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Issue 9 of Point of Departure launches January 2nd

Since September 2005, Point of Departure: an online music journal a 2006 Jazz Journalist Association Jazz Award Nominee for Best Website Concentrating on Jazz.

Two regular columns debut in Issue 9: Art Lange's A Fickle Sonance and Brian Morton's Far Cry. Both Lange and Morton are among the most respected music critics writing in English today. Each has his own refined approach in connecting new music to various musical traditions, and to art, literature and ideas, as well. Since his tenure as Editor of Down Beat in the 1980s, Lange has, in addition to writing, produced and conducted recordings of seminal works by Anthony Braxton and Cornelius Cardew, co-edited Moment's Notice, arguably the definitive anthology of jazz-related poetry, and chaired the programming committee for the Chicago Jazz Festival. Morton is the co-author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, and is the author of a soon-to-be-published book on the artist formerly and currently known as Prince.

Issue 9 also features two important texts written by musicians, inspired by the music of Africa and the African Diaspora: Eero Koivistoinen's African Heartbeats and Evan Parker's Coltrane. African Heartbeats documents the Finnish saxophonist's ongoing relationship with folk musicians of Mozambique, particularly the timbila ensemble of Venancio Mbande. Presented as a talk at the 2006 edition of Jazz Em Agosto in Lisbon, Coltrane is a wide-ranging survey of John Coltrane's musical and iconic legacy.

Issue 9 also includes several regular and semi-regular features. What's New?, the PoD Roundtable is reconvened with Uri Caine, Dennis Gonzalez, Robert D. Rusch and Tim Warfield weighing in on issues impacting new and creative music. Moment's Notice reviews recordings by such diverse artists as Charles Tolliver, Queen Mab Trio and the trio of Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell. John Butcher is this issue's respondent to the Travellin' Light questionnaire about life on the road. And, a vintage Billy Bang LP is revisited on The Circle with the Hole in the Middle.

If that's not enough, the Free Jazz contest offers readers the chance to win real prizes. Readers of Issue 9 will have the opportunity to win one of three prize packages, consisting of a copy of A Parallax View by Joe McPhee and Paul Hession and a copy of Peace and Joy by Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, Philip Gibbs and Hamid Drake, courtesy of Slam Records.



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