(aus dem Jazzinstitut Darmstadt)
10 – 23 November 2022 | Ausgabe 20/2022 (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 ...

Lewis Porter explains how John Coltrane's composition "Big Nick" is basically his take on Francis Poulenc's "Impromptu No. 3", and he also has an idea about why Coltrane might have dedicated just this piece to fellow saxophonist Big Nick Nicholas, and why he might have chosen specifically No. 3 of Poulenc's impromptus (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- Lewis Porter also explains the origin of John Coltrane's "Impressions" which is based on an excerpt from composer Morton Gould's "Pavane" from his "American Symphonette No. 2", a movement that had previously been used in recordings by Jimmie Lunceford and Glenn Miller, although Ahmad Jamal's trio release from the 1950s might have been the direct inspiration for Coltrane using the theme (Playback with Lewis Porter).

Maxi Broecking talks to Brazilian drummer Mariá Portugal about attending a summer course with Karlheinz Stockhausen shortly before his death, about her band Quartabê, about the political situation in her home country, about her mixed musical influences, as well as about how the pandemic revealed the serious shortcomings of patriarchal social structures in Brazil (die tageszeitung). --- Intrigued by a mural of John Coltrane in Hamlet, North Carolina, Ted Gioia talks to the artist, Scott Nurkin, who also painted murals of Thelonious Monk, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Earl Scruggs in their respective North Carolinian home towns, and he learns that Nurkin is planning further of Max Roach as well as of rock 'n' roll guitarist Link Wray (The Honest Broker).

Ralf Dombrowski talks to German pianist Michael Wollny about his fascination with ghosts and how Jacques Derrida's "hauntology" influenced his thinking, about what really happens in the brain when improvising, about memory, scare, horror and how all of that relates to music, the development of harmonic passages for instance (Münchner Feuilleton). Thomas Lindemann listens to Michael Wollny's album "Ghosts" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). --- Narendra Kusnur reports about "the future of jazz in India", listening to some of the young musicians in the country and talking to experienced ones such as keyboardist Louis Banks (The Hindu).

Doug MacCash reports about jazz legend Buddy Bolden's former home in New Orleans which has been seized by the city government and might be sold in a public auction after renovation plans had not led to obvious improvements to the deteriorating structure (New Orleans Times-Picayune). Ted Gioia takes that news item and reflects about the fate of this and other jazz landmarks in New Orleans (The Honest Broker). --- Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval talks about his beginnings in music, about meeting Dizzy Gillespie for the first time, about loving any genre of music, as well as about a new biopic "For Love or Country", based on Sandoval's life (Wabe).

Adrian Peel talks to British saxophonist Courtney Pine about his latest album "Spirituality" as well as about working with pianist Zoe Rahman (Cambridge Independent). --- Jon W. Poses watches a new documentary about Louis Armstrong (Columbia Daily Tribune). Christian Zilko talks to Sacha Jenkins, the director of that documentary, "Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues", about the parallels between Armstrong in his days and hip-hop artists of today (Indie Wire).

Lewis Porter focuses on the bass work of Walter Page and his recordings with Count Basie and others (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- Vinnie Sperrazza looks at drummer Paul Motian's work with Carla Bley and Mose Allison (Chronicles) as well as at Tony Williams' album "Play or Die" from 1980 (Chronicles).

Savannah Taylor talks to bassist Ron Carter about a recent PBS documentary on his life (Ebony). --- Katha Kollmann listens to the album "Reflections" by Ukrainian harpist Alina Bzhezhinska (die tageszeitung). --- Gabriele Immenkeppel talks to German trumpeter Rainer Goetzendorf (Bonner General-Anzeiger).

Reinhard Köchl talks to Eva Svensson about her husband, Swedish pianist Esbjörn Svensson who died 14 years ago, about his musical approach, as well as about the tapes of a solo recording that lay dormant over many years and is now being released posthumously (Die Zeit). Ted Gioia remembers how he first got hooked on E.S.T., the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, and then listens to Svensson's posthumous solo album as well (The Honest Broker). --- Chris Searle talks to Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo about his road to jazz, as well as about his latest album which celebrates "Musica de Los Americas", the roots of Latin American and Caribbean music (Morning Star).

