|
contents | jazz | |||||||||||||
| 9th Annual Jazz Awards, “Jazz Matters The Jazz Journalists Association, the 450-plus member international not-for-profit promoting the documentation and dissemination of news on jazz, follows up its ninth annual Jazz Awards gala held in June with public panel discussions at the Newport, Tanglewood and Chicago Jazz festivals in August. Eric Jackson, longtime host of “Eric in the Evening” on WGBH-FM (Boston), will moderate “World's Greatest Jazz Fests, ” an informal gathering at Sardella's Italian Restaurant, 30 Memorial Boulevard W., Newport, RI on Friday, August 12. Confirmed panelists include Joe Lovano, world-renown saxophonist; Bob Blumenthal, the JJA's 2005 Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award winner; Gwen Calvier of Hot House magazine; photojournalist Ken Franckling of Providence RI; Fred Taylor, artistic director of the Tanglewood Jazz Festival and entertainment director of Scullers in Boston, and Steve Bianchi of 99.3 FM WSJZ-Newport. Also at Newport, the JJA collaborates with Hot House on the Second Annual International Newport Jazz Party, after the Jazz Festival music, starting around 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 13. Journalists, musicians, Newport dignitaries and friends are invited to this social gathering jam session in nearby Middletown, RI In Chicago, former JJA President Art Lange moderates a panel on “The Legacy of King Oliver” with legendary saxophonist Franz Jackson (age 92), up-and-coming Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis, historian Dick Wang and Bob Koester (Delmark Records/Jazz Record Mart) at the Chicago Cultural Center, Wednesday, August 31, 5-6:30 p.m., before the Chicago Jazz Festival's kickoff Jazz Club Tour. “Jazz and Pop -- The Big Cross Over, ” is the topic of the JJA's Jazz Matters to be held in Seranak, the former Koussevitsky estate on the grounds of the Tanglewood Music Center prior to Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Massachusetts' Berkshires, 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 3. Carol Cutting of WEIB Radio, Northampton MA moderates a panel of pianist-composer Donal Fox, vibraphonist Matthias Lupri, saxophonist Walter Beasley, singer Nora York and JJA member Tom Reney from WFCR-FM. Earlier this summer, the JJA presented Jazz Matters public panels at Syracuse and Vancouver Jazz Festivals, and had a major role in the first National Critics Conference, with other professional organizations representing arts journalists, the USC/Annenberg Center and the Getty Museum, May 25 through May 29 in Los Angeles. “Jazz Matters” panels have been held in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Cleveland, Monterey, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Long Beach, Toronto and elsewhere; the JJA's “Who Asked You? Critics Clinics, ” fostering mentoring-protege and peer-to-peer instruction among journalists in all media, at all levels, have been popular sessions since introduction at the International Association for Jazz Education conference in Anaheim, CA, in 1999. The JJA continues to participate in the JAI/IAJE Industry Track, with stimulating workshops and panel discussions planned for the annual IAJE conference in New York City January 11 through 14, 2006. This year, the JJA introduced its Clarence Atkins Fellowships, hosting several journalists of diverse ethnicity and experience at the National Critics Conference (the JJA's first collaboration with the Music Critics Association of North America, the American Theater Critics Association, the International Association of Critics of Art, and the Dance Critics Association). In addition, the JJA's quarterly journal-in-print Jazz Notes has received substantial new editorial energy and redesign, the Jazz Awards were fully documented onhttp://JazzJournalistsAwards.comas well as videotaped for autumn cablecast on BETJazz, and the JJA websitehttp://Jazzhouse.org,continues to update news, photos and links daily. The JJA's 2005 summer events involved many of the world's best respected jazz musicians, including (at the JJA's third annual Left Coast Jazz Festival, at the Jazz Bakery, May 29) Kenny Burrell, Charlie Haden, Gerald Wilson, Wadada Leo Smith and the bands of Freddie Redd, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Dwight Trible and Joe McPhee; in New York (at the Jazz Awards, June 14, B.B. King's Blues Club on 42nd Street) Clark Terry, Marian McPartland, Dr. Billy Taylor, Jimmy and Tootie Heath, Hamiet Bluiett, Billy Bang, Maria Schneider, Luciana Souza, Cecil Taylor, Fred Hersch, Stefon Harris, Roy Haynes, Andy Bey, Jack DeJohnette (who played solo drums), Bob Stewart, Kevin Mahogany, Claire Daly, Gary Smulyan, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Marty Ehrlich, Ben Allison, Frank Wess, bands led by Sy Johnson, Nnenna Freelon and ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Competition winners Quamon Fowler, Maurice Brown and Bob Reynolds. Jazz Matters resumes a monthly schedule at the New School Jazz performance space in New York City in September, and in Boston at various venues, TBA. Topics for New York “Jazz Matters” meetings, dates TBA, include “Art of the Interview, Part 3” and “Journalists Meet Musicians.” write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |