7 - 20 October 2021 | Ausgabe 19/2021 (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 ...

Margaret Renkl tells the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, founded 150 years ago, traveling the world singing spirituals, a music that "had been created by enslaved people and passed down through generations", and thus building "the foundation for what we now think of as American music". Renkl also attends a rehearsal of today's ensemble and talks with the current Fisk Jubilee Singers' musical director Dr. Paul Kwami (New York Times). --- Marc Myers talks to singer Lady Gaga about her recent concert with Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall, five years after Bennett had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (JazzWax). Patrick Ryan talks to Lady Gaga about the show as well (USA Today). Anderson Cooper visited Bennett at home and reports about the idea for the Radio City Music Hall concert (60 Minutes).

Jacob Uitti talks to pianist Robert Glasper about his start in and with music, about connections between playing jazz and basketball (awareness), about jazz as an ever-changing music, about his work with hip-hop artists, as well as about performing before an audience again after the pandemic (American Songwriter). --- Willard Jenkins talks to film director Marty Ashby about his documentary "We Knew What We Had", remembering the jazz history of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Open Sky Jazz). Pittsburgh's Crawford Grill No. 2, a historic club which opened in 1943 and closed in 2003, might reopen (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).

Ethan Iverson listens closely to saxophonist Harold Land's "Ursula" providing a transcription of Land's saxophone line and Barry Harris' underlying piano accompaniment (Do the Math). --- Giovanni Russonello and Seth Colter Walls see Terence Blanchard's "Fire Shut Up In My Bones", the Metropolitan Opera's first work by a Black composer (New York Times). David Smith talks to the opera's composer, trumpeter Terence Blanchard (The Guardian).

Belgian lawyer and jazz pianist Simon Gronowski, a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, took part in the opera "PUSH" shortly before his 90th birthday (The Jerusalem Post). --- Yonat Shimrom reports about a new biography of pianist Mary Lou Williams that focuses on her religious believes (Religion News). --- The block where the famous "A Great Day in Harlem" photo was shot in 1958 was renamed after the photographer Art Kane; now residents are objecting to the decision arguing that Kane had not been a resident of the area (Yahoo News).

Wolfgang Sandner talks to Hungarian-German saxophonist Tony Lakatos who after nearly 30 years retires from hr-Bigband, about the need to remain self-critical as a creative musician, and about his retirement only meaning the start of something new (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Tony Lakatos'  "retirement concert" with his quintet and the hr Bigband under the direction of Jim McNeely was recorded and includes a short interview with Lakatos in the middle (hr Bigband / YouTube). --- Oliver Hochkeppel talks to Bosnian-German trumpeter Dusko Goykovich who turned 90 these days, about his first idol Roy Eldridge, about working with Albert Mangelsdorff in the mid-1950s, about living in New York for five years, about settling in Munich in the late 1960s where he will now attend the first birthday tribute at which he is no longer able to play himself (Süddeutsche Zeitung).

Ron Wynn talks to pianist Matthew Shipp about his latest solo album "Codebreaker", about the label "jazz" for his music, about musical influences, as well as about looking for "an illuminated sound — a cosmic sound of some sort that is high vibration. An openness of sound that escapes an academic jazz sound" (Nashville Scene). --- Johannes Kunz writes about trumpeter Wynton Marsalis who turns 60 these days (Wiener Zeitung). --- Rebekka Groß talks to German trumpeter Joo Kraus (Sindelfinger Zeitung). --- Author Ted Gioia received ASCAP's 2021 Virgil Thompson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism for an article about legendary music critic Whitney Balliett originally printed in summer 2020 (City Journal). --- David Browne (Rolling Stone) and Jeff Slate (NBC News) report about British guitarist Eric Clapton and his COVID vaccine conspiracy theories. --- Esquire reprints a 1959 essay by writer Ralph Ellison about Minton's in Harlem (Esquire). --- Joshua Rotter talks to saxophonist Branford Marsalis (San Francisco Examiner).

Obituaries

We learned of the passing of the percussionist Roberto Roena at the age of 81 (New York Times), the promoter Bill Royston at the age of 75 (Oregon Music News), as well as the drummer Dee Pop at the age of 65 (Pitchfork).

Last Week at the Jazzinstitut

Darmstadt Jazzforum aftermath
Our Darmstadt Jazzforum conference three weeks ago still keeps us busy. Basically we plan to upload all papers, panels and discussions separately so viewers can more easily find the respective presentation. At the same time we prepare a book publication of the collected papers and transcripts of the panels and discussions, to be published next year.

Niklaus Troxler: Jazzgeschichten in Rot und Blau
Swiss graphic designer and concert promoter Niklaus Troxler's talk at the Darmstadt Jazzforum already is part of the exhibition shown at the Jazzinstitut's gallery which otherwise presents many of his posters. Come and see it during our regular opening hours, make sure to make an appointment first, though (see below).

Christian Broecking Lecture
The US composer, trombonist and musicologist George E. Lewis gave the first Christian Broecking Lecture at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies as part of the Enjoy Jazz festival. Broecking who died last February had established the lecture, panel and conference series on jazz at HCA. Lewis focused on Broecking's book "Respekt! Die Geschichte der Fire Music" and discussed the author's interviews in it which he called "Gesprächsimprovisationen" (Enjoy Jazz).

German Jazz (reading)
Wolfram Knauer will read from his book "Play Yourself, Man! Die Geschichte des deutschen Jazz" (Reclam) in Lörrach on Sunday. The reading will be accompanied with music by the Manfred Juncker Organ Trio (Jazztone).

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. 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.

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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