Ethan Iverson listens to George Russell's first three albums as leader, "The Jazz Workshop" from 1956, "New York, N.Y." from 1959, as well as "Jazz in the Space Age" from 1960 (Do the Math). --- Ammar Kalia looksk, NY" from " three albnalbnums  who died .zeit.de>, 15.Nov.2022 (F) digi.copy]t>, 12.N at the influence of trumpeter Don Cherry and talks to percussionist Kahil El'Zabar who had met Cherry in 1975 in Paris, to pianist David Ornette Cherry, Don's son, as well as to pianist Ana Ruiz who gave workshops together with Cherry in Mexico in 1977 (The Guardian).

Alex Greene talks to Delfeayo Marsalis about the trombone as one of the trademarks of New Orleans jazz, about his music education, about what he calls "riff-based jazz", as well as about his current musical activities (Memphis Flyer). --- Tobias Lehmkuhl listens to "Autumn Leaves" in its French original version as well as in different versions between jazz and pop, finds a tendency to elaborate on clichés in some recordings, and asks why none of the musicians of the current jazz avant-garde ever recorded the song (our explanation would be: because they don't record too many other standards either) (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

Sunil Sampat talks to pianist Monty Alexander about changes in the music scene, about influences like Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal and others, about how meeting Louis Armstrong as a boy after a concert in Jamaica made him decide to become a jazz musician, as well as about accompanying Frank Sinatra one evening when the singer happened to come into a club he played in (Rolling Stone India). --- Ammar Kalia talks to six younger musicians who stand for what he calls a "British jazz renaissance", namely drummer Myele Manzanza, saxophonist Camilla George, singer Georgia Cécile, saxophonist Jasmine Myra, saxophonist Xhosa Cole, and harpist Davina Adeosun-Bright aka Muva of Earth (The Guardian).

Paton D. Roberts and Eric Yan report about bassist/vocalist/composer Esperanza Spalding's decision to depart Harvard University's music department over a disagreement about a "decolonial education" curriculum which she proposed to implement as a course or initiative, but that "is not (yet) aligned with Harvard's priorities" (The Harvard Crimson). --- Lauren Williams talks to singer Alicia Hall Moran and pianist Jason Moran about their new musical production "Family Ball", about meeting more than 20 years ago while both studied at Manhattan School of Music, as well as about advice Alicia's mother gave her for a successful relationship (WBUR).

Bruce Hardy talks to Lebanese-French trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf about his father encouraging him to be a trumpet player but not necessarily being happy with the musical road he eventually took, as well as about the power of music being that people even of different convictions share something if they are moved by the music (The New Yorker).

Obituaries

We learned of the passing of British singer Victor Evans at age 88 (BBC), German trumpeter Jörn Anders at age 57 (NWZ), saxophonist Gene Cipriano at age 94 (WBGO), guitarist Mick Goodrick at age 77 (WRTI), Austrian pianist Rudi Wilfer at age 86 (ORF), Czech clarinetist Pavel Smetáček at age 82 (Radio Prague International), as well as Brazilian singer Gal Costa at age 77 (Süddeutsche Zeitung, JazzWax).

From the World of Jazz Research

Destination Unknown: The Future of Jazz

Submissions are arriving for papers and panels for our next Darmstadt Jazzforum conference, 28-30 September 2023. Inspired by Hartmut Geerken's Sun Ra Archive housed at the Jazzinstitut, we have titled the conference: "Destination Unknown. The Future of Jazz".

Our Call for Papers can be found on our website (Destination Unknown) together with a corresponding blog that outlines some of our own thoughts on the subject.

Current entries: (1) The devil you (don't) know; (2) Soothsaying; (3) If you have visions; (4) infinite vastness; (5) just go ahead ... (women in jazz)

If you want to be part of the conference as an active or passive participant, let us know. If you have any ideas for a paper or a panel, write to us. If you want to know what happened at the Jazzforum conferences over the years, browse the website of our publisher (Wolke Verlag, Jazz).

Call for papers:
Piano and pianists in jazz today: overview, heritage and research perspectives

(conference organized successively in Tours and Toulouse in the fall of 2024 in both universities)

Topics that may result in paper proposals include: Major figures of the second half of the 20th/ first quarter of the 21st century; Masters and pupils, influences and filiations: what genealogies for jazz piano?; Instruments, gestural or sound treatments, devices; The piano trio, its models, its extensions; Identities, traditions, frontiers of jazz piano playing; When jazz piano meets art, folk or popular music; Non-pianists at the piano (Anthony Braxton, Jack DeJohnette, ..); Jazz piano and pianists on screen, in literature, theater.

