(aus dem Jazzinstitut Darmstadt)
1 – 11 January 2022 | Ausgabe 01/2023 (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 ...

Ulrich Habersetzer reports about the 30^th anniversary of the German ACT label (BR-Klassik). --- Lewis Porter investigates Louis Armstrong's famous introduction to "West End Blues" (Playback with Lewis Porter). Lewis Porter also links to Miles Davis' earliest known audio interview from 1951 (Playback with Lewis Porter).

Hanna Edgar talks to drummer Makaya McCraven who was named "Chicagoan of the Year for Jazz" by the Chicago Tribune (Chicago Tribune). --- German saxophonist Luise Volkmann will receive the Westfalen-Jazz-Preis 2023 (Westfalen-Blatt). Volkmann, by the way, will be part of our Darmstadt Jazzforum about "The Future of Jazz" in the fall 2023 (see below).

German saxophonist Heinz Sauer turned 90, and Reinhard Köchl sends his best wishes (Augsburger Allgemeine), as do Roland Spiegel (BR-Klassik), Michael Wollny (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Wolfgang Sandner (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and others. --- Vinnie Sperrazza listens to drummer Ralph Peterson's earliest recordings (Chronicles). He also looks at the art of drummer Joey Baron (Chronicles).

Lewis Porter concludes his exploration of the origin of John Coltrane's "Impressions" (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- Nathan Heller listens to Paula West's album "Temptation" from 1997 and calls it "a jazz album made to last" (The New Yorker).

In her series on "Mothers in Jazz" Nicky Schrire talks to Australian saxophonist Gemma Farrell (London Jazz News), US vocalist Rosana Eckert (London Jazz News), and Venezuelan violinist Leonor Falcón (London Jazz News). --- Betty Arcos talks to French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf about hip-hop and the influence of American culture, about the importance of both his father and classical trumpet legend Maurice André for him, as well as about his album "Queen of Sheba" with singer Angelique Kidjo (NPR).

Moustafa Bayoumi reflects about the late Pharoah Sanders and how he "found freedom and rebellion in Islam" (The Guardian). Thorsten Claus talks to German photographer Matthias Creutziger about a photo he took of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders that, he explains, for him stands for "life, music, hope, spirituality, belief, and love", and that the Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten selected as their Christmas photo for 2022 (Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten). --- Claus-Jürgen Göpfert talks to German bassist Lindy Huppertsberg about her start in jazz as a roadie for the Barrelhouse Jazzband of which she is a musical member since 2014, about her own projects, especially some women jazz ensembles like The Swinging Ladies, Witchcraft and Swingin Ladies 2.0 (Frankfurter Rundschau).

In 1986 Frankfurt promoter Jürgen Leinhos together with South African bassist Johnny Dyani initiated a concert series called "Jazz Against Apartheid". Dyani died shortly after the first concerts, Leinhos has since presented South African and European musicians in the Frankfurt region, in Europe and California, always connecting Johnny Dyani's music with political and social messages (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Now the series for the first time has been presented in South Africa on anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko's birthday, bringing together trumpeter Johnny Deppa, trombonist Allen Jacobson, saxophonist Daniel Guggenheim and six South African musicians. The concert at the Steve Biko Centre has been recorded and can be viewed and listened to online (YouTube).

Nate Chinen talks to pianist Jason Moran about his research into the life and music of James Reese Europe that resulted in his latest album "From the Dancehall to the Battlefield" (NPR). --- Tobias Lehmkuhl hears the quartet Die Enttäuschung in Berlin (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).

Lewis Porter looks at Art Tatum's adventurous harmony, finding "thick, dissonant chord voicings", "radical chord substitutions", and "playing melody notes out of the key", and he speculates about the influence through classical composers (Playback with Lewis Porter). In the second installment of the series Porter looks at Art Tatum's adventurous harmonies in the blues as well as in a jam session over "Sweet Georgia Brown" (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- We learned of a fundraising campaign that was started three years ago and is still collecting money for pianist Les McCann who lives in an advanced care nursing facility with around the clock care (GoFundMe).

