Jazz Appreciation Month is here

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, by proclamation of the Smithsonian, and that's no joke.

For the next 30 days, a lot of things will be happening across the US and around the world to celebrate this great art form that continues to thrive and grow - despite the sometimes overpowering hype and celebrity spotlight enjoyed by other forms of music appealing to mass audiences.

Building for the future

George Wein

How do you ensure the granddaddy of jazz festivals will be around for a long time? Producer George Wein has been running the Newport Jazz Festival since it was first held in 1954. That's 58 years ago, and Wein, now 86, is a realist.
He knows he won't be around forever, but wants to ensure the festival will be. So he's taken a multi-faceted approach to sustain the event, showcase newer generations of musicians, and help build the future talent base and audience for jazz.

A stamp of approval for jazz

We're a society of pack rats, of collectors. Or so it seems. Some of us collect a few things we find meaningful, others have made it into a warehouse-style art form.

In general, jazz fans collect live music memories and savor the special moments. Many collect them in hard copy as well - CDs, LPs, 78s, images. You name it. Well, probably not eight-tracks. At least not without suffering some level of derision.

But collect we do.

When I was a kid, I was into stamp collecting, and kept up with specialty categories for a couple of decades. The philately bug in me waned after a while. But once in a while, there is a linkage with current interests that brings things full circle.

Next Saturday the U.S. Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp saluting jazz. The first day of issue will take place in New Orleans. That's most fitting in its history as one of the music's most influential cities, and, many argue, its birthplace.

The Postal Service says it is paying tribute to America's musical gift to the world and to the musicians who make it (along the veins of the 1995 stamps, first issued at the Monterey Jazz Festival, that honored Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, John Coltrane, Erroll Garner, Coleman Hawkins, James P. Johnson, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Jelly Roll Morton and Charlie Parker). The latter were part of a Legends of American Music series.

The new stamp, which will be sold initially at 44 cents, is part of USPS's popular "Forever" series. It means that these pressure-sensitive adhesive stamps can be used into the future regardless of any further rises in the cost of a first-class stamp. The first such stamp, still in widespread use today, was issued in April 2007 and features the Liberty Bell. Since that time, more than 28 billion Forever stamps have been sold, USPS says.

Howard Paine designed the new jazz stamp to showcase the work of California artist Paul Rogers. In creating the art on which the stamp is based, Rogers was inspired by the cover art of vintage albums - art that captured the sense of improvisation that was contained inside.

The jazz stamp in the Forever series follows by one week the release in Austin, Texas of Forever stamps commemorating five musicians and performers of Latin music. They include two from the Latin jazz world - Tito Puente and Celia Cruz. The others are Selena, Carmen Miranda, and Carlos Gardel.

Stamp collecting isn't part of my psyche - or interests - any more. But I will make an exception for this one. And I recommend it as a stamp to stock up on for mailings to others in the jazz world (as infrequent as snail mail seems in this e-mail world).

Respect your bridges. Appreciate where they've led you. Don't burn them.

Sonny’s still on a Roll

The high honors, perhaps long overdue, keep on rolling in for saxophonist Sonny Rollins. His historic 80th birthday concert in New York’s Town Hall three nights after his September 7 birthday was one of the top jazz events of 2010

Then you add in Edward MacDowell Medal, a lifetime achievement award from the Montreal International Jazz Festival, being the subject of an artful and insightful book (John Abbott and Blumenthal's Saxophone Colossus: A Portrait of Sonny Rollins) and induction into to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary society.

Now, Rollins is on the eve of visiting the nation’s most famous address: 1600 Pennnsylvania Avenue.

Tomorrow, Wednesday March 2, Rollins will be one of 10 recipients of the 2010 National Medal of Arts for outstanding achievements and support of the arts. President Barack Obama will do the honors in an East Room ceremony at the White House. The medal is the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence.

