Out and About: The Super Fans
Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.
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 Mike Black
Mike Black might not be the first Super Fan we discovered on Twitter, but he is surely one the most enthusiastic about, well, everything! Apparently born with a positivity gene, Mike waxes fondly about a Brooklyn childhood steeped in jazz, the current scene in his adopted home, and the wonders of a little thing called the Internet. Embracing jazz and technology with equal enthusiasm, our International Jazz Day Super Fan even turned our desert island disk question on its ear--read ...
read moreMeet Tom Kohn
Like many of our Jazz Super Fans, Tom Kohn's passion for music started when he was a teen, with a job in a record store and a penchant for acquiring albums that would impress even the most dedicated adult collectors. He grew up into a music business day job but, after suffering a life-changing event, he decided to make a go of his first love: selling records. At the same time, the Rochester, New York native found what we think ...
read moreMeet Matt Yaple
Growing up in a small Midwestern town in a “whites only" county may not seem like the obvious path to jazz fandom. But when AM radio is your childhood companion, piping the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Ray Charles, and Dinah Washington to you under the bedcovers at night, and Dad is a multi-instrumentalist jazz fan who takes you to the state fair to hear Duke and Ella and Louis, well, all bets are off. You just might find that life ...
read moreMeet Andrew Rothman
Lawyer, audiophile, lifelong arts enthusiast, our newest Super Fan's life plan was to be a classical pianist, until college took him in another direction. But it was two “major epiphanies" (the first time he heard Miles Davis and, later, Bill Evans) that turned him into a jazz Super Fan--such a Super Fan, in fact, that he and his wife, Diane, host a house concert series that since 2004 has been presenting some of the world's top jazz musicians. (Be sure ...
read moreMeet Joyce Wilson
Having grown up in a home without popular music, our newest Super Fan came to jazz a bit later than many. But all it took were one concert and two LPs to turn this open minded spirit into a lifelong fan with a very personal take on all things jazz. In fact, the way Joyce Wilson framed her answer to the “desert island" question is so unique that we decided to allow two albums on her island! Read on to ...
read moreMeet Marta Ulvaeus
We love our jazz Super Fans column. It allows us to delve into the lives of so many amazing, truly interesting people, and our May Super Fan is no exception. Educator, deejay, dedicated concert-goer with big ears and a huge heart, Marta Ulvaeus is a true jazz lover—and the musicians who know her love her right back. Now, which Ellington recording do you think opened that huge heart to jazz? Read on to find out. Tell us a ...
read moreMeet 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 ...
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