School's Out

It won't be a jazz-free summer by any means—I'm headed to the Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival in a couple of weeks—but probably a blog-free summer, barring something pressing and unexpected time on my hands here in the office.

Mighty Maria

Composer and bandleader Maria Schneider dominated yesterday's Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards presentation at The Jazz Standard in New York City. Riding high on the heels of her stunningly beautiful recording Sky Blue, Schneider took home four awards: Record of the Year; Composer of the Year; Arranger of the Year; and Large Ensemble of the Year.
This is the second time that she has walked away with four Jazz Awards statuettes. She first accomplished the feat in 2005, in the wake of her Grammy-winning ArtistShare debut album, Concert In The Garden.

Here's a complete list of this year's winners:

Lifetime Achievement in Jazz
Marian McPartland
Musician of the Year
Herbie Hancock
Up & Coming Musician of the Year
Lionel Loueke
Record of the Year
Sky Blue
Maria Schneider Orchestra
ArtistShare
Reissue/Historical Release of the Year
Cornell 1964
Charles Mingus Sextet
Blue Note
Reissue/Historical Box Set of the Year
A Life In Time: The Roy Haynes Story
Dreyfus Jazz
Record Label of the Year
Blue Note Records
Composer of the Year
Maria Schneider
Arranger of the Year
Maria Schneider
Male Singer of the Year
Andy Bey
Female Singer of the Year
Abbey Lincoln
Latin Jazz Album of the Year
Big Band Urban Folktales
Bobby Sanabria
Jazzheads
Small Ensemble of the Year
Ornette Coleman Quartet/Quintet
Large Ensemble of the Year
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Trumpeter of the Year
Terence Blanchard
Trombonist of the Year
Wycliffe Gordon
Player of Instruments Rare in Jazz
Scott Robinson, reeds/brass/antiques
Alto Sax Player of the Year
Ornette Coleman
Tenor Sax Player of the Year
Sonny Rollins
Soprano Sax Player of the Year
Jane Ira Bloom
Baritone Sax Player of the Year
James Carter
Clarinetist of the Year
Anat Cohen
Flutist of the Year
Nicole Mitchell
Pianist of the Year
Hank Jones
Organ-Keyboards of the Year
Dr. Lonnie Smith
Guitarist of the Year
Bill Frisell
Bassist of the Year
Christian McBride
Electric Bassist of the Year
Steve Swallow
Strings Player of the Year
Regina Carter
Mallets Player of the Year
Joe Locke
Percussionist of the Year
Candido Camero
Drummer of the Year
Roy Haynes
Events Producer of the Year
Patricia Nicholson-Parker, Arts for Art, RUCMA, Vision Festival
Jazz Journalism Lifetime Achievement Award
Doug Ramsey, author, biographer, blogger
Willis Conover-Marian McPartland Broadcasting Award
Nancy Wilson, for “Jazz Profiles”
National Public Radio
Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Feature & Review Writing Award
Nate Chinen
New York Time, JazzTimes
Best Periodical Covering Jazz
JazzTimes
Best Website on Jazz
AllAboutJazz.com
Best Book about Jazz
Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton's Life in Stories and Photographs, by Milt Hinton, David G. Berger and Holly Maxson (Vanderbilt University Press)
Lona Foote-Bob Parent Photography Award
Milt Hinton (1910-2000)
Jazz Photo of the Year
“Time Stood Still for Andrew Hill,”
by Laurence Donohue-Greene
http://www.jazzhouse.org/vote/pho08/

The Jazz Journalists Association 2008 Award for the ‘A Team’ Activists, advocates, altruists, aiders and abettors of jazz

Dr. Valerie Capers, pianist, composer, emeritus chair of City University of New York Department of Music and Art at Bronx Community College;

Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts;

Lauren Deutsch, photographer and executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago;

Susan Muscarella, pianist-composer-arranger-educator, founder of JazzSchool (Berkeley);

Phil Nimmons, clarinetist, improviser, father of Canadian jazz education;

George Russell, conceptualist, composer, orchestra leader, educator (New England Conservatory)

Dick Wang, musician, educator (Univ of Illinois-Chicago), mentor, historian, archivist, co-founder, past president and current board member of the Jazz Institute of Chicago;

Dr. Herb Wong, founder of the Palo Alto jazz alliance and Berkeley public school jazz programs, broadcaster, record producer and annotator, past-president of the International Association of Jazz Educators, spirit of the Monterey Jazz Festival

Wendy Oxenhorn, executive director of the Jazz Foundation of America, founder of Street News, blues harmonica player

What Makes A Festival Festive?