Simi Kiriakose talks to Portuguese-German songwriter and sitarist Sofia Hoffmann about the inspiration of Ella Fitzgerald and Maria João, about her introduction to the sitar, as well as about her latest album "Rebirth" (New Indian Express). --- Marcus J. Moore lets musicians, writers and critics select their favorite recordings by Sun Ra. Nicole Mitchell selects "El Is a Sound of Joy", Questlove "Make Another Mistake", John Szwed "Pink Elephants on Parade", Dawn Richard "Space Loneliness No. 2", David Renard "The Perfect Man", Rob Mazurek "Disco 3000", Amirtha Kidambi "Satellites Are Spinning", Marcus J. Moore "Shadow World", Andy Bela "Springtime Again", Joe Skolnik "Atlantis", and keiyaA "Somebody Else's World" (New York Times).

Steve Baltin talks to drummer Terri Lyne Carrington about what it means to receive this year's P&E Grammy honor, about the disconnect of jazz to its audience, about the inspiration of teaching younger musicians, about what makes a genius a genius, about people who inspired her in her work for gender equity in jazz, about the need for allies in such endeavors, as well as about her plans to work more in film and TV music scoring (Forbes). --- German Saxophonist Angelika Niescier and Iranian-German vocalist Maryam Akhondy will receive this year's WDR Jazz Award (WDR).

Allen Michie reflects on the career and recordings of drummer Billy Cobham (ArtsFuse). --- Chris Searle talks to pianist Cory Smythe (Morning Star). --- Lewis Porter comments on Cecil Taylor's first recorded interview from 1959, conducted by Swedish journalist Claes Dahlgren (Playback with Lewis Porter). --- John Goldsby celebrates fellow-bassist Charles Mingus (Bass Magazine).

Obituaries

We learned of the passing of vibraphonist Bobby Naughton at age 78 (Boston Globe), producer and songwriter Thom Bell at age 79 (Soultracks), bassist Don Coffman at age 83 (News Frost School of Music), Scottish singer Fionna Duncan at age 83 (The Scotsman), vibraphonist Harry Sheppard at age 94 (Houston Chronicle), trumpeter Martin Zielinski at age 92 (Facebook), saxophonist Mack Goldsbury at age 76 (Memorial Chapel), Turkish vocalist Ayşe Gencer at age 66 (T 24, London Jazz News), German promoter Michael Hohmann at age 68 (Journal Frankfurt), guitarist and singer Walter 'Wolfman' Washington at age 79 (New York Times), South African musician Madosini Latozi Mpahleni at age 80 (IOL), French promoter Paul Kanitzer at age 81 (Facebook), drummer Fred White at age 67 (Die Zeit, New York Times), philanthropist and jazz supporter Gretchen Valade at age 97 (Detroit Free Press), German singer Christiane Ufholz at age 75 (MDR), British drummer John Gant at age 87 (Henley Standard), Canadian pianist and multi-instrumentalist Michael Snow at age 95 (SNBC), Cuban pianist Láraro Valdés at age 82 (Prensa Latina), as well as German producer Jens-Peter Abele at age 54 (Stuttgarter Nachrichten).

From the World of Jazz Research

Destination Unknown: The Future of Jazz

Happy New Year! It started slow and much too warm for the season in Darmstadt. It started with a set of new office computers to be adjusted to our needs. And it started with further preparations for the next Darmstadt Jazzforum, our biennial conference and festival that will take place in late September. While the concert program for the event is mostly in place, we are still collecting ideas for papers. There will be three panels (at the end of each conference day) focusing on "The Future of Jazz: participation", "The Future of Jazz: structure"; and "The Future of Jazz: society". As always at our Jazzforum, the papers on different aspects on the reality of today's jazz and visions for its future will leave enough room for open discussions. The date: 28-30 September 2023. The Jazzforum's title, by the way, is inspired by Hartmut Geerken's Sun Ra Archive housed at the Jazzinstitut: "Destination Unknown. The Future of Jazz" - which makes us think that we should add an entry on Sun Ra and his idea of "future" in our Jazzforum blog (see below).

