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Out and About: The Super Fans
You've seen them around. They're at all the gigs, their attention focused deeply on the bandstand, as much a part of their local jazz scenes as the musicians and venues. They know and love the music, and musicians love them back. These passionate music-goers are The Super Fans, and they are an essential part of the concert experience. "Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force... When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand." (Karl A. Menninger) Each month, AAJ focuses the attention back on one of The Super Fans to find out what it is they love about live jazz. By Tessa Souter and Andrea Wolper.
Meet Marla Kleman
A life-long jazz fan, Marla Kleman cut her teeth on the likes of Buddy Rich and Benny Goodman, was adopted as an adult by her favorite singer, Rebecca Parris, and now has a dream job that allows her to enjoy live jazz as often as she likes. But listening to music and rubbing elbows with the musicians she so appreciates isn't enough for our March Super Fan: she's also an avid reader of jazz history, and believes deeply in supporting ...
read moreMeet Jeff Evans
Our first Super Fan of 2019 is such a jazz head that he and his wife of 42 years got engaged at a jazz club. These days, Jeff frequently can be seen in the New York clubs indulging several of his passions at once. Living in a city he describes as “richly blessed" with venues, he makes it a point to go out to enjoy live jazz at least once a week, where he photographs musicians in action, and often ...
read moreCelebrating the 2018 Super Fans
You've seen them around. They're at all the gigs, their attention focused deeply on the bandstand, as much a part of their local jazz scenes as the musicians and venues. They know and love the music, and musicians love them back. These passionate music-goers are the super fans, and they are an essential part of the concert experience. Each month, All About Jazz focuses the attention back on one of the super fans to find our who they ...
read moreMeet Nora Sheehan Schaaf
Before we jump into November's column, we'd like to know: Are YOU a jazz super fan? If you are and you'd like to be featured in an upcoming column, click here and send us a message! Nora Sheehan Schaaf, along with her husband, Homer, has been going out to hear live jazz several times a week for sixty years. And while she may have visited jazz clubs from Havana to Krakow, when it comes to live ...
read moreMeet Hiroyuki Masuko
Although the Super Fans column started out with a New York focus, we realize there's a world of jazz--and jazz fans--beyond. Since those first columns in 2016, we've presented Super Fans from across the United States, including some who live part-time in other countries. But now we've officially gone international, with our first Super Fan from Japan. Hiro may enjoy rock music as much as he does jazz, but he was so blown away by his first visit to New ...
read moreMeet Homer Schaaf
Like several Super Fans before him, Homer Schaaf was brought to our attention by jazz musicians who appreciate his ubiquitous presence at the New York City clubs, gig after gig, year after year. We think you'll be charmed by Homer's singular way of expressing his views on jazz and life. “I try to set an example for the other old white guys," he tells us. “We all know how that's working out." Tell us a bit about ...
read moreMeet Jacob Cartwright
Our August Super Fan is a visual artist with a special affinity for improvisational music, which has spilled over into his jazz-themed painting series. In jazz, as in art, Jacob Cartwright values the past while embracing the forward momentum of the new. Plus he's really “down with the jazz cats"--read on to see what we mean! To see more of Jacob's artwork, visit his website. Tell us a bit about yourself. I'm a visual artist, working ...
read moreMeet Davis Wilson
Jeopardy contestant, amateur pianist, dance teacher, actor, sailor, postal worker, our July Super Fan has lived all over the place and done it all. Now based in St. Paul, Minnesota, he met “zillions of artists" as keeper of the flame at the old Artists' Quarter jazz club. But he stumbled upon one of the most memorable concerts of his life at a funky auditorium in Seattle, where he saw the world's greatest-ever jazz singer, along with her favorite saxophonist.
read moreMeet Martin McFie
Super Fan Martin McFie is so into live music he doesn't even have a record collection. These days, McFie, British by birth, calls both South Carolina and Nice, France, home. The frequent-traveling “jazz detective" has made it his business to seek out jazz of all kinds in some of the most unlikely places, especially when he's tooling around the Continent in his vintage London taxi. Tell us a bit about yourself. I was born in London ...
read moreMeet Mark Weber
Almost every aspect of Mark Weber's life ends up intersecting with jazz; he just might be the original Renaissance jazz fan. A former wedding photographer, he found himself photographing nearly every jazz musician to pass through Los Angeles and Albuquerque in the past several decades and, without planning to, ended up writing for CODA, deejaying a jazz radio show, and even performing his poetry with improvising musicians. Plus, he's got all the stories, and shares an awfully good one with ...
read moreMeet Sarah V.
One of our youngest Super Fans yet, Sarah V might also be our most dedicated, attending over 200 concerts a year, and even moving to New York City to immerse herself more completely in the music scene. Like Super Fan “Jazz Judy" Balos, she likes to sit way up front--which, as you'll find out when you read on, comes with some degree of risk! Tell us a bit about yourself. I spent most of my ...
read moreMeet Maurice Edwards
We think every Super Fan column is special, but this one has a couple of firsts: a flat out refusal to answer a question, and some strong language. We love it! Maurice Edwards caught the jazz bug at an age when he was too young to fully understand it, yet he was so determined to “crack the code" that he took on jazz like a course of study. It's no surprise that someone with that level of commitment has some ...
read moreVenue Poll Results
Thanks or helping us identify the world's top jazz venues. For a recap, click here.
Album Showcase
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Infinite Itinerant by Domas Žeromskas
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Walking to New Orleans by George Benson
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Five Roads by Mauricio de Souza
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Epistrophy by Bill Frisell
Jazz Story
I was first exposed to jazz as kid listening to Buddy Rich and West Side Story. As a young guitarist studying jazz, hearing the big band exposed me to the many sounds of the big band, improvisation, arranging, and advanced chord harmonies
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By Shambhu Vineberg
Member since: 2019