Although I'm paid three times a year or so to write reviews about jazz festivals, it's seldom the festival itself I review. Whether I'm reporting from New York, Vancouver, Cleveland or Montreal, I try to keep the focus on the music, unless there's something extraordinary about the setting or the crowd that warrants notice. That approach can create confusion. Once, when a festival organizer complained about the bad review I gave his festival, I replied: "It wasn't the 'festival' I was reviewing. I didn't see you onstage playing a saxophone."

Yeah, that was overly glib and facetious, but you get my point.

After helping to run a festival for a few years in the 1980s and attending at least three events a year since 1991, I've developed a few thoughts on what – music aside – separates great festivals from the also-rans. Bear in mind that the Number 1 thing that makes the difference is artistic vision, but let's pretend that all things are equal on that front for the sake of argument. What makes the ideal festival?

As in real estate, location plays a major role. I like urban settings and the ocean, so I'm partial to events in San Francisco, Vancouver and Halifax, but putting that bias aside, festivals that provide the equivalent of a palette-cleansing course at a restaurant are appreciated. In San Francisco, I love the opportunity to walk across the street to the Museum of Modern Art after catching a show at the Yerba Buena Gardens or check out the collection at the Legion of Honor, the great venue that SFJAZZ sometimes uses out by the Golden Gate Bridge. In Vancouver, I dig sitting at an outdoor cafe on Robson Street – people watching in the West End – between shows. Sometimes, this is a question of timing, too. I know only a few people who really enjoy festivals that cram musical acts up against each other; it's nice to have time to process what you just heard.

Food also plays a key role. One of the best festival sites I've been to is in San Jose, California, where, during the festival, Cesar Chavez Square is lined with vendors dispensing a variety of ethnic cuisines. One of my least-favourite festival sites is Victoriaville, where the lack of time between shows combines with the paucity of good restaurants to put me in a bad mood every time. (During the early years of the Guelph Jazz Festival – when critics were still discovering its terrific programming and great setting – my Toronto colleague Mark Miller uttered the immortal line, "This is like Victoriaville, but with better food.") In Ottawa this summer, I'm looking forward to the fact that a local, organic, micro-brewery has won the beverage contract over the big breweries. Later in the summer, I'm making my first trip to the Vitoria festival in Spain, and I'm looking forward to the Basque cuisine almost as much as catching Maria Schneider and Wayne Shorter... almost.

Overall, though, it's that intangible "vibe" that wins me over. It can be sitting in a park – doesn't matter which city – under a beautiful sky, or in a funky old hall with terrific sound; if the vibe is right, everything sounds better.

What about your favorite festivals? Which ones are you partial to? What makes it work for you? Send your picks for where people should head this year as we enter festival season.

Happy Birthday To Us

Two jazz magazines... two anniversaries... two very different approaches. That's what readers of Coda – the venerable Canadian journal of improvised music – and Signal To Noise – an up-and-coming quarterly magazine based in Houston, Texas – have in their hands this month. Coda is marking 50 years of existence, while STN is celebrating 50 issues.

I contribute to both, so I'm not playing favourites, but it's interesting to note the differences in how the publications view their legacies.

The Coda retrospective takes a top-down approach, with lengthy remembrances from founder/former publisher John Norris, former editor Bill Smith and former publisher Nick Pitt. There is no shortage of 'those were the days' stories of how the magazine got its start as a mimeographed-and-stapled collection of reviews, but almost nothing about the legion of writers and photographers who contributed to what Coda grew to be. This is ironic, considering that Smith and his successor, the wonderfully insightful Stuart Broomer, were great advocates for letting journalists have their say. Today, Coda has passed from their hands.


STN publisher – and editor (though he doesn't call himself that on the masthead) – Pete Gershon is cut from the same cloth as Smith and Broomer, but his 50th celebration trumpets that fact, while Coda seems to be trying to re-write history. Rather than continually beat the reader over the head with the difficult realities of running a publication, Gershon lets the writers do what they do. His novel approach to marking his 50 milestone was to ask 50 contributors to submit short descriptions of their most-treasured piece of music-related memorabilia. Simple but effective.

