The Buzz: The JJA Podcast
Arts & Culture Podcasts
The Jazz Journalists Association is a membership organization founded in 1986. We promote the creation and dissemination of accurate, ethical, informed journalism on all jazz’s genres, and encourage innovative use of media to spur the growth, development and education of audiences for jazz. Public programs include Seeing Jazz Photography Master Classes, The Buzz podcast, celebrations of Jazz Heroes and Jazz Awards, and the website JJANews.org. Theme "Big Vic" composed by John Michaels Featuring Makaya McCraven Geoff Vidaland Mark Dunlap recorded by Doug Hewitt. Podcast edited by Wiz Petta.
Location:
United States
Genres:
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Description:
The Jazz Journalists Association is a membership organization founded in 1986. We promote the creation and dissemination of accurate, ethical, informed journalism on all jazz’s genres, and encourage innovative use of media to spur the growth, development and education of audiences for jazz. Public programs include Seeing Jazz Photography Master Classes, The Buzz podcast, celebrations of Jazz Heroes and Jazz Awards, and the website JJANews.org. Theme "Big Vic" composed by John Michaels Featuring Makaya McCraven Geoff Vidaland Mark Dunlap recorded by Doug Hewitt. Podcast edited by Wiz Petta.
Twitter:
@jjajazzawards
Language:
English
Episodes
Editors Rayna Mathis (Earshot) and Chrys Roney (Hot House) with JJA president Howard Mandel
7/16/2024
Rayna Mathis has edited the monthly publication of Seattle's Earshot Jazz for four years; Chrys Roney became CEO and editor-in-chief of Hot House Jazz Guide, serving the New York metropolitan area, just five months ago -- and each of them enthuses about the community-serving aspects of their editorial project. Howard Mandel notes that its been rare for Black women to head jazz publications, and a gratifying development.
Duration:00:32:56
The Buzz: Jazz from a Rural Place with Ann Tappan, Montana Jazz Hero and host Howard Mandel
7/1/2024
Pianist, composer-improviser and educator Ann Tappan lives far from the madding crowd, outsize Bozeman, Montana, maintaining an active career including international forays. Having made the scene in NYC and San Francisco, she speaks with authority about the challenges and pleasures of making art and life outside the urban milieu commonly assumed for jazz.
Duration:00:26:12
Authors' Series: Farah Jasmine Griffin, JJA Book Award winner, speaks to Fiona Ross
6/10/2024
Essayist Farah Jasmine Griffin, whose collection In Search of a Beautiful Freedom won the JJA's 2024 Jazz Book of the Year: History, Criticism and Culture, talks about her focus on jazz and its relevance across many realms of thought, with Fiona Ross, member of the JJA's book committee and founder of Women in Jazz Media.
Duration:00:18:48
Historical jazz releases and liner notes: historian/author Ashley Kahn and producer Zev Feldman, the Jazz Detective, with Rick Mitchell
5/28/2024
Music historian and author Ashley Kahn and producer Zev Feldman, "the Jazz Detective," speak with host Rick Mitchell on the journalism and historical importance of albums of historical jazz (those recorded more than 10? 20? 30? years ago?) releases, and the particular value to them of liner notes. All pay homage to the legacy of Blue Note Records/Mosaic Records producer and writer Michael Cuscuna, who died in April at the age of 75.
Duration:00:36:09
The Buzz Author's Interview: Walter van de Leur on Jazz and Death, with Fiona Ross
5/12/2024
Dutch scholar Walter van de Leur is the author of Jazz and Death: Reception, Rituals, and Representations, a fascinating study that enlightens the music from a unique angle. Fiona Ross, member of the Jazz Journalists Association's Book Committee, interviews Walter, touching on New Orleans funerals, Chet Baker, and the rumor that jazz itself is dead.
Duration:00:17:46
The Buzz Author's Interview: Aaron Cohen, Ramsey Lewis' co-writer, speaks with Brad Stone
5/3/2024
Aaron Cohen is co-author of Gentleman of Jazz, the autobiography of pianist Ramsey Lewis, nominated for a Book of the Year award in the 29th annual JJA Jazz Awards. He speaks with Brad Stone.
Duration:00:22:07
The Buzz Author's Interview: Philip Arneill, photographer-author of Book Award nominee Tokyo Jazz Joints, with Brad Stone
4/29/2024
Philip Arneill is a Belfast-born photographer, long resident of Japan now living in Ireland. He discusses Tokyo Jazz Joints, his revealing photobook of a now-fading subculture, with Brad Stone, who himself visited some of these listening cafes.
Duration:00:25:30
The Buzz Author's interviews: Carmen Fields of Goin' Back to T-Town: The Ernie Fields Territory Big Band
4/29/2024
Brad Stone speaks with Carmen Fields, Emmy Award-winning Boston television news anchor and author of a book about her father's long-touring jazz show, Going Back to T'Town: The Ernie Fields Territory Big Band
Duration:00:24:30
Authors' Series: Con Chapman of "Kansas City Jazz: A Little Evil Will Do You Good"
4/23/2024
Con Chapman is author of "Kansas City Jazz: A Little Evil Will Do You Good," a nominee for Book of the Year in the 2024 Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. He speaks with Bob Blumenthal, chair of the Book Awards committee and board member of the JJA.
