Spring 2025 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter

April 8th, 2025

Jerry Jazz Musician – Spring, 2025 Newsletter

In This Issue

Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong

It’s safe to assume we can agree that Louis Armstrong deserved this – a comprehensive biography (now a trilogy) written with expertise, passion, and character worthy of the musician many consider to be the most influential popular music artist of the 20^th century.

Ricky Riccardi has become a major biographer whose work on Armstrong is a supreme achievement, one that the Grammy award-winning jazz musician Jon Batiste describes as “an extremely important chronicle of world history.” The author discusses this volume of his trilogy, “Stomp Off, Let’s Go” which focuses on the most admired stage of Armstrong’s life – his complex childhood and burgeoning musical career – a time critics generally agree when his electrifying music (particularly the “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven” recordings of 1926 – 1928) and unique charismatic appeal inalterably changed the direction of popular music.

photo courtesy of the Louis Armstrong House Museum

Read the Interview

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher

A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”

21 jazz poems on the 21st of March, 2025

An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician by poets revealing their relationship to the music, and with the musicians who perform it.

art by Samuel Dixon
.

An appeal…

Dear Readers:

Reader funding helps support the expense of publishing this website, and to keep it free of advertising – which is a rarity in the dot-com world. Many thanks to those who have recently contributed, and to those who have done so multiple times. Your support is very much appreciated.

If you are able, please consider making a contribution? Information regarding how to do so is found by clicking here.

For viewing my long range vision for Jerry Jazz Musician, please click here.

Thank you!

Joe Maita

Editor/Publisher

Short Fiction Contest-winning story #68 — “Saharan Blues on the Seine,” by Aishatu Ado

Aminata, a displaced Malian living in Paris, is haunted by vivid memories of her homeland. Through a supernatural encounter with her grandmother, she realizes that preserving her musical heritage through performance is an act of resistance that can transform her grief into art rather than running from it.

The book publication of Kinds of Cool: An Interactive Collection of Jazz Poetry

The first Jerry Jazz Musician poetry anthology published in book form includes 90 poems by 47 poets from all over the world, and features the brilliant artwork of Marsha Hammel and a foreword by Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator David Amram. The collection is “interactive” (and quite unique) because it invites readers – through the use of QR codes printed on many of the book’s pages – to link to selected readings by the poets themselves, as well as to historic audio and video recordings (via YouTube) relevant to many of the poems, offering a holistic experience with the culture of jazz.

Interview with Phillip Freeman, author of In the Brewing Luminous: The Life and Music of Cecil Taylor

The author discusses Cecil Taylor – the most eminent free jazz musician of his era, whose music marked the farthest boundary of avant-garde jazz.

photo of Cecil Taylor by Brian McMillen

The Sunday Poem

A weekly series that includes the poet reading their work. This edition is “The Sound of Surprise” by Dan Thompson

(photo of Dizzy Gillespie by William P. Gottileb/Library of Congress/)

Calling all Poets…an invitation to submit your work

Inviting poets to take note of three opportunities for having your work published on Jerry Jazz Musician

Community Bookshelf #4

Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (September, 2024 – March, 2025)

Jazz History Quiz #180

Upon leaving Charlie Barnet’s orchestra in 1941, this trumpeter wanted to start his own group, and, with the help of publicist/journalist Leonard Feather, became the first white leader in jazz history to organize an all-black group. Who was he?

photo of Charlie Barnet by William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress

“Sextets: The Joy of Six” – a playlist by Bob Hecht

In his ongoing series, this extensive playlist focuses on sextets featuring legends like John Coltrane, Art Farmer, Wayne Shorter, Gigi Gryce, Curtis Fuller, Blue Mitchell and Art Blakey.

Also in this issue…

New editions of Trading Fours with Douglas Cole, David Rife’s Jazz Fiction, The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: True Jazz Stories; and new book excerpts, poetry, In Memoriam, short fiction, memorable quotes and playlists

Click here for the previous issue of Jerry Jazz Musician

Coming Soon to Jerry Jazz Musician

An interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers;, Also, a new Jazz History Quiz, and lots of short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and much more in the works…

.
Jerry Jazz Musician is a non-commercial website whose mission is to explore the culture of America with jazz music as the centerpiece…For information about how you can submit your work, click here .

For information about how you can support the mission of Jerry Jazz Musician, click here.

As always, thanks for subscribing, and for sharing this email with interested readers.