I have edited half-a-dozen or so publications during my career – and continue to do so at a small community paper in the neighbourhood where I grew up – and I've learned that the biggest mistake you can make as an editor is to forget that it's the names on the bylines and not at the top of the masthead that make a magazine or newspaper what it is. It is writers' enthusiasms and voices, and photographers' vision and imagination that readers respond to – regardless of how skillful or dedicated the editor.

RTF v.3.0

With Return To Forever's vaunted reunion tour now in full swing – it kicked off last week in Texas and winds through the summer until early August – I've been thinking about a quirk I have about original lineups. It's no surprise that I like the original configuration of The Mahavishnu Orchestra best (does anyone prefer one of the latter versions?), but I also have a preference for the first incarnation of Weather Report, Genesis, The Allman Brothers Band, The E Street Band (okay, maybe not "Mad Dog" Vinny Lopez) and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

I deviate a little from this pattern with RTF, but only if you're one of those who consider the Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, Joe Farrell band RTF. (Their acoustic basis and heavy Brazilian influence make them a whole other category than what followed, once Lenny White and Bill Connors came along.) For me, Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy ranks with The Inner Mounting Flame, Sweetnighter and Head Hunters as an album that defined the fusion genre in the early '70s. Al DiMeola has just never really done it for me, though one of his later recordings – Orange And Blue – is pretty fine.

A few years ago, I got a chance to interview Connors, then 55. I was always curious about why he decided to drop out of RTF after his exceptional work on Hymn and Stanley Clarke's solo debut.

Looking back at his decision, Connors was at a loss to explain it, despite many rumours that Corea's Scientology devotion or leadership manner were at the root. "Maybe I should've just taken a few days off. It (his decision to quit) was a little rash."

He didn't seem like a man to harbour regrets. After all, he's had a full career of recording (including some great work for ECM) and teaching. Still, he also said this: "It hurt when people would tell me that I must've listened to a lot of Al DiMeola. I was robbed of my identity... (it was like) my guitar was a credit card that had been stolen and I'd been left to pay the bill."

While some people I've talked to have expressed regrets that Moreira and Purim aren't involved in this summer's RTF reunion, I'm wishing that Chick had invited Connors along for the ride.

NEA Jazz Masters

The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has named the recipients of its 2009 Jazz Masters Award. The winners are: guitarist-singer George Benson, 65; drummer Jimmy Cobb, 79; alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, 80; harmonicist-guitarist Toots Thielmans, 86; and trumpeter Snooky Young, 89. Veteran recording engineer and studio owner Rudy Van Gelder, 83, has been awarded the 2009 A.B. Spellman Award for jazz advocacy.

The criteria for the Jazz Masters Award are excellence, impact and significant contributions to keeping jazz alive.

Clearly, some excellent choices here – particularly the nod to Young, a fine player who is often overlooked because he chose a route other than as a high-profile bandleader. Good to see Cobb and Konitz cited, as well. Van Gelder? A no-brainer.

The odd man out, of course, is Benson – not just for the fact that he's a generation younger than the others, but for the fact that there are dozens of others his age who are arguably as worthy. Does impact merely equate to commercial sales? Does one keep the jazz tradition alive by finding success in the pop mainstream? Benson is, of course, a fine guitarist, but there are a score of instrumentalists his equal. His citation highlights his "innovative practice of playing a florid guitar melody accompanied by an identical, scatted vocal line." Thin gruel there; questionably innovative given how widespread that practice was among blues guitarists and others well before Benson. Perhaps of more significance is one other fact his citation notes: "Winner of ten Grammy Awards." As usual, these things often come down to nothing more than popularity contests.

The winners of the NEA Jazz Masters Award receive a $25,000 grant. The awards will be presented in October in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and will include a performance saluting the artists' work by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Dum-de-Dum-Dum, Dum Dum, 1928-2008

Long before I had heard the word "mojo" I knew Ellas McDaniel was working some kind of magic. When I was eight or nine I was fascinated by two things: odd-sounding music and cowboys. So when my cousin pulled out a copy of Bo Diddley Is A Gunslinger and put it on his basement record player I was enthralled. First of all, who was called Bo Diddley? No one in my orbit. Second, who in 1962 had heard of a black cowboy? No one who grew up watching Rawhide, Wagon Train and Cheyenne.

