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| Blujazz: New Managing Director of Chicago Based Label BluJazz Productions President Greg Pasenko announced that Mitchell Feldman has been named managing director of the Chicago-based cooperative jazz label. Pasenko co-founded in 1995 that specializes in producing and marketing independent jazz artists and ensembles. Feldman's jazz publicity and radio promotion company MFA provided those services for six of the past eight CDs released by BluJazz between the fall of 2005 and the fall of 2006. BluJazz's latest release, Offerings For A Peaceable Season by label co-founder and VicePresident violinist Diane Delin, was one of the jazz hits of the past holiday season, peaking at #5 on the final JazzWeek Top-50 Jazz Chart of 2006. The labels two previous releases - by vocalist Janice Borla and The Mike Frost Project - also received extensive national airplay and charted at both JazzWeek and CMJ. "Both I and my wife Diane Delin, a jazz violinist who's been running BluJazz with me for the past 12 years, would like to concentrate more on our own careers as musicians and be able to devote more time to performing and writing. In addition, we're deeply involved in the operations of the Skokie Theatre, a 150 seat performance venue we renovated and opened outside Chicago in 2006, Pasenko explained. "We've worked closely with Mitchell for over a year and he achieved excellent results for our label and the artists whose CDs he promoted like pianist Dan Cray, trombonist Tim Coffman and trumpeter Scott Anderson's Nia Quintet. Given the other demands on my and Diane's time, we asked him to not only continue coordinating the promotion of our future CDs and back catalog, but also to take on some of the labels administrative functions like being a liaison with artists as they design and manufacture their CDs and with our distributor, Rock Bottom." Feldman was previously the managing director of the jazz labels CMP Records in Germany from 1985-89 and of Synergy Music in Denver in 2004 and 2005. "I'm delighted to take on the additional responsibilities at BluJazz and free up more time for Greg and Diane to focus on their own music, " Feldman said. "At MFA I've been successful raising the national profile of regional and emerging artists and bands from both the US and abroad and I look forward to continuing to do so for BluJazz artists." In addition to his earlier work for BluJazz, since 2004 Feldman has promoted in the American market recordings by Michele Rosewoman; Oliver Lake; Art Lande; the British saxophonists Soweto Kinch and Denys Baptiste; trumpeter Abram Wilson (a New Orleans native currently an expat in London); the Cuban pianist Manuel Valera; the Israeli clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and bandleader Anat Cohen; the bands AfroMantra, organissimo, SLAMMIN', Gnappy, The Onus, 3-osity and The Ken Walker Sextet. Feldman's new role at BluJazz has already started as he has been coordinating the release of three new titles scheduled to come out on the label over the next few months: Brownstone a tribute by Brooklyn-based saxophonist Jeff Newell's New-Trad Octet to the turn-of-the-century brass band music of John Phillip Sousa and others set for release in March 2007; Blue Nights by Berlin-based vocalist Judy Niemack set for release in April 2007 and featuring guitarist Jean-Francois Prins, Jim McNeely on piano, Dennis Irwin on bass, drummer Victor Lewis, guest soloists Gary Bartz on alto saxophone and Don Sickler on trumpet and flugelhorn; and Contemporary Residents, a fusion outing by saxophonist and flutist Paul Scea due out in May 2007. MFA will maintain its core roster of clients and continue to handle radio promotion for Colorado-based Capri Records; publicity for New York-based HighNote / Savant Records and for the lower Manhattan jazz club The Jazz Gallery; and directing publicity and radio promotion activities in the US for the British jazz label Dune Records. Feldman was also recently named publicist for the 2007 Telluride Jazz Celebration taking place August 2-5. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |