Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
Bluesman and educator Fernando Jones teaches the blues whenever and wherever possible—in person or online.
(Photo: Glenn Kaupert)Last summer’s Jazz Camp season can be summed up in a word—virtual. Like so much of our lives during the pandemic, most camps did what jazz people do best, improvise. They found ways to give students the best jazz experience possible online.
It wasn’t the same, for sure. But those camps served as rays of hope during woefully cloudy times.
So, with that same improvisational spirit, jazz camps for 2021 look to reboot. While gathering listings from 80 jazz camps around the globe, DownBeat found that some will remain virtual, most aim to deliver in-person experiences with heightened sanitary and safety protocols and many are looking at ways to do both.
Also, the jazz camp experience isn’t just for jazz any more. As highlighted in our Camp Guide, found here, Chicago bluesman Fernando Jones has two in-person camps scheduled for this summer in Chicago and North Carolina. The Los Angeles College of Music has an in-person rap and hip-hop camp as well as its Summer Xperience delving into many layers of music making and entrepreneurship.
As a result, jazz camps may never be the same again. They will be even better training grounds for the next generation of musicians, artists, entrepreneurs and well-rounded people.
DownBeat’s complete Jazz Camp Guide can be found here. DB
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
The Old Country: More From The Deer Head Inn arrives 30 years after ECM issued the Keith Jarret Trio live album At The Deer Head Inn.
Jan 21, 2025 7:38 PM
Last November, Keith Jarrett, who has not played publicly since suffering two strokes in 2018, greenlighted ECM to drop…
As Ted Nash, left, departs the alto saxophone chair for LCJO, Alexa Tarantino steps in as the band’s first female full-time member.
Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
If only because openings for JLCO’s 15 permanent positions appear about as frequently as sub-freezing days on the…
“The first recording I owned with Brazilian music on it was Wayne Shorter’s Native Dancer,” says Renee Rosnes. “And then I just started to go down the rabbit hole.”
Jan 16, 2025 2:02 PM
In her four-decade career, Renee Rosnes has been recognized as a singular voice, both as a jazz composer and a…