And then, there was the sound. Simple, yet spooky. Much darker than the white rockabillies my older brothers favoured, let alone the music on the radio of the day. And that beat. Well, I had heard that on a Buddy Holly record, but who was this guy claiming it as his own, and basing almost every song on it? Something in the audacious minimalism grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Little wonder, then, that The Rolling Stones had me over The Beatles when they covered "Not Fade Away" and then "Mona," or that Bruce Springsteen's "She's The One" has remained one of my favourite of his songs in concert.

So long, Bo. You were one of a kind.

Best Wishes for Ajay Heble

It was a shock to learn today that Ajay Heble – founder and artistic director of the Guelph Jazz Festival & Colloquium – has suffered a heart attack. One of the most creative festival directors in the world, Ajay has established an enviable record in Guelph, despite the festival's relatively small size. Earlier this spring, he was nominated for a Jazz Award by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Here's the official release on the state of Ajay's health:

GUELPH – Guelph Jazz Festival artistic director Ajay Heble suffered a heart attack Monday during a return flight from Paris where he was attending a conference. He was attended to by physicians and nurses who were on his flight, and the airplane made an emergency landing in Goose Bay, Labrador, where he was transferred to hospital. He is now in stable condition.

Heble's wife Sheila O'Reilly was on the flight with him, as was colleague Bill Brydon of Winnipeg and his wife. All three are with Heble now in Goose Bay.

Michelle Lobkowicz, president of the Guelph Jazz Festival, said, "Our thoughts and prayers are with Ajay, Sheila and their two children. We're thankful that he received prompt medical attention and is over the immediate crisis."

Heble is the founder of the Guelph Jazz Festival and has been its artistic director for the past 15 years. He is also a professor of English at the University of Guelph, and the director of a multi-million dollar social research project entitled Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice. It was in regard to the latter project that Heble was in Paris over the previous week.

It's not yet clear when or how Heble will be moved from Goose Bay, for specialized cardiac care closer to his home in Guelph.

With regard to this year's Guelph Jazz Festival, executive director Derek Andrews says that Heble's heart attack is a tremendous shock but adds that this year's lineup of musicians has been largely decided and booked by Heble. The organization was planning to announce the feature artists for the 2008 Festival this week. Although that announcement has been postponed, Andrews says the Festival still plans to unveil the full season lineup in mid-June, even though Heble in all likelihood will not be present.

"We're glad Ajay is safe, and for the time being, his well-being is all we're worrying about," says Andrews. "Our board will meet later in the week to adjust our plans for the three-month Festival run-up period."

(June 4 Update: Ajay is now recuperating at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, after being transferred from Goose Bay.)

Re-discovering Braxton

If you're like me, you probably have chunks of your vinyl collection that you haven't gotten around to replacing with digital copies or updating to reflect re-packaging, re-mastering, etc. For me, it's Anthony Braxton. There were holes in my collection to begin with, largely because my discovery of Braxton coincided with the years when I worked in campus radio and had ready access to a lot of his prime work and ample time to play it. And once you're behind in collecting Braxton, there's a lot of room to make up. So, I've determined to make it a priority for this year.

This was spurred by hearing him talk and play at last fall's Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium, and also by the flood of new Braxton releases that have landed on my desk lately. It has been a particularly rich time for Braxton recordings – both current and a few years old. I'm presently reviewing two new Victo releases – featuring his Diamond Curtain Wall Trio and the other his 12+1tet – and on their way to me are a handful of his Black Saint releases and the lauded Quartet (Coventry) 1985 on Leo, which somehow has eluded my listening all these years. I'm looking forward to this with more anticipation than I've felt in a long time.

One thing that strikes me listening to new Braxton is that he has recently employed two of the most-interesting guitarists around: Mary Halvorson and Kevin O'Neil. Both of them play with enormous texture and sonic breadth, and sound quite unlike the prevailing jazz guitarists of the past 15 years.

Join Us In Ottawa

Time to reveal the full plans for three events at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival that I've been working on in my role as vice-president of the Jazz Journalists Association.

Over three days in late June we'll be staging public events over the lunch-hour in the National Arts Centre's Fourth Stage.

A core trio for these events will be myself, veteran jazz journalist Howard Mandel (whose book Miles Ornette Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz was published this year) and Reuben Jackson, who's a poet, journalist and archivist at the Smithsonian Institution.

