burnett, founder of Story<\/a> magazine (founded in 1931, ongoing). There\u2019s also been Da Capo\u2019s Best Music Writing <\/a>series, but it was far from jazz-centrric and ended 13 years ago. Jazzmen<\/a><\/em>, regarded as first jazz history book published in the U.S. (in 1939), also featured chapters contributed by nine writers. It\u2019s gratifying to have The Jazz Omnibus <\/em>join such a literary lineage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Omnibus is, of course, central to the mission of the JJA \u2014 which you may well not know, is a New York-registered non-profit of some 250 internationally-based writers, photographers, broadcasters and new media professionals, networking to sustain ourselves as independent disseminators of news and views of jazz (as on our website JJANews<\/a>). I\u2019ve been president since 1994. We incorporated in 2004. Even before then, we\u2019d established annual Jazz Awards<\/a> for altruistic and journalistic as well as musical accomplishments; these continue. We\u2019re media-forward, running monthly \u201cSeeing Jazz\u201d photographers\u2019 sessions<\/a> archived on YouTube, producing the podcast The Buzz<\/a>, having experimented <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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