BoMuse News, February 2021

BoMuse News, vol. 20, no. 2

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BoMuse News is a monthly newsletter from BoMuse Music. It presents items of interest related to jazz, and advocacy for music education, as well as news of releases from BoMuse Music and the performing activities of Paul Combs.

Follow @BoMuseMusic  on Twitter, and Facebook , and now at All About Jazz.

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1. KSDS Live again
2. Other Good Jazz Radio News
3. Jazzinstitut Darmstadt
4. Gigs

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1. Our local jazz radio station KSDS/jazz88.org is starting to have live hosts back on air. Chad Fox has done a great job programing the host-less broadcasts these past months, and continues to do so for the hours that still do not have their hosts back. However, it is so comforting to hear those familiar friendly voices in real time.

An informal survey of jazz radio programmers showed a wide variety of solutions to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. They ranged from stations that were able to allow live broadcasting, like KCSM where station personnel only were able to enter the studios, to at least one where the presenter had to use Spotify to get his program out. In the case of KSDS, my understanding is San Diego City College was not allowing radios staff, except technicians, to enter the building.

If you listen to Jazz88 and haven’t done so already, please support them. If you listen to other stations support them too.

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2. This just in from station WBGO in Newark, NJ, via the Jazz Programers Listing:

“The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has long been a vital supporter of jazz, most visibly through its annual Artist Awards. Today the foundation — which also goes by its initials, DDCF — announced the Jazz Media Lab, which will distribute more than $1 million in funds to a cohort of nonprofit jazz radio stations across the country.”

“Each of those stations — KMHD (Oregon Public Broadcasting) in Gresham, Ore., KNKX (Pacific Public Media) in Tacoma, Wash., KUVO (Rocky Mountain Public Media) in Denver, Colo., WBGO (Newark Public Radio) in Newark, N.J., and WRTI (Temple University) in Philadelphia, Pa. — will receive general operating support grants of $225,000 over three years.”

More on this from The Current and WRTI. Let’s hope there will be grants coming to some of the other Jazz Radio stations across the country.

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3. I mentioned this a while back, maybe two years ago, but you may have missed it or decided not to explore it at the time. The Jazzinstitut in Darmstadt, Germany, is a terrific resource, not only for researchers, but for any one with a love of Jazz. They publish a newsletter via email, with digest of news items regarding our art form from a variety of sources. There is a form for subscribing at the bottom of their Website. In the latest issue there were several links to article about two recently released movies in which Jazz plays a prominent role, Black Bottom and Soul, as well as many other articles of interest. If you a looking for interesting news in this time of reduced activity, and disturbing developments, I recommend it highly.

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4. Gigs

Well I am still house bound, except for trips to the market, and other occasional necessary errands. I’m plugging away at various projects, practicing, or at least warming up, daily. I can report that at least two of the six important gigs that had to be canceled are still on, whenever we can gather indoors again. One of the others will be easy to reschedule and communications are still in progress on the other two. I hope to see you out and about eventually.

Ware a mask, keep a safe distance, get your shot when you can, and as always, thank you for supporting LIVE MUSIC! if only virtually for now.

Follow @BoMuseMusic  on Twitter, and Facebook , and now at All About Jazz.