On June 24, we'll be joined by pianist and educator Andy Milne and Dr. Alan Stanbridge from the University of Toronto to discuss the rich tradition of improvising on popular songs. Whether it's Charlie Parker spinning harmonic magic from "Embraceable You," John Coltrane turning "My Favorite Things" into a dervish dance or Herbie Hancock plumbing the emotional depths of Joni Mitchell's songbook, jazz musicians have long found rich improvisational ground in pop songs. But what is the common ground? We'll discuss. This panel follows a performance by Hancock's all-star band at the festival, so we'll have plenty of fuel. In addition, one of Milne's three(!) recent CDs finds him interpreting music by Mitchell, Neil Young and other contemporary singer-songwriters, and Stanbridge has written frequently on popular music.

The next day, we'll be joined by veteran arts administrator Richard Davis from the Canadian Department of Heritage and others to conduct a workshop on arts journalism. The fundamentals and standards of professional arts journalism remain little understood or discussed in this era when the arts – in particular music – are increasingly available to and commented upon by eager consumers. We're planning to have a wide-ranging discussion of issues of connection and impartiality, reported observation and personal explanation.


Finally, on June 26, we'll be getting warmed up for that evening's performance by Return To Forever by looking back over 40 years of fusion music. Born in 1968, when leading jazz musicians began exploring the sonic possibilities of electric instruments, fusion music dominated jazz in the '70s. Artists like Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke and Miroslav Vitous – all of whom will be at this year's Ottawa jazz fest – found new avenues of expression and inspired a generation of young improvisers. We'll be joined by two musicians who were influenced: guitarist Wayne Eagles, who teaches at Carleton University, and pianist Peter Hum, who is the assistant arts and culture editor at the Ottawa Citizen and the author of a terrific blog.

If you're in the area – or especially if you're in town for the festival – I hope you can join us.

Now Spinning

I'm currently pursuing a story about ECM Records, which involves a convoluted interview process with the globe-trotting Manfred Eicher, so the label is much on my mind. Considering ECM, it is always difficult to overlook the monster in its catalogue, Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert, which continues to click along in sales like Kind Of Blue. Jarrett's improvised solo recitals and – more recently – the staggering output of his so-called Standards Trio tend to overshadow the work I first loved: the American Quartet with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, which recorded for ABC in the mid-'70s. I saw them live the same month that I first saw Bruce Springsteen, and both events are seminal for me. As good as Jarrett's solo outings and trio are, I know I'm not alone in wishing that he would compose again.

I think drummer George Schuller is with me on that. A criminally under-appreciated drummer and bandleader, Schuller has just released an homage to Jarrett's quartet. Like Before, Somewhat After features a quintet (with Brad Shepik on guitar, Donny McCaslin, saxes, Dave Ambrosio, bass, and Tom Beckham, vibes, along with percussionist Jamey Haddad on a few tracks) performing five Jarrett compositions and a couple of Schuller originals inspired by the Jarrett four.

Very interesting, and I'm digging the way Schuller takes liberties – particularly on one of my favorites from Jarrett's Fort Yawuh: "De Drums." This is great music that deserves to be re-discovered. Sadly, those original recordings are hard to find. Pick them up if you find them, and hope that they get a proper resurrection sometime soon.

Jimmy Giuffre, 1921-2008

Sad news that the great Jimmy Giuffre has died, just two days before his 87th birthday.

One of the giants on the clarinet, Giuffre's band with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow was groundbreaking and remains one of the benchmarks for many improvisers.

Update: Watch for my appreciation of Jimmy Giuffre's life in the August (Critics Poll) issue of DownBeat, out July 15.

Festivals: Pro or Con?

Recently, I was engaged by a prominent Canadian musician in a spirited email exchange about the pros and cons of jazz festivals. His main point was that too many non-jazz artists get gigs that should go to jazz musicians, but an underlying refrain was that festivals give the illusion that a city has a thriving jazz scene, when in fact 90 percent of the year's expenditures on jazz are concentrated in a 10-day or two-week period.

There's little denying either point. You don't have to look too far to find jazz festivals rife with performers like Al Green, Gladys Knight, Leonard Cohen, Billy Joel and others who have – at best – tenuous connections to jazz. And, aside from New York City and one or two other large cities, it's likely that the lineup of any festival you care to name overshadows the jazz gigs you'll find throughout the rest of the year. So does that mean that jazz festivals have outlived their usefulness 54 years after George Wein launched the first one in Newport, Rhode Island?

