Jazz Notes™ The Journal of the Jazz Journalists AssociationSM Vol. 18, No. 3 • Autumn 2007 From the Editor 2 President’s Report 3 Letter to the Editor 4 By W. Royal Stokes A Crisis Getting Worse 5 By Alex Henderson Why Would I Choose 6 Anything Else? By Mikayla R. Gilbreath Max Roach 7 By arnold jay smith and Paul Rutherford 8 Jazz the New Internet By Laurence Svirchev 8 By Matt Merewitz Book Reviews 9 By Michele Drayton, Ken Dryden, “ ew media” means different all the music’s constituents. We should all George Kanzler and Jerry D’Souza things to different people. Wiki- be especially concerned with these aspects N pedia defines it as “new forms of Web 2.0, as newspaper and magazine News of Members 9 of human and media communication that subscriptions continue to wane and column have been transformed by technology to inches for jazz in print media shrink at an fulfill the basic social need to interact and alarming rate. New Members 12 transact.” Simply put, the hallmarks of the “old” The entry continues: “New media is also World Wide Web were portals, search en- closely associated with the term ‘Web 2.0,’ gines, bulletin boards, newsgroups and IN THIS ISSUE IN which refers to a second generation of In- email. To jazz people already online in the ternet-based services that emphasize online mid-’90s, sites like jazzcentralstation.com, collaboration and sharing among users.” jazzcorner.com, jazzusa.com, allaboutjazz.com Suffice it to say that weblogs (“blogs”), pod- and birdlives.com became popular destina- COVER ILLUSTRATION: casts, sms (text messaging), rss feeds, social tions and resources, and they remain so. networks and wikis, all prominent features Jazz-related offerings on the Internet come There was also the trusty, though extremely in many forms, including websites, blogs, of Web 2.0, fall under the new media um- controversial, All Music Guide (amg) at video and audio podcasts, PDF publications, brella. mp3 recordings and transcriptions. allmusic.com. Not surprisingly, all the developments of Screenshot by Forrest Dylan Bryant. Web 2.0 have a direct bearing on jazz and continued on page 14 | » Futurama Jazz Notes n this issue of Jazz Notes, Matt I’m of two minds about all this. Will la- Merewitz reports on jazz in the bels become more tightfisted? Or, given the quarterly journal of the I new media age and how artists, the speed and cost-effectiveness of email, Jazz Journalists Association journalists and others are faring. In will they end up sending more music to a related matter, music more people? Speaking as a Editor writers are seeing significant city dweller, I have to wel- David R. Adler developments in the digital come anything that reduces delivery of recorded music. physical clutter. I spend far Associate Editor As the subject line of a recent too much time junking cd James Hale email from ecm Records jewel cases, sorting and fil- put it, “the future is here.” ing and so forth. Recently Art Director It was here already, but the I had five or six of my cd Forrest Dylan Bryant year 2007 will probably be shelves collapse into a huge remembered as a tipping From the pile. Re-alphabetizing letters Photo Editor point. B through E of my library Laurence Svirchev Editor was a nightmare I don’t care What am I getting at? Well, to relive, and it made me see Circulation Manager that flow of promo cds David R. Adler the digital revolution in a Joseph Petrucelli you’ve been receiving in the new light. mail may soon dwindle and Editorial Consultants ultimately disappear. Digital servicing There’s far more to the story than pro- Howard Mandel platforms are popping up, and ecm is mos, of course. An entire business sector W. Royal Stokes not the only label making the switch. is being remade. The Ropeadope, Ayler David Franklin The logic is simple: Rather than spend and Palmetto labels have begun releas- money mailing out discs to critics, labels ing download-only titles. Publishers, can just send a download link via email. too, are jumping aboard: in our previous Editorial Correspondence Writers still get to hear (and keep) the issue, William J. Schafer chronicled the David R. Adler titles that interest them. And cds can transition of The Mississippi Rag from a 2122 Kater Street still be mailed out on request. print magazine to a web-only presence. Jazz Notes itself was hard-hit by the re- Philadelphia, PA 19146-1215 There are drawbacks, of course. Digi- cent postal rate hike, so this topic hits us 215 366-1099 tal files sacrifice sound quality, and the ( ) where we live. (jja members, please keep more you want to enhance fidelity, the [email protected] your dues payments current!) larger the file. Digital storage, for that matter, requires spending money on In the end, as the Buddhists teach us, the Circulation external drives and being vigilant