Hello everyone—
It’s Jazz History Online’s 8th anniversary! Eight years seems to be an eternity on the internet, but this site has survived despite many setbacks and hardships. I’m grateful to all of the readers and supporters for keeping this online magazine alive.
This issue is a little smaller than normal, owing to some personal challenges and to a few articles not working out as planned. However, there are still many noteworthy items on review in this issue, and there will be one further concert review which will post in just over a week. There are a number of exciting prospects in the works (none of which I can discuss right now) and assuming that at least some of them work out, we should have a full docket in store for the September issue.
As for the current issue, the Book Review features an important piece of jazz scholarship, Mark Stryker’s “Jazz from Detroit”. While not a perfect work, Stryker’s book offers valuable information about the Motor City’s contributions to the jazz scene from the bebop era to the present. This month’s Retro Review covers two recordings made in the 1960s, both being released for the first time in 2019. “Getz at the Gate” captures Stan Getz’s quartet (with Roy Haynes) in a powerfully swinging set from 1961, and “Grits, Beans and Greens” offers two contrasting—but related—1969 studio sessions by tenor sax legend Tubby Hayes. One of the two sets of current CD reviews features Ryan Keberle’s group Catharsis in their latest recording, along with discs led by two of Catharsis’ members, Scott Robinson and Camila Meza. The other set of CD reviews spotlight the various definitions of “standards” as employed by Holly Cole, Nancy Kelly, Jenna McLean, Imogen Ryall and Tierney Sutton.
Happily, the Duke Ellington, Amy Duncan and “Summertime” articles are still attracting readers. If you haven’t had the chance to read them yourself, please do so! They will probably move off the Front Page with the next issue, but as with all JHO articles, they will remain available in the archive. Use our handy search function to find any JHO articles past or present.
We now have nearly 2600 Facebook fans! Are you one of them? If not, please go to https://www.facebook.com/JazzHistoryOnline/ and join the party! To be sure you get our Facebook messages, hover over the “liked” button on our Facebook page, and click the top two selections (“Get Notifications” and “Following”). If you’d like a monthly e-mail update of new articles (no, we won’t sell your addresses to anyone else), or would like to communicate with me, please write to jazzhistoryonline@live.com
New concert review will publish around July 27. We’ll see you in September!
Best,
Tom Cunniffe