Duration:00:24:16
The Buzz Author's Interviews: Henry Threadgill's co-author Brent Hayes Edwards
4/15/2024
Easily Slip Into Another World is Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/reeds and winds instrumentalist/bandleader Henry Threadgill's vivid autobiography, co-authored by Brent Hayes Edwards, a literary scholar teaching at Columbia University. Edwards is interviewed by JJA board member Bob Blumenthal, chair of the nominating committee for JJA Jazz Books of the Year.
Duration:00:33:02
The Authors' Series: Stephanie Stein Crease, biographer of Chick Webb in Rhythm Man, interviewed by Bob Blumenthal
4/6/2024
Rhythm Man: Chick Webb and the Beat That Changed America is an in-depth look at highly influential and popular, 'til now under-celebrated bandleader, by Ms. Crease, whose prior books are lively portraits of Duke Ellington and Gil Evans. Bob Blumenthal, critic, author (Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins) chairs the Jazz Journalists Association's Book Awards committee.
Duration:00:28:31
The Authors' Series: Steve Isoardi, of The Dark Tree, speaks of Horace Tapscott, with Bob Blumenthal
3/25/2024
In an episode of The Buzz interviews with authors of 2024 nominees for Book of the Year Awards, Los Angeles-based Steve Isoardi, author of The Dark Tree about pianist Horace Tapscotts unique musicians/community organition UGMAA, speaks with Bob Blumenthal, JJA board member and chair of the Book Awards committee.
Duration:00:27:55
Jazz Journalism and Jazz Education: Intersections and Tensions
3/5/2024
The overlapping interests and gulf of approaches between jazz journalism and jazz education is the topic of this episode of The Buzz: The Jazz Journalists Association podcast, featuring Seattle-based writer Paul de Barros, educator-pianist-writer Monika Herzig (formerly of Indiana University, now an academia in Vienna) and professor emeritus/biographer John Szwed. Howard Mandel, JJA president, is the host.
Duration:00:26:17
How we compile Best of Year lists
2/19/2024
Host Michael Ambrosino speaks with music journalists Jordannah Elizabeth, Gene Seymour and educator-pianist-blogger Mark Lomanno about how they conceive and compile end-of-the-year Best lists.
Duration:00:33:18
Jazz Radio Now!
1/15/2024
Ed Trefizger of JazzWeek, radio maven Scott Handley formerly with NPR, and Kayonne Riley of WUCF in Orlando discuss the mission and current state of jazz radio with Rick Mitchell, JJA board member and host of the syndicated KBOO broadcast Jazz In the New Millennium
Duration:00:32:55
Three authors discuss their books on Gerry Mulligan
12/18/2023
Alyn Shipton, Ken Poston and Steve Cerra -- authors, editors and publishers with recent books concerning the late, great baritone saxophonist/composer/arranger Gerry Mulligan -- speak with Rick Mitchell, JJA board member and radio program host, about their works on the complicated, compelling musician.
Duration:00:37:45
Bill Milkowski interview part 2 -- with Rick Mitchell and Howard Mandel, reminiscing
11/27/2023
Veteran jazz journalists Bill Milkowski, Rick Mitchell and Howard Mandel talk about the first records they bought with their own $ -- decades back -- and how rock played a part in their early listening. Memories! The Buzz editor the Wiz said, unsolicited, "This one was very fun to listen to."
Duration:00:26:41
Jazz Journalism, Then and Now, with Veteran Writer Bill Milkowski and host Rick Mitchell
11/5/2023
Bill Milkowski, author of books on Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker Keith Richards and jive as well as hundreds of articles for leading music magazines, discusses his career and how conditions facing freelancers have changed from the 1970s to today. Howard Mandel, president of the JJA, joins the episode towards its end. Rick Mitchell is host.
Duration:00:24:04
The Art of the Interview, with Ted Panken, Robin Lloyd and host Rick Mitchell,
9/18/2023
How does an interviewer approach their task? Ted Panken, author and journalist with extensive experience from his decades at WKCR (NYC) and Robin Lloyd, radio host doing interviews more recently on KNKX (Seattle), share tips and stories of their encounters with musicians -- those eager to talk, and those who were reluctant. Host Rick Mitchell, too, adds insights gleaned from years of print and broadcast jazz jouralism.
Duration:00:22:01
Does the Mainstream Jazz Media Tokenize Latin Jazz? Part 2
9/1/2023
How is the main stream media in Jazz keeping up with the innovations Latin Jazz brings to this unique musical art form?
Master percussionist, educator and activist John Santos, along with trombonist Chris Washburne, author of the book Latin Jazz - The Other Jazz, join The Buzz to explore whether Latin Jazz is "tokenized" by the mainstream media covering Jazz. Hosted by Michael Ambrosino, Jazz journalist and producer of the audio documentary Los Olvidados, The Forgotten Ones.
Duration:00:28:16