As my colleague Dan Ouellette points out in the current issue of DownBeat, there is a diminishing number of "name" jazz musicians – players who can draw audiences beyond their regular fan base. That was an issue back in the late-1980s, when I was briefly involved in the administration side of jazz festivals. After you had exhausted the Dizzy Gillespies and Benny Goodmans, where did you go next? Sure, there is always an audience for first-rate artists like Brad Mehldau or John Scofield, but does your father, your spouse or your niece know their names? Who's more likely to make them part with their money and make some time in their schedule: Dave Douglas or Gladys Knight?

I had dinner last night with a friend who's excited that Knight is coming to Ottawa's jazz festival. He's a discerning music fan, and he'll enjoy whatever else he hears at the festival, but it's Knight who'll get him into the park. And that's where festivals really do their work at expanding the tastes of their casual attendees. Among some, jazz still has a reputation of being "hard" music, and only first-hand exposure can overcome that.

As for "stealing" gigs from local musicians, the best festivals I've seen build lots of local content into their lineup (and I have to disagree with those hometown players who think they deserve a prime-time slot or the kind of fee that Wayne Shorter or Maria Schneider can command). What's more, I know of dozens of younger jazz musicians who caught the bug and focused their ambition by being exposed to – and in some cases, jamming with – established artists.

So, yes, sometimes the sound is less than optimal and the audiences often aren't as reverent as you'll find in a club, but jazz festivals pump a lot of revenue into the industry and build audiences. There's probably not a local jazz scene anywhere – even New York City – that couldn't be improved, but I don't think festivals are to blame.

Jazz At Bluesfest

For those in the vicinity of Ottawa – my home base – it's easy to overlook the significant jazz content in this year's Bluesfest lineup announced today.

On July 3, Cassandra Wilson will perform at 9:30 p.m. She's about to release a new album called Loverly, which features her unique take on a number of standards. Not sure who's in her touring band, but the recording has great work by pianist Jason Moran. (Update: It looks like Wilson is touring with Reginald Veal, Marvin Sewell, Jonathan Batiste, and two astounding percussionists, Herlin Riley and Lekan Babalola.)

On July 6 at 6:15 p.m., it's James Blood Ulmer. Might be his first-ever performance in Ottawa unless I was out of town when he was here before.

RIP IAJE

The International Association for Jazz Education officially filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, simultaneously announcing the cancellation of its 2009 convention, slated to be held in Seattle next January, and the immediate closure of its headquarters in Manhattan, Kansas.

As a journalist, I'm not close enough to the jazz education field to know what effects this might have at that level, but I do know that IAJE was a tremendous resource for educators and that the conference provided a terrific meeting place for educators and their students.

For my profession, what this business failure means is the death of an annual sharing of information. Since integrating the old JazzTimes Convention a number of years ago, the IAJE convention was the place where journalists and others on the "industry" side of jazz gathered to trade ideas, renew friendships and get re-energized for the year ahead. More specifically, for the Jazz Journalists Association, on whose board I serve as vice-president, it was a chance for us to help educate young journalists and develop our own chops through workshops and panels.

IAJE will definitely be missed, but knowing the dedication and enthusiasm that exists among jazz educators at all levels I have no doubt that something will rise from the ashes. It will just take time.

More On The Mess At IAJE

What my friend and JJA colleague Willard Jenkins calls "a house of straw" is starting to blow away faster than I predicted. The financial disaster at the International Association of Jazz Education is evolving rapidly, and Willard has several revealing posts about it on his blog. And check out some of the comments in response to his posts to see the level of hostility, back biting and back stabbing that's going on as the straw comes down.

An addendum on April 15: Apparently, the IAJE's board has now voted to file for Chapter 7 under U.S. bankruptcy law, which is the liquidation of property for distribution to creditors.

