(aus dem Jazzinstitut Darmstadt)
17 - 30 March 2022 | Ausgabe 06/2022 (English)

We read the morning paper for you!

Dear jazz friends,

The Jazzinstitut's JazzNews keeps you up-to-date with news of the jazz world, which we collect, summarize, and issue via e-mail about once a week. This service can also be accessed on our website (www.jazzinstitut.de), where it is updated on a daily basis.

If you need bibliographies of the musicians named in our JazzNews, please click on our website’s Jazz Index page. This is a bibliographical reference to jazz-related books, magazines, journals and other sources that you can access without charge. If you don't find the name(s) you’re looking for, feel free to e-mail us! We will send you Jazz Index digests of articles about musicians as they make the news.

Now, have fun reading about the jazz week that was!

... brief news ...

Richard Scheinin remembers hearing pianist Cecil Taylor in the early 1970s and reflects about the cultural atmosphere of the time, the loft scene, Sam Rivers' Studio Rivbea (owned by Robert DeNiro's mother), Columbia University's radio station WKCR and other jazz radio stations of the time, as well as about how Fred Seibert who worked as an on-air engineer at WKCR came to record Taylor's Town Hall concert in 1973 and how nearly 50 years later he rediscovered the tapes that were just released on the Oblivion Records label (Do the Math). --- Brent Katz remembers a pamphlet bassist Charles Mingus published in 1954 titled "The Charles Mingus CAT-alog for Toilet Training Your Cat" and talks to Mingus' son Eric who remembers that the method was not foolproof – "Sometimes the cat would miss, and there’d be cat poop on the seat or on the floor" (New York Times).

Peter Jungblut reports about a production of Ernst Krenek's 1927 opera "Jonny spielt auf" in Munich, Germany, the main character of which performed in blackface, leading first to protests then to an announcement  of the theater that it will abandon "blackfacing" in all future performances (Bayerischer Rundfunk). --- Gwen Ansell finds that music studies in their current form are a good example of the need to decolonize South African universities’ curricula and asks how and what comes after it's been done (New Frame).

Giovanni Russonello discovers the locations where jazz lives these days in New York City and finds that apart from the usual clubs and venues there are cafés, discotheque-like clubs, non-for-profit as well as private spaces that keep the creative spirit of the music alive (New York Times). Spike Wilner, the owner of Smalls is not happy with Russonello's characterization of the jam sessions in his club (Facebook). --- Robyn Mowat talks to saxophonist Braxton Cook about his road to music, about playing a show at New York's Blue Note earlier this year, as well as about his upcoming album, to be released later this year (Okay Player).

Keziah Weir talks to singer Cécile McLorin Salvant about her latest album "Ghost Song", about the inspiration she gets from novels, as well as about the music of her childhood (Vanity Fair). Jan Wiele hears Cécile McLorin Salvant in concert at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). --- Mark Swed attends "The Equality of Day and Night", a performance of choreographer Ronald K. Brown's company Evidence to music by pianist Jason Moran, as well as "Canticle for Innocent Comedians", a reimagined lost work by iconic choreographer Martha Graham for which Moran also provided the music (Los Angeles Times).

Marie Fazio reports about a little known regulation from March 1922 that bans jazz in New Orleans schools to keep children from "rough dancing". Now, one hundred years later, the school board plans to reverse the ban that luckily didn't prevent jazz from being taught in the city's schools, because, as Ken Ducote, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Collaborative of Charter Schools, explained, "It's like if Colorado passed a rule banning students from looking at the Rocky Mountains" (New Orleans Times-Picayune). --- Nick Metzger talks to double bassist Damon Smith about his road to free improvised music, about influences like Charles Mingus and Peter Kowald, about settling on the bass as his instrument, about his label Balance Point Acoustics, as well as about some of his most recent work, both musically and with the label (Free Jazz Blog).