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. Newest entries: (6) Jazz: the most political of all art forms... really?; (7) Jazz is the mother of hip-hop; (8) … left 2 3 4, right 2 3 4, or: artificial intelligence and jazz.

Paper suggestions can be in either German (preferred as most of the conference will be in German without simultaneous translation) or English. Please note: We have extended the deadline for our Call for Papers until 31 January 2023. 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).

Count Basie Papers

The Institute of Jazz Studies houses the Count Basie Papers, memorabilia from the pianist and bandleader's professional and personal life. Now they have started making parts of that collection available online and plan to add digitized images of family scrapbooks in 2023 (Central Jersey, Count Basie Papers).

Last Week at the Jazzinstitut

(New) books we read

Among the books on our desk the last couple of weeks were "The Sam Rivers Sessioniography", by Rick Lopez; as well as "Ain't But a Few of Us. Black Music Writers Tell Their Story", edited by Willard Jenkins (see the Jazzinstitut's book review page).

Unsolicited letters (years later)

Shortly after we had moved into the current location of the Jazzinstitut in 1997 two elderly gentlemen rang the doorbell. One of them carried an old suitcase, the other brought some boxes. "The stuff was stored in the cellar", Erwin Glier explained, one of the two, owner of a legendary Frankfurt music store, "I'm sure the Jazzinstitut is a better place for it."

We opened first the suitcase, then the boxes, and found: a treasure trove of material relating to the Hot Club Frankfurt, the early Deutsche Jazz Föderation (German Jazz Federation) and the immensely busy networking between jazz musicians, promoters, critics and fans to establish a well-informed and well-respected jazz scene in West Germany.

We have always gone back to these boxes. They helped Jürgen Schwab in his research for a monumental history of the Frankfurt Jazz scene published in 2004; they helped numerous researchers who wanted to get an idea of the thoughts and discourses in postwar Germany; they helped with exhibitions and other projects documenting German jazz history.

Now with the help of one of our volunteers we have started to systematically scan all of this material: correspondence with and reports by jazz friends all around the country about the jazz scene in their region, jazz club newsletters and publications, program leaflets and much more. Our plans are to show some of that material and tell some of its context on our website in the near future.

For researchers all of this (and much more) material is available at your visit at the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt.

Should you possess or find material that documents jazz history in your region, let us know. Paper, correspondence, photos, no matter whether it's a big collection or just a few: they all help better understanding German jazz history.

DAzz festival: The Clarinet Trio, Kancha Lanka Koalition; Knard Röllem Arkestra

New York has a Winter Jazzfest, Cologne has its own, and so does Darmstadt. While all of these are quite different, there is also a similarity between them: they all want to strengthen the local or regional community – between musicians, promoters, and the audience. 

The Darmstadt edition is called DAzz, and it will start and end with the Jazzinstitut's involvement. This Friday, 13 January, we look forward to host the 142^nd edition of JazzTalk, a concert-plus-conversation series which we started in 1988. Gebhard Ullmann, Jürgen Kupke and Michael Thieke make up The Clarinet Trio that will present its recent album "Transformations and Further Passages" based on compositions by German jazz musicians from the 1950s and 1960s. 

Prior to the trio's performance we will show a video installation, "Behind DAzz", at the Jazzinstitut's gallery about visions of and for Darmstadt-based venues. 

One week later (20 January) Berlin-based trumpeter Richard Koch will present the Kancha Lanka Koalition at the Jazzinstitut's concert space. 

DAzz will end with the Knarf Röllem Arkestra and the Woog Riots in "An Evening for Sun Ra" on 22 January in a cooperation with and at HoffART Theater. 

More concerts, by Iiro Rantala, Christof Sänger and Peter Weniger, Itay Dvori, Jakob Manz, Johanna Summer, Vladyslav Sendecki, as well as local and regional bands and musicians such as Norbert Dömling, Stephanie Wagner, Quartertone, or En Haufe Leit - 18 concerts in all ­-, can be heard over ten days in seven different venues (DAzz Festival).

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.