Now Spinning

Bennie Maupin is back... with a vengeance. Maupin was one of my favourite reed players in the '60s and early '70s – and remains at the top of my list of bass clarinetists. I discovered his work when he was a member of trumpeter Lee Morgan's band. Morgan's recording Live At The Lighthouse is an overlooked landmark recording of the time. Of course, Maupin was also a cornerstone of Miles Davis' band, making mammoth contributions to Bitches Brew and now properly documented on On The Corner and other studio work Davis did between '69 and '72. Next, Maupin went on to be a key player in Herbie Hancock's great Mwandishi band and stayed on for Sextant and Head Hunters. Oddly, Maupin was never much of a leader. He made one great record for ECM – The Jewel In The Lotus, just reissued on CD – a couple of so-so things for Mercury and then he disappeared from the recording scene for 20 years.

Like Andrew Hill – in whose company he also performed – Maupin was one of those guys you always hoped would come back while he still had some chops. In the past couple of years, he has. And he hasn't lost a step. If anything, he's more focused than ever, and he sounds great. His new recording, Early Reflections, on Cryptogramophone is exceptional. Maupin has been – among other things – studying composition in Poland, and has grown fascinated by the mountainous Tatra region near Krakow. He has also hooked up with a Polish trio – including a terrific pianist named Michal Tokaj – and an intriguing singer: Hania Chowaniec-Rybka. She has this intense, wordless style that puts me in mind of Mari Boine for some reason. She and Maupin team up for a couple of Tatra-influenced pieces, the second of which had me reaching for Visible World – the ECM recording Jan Garbarek made with Boine in 1996. Maupin revisits "The Jewel In The Lotus" on Early Reflections, re-casting it in three-quarter time and building in a jaw-dropping soprano solo that may be one of the best things I've heard him play. All things considered, that makes Early Reflections a must-have if you've been a Maupin fan, too.

My review of both the reissue of The Jewel In The Lotus and Early Reflections will run in the next issue of Signal To Noise – my debut in that fine publication.

Festival Windfall

It may be the low U.S. dollar, the ever-growing hassle of air travel, or just the luck of 2008 – whatever the reason, there is a larger-than-usual number of prime jazz acts on the North American festival circuit this summer. Lucky for me and others in my region, most of them are coming to the Ottawa International Jazz Festival (June 20-July 1).

The list of headliners unveiled at this morning's media launch is impressive: Herbie Hancock's Joni Mitchell Project – with Dave Holland and Chris Potter onboard; Brad Mehldau Trio; Return To Forever; Charlie Haden's Quartet West; the LCJO with Wynton Marsalis; Salif Keita; Madeleine Peyroux; EST; and Tim Berne. There's also a wealth of European and Canadian artists, as well as a couple of headline spots to be filled.

Full disclosure: In my role as vice-president of the Jazz Journalists Association, I'm working with the festival to program three days of panel discussions featuring my fellow board members Howard Mandel and Reuben Jackson. On June 24, in conjunction with Hancock's appearance, we'll be looking at the intersection between popular music and improvisation. The next day – joined by some local experts – we'll be conducting a workshop on the state of arts criticism in the digital era. And on June 26 – the day that Return To Forever hits – a bunch of us will be marking the 40th anniversary of fusion and looking at its legacy (another fusion pioneer – bassist Miroslav Vitous – is also at the festival).

You can check it all out at the festival's site.

Get Excited?

Well, maybe not quite yet, but the news that Elvis Costello and Elton John will be collaborating on a new television show – Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... – spurs fond memories of Night Music, the last major network show that presented music without forcing it into some kind of odd box.

Costello and John haven't tipped their hands yet about potential guests, but given their cross-genre connections and broad tastes anything is possible. Could we see more highlights like Sonny Rollins backing Leonard Cohen – one of Night Music's most notable moments? One can always dream.

Jazz Giant Stumbles

The tough times just get tougher for the large institutions we traditionally associate with the jazz industry.

The latest sign is a financial crisis at the International Association of Jazz Education. Recently, an email was sent by IAJE president Chuck Owen soliciting emergency donations from members. Owen cites two reasons for the organization's fiscal shortfall: the failure of its "Campaign For Jazz" to reach its target over the past five years; and the poor attendance — 40 percent lower than normal — at the recent IAJE conference in Toronto.

In reaction to the financial crisis, the IAJE has temporarily suspended four major initiatives: publication of its glossy magazine; its scholarship program; the Park City Jazz Summit; and the search for a new executive director for IAJE. Former IAJE executive director Bill McFarlin resigned in January.

Owen anticipates that the 40-year-old organization will have to be "significantly" restructured to survive.