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... brief news ...
Kate Snyder reports about Art Tatum Zone, an initiative committed to restoring the pianist's childhood home in Toledo, Ohio, and turning it into a museum (The Toledo Blade). --- Barbara Handel remembers some of the jazz icons connected to the city of Toledo, Ohio (The Toledo Blade). --- Christoph Irrgeher talks to the Austrian pianist David Helbock about falling into a sort of limbo when the first lockdown hit and realizing that this actually effected his livelihood at the time of the second lockdown, about streaming concerts without an audience feeling "a bit like a funeral", about the difference of the situation for musicians living in Austria and Germany (where Helbock knows quite a number of colleagues who think about giving up music altogether), as well as about a concert he plans for May with trumpeter Médéric Collignon and singer Camille Bertault (Wiener Zeitung).
Brian McCollum talks to the drummer Terri Lyne Carrington about always having felt like an exception as a woman in the business and that "being the exception means there's a rule", about the Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice that she founded at Berklee College and her apprentice and mentorship program with New Music America, about dealing with the pandemic as a creative artist, as well as about her work with the Carr Center in Detroit where she serves as artistic director (Detroit Free Press). --- Mathias Mauersberger talks to the German drummer Eva Klesse about changes in the jazz world concerning women musicians (Deutschlandfunk Kultur).
Lanre Bakare talks to the saxophonist Archie Shepp about how the free jazz he and others played in the 1960s did not only have admirers in the audience, about the changes in his music which he claims "has become more accessible" over the years, about how the experimental free jazz which he used to play "alienated the audience he wishes he could have connected with the most: black people", about the current state of affairs in the United States, as well as about seeing himself as a "victim", who can only protest to "make the society aware of our victimisation" (The Guardian). --- David Medina reports about saxophonist Charlie Parker who will receive a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame (KSHB Kansas City).
Molly MacGilbert talks to the pianist and composer Ezra Weiss about a typical day for him during these pandemic days, about teaching online, as well as about some items he surrounds himself with in his study (Williamette Week). --- Dan White talks to the jazz researcher and author Eric Porter about the complexity of improvisation, about his road to jazz, about some of his publications, as well as about jazz improvisation as a "'resilience' music because jazz performers created art in the face of prejudice and also because of the political consciousness imbued in the music itself" (UCSC News).
Jon Garelick talks to the composer Maria Schneider about her latest album "Data Lords", about a residency she is about to hold at New England Conservatory, COVID tests and social distancing included, about her fight for artists' rights that included testifying before Congress about intellectual property and digital rights, as well as about her long collaboration with the crowd-funding platform ArtistShare which released most of her albums since 2004 (The Boston Globe). --- Spencer Norris reports about the effects of the pandemic on New York City's arts and culture jobs (Bloomberg).
Jay Shefsky talks to the pianist Erwin Helfer who suffered a deep depression caused by the pandemic about the electroconvulsive therapy which he received (WTTW). --- Noah Sheidlower and Sam Hyman talk to several teachers at Columbia University about how the school's jazz program has enriched its neighborhood and how it tries to connect to the long history and vital cultural scene of Harlem (Columbia Spectator).
John Murph talks to Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell about the label Philadelphia International Records, founded 50 years ago which shaped the history of Philly soul in the 1970s (Tidal). --- Marika Lapauri-Burk listens to jazz documents from the Soviet Union from the 1920s through the 1940s (Deutschlandfunk Kultur).
The saxophonist Neil Sarfati remembers how in the early 1970s he became a member of Scientology, traveled on one of the church's Sea Org ships where he formed a band, The Apollo Stars, that even recorded an album produced by the church's founder L. Ron Hubbard (The Guardian). --- The Chicago Tribune publishes a photo selection remembering the legendary club Mister Kelly's which hosted name jazz and blues artists between 1953 and 1975 (Chicago Tribune).
Andrian Kreye attends a virtual panel discussion during which Angela Davis, Terri Lyne Carrington, Rhiannon Giddens and Nate Chinen talked about "jazz and race" and the marginalization both of women and queer people in the music (Süddeutsche Zeitung). The whole discussion can be seen and heard on the website of SFJazz (SFJazz). --- Julia Brinkmann talks to the German saxophonist Gabriele Maurer about her love for jazz, about everyday racism she experiences as a Black German, as well as about the need to talk about the lack of awareness for diversity with most Germans (Mannheimer Morgen). --- Julius Geiler reports about an incident of alleged police brutality in Berlin, Germany, during which the saxophonist and street musicians Mike Basden suffered a broken leg (Der Tagesspiegel).
Peter Crimmins reports about the headquarter of the Sun Ra Arkestra in Philadelphia in which 96-year-old saxophonist Marshall Allen still lives and works, which has partially collapsed, and about plans to restore the building (WHYY). --- The property next to the John Coltrane House in Philadelphia has applied to be demolished (Fox29 Philadelphia). Daniel King confirms that that demolition will not affect Coltrane's house (Mother Jones).
Kiana Burks remembers the trombonist, electric guitarist and arranger Eddie Durham whose daughter just published a biography of her father (University Star). --- Anthony Tommasini remembers the pianist Thomas Wiggins, better known as "Blind Tom" who was born a slave, became a widely celebrated piano virtuoso and composer, whose music could be described as "modernism before its time", as pianist Jeremy Denk argues (New York Times).
Fred Kaplan talks to the pianist Dan Tepfer about using a computer program that allows him to play remotely with other musicians, about the problem of delays in other platforms that may be "fine for conversation, worthless for music", and about a series of online concerts he performed, among them a trio session that proved to take a while to set up properly but eventually produced a version of "Solar" in which everyone was "buoyant, tight and loose at once" (The New Yorker). --- Reinhard Köchl talks to the guitarist Pat Metheny about the pandemic, about never really having practiced much, about changes in his approach to the music and his current focus on composition, about genre names being political more than musical terms, about the experience of creating music for others to interpret in his latest album "Road to the Sun", as well as about playing the 42-string Pikasso guitar on the "bonus track" to the same album (Augsburger Allgemeine, Die Zeit).
Lexis Olivier Ray watches the online documentary series "Time Decorated" which argues that artist Jean-Michel Basquiat "was the connection between the bebop and hip-hop worlds" (Hyperallergic). --- Karl Lippegaus talks to the German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann on the occasion of his 80th birthday (Deutschlandfunk [sound file available until 11 March 2021]). --- Fritz Steger remembers the jazz club "Roter Punkt" which existed in Freiburg, Germany, between 1972 and 1988 (Badische Zeitung). --- Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich explains how none other than saxophonist Dexter Gordon became his godfather (Ultimate Guitar). --- Graeme Strachan remembers the British trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar (The Courier). --- Keith Spera talks to the clarinetist Michael White about composing a lot during the pandemic but now taking a break from that for performing at Snug Harbor (New Orleans Times-Picayune). |