Articles by Sean Conroy

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Laila Biali's Jazz In The Age Of Lonely Hearts

by Sean Conroy
June 21, 2022

Releasing art into the wild is an act that is fraught with doubt and second guessing. These feelings are not unique to jazz artists, or even artists of this generation of immediate sharing and viral sensations. Writing of her friends' decision to surprise her by publishing her verse, 17th century American poet Anne Bradstreet was apologetic: a mother helplessly subjecting her child to public scrutiny. As a shield, a mother's love was not enough: “I cast thee by ...

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Jazz Alley: Jazz Finds A Way In Ashland, Kentucky

by Sean Conroy
May 26, 2022

Jazz returns this summer to the Paramount Arts Center--Ashland, Kentucky's ninety-year-old Art Deco shrine to early American film. It is perhaps poetic that the PAC, designed to showcase the silent films of Paramount Studios, now hosts not only musicals, plays, and rock concerts, but also-- every summer--live jazz, crossing genres and planting its flag in new soil. Jazz has a way of insinuating itself where it was not wanted, planned for, or easily accommodated. Or, as ...