Proposals +/- 150 words with short biographical sketch, to be sent before January 15th 2023: vincent.cotro@univ-tours.fr and ludovic.florin@univ-tlse2.fr (Languages of papers: French, English. Video conferencing allowed)

Deutscher Jazz Preis

REMINDER: Until 30 November 2022, the application period for the German Jazz Prize 2023 is still open. Artists, producers, managers, promoters, employees of labels, publishers and broadcasters, as well as authors of journalistic articles and festival organizers can submit applications. The 31 prize winners in each category can look forward to prize money of €10,000 and a trophy. Nominees who do not win an award will still receive consolation prize money of at least €1,000. Applications can be submitted online and there is no application fee. On the DJP website you will find an overview of all 31 categories and detailed information the application process. In addition to the eleven submission categories, proposals will be submitted by a jury of experts in 20 curated categories. The expert jury of the German Jazz Prize is made up of a total of 25 personalities from the field of jazz and improvised music. While there have been many submissions already, the DJP still welcomes further submissions particularly for the categories "radio production", journalistic achievement" and "festival" (Deutscher Jazz Preis).

Last Week at the Jazzinstitut

heimat@jazzinstitut & Mainzer Jazzgespräch
Guitarist and podcaster Mandy Neukirchner arrived from Leipzig last Wednesday to spend a couple of days at the Jazzinstitut reflecting about her work as podcaster and connect with experts in order to get new ideas both for content and presentation (Bebop Mädchen). Mandy also took part in the Mainzer Jazzgespräch (Mainz Jazz Talks), a panel series at Mainz Music University that we organize once a semester. This edition was titled "jazz and the future of radio" , hosted by Wolfram Knauer from the Jazzinstitut, and the other panelists were Julia Neupert from SWR radio, and Markus Fleischer, a guitarist who also hosts a monthly radio show on a local radio station. The three talked about the difference of formats and approaches, about reaching an audience, and about what a future radio (linear or digital) might look like. During her short residency at the Jazzinstitut, Mandy also met with experts such as SWR journalist Julia Neupert, cultural manager Lisa Tuyala and podcaster Imke Machura from the Raketerei to, and she took part in a "Zukunfswerkstatt" (future workshop) of the Deutsche Jazzunion about "digitization and exploitation of rights in the digital domain" (heimat@jazzinstitut).

Website trouble
... speaking of digitization. We suffered some website problems last week that temporarily made both our website and our Wegweiser Jazz database inaccessible. The website is back online by now, even any by the time this newsletter reaches you most of the pages will be accessible again. Only the Wegweiser database is still being repaired. We hope to have it running again by the end of next week (Jazzinstitut Darmstadt).

APPLAUS !!!
"Applaus" stands for "Auszeichnung der Programmplanung unabhängiger Spielstätten" (Award honoring the programming of independent venues) and is being awarded annually by Claudia Roth, the German national secretary for culture. The Förderverein Jazz, a local music initiative that organizes the bulk of concerts in the Jazzinstitut's concert space, has just received that award for the fourth time. It's an honor ... and more, because it comes with 10,000 Euro prize money that goes back into future programming. The plaque hangs under the previous three in their / our concert space underneath the Jazzinstitut. Congratulations! (Applaus)

"Play yourself..." in Würzburg
Wolfram Knauer will be reading from his book "'Play yourself, man! Die Geschichte des Jazz in Deutschland" in Würzburg this Saturday, 26 November 2022, at 7:30pm at Falkenhaus (Stadtbücherei). His glimpses into the different phases of jazz in Germany will alternate with solo pieces played by guitarist Joe Krieg (Main Post).

Current opening hours of the Jazzinstitut
The Jazzinstitut is open to the public by appointment. We also offer 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.

Unsubscribe   |   Manage your subscription   |   View online
facebook  youtube  soundcloud  instagram  vimeo 
Jazzinstitut Darmstadt
Bessunger Strasse 88d | 64285 Darmstadt | Germany
The Jazzinstitut is an institution of the City of Sciences Darmstadt | Das Jazzinstitut ist eine Einrichtung der Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt