Jazz Matters Nov. 19 and IAJE conference in January

The JJA's panel discussion series Jazz Matters continues with “The New Jazz Map: Where To Go To Listen," moderated by Jazz Journalists Association member Steve Dollar, author of the newly published survey Jazz Guide: New York City (Little Bookroom), on Wednesday, November 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the New School Jazz and Contemporary Music performance space, 5th floor, 55 W. 13th St., NYC. E-mail [email protected] for further info.

As Dollar writes, “New York may be the city where jazz, and all its traditions, has taken permanent root, but the topsoil is always shifting: Clubs and their entrepreneurs come and go with alarming frequency, yet that also means the scene is full of surprises and fresh developments. What's happening next?"

Dollar's guests -- including Seth Abramson, booker for the city's latest blue-chip jazz room, The Jazz Standard; Karen Chester, director of programming at Merkin Hall, who is now steering that classical and new-music stronghold in some jazzier directions; and Ilhan Ersahin, a saxophonist and club owner whose East Village bar Nublu is amplifying the crosstalk between jazz, global musics and DJ beats -- may have some of the answers. The Jazz Matters discussion will be recorded for burning on CDRs, available to all for $12 (includes shipping and handling), once we get our CDR burner fixed.

ALSO: The annual International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) conference is being held in New York City in late January (29-31), and the JJA is hosting several activities, including a three-day “Critics' Clinic" conducted by Paul deBarros and Dan Ouellette, a major membership meeting (on Saturday 31 from 1-2 p.m.), and a panel discussion titled “Racial Considerations in Jazz Journalism" (with panelists including saxophonist Gary Bartz, NPR editor/producer Felix Contreras, pianist Vijay Iyer and writer Tom Terrell). All JJA members may attend the membership meeting for free, without formally registering for the IAJE conference, which costs $215 - $250. Jazz journalists with assignments to cover the convention are urged to contact Don Lucoff, [email protected] for press credentials. JJA members who wish to attend the panel discussion should rsvp to me, [email protected], and I will forward that list to Lucoff/IAJE officials in expectation of obtaining passes for that event only.

Howard Mandel
President
Jazz Journalists Association