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Genius Guide to Jazz
Holiday Gift Guide 2009
Jeff Fitzgerald, Genius
Jeff Fitzgerald is AAJ's resident genius and is often consulted on jazz-related matters of national unimportance.
A rare and interesting find on this year's list is Sam Stephenson's The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957- 65. Painstakingly poring through some 40,000 photographs and over 5,000 (!) CD's worth of recordings for a documentary of a particular time and place caught almost unaware. Smith both dwelt and worked in the loft, which attracted a long list of musicians to after-hours jam sessions which he faithfully recorded. What is remarkable about this project is that Smith not only documented the comings and goings of the musicians, but virtually everything else as well. For a splinter of cultural history, a window into a very specific place in a bygone world, one can do no better than this.
Well, kids, that ought to be enough to fill out that Christmas list for the discerning jazz lover and still keep you safe from the malls. I wish each and every one of you the best this holiday season, and thank you for your kind indulgence that allows me a home here at AAJ.
Till next month, kids, exit to your right and enjoy the rest of AAJ.
