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Jazz Returns to Network Television
by Jack Bowers
Just back from a brief vacation in IL, looking forward to Ken Poston's Neophonic Impressions event May 26-29 at the Sheraton LAX Four Points Hotel in Los Angeles, and gearing up for a great summer of Jazz right here in Albuquerque. Perhaps the biggest news this month concerns the launch on June 16 of the first ...
The Mancini Institute: A Beacon of Light
by Jack Bowers
Amid the gloom and darkness that enshroud the future of fine arts and good music in this country, there is an occasional beacon of hope and light. One that has shone brightly in Southern California for the past eight years is the Henry Mancini Institute, founded in 1997 by composer / conductor Jack Elliott to honor ...
Bill Potts: 555 Feet High
by Jack Bowers
The Graceland mansion in Memphis, TN, where Elvis Presley used to live and where his body now lies, has been turned into a shrine to the King, drawing thousands upon thousands of reverential visitors each year. I have no problem with that; if people choose to worship at the altar of Elvis, that's their business, none ...
IAJE 2005: Memories of Long Beach
by Jack Bowers
Yes, I was at the 32nd annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) January 5-8 in lovely Long Beach, CA. No, I can't summarize the event in twenty-five words or less—or even twenty-five hundred. There was the usual head-spinning cascade of clinics, panel discussions, workshops, presentations, award ceremonies, exhibits, master classes, research papers, ...
Odds 'n Ends Before Dashing Off . . .
by Jack Bowers
Happy New Year! Clearing the desk on the eve of my departure for the 32nd annual conference of the International Association for Jazz Education in Long Beach, CA . . . Speaking of the IAJE, one of the seven outstanding figures in Jazz to be honored this year as Jazz Masters by the National Endowment for ...
Clearing Off the Desk . . .
by Jack Bowers
November has brought cooler weather to New Mexico but not much in the way of big-band news, although I had the pleasure of reviewing one of the best albums to come my way in recent months, Two Different Days, by Rob Parton's superlative Chicago-based ensemble. I've spent much of the last month or two on a ...
Thumbnail Sketch: The Los Angeles Jazz Institute
by Jack Bowers
Last month , during my adulatory and long-winded account of the All-Star Alumni Tribute to Maynard Ferguson, I mentioned that the event was sponsored by the Los Angeles Jazz Institute. As some may be wondering exactly what that is, here's a concise description. The Los Angeles Jazz Institute (hereafter LAJI), on the campus of Cal State ...
A Letter from Los Angeles
by Jack Bowers
October 6. 20004 Dear Reader, Nearly forty-eight hours have elapsed since I returned to Albuquerque from Los Angeles, and my feet have barely touched the ground. It's not often that one has the chance to spend a long weekend walking among -- and even conversing with -- honest-to-goodness giants. But thanks to impresario Ken Poston and ...
Recalling Another Solemn Occasion
by Jack Bowers
While noting last month the centenary of the birth of the Kid from Red Bank, William “Count" Basie, I overlooked a second milestone, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the passing of another Jazz legend, the renowned bandleader Stanley Newcomb Kenton, who died in Los Angeles on August 25, 1979, age sixty-eight. There's not much one can say ...
Keeping 'Count'
by Jack Bowers
This month marks the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of William “Count" Basie who was born August 21, 1904, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Basie was a big-band leader for nearly half a century, which is quite a record, even considering that big bands once were so popular that leaders like him, not to mention ...
