(aus dem Jazzinstitut Darmstadt)
1 – 14 June 2023 | Ausgabe 11/2023 (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 ...

Lewis Porter discusses some of the instances where Miles Davis was credited with tunes he had not actually written. He explains how royalties work, what a "mechanical royalty" is, what "publishing" a tune actually means, how musicians often were advised by their recording company to use their respective publishing division to handle all copyright issues. He then points out how it might have happened that "Solar", a composition by guitarist Chuck Wayne, got credited to Miles instead of Wayne through Prestige Records who applied for copyright of the tune and listed Miles as composer (Playback with Lewis Porter; part 2: Playback with Lewis Porter); part 3: Playback with Lewis Porter). --- Nate Chinen listens to a new album documenting the collaboration of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy at a concert in New York's Village Gate in late summer of 1961 (NPR).

Saxophonist Donald Harrison suffered a heart attack while in Hawaii performing at The Big Island Jazz and Blues Festival, but is in stable conditions again (WGNO). --- Vinnie Sperrazza listens to recordings of drummer Horacee Arnold and recalls his career (Chronicles).

David P. Ball recalls the career of Canadian clarinetist Phil Nimmons who together with Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown in 1960 founded Toronto's Advanced School of Contemporary Music and just celebrated his 100^th birthday (CBC). --- Debra L. Eckerling talks to Israeli pianist Tamir Hendelman who lives in the US since age 12 and recently returned to his home country for a workshop (Jewish Journal).

Mike Cook talks to trumpeter Frank "Pancho" Romero (The Las Cruces Bulletin). --- David Hudnall reports that the family of Kansas City performer Ronnie McFadden filed a complained against the hotel he performed in when he slipped, fell and subsequently died from his injuries (The Kansas City Star). --- Jarrad Saffren talks to drummer and author Bruce Klauber about his life in music, about playing with Charlie Ventura and about still performing after 60 years in music (Jewish Exponent).

Troy Collins talks to violinist Sam Bardfeld about his start on the instrument, about studying with saxophonist Bill Barron, about working with Bruce Springsteen, about what he likes to listen for in music, about the book "Latin Violin" that he published in 2002 and his involvement in Afro-Cuban music during that time, about the state of the recording industry and the need for funding, as well as about some of his current projects and his latest album "Refuge" (Point of Departure). --- Noah Schaffer talks to trombonist Bill Lowe about saxophonist Bill Barron as well who was Lowe's mentor, about "Sweet Cane", his latest and first album as sole leader of a band, about music running in the family, about his daily routine when he was living in New York, worked as an English teacher during the day, then in the pit band of Broadway shows, then with Frank Foster's big band or with Alvin Ailey's Dance Theatre and with Latin bands, about loving to teach and never having "separated the intellectual from the musical", as well as about the name of his band, "The Signifyin' Natives" (The Boston Globe).

Giovanni Russonello is fascinated by the lure of New Orleans jazz and asks musicians, actors, writers about songs that they would play to convince friends of the rich history of New Orleans music. For that he talks to actor Wendell Pierce (Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues"), author Ned Sublette (Piron's New Orleans Orchestra's "Bouncing Around"), scholar Melissa A. Walker (Rebirth Brass Band's "Right Foot"), drummer Adonis Rose (Leroy Jones' "New Orleans"), saxophonist Charlie Gabriel (Louis Armstrong's "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans"), writer Giovanni Russonello (Sweet Emma Barrett's "None of My Jelly Roll"), pianist Courtney Bryan (Improvisation Arts Quintet's "River Niger"), musician P.J. Morton (Louis Armstrong's "On the Sunny Side of the Street"), vocalist Tarriona Ball (Chocolate Milk's "Groove City"), as well as writer Marcus J. Moore (Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah's "Guinnevere") (New York Times). --- Nicky Schrire talks to Danish saxophonist Cecilie Strange about balancing her roles as a mother and a musician (London Jazz News).

Julian Lucas looks at the career of harpist Dorothy Ashby and explains how she fell in love with the instrument in high school, how she became part of Detroit's lively jazz scene in the 1950s, and what obstacles both her instrument and being a woman meant in the jazz world. He writes about the success of her albums in late 1950s and 1960s, about a column she wrote for the Detroit Free Press, about more "psychedelic" albums that leaned on African and Asian connections, and he finds out that she also could be heard on quite a number of popular records (The New Yorker). --- K. Shriver talks to Nigerian-born vocalist Douyé about her approach to singing standards by connecting "with the spirit of each of the songs to understand them directly", about working with Lionel Loueke and Buster Williams, as well as about how both Frank Sinatra and her African heritage can be heard in her interpretation of the Great American Songbook (The Nigerian Voice).

Obituaries

We learned of the passing of saxophonist Vincent Lato at age 77 (Go Local Prov), pianist George Winston at age 73 (Brooklyn Vegan), drummer Dave Koether at age 79 (MLive), Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto at age 83 (BBC, New York Times), clarinetist Kim Cusack at age 84 (Jazz Lives), Swedish pianist Stefan Nilsson at age 67 (SVT Nyheter), German drummer and sound engineer Joachim Luhrmann at age 71 (NOZ), as well as organist Reuben Wilson at age 88 (NPR).

