The Buzz: The JJA Podcast

The Buzz: The JJA Podcast

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.

Episodes

March 25, 2024 27 mins

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.

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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.

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February 19, 2024 33 mins

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. 

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January 15, 2024 32 mins

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 

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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.

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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."

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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.

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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. 

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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...

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Latin Jazz has always had a curious relationship with the mainstream Jazz media. 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 ...

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After decades as one of the world's leading jazz magazines, JazzTimes was purchased last May by The BeBop Channel, which unceremoniously cancelled all assignments. Staff and writers owed for past work are still waiting to get paid, and the publication has devolved into something unrecognizable.  Host Andrew Gilbert discussed the distressing situation and the larger landscape for covering jazz in-depth with two brilliant collea...

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After decades as one of the world's leading jazz magazines, JazzTimes was purchased last May by The BeBop Channel, which unceremoniously cancelled all assignments. Staff and writers owed for past work are still waiting to get paid, and the publication has devolved into something unrecognizable. I discussed the distressing situation and the larger landscape for covering jazz in-depth with two brilliant colleagues, John Murph an...

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From the JJA's March 26, 2023 online Book Bash, London-based media maven, impetus behind Women in Jazz Media and singer Fiona Ross, a member of the JJA's Book Committee, speaks with authors of two books nominated for 2023 Jazz Awards -- which later were announced winners in their categories!

  • Willard Jenkins, editor of Ain't But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story
  • Aidan Levy, author of Saxophone Coloss...
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From the JJA's March 26, 2023 online Book Bash, Bay Area-based radio show host and educator Brad Stone, member of the JJA's Book Committee, speaks with authors of two books nominated for 2023 Jazz Awards -- 

  • Philip Watson of Bill Frisell, Beautiful Dreamer: The Guitarist who Changed the Sound of American Music
  • Kenny Werner, pianist and author of Becoming the Instrument: Lessons on Self-Master from Music to Life --

i...

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From the JJA's March 26 2023 online Book Bash, Bob Blumenthal, a dean of the field, board member and chair of the JJA's Book Committee, moderates a panel of authors of books nominated for 2023 JJA Jazz Awards:

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April 30, 2023 24 mins

Host Rick Mitchell discusses Jazz Polls with journalists Geoffrey Himes and Tom Hull.

Geoffrey Himes:  https://codacollection.co/authors/geoffrey-himes
Tom Hull: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hull_(critic)

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In the first of a series of conversations with journalists covering jazz, host Andrew Gilbert talks with Chicago writer Hannah Edgar, who contributes to the Chicago Tribune as part of a program funded by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism. Edgar also writes for the Chicago Reader.

Hannah Edgar: https://hannah-edgar.com/
Andrew Gilbert: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.gilbert.319

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Host Rick Mitchell talks with jazz journalists Eugene Holley Jr. and Aaron Cohen on the subject of white critics writing about black music, an issue that dates back to birth of jazz.

Eugene Holley Jr.: https://muckrack.com/eugene-holley-jr/articles
Aaron Cohen: https://muckrack.com/aaron-cohen-5

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February 15, 2023 28 mins

"Free jazz" as presented in a dozen films collected and presented by the Criterion Channel incorporate unusual ways of telling unusual musical stories, including portraits of Alice Coltrane and Milford Graves; Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Archie Shepp and Paul Bley in Imagine the Sound, and evocative experimental films such as Dream City and Promises: Through Congress. Panelists Kevin Whitehead (author of Play The Way You Fe...

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February 1, 2023 26 mins

Are films about "free jazz," featured in a collection on the Criterion Channel, a genre -- and if so, what are their common traits? Panelists Kevin Whitehead (author of Play The Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film, jazz critic on Fresh Air with Terry Gross), Gretchen Carlson (author of Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music Through Jazz), and Don Palmer (arts journalist, former grant off...

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