Meet John Chacona

I currently live in:

Lakewood, Ohio, an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, USA that some have described as having "a San Francisco vibe." Don't laugh. That's pretty accurate.

I joined All About Jazz in:

I dunno, maybe 2020 or 2021. Maybe 1999. I don't remember.

Why did you decide to contribute to All About Jazz?

Honestly, because a music industry figure whom I respect greatly told me that the site is, by some measures, the most widely read of sites dedicated to covering jazz. Seemed like a place I should be.

How do you contribute to All About Jazz?

Mostly by editing these days. I do a great deal of writing for my own air, and I am repurposing some of it for AAJ, but that practice in support of the local scene in northeast Ohio feels vital to me, and it claims a lot of time I could devote to writing for AAJ. I'm a pretty deliberate writer; I agonize over pieces and eventually abandon a lot of them in frustration that I can't write like Greg Tate or Ben Ratliff, which is a ridiculous notion.

What is your musical background?

Eight years of kid piano that my mother, a tough-minded Southern-born woman, incredibly let me walk away from (it was her idea in the first place). World's worst garage-band drummer for a year.

What was the first record you bought that you would still listen to today?

Maybe Scratch (Blue Thumb Records, 1974). You're surprised? Spin it. It slaps.

Aside from jazz, what styles of music do you enjoy?

I was the concert music reporter and critic for a daily newspaper for some years, and I still listen to it when the mood strikes. Folk musics from around the world also interest me, the closer to the source, the better. Basically, any music of the African diaspora. Aside from concert music, the less of Africa a musical style contains, the less I'm interested in it. Sorry, not sorry.

What are you listening to right now?

Every Sunday, I compile a list of records that have been sent to me for review that are scheduled for release the following week. Last year I got 793 of them. That keeps me pretty busy, even though I don't audition all of them.

Which five recent releases would you recommend to readers who share your musical taste?

My musical tastes are my own. I'd recommend that readers discover their own taste. 

What inspired you to write about jazz?

The liner notes to Bug Music (Nonesuch, 1996), which were so provocative and so lucid that I responded to them on a Usenet newsgroup called rec.music.jazz (iykyk). In my memory, a r.m.j. member named Mark Corroto read my slop, liked it, and invited me to spin it into a piece for a zine he published lo those many years ago. Fast forward and—what do you know—Mark's, like one of the OG doods at AAJ. Crazy old world.

What do you like to do in your free time? Any hobbies?

Can I say that music is my hobby, learning and writing about it? 

What role does jazz music play in your life?

It's huge. I spend a lot of time listening and reading, some writing, and more talking to local musicians, presenters and scenesters for my own air. Musicians are the most fascinating people I meet, generally, and though I no longer play, they seem like my tribe. 

How does writing about jazz contribute to the music itself?

This, I think, is a very important question, and it's sometimes a bone of contention. I recall an interview that Ethan Iverson did for his blog where Ratliff made the interesting point that while rock musicians care a great deal about what critics say about them, jazz musicians pay little attention. This is a generalization, of course. The musicians I talk to are mostly eager to have their work talked about, and I think this makes for a livelier culture. I could talk about this all day. Don't get me started.

What do you like most about All About Jazz?

You can find a little bit of everything here. The relational database functionality built into the site is very valuable, at least to me.

What positives have come from your association with All About Jazz?

There have been some benefits to me personally in terms of exposure and validation, but I hope that my work here has lifted the careers of musicians I admire, if only in small ways. I'd also like to hope that my editing has been helpful to some of our writers, most of whom are not professionals. I know I've made a few of them angry with me, which I consider as proof that I'm doing it right.

Vinyl, CD or Streaming?

I lost about a third of my records in a flood a few years ago. It was heartbreaking. I move around too much to stream. I've moved 6,000 CDs three times in the last six years. Can I write in a vote for digital downloads?

Which article from your archive is the most memorable and why?

I can't read my own stuff. I'm not alone in this.