Last Week at the Jazzinstitut

We are hiring:
Director of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt
Looking for a new job? Well, here is one: The city of Darmstadt is looking for a new director of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt, a municipal cultural institution with international connections. If you subscribe to this newsletter, you know of the scope of our work as an archive, a documentation and information center, a lobbying organization for jazz and improvised music in Germany and beyond, a partner to regional activities, an organizer of conferences, workshops and concerts, a publisher of books and articles, an instigator and supporter for research and other activities related to jazz. It's just three of us (plus some volunteers), but with the support of the city we get a lot done. Due to reaching the mandatory retirement age, the current leadership will step down in late January. The job posting for Director of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt is online since 7 June, with a deadline for applications set for 12 July 2023. We are searching internationally, however, as this is a municipal (not an academic) position the job posting asks for "spontaneous and fluent command of the German language, both written and spoken (C-1 level or higher)". More about the task ahead can be found in the job posting; you can also contact us directly if you have any questions regarding the work scope itself, or you can contact the city's human resources department for details about your application. (https://karriere.darmstadt.de/stellenangebot.html?yid=1637)

Jan Kricke: Jazz Frames
The Museum Künstlerkolonie on Darmstadt's Mathildenhöhe is currently showing a fascinating exhibition by photographer Jan Kricke, whose work deals with light and shadow, natural structure and urban energy. In jazz circles, however, Kricke is also known as a concert photographer whose pictures of Wayne Shorter, Albert Mangelsdorff, Anja Lechner, Charles Lloyd, Matthew Shipp and many others can be found in journals and on album covers. More than that: his nature photography has been used as cover art for more than 30 albums on the Munich-based record label ECM. This Thursday (15 June, 6:30pm) Jan Kricke talks to Wolfram Knauer about the connection between jazz and photography and the influence of music on his current work. The conversation will be moderated by Philipp Gutbrod, director of the Institut Mathildenhöhe. Come by if you're in the region... (Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt)

Darmstadt Music Talk
New Music / Jazz: Who Cares?
This year both the Darmstadt Summer Courses for Contemporary Music and the Darmstadt Jazzforum are taking place, two internationally acclaimed events in which a lot of music is heard, but also the present and future of contemporary music is discussed. At the Darmstädter Musikgespräch (Darmstadt Musik Talk), moderator Thomas Schäfer (Internationales Musinstitut) asks composer Arne Gieshoff (Akademie für Tonkunst), musicologist Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann (Max Planck Institut für empirische Ästhetik) and jazz researcher Wolfram Knauer (Jazzinstitut Darmstadt) what genre designations such as jazz or new music actually still mean in the 21st century, how they are perceived within the different music scenes and what meaning they have for the audience. The Darmstadt Music Talk will take place in the former home and studio of composer Hans-Ulrich and artist Roma Engelmann, Ludwig-Engel-Weg 15 (Rosenhöhe), 64287 Darmstadt. Date: Wednesday, June 28, 2023, 8-9:30 p.m. Admission: free (Darmstädter Musikgespräch).

Song of the Shank
We were more than thrilled by the world premiere of George Lewis' monodrama "Song of the Shank", based on a novel by the same title by Jeffery Renard Allen, performed by Ensemble Modern (conductor: Vimbayi Kaziboni) with Gwendolyn Brown (dramatic alto) and Hermann Kretzschmar (piano) (Ensemble Modern). Lewis will be in Darmstadt in August, as will Anthony Braxton, Tyshawn Sorey and many others for the biennial Darmstadt Summer Courses for Contemporary Music (Darmstädter Ferienkurse). That event includes a two-day conference about Anthony Braxton (Braxton conference) as well as the launch of a new book edited by Harald Kisiedu and by George Lewis, "Composing While Black. Afrodiasporic Music Today" (Wolke-Verlag).

Moving boxes (2: nearly done)
With the help of a moving company and two local students we were able to move more than 400 boxes into their new home at the city's new Kunstdepot (art depot). Most of the boxes were previously stored at an annex we had rented for the last fifteen years, about 70 boxes were moved from our main location, the historic Kavaliershaus in Darmstadt's Bessungen neighborhood.

Destination Unknown: The Future of Jazz
There is a change in the concert program for our 18^th Darmstadt Jazzforum in the fall: We are happy that for the final concert on Saturday, 30 September, we will have saxophonist Frank Gratkowski's quintet featuring fellow saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. Gratkowski will also be part of the conference program, talking about his very personal vision of the future of jazz and improvised music on Friday. The Jazzforum's dates: 27/28-30 September 2023. More info here: Destination Unknown as well as on a corresponding blog that outlines some of our own thoughts on the subject (latest addition, some thoughts about whether the future of jazz might also be served by musicians looking back). The main conference language will be German.

R.I.P. Helmut Lücke
You may not know Helmut Lücke, but for us he was a regular presence for more than 15 years. Helmut joined the Jazzinstitut's volunteer staff in the mid-2000s and soon catalogued all new CDs arriving on our desks, fresh releases as well as collections donated to us. Not only did he catalogue them, he also listened to the music and developed quite a taste for jazz over the years. He attended our concerts and was always open to new musical adventures, even if – or especially if he didn't quite grasp what was going on. He liked to be challenged by music, and he loved discussing his experience with us afterwards. Helmut was a hiker, he knew all the trails in the closeby Odenwald region. His biggest love were his grandchildren, his "Enkelchen", and his eyes started to glow when he talked about them. Helmut Lücke had called us from the hospital in early May informing us that he probably would not be coming back to work anymore. He was released home into palliative care, and died shortly thereafter on 30 May 2023 at age 81. We miss him dearly.

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.