There's an amazing amount of activity in the jazz world this week.... the JEN conference (successor to IAJE) is this week in New Orleans, the APAP presenters conference is happening in New York City and both are chock full of artists' showcases and presentations and concerts, stirring up more interest and involvement in Jazz.
Add to this the NEA Jazz Masters Awards Tuesday night in New York (already sold out) and you have a lot of positive energy in the jazz world over the next several days. NEA Jazz Masters Awards recipients this year are Hubert Laws, David Liebman, Johnny Mandel, and the Marsalis Family (!), all of whom will have features with the LCJO. Record producer Orin Keepnews will receive the Jazz Advocacy Award.
Roberta Gambarini will pay tribute to some of those greats who passed in the last year, notably Hank Jones and James Moody (who were both close personal friends of hers) and Abbey Lincoln and Dr.Billy Taylor. Although not yet quite prime time enough for CBS, NBC, ABC or PBS, the Awards event will be video streamed live on Tuesday @ 4:30 PM (Pacific) (7:30 Eastern) through arts.gov. Live audio will be available on wbgo.org, Sirius XM Ch.70 and npr.org.
Yesterday, I had a nice phone conversation with one of the NEA Jazz Masters recipients, the saxophonist Dave Liebman, who at 64 is one of the first of his generation to be so honored. He's one of the hardest working guys in the biz; small groups, recording, touring, teaching, composing, big bands, workshops, etc, etc. There were major feature articles on Lieb in the December JazzTimes and January All About Jazz and Downbeat. A veteran of Miles Davis, Lookout Farm, Quest, Saxophone Summit, fusion, bop, post bop, numerous bands of his own, he's in New Orleans this weekend for the JEN, and also playing a gig at Snug Harbor ... he's an amazing dynamo. It's an honor to have him as guest on Jazz After Hours in the 1 AM hour Saturday night/Sunday morning.
I think April was supposed to Jazz Appreciation Month, but January is looking pretty good, too!
Jim Wilke
Jazz After Hours, PRI