about only thing guaranteed in life is change. Joseph Petrucelli data loss. At this stage, not everyone has Jazz already lags behind other genres 74 Jewel St., 2nd Floor the equipment or the know-how to deal commercially. It won’t hurt to keep pace Brooklyn, NY 11222 with downloading effectively. And need- technologically. less to say, for those who cherish albums (917) 292-4901 < < < as aesthetic objects and view even cds [email protected] as a regrettable compromise, digital is another big step down the ladder. © 2007 Jazz Journalists Association, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication, as a whole or in any part, without prior written permission of the Jazz Journalists Association, Inc. is prohibited. Corrections jazz journalists association, who asked In John McDonough’s “The Story of Bill Savory” (June 2007), the date of Savory’s you, anyway? and jazz awards are service marks or registered service marks of the Jazz death was given as February 1, 2004. It is in fact February 11, 2004. Journalists Association, Inc. jazz notes The June2007 “From the Editor” includes Bud Powell in a list of important jazz musi- is a trademark and service mark of the Jazz cians from Philadelphia. This is incorrect; Powell was born and died in New York. Journalists Association, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Jazz Notes regrets the errors. 2 JAZZ NOTES • Vol. 18, No. 3 µ Above: David R. Adler photograph by Noah Kalina. JAZZ JO U R N AL I STS Conference Call ASSOC I AT I O N nexpected opportunities Globalizing the Personal (“How do promoting the interests of arise because we’ve got this Jazz journalists establish and develop a journalists covering jazz U Journalists Association: George personal aesthetic, and what are the Lewis, director of Columbia University’s social forces that influence that aes- c/o Village Postal Center for Jazz Studies, thetic?”); 151 1st Avenue asked for our consultations New Music, New Aesthet- New York, NY 10003 on the first international ics (“What kinds of aes- [email protected] conference of jazz journal- thetic, economic, meth- ists to be held in the U.S., odological and cultural BOARD OF DI RECTORS maybe ever. And so on Sat- alignments are musicians urday, September 29, some Howard Mandel and jazz journalists pursu- 30 writers from as far away President & Executive Director ing in the 21st century?”) as China, Japan, Russia and James Hale, Vice President South Africa are joining Journalism and History Forrest Dylan Bryant with colleagues from Eu- President’s (“What is the place of Susan Fox rope, Canada, Mexico and Report journalism in writing the Gary Giddins of course the U.S. to par- history of jazz?”); Reuben Jackson ticipate in six panel discus- Howard Mandel Jazz in the Global Imagi- Fred Jung sions focusing on some big nary (an open discussion issues, with a special interest ranging over the days’ themes, with ME mb ERSH I P SECRETARY in matters of globalization and new tech- confirmed panelists Gary Giddins, nology. All the public is invited, but es- Jerry D’Souza Francis Davis, Greg Tate, Ben Ratliff, pecially jja members — and as I write we 209 Hollyberry Trail Stanley Crouch, Alex Dutilh (France) are trying to organize a Friday night wel- Willowdale, Ontario m2h 2p3 and Alain Derbez (Mexico), among come reception, and/or a Sunday sendoff. Canada others. As this entire affair has come together (416) 497-9785 very quickly, I apologize for notice that’s This may seem like heady stuff, but we [email protected] possibly too late to allow everybody who’s will strive to keep discussions grounded interested to be able to attend. in the realities of professional jazz jour- TREAS U RER nalism and music-making. The entire However, thanks to Columbia, we are Arnold Jay Smith event is still in some planning stages as I able to hope for simultaneous webcasting 436 State Street write, so check jazzhouse.org for further of the conference panels. And thanks to Brooklyn, NY 11217 details (and a jja-announce email will pro- jja webmaster Whit Blauvelt’s Interactiv- (718) 625-2026; fax: (718) 625-2866 vide info on the before-and-after parties). iew software, our jazzhouse.org site can Our event is being held in conjunction [email protected] host a global chat in real time, allowing with Columbia’s annual World Leaders bloggers in attendance at the panel for The Jazz Journalists Association (jja) Forum — with the support of Columbia’s real or via the web to chime in on the is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, Office of the President — and the first topics, which are: promoting the interests of writers, Columbia/Harlem Festival of Global photographers, broadcasters and new The Global and The Local (“How do Jazz, with events September 19–22 held media professionals covering jazz.