The National Endowment for the Arts, which has announced its intention to eliminate the NEA Jazz Masters awards program going forward, organizes this one as well. And it is good to see jazz have a prominent place.

The other 2010 National Medal of Arts Recipients are theatrical critic, producer and playwright Robert Brustein, pianist Van Cliburn, sculptor Mark di Suvero, poet Donald Hall, musician and producer Quincy Jones (who has firm jazz roots), author Harper Lee, actress Meryl Streep, singer-songwriter James Taylor, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

What splendid company.

And it is great to see Rollins and Jones help keep the jazz momentum going on this stage. Past jazz honorees include Ella Fitzgerald (1987), Billy Taylor (1992), Cab Calloway (1993), Dave Brubeck (1994), Lionel Hampton (1996), Betty Carter (1997), Benny Carter (2000), Paquito D'Rivera (2005), Wynton Marsalis (2005) and Hank Jones (2008).

Time permitting, you can tune in via the Web to watch tomorrow’s event at 1:45 pm Eastern Time at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

April showers us with jazz appreciation

Just as we emerge from the winter doldrums, there’s a lot of jazz appreciation going on throughout April.

In 2001, The Smithsonian launched Jazz Appreciation Month, which has grown to include celebrations in all 50 states and 40 countries that the music as a living treasure. It is designed to spotlight the music and, one would hope, extend the depth of that appreciation to casual listeners, and introduce it to fresh ears that have been tuned elsewhere. It is a movement that has a lot of variations and offshoots.

Last June while meeting here in Rhode Island, the U.S Conference of Mayors proclaimed April 9 as Jazz Day. Jazz at Lincoln Center is using that day for its inaugural A Taste of Jazz event in Manhattan, which will feature music and food at the Time Warner Center to celebrate the cuisine of some of the country's greatest jazz cities, including New Orleans. The musical set and discussion that night will feature a septet led by saxophonist Walter Blanding.

Oh, but there is much more here and there. As they say in the TV genre, check local listings.

From April 23 to May 2, the nonprofit JazzBoston is celebrating Jazz Week with 230 events at more than 80 venues to celebrate the special role the Boston jazz scene plays as incubator and stage for a lot of creative musicians. Only in greater Boston, it seems, can a “week” have 10 days. But that 10-day period, Made in Boston, Played in Boston, will include a lot of great programming, including rare films, jazz dance, and children’s events. Here is the schedule.

But wait, there’s more

SIRIUS XM Radio is paying tribute to the rich history of jazz with a lot of Jazz Appreciation Month programming. Its Real Jazz channel, SIRIUS channel 72 and XM channel 70, kicked off the month on April 1 with bassist Christian McBride hosting a three-hour JAM preview, and to introduce the debut of his SIRIUS XM show, The Lowdown: Conversations with Christian, which premiered yesterday and will air every Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on Real Jazz.

Also on April 9 - Jazz Appreciation Day - on Sirius, Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis will unveil the 2010-2011 season of Jazz at Lincoln Center at 3 p.m. ET on RealJazz, and Nancy Sinatra will present a special edition of Nancy For Frank, showcasing the jazz side of American Songbook legend and her father, Frank Sinatra, on April 9 at 3 p.m. ET on Siriusly Sinatra, SIRIUS channel 75 and XM channel 73. There is much more to discover on the Sirius channels. (For more information, visit http://www.sirius.com/ or http://www.xmradio.com/.)

Jazz Day, Jazz Week, Jazz Appreciation Month. (The latter may have the only acronym I can tolerate.) All of this is admirable. It also begs the question - How much of this is just preaching to the choir? Some of us would argue that in our in our hearts, in our psyches, in our ears, and in the venues to which we go... every day is jazz day. And that’s just the listeners. It certainly is true for the musicians, at least as a goal.

If the April spotlight in some way brings more serious listeners to the music - and more opportunities for musicians to play jazz - these initiatives are doing what their creators and supporters are seeking.