Andrew Gilbert reads pianist Michael Wolff's biography that talks about his music as well as about living with undiagnosed Tourette Syndrome (Berkeleyside). --- Ulrich Stock listens to German trombonist Nils Wogram's latest album "Muse" and finds a soundscape "somewhere between chamber and film music" (Die Zeit). --- German NDR radio asks about the current situation of women in jazz and talks to pianist Julia Hülsmann, bassist Lisa Wulff, and drummer Eva Klesse (NDR). --- Roland Spiegel asks about how important jazz and improvised music remain in a world full of dramatic turns (BR Klassik). --- Daniel Holmes remembers the 505 club in Sydney, Australia, which opened in 2007 and closes these days after 15 years (The Guardian). --- Andrew Gilbert talks to Israeli-American clarinetist Anat Cohen (San Francisco Classical Voice). --- Gabriella Dragone attends a workshop given by trumpeter Rodney Marsalis, a cousin of Wynton (Tap into Patterson). --- Aidin Vaziri reports about SFJazz founder Randall Kline who will step down in November 2023 after 40 years (San Francisco Chronicle). --- Thomas Lindemann discovers the young German trombonist Antonia Hausmann (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). --- WRTI looks back 97 years when pianist Sam Wooding and his band The Chocolate Kiddies introduced Copenhagen, Denmark (and, actually, the rest of Europe) to live jazz (WRTI). --- Stefan Künzli tells the story of Jazz 'n' More, the Swiss jazz magazine celebrating its 25^th anniversary these days (Tagblatt). --- Dalia Jakubauskas reports about a diversity, equity and inclusion statement issued by Monterey Jazz Festival (Music Fest News). --- Marc Myers talks to bassist Harvie S. about singers Jackie Paris and Anne Marie Moss (JazzWax). --- Oliver Hochkeppel attends the Jazzwoche Burghausen and finds too many non-jazz acts on the program (Süddeutsche Zeitung). --- Matthias Mast talks to Swiss promoter Hans Zurbrügg about the jazz festival in Berne, Switzerland, which he founded in 1976 (Jungfrau-Zeitung). --- Jens Kastner quotes Greg Tate about the problems of cultural appropriation in an op-ed piece relevant to a discussion about a white German pop singer with dreadlocks who was disinvited from a Friday for Future event last week (Graswurzel).

Obituaries

We learned of the passing of pianist Jessica Williams at age 73 (KNKX, The Honest Broker, CapRadio, JazzWax), singer Barbara Morrison at age 72 (Los Angeles Times, JazzWax), trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez at age 68 (Kera News, Dallas Observer), radio host Brian Barlow at age 72 (Telegram & Gazette), the Duke Ellington expert and collector Morris Hodara at age 98 (New York Times), German trumpeter Thomas Banholzer at age 67 (Südkurier), Polish saxophonist Zbigniew Jaremko at age 75 (Jazz Forum), drummer Marvin Jones at age 61 (Kansas City Star), former secretary of state and jazz lover Madeleine Albright at age 84 (KNKX), as well as singer Timmy Thomas at age 77 (New York Times).

From the World of Jazz Research

Jazz Re:Search in 21^st Century Academia and Beyond
The Institute for Jazz Research will host its next conference in Graz, Austria, 9-12 June 2022. It has re-opened its Call for Papers about subjects such as "Fwd: Jazz Research", "The 'Jazz' in Jazz Studies: Boundaries and Synergies", "Jazz Studies and Gender", as well as "Sites of Jazz (Research)". The deadline for new proposals is 4 April 2022, more info here (jazz re:search)

Institute of Jazz Studies
Steve Adubato presents the Institute of Jazz Studies as a "hidden gem" in Newark, New Jersey (New Jersey Monthly).

Last Week at the Jazzinstitut

Darmstadt Jazz Conceptions
Each summer since 1992 we organized a week-long workshop together with our partner, the cultural center Bessunger Knabenschule. The Darmstadt Jazz Conceptions invite teachers who have developed their own specific approach to music, and attract students of all ages, mainly from the region. The workshop lasts from 25 through 30 July 2022, every evening there will be concerts and sessions all over town. This year's teachers are: Rabie Azar (Arab violin), Heidi Bayer (trumpet), Christopher Dell (vibrahone), Angela Frontera (drums, percussion), Christian Ramond (bass), and Uli Partheil (piano). Partheil is also the artistic director after the workshop founder Jürgen Wuchner's death in 2020. More info: Darmstadt Jazz Conceptions.

Past concerts
Last week, Wolfram Knauer moderated a concert in Mainz, Germany, celebrating the music of Louis Armstrong, but played in an entirely different context with trumpeter Marko Mebus, guitarist Markus Fleischer, drummer Maximilian Hering and sousaphonist Matthew Bookert (M8 Mainz).

heimat @ Jazzinstitut, #2
Next week we will host the Frankfurt-based band Quartertone in our residency series heimat@jazzinstitut. The young quartet will rehearse for three days, receive a one-day coaching from pianist/composer Florian Ross, accompanied by photographer Wilfried Heckmann, and perform a concert at the Jazzinstitut's concert space on 8 April which will be recorded by Raum 103. More about the residency series: heimat@jazzinstitut. More about the concert: Jazzinstitut Darmstadt.

Current opening hours of the Jazzinstitut
The Jazzinstitut is open to the public by appointment. Research slots will be given out with exact time slots for one visitor at a time. We ask our visitors to be either fully vaccinated,  recovered or officially tested (3G regulation). At the same time we continue our offer for research help by phone, e-mail or video-call. If you would like to schedule a video call, please send an e-mail to make an appointment and give us an idea what you want to talk about. We will then reply with a link for a Webex video session for your meeting.