Winter 2022/2023 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter

December 30th, 2022

Jerry Jazz Musician – Winter 2022/23 Newsletter

In This Issue

A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Fall/Winter, 2022-23 Edition

While poetry may never again be a major part of popular American culture, it can still effectively impact a subset of it.

This collection of jazz poetry – the largest yet assembled on Jerry Jazz Musician – demonstrates how poets who are also listeners of jazz music experience and interact with the spontaneous art that arises from jazz improvisation, which often shows up in the soul and rhythm of their poetic language.

It is with a great deal of personal pride that I provide poets this space to share the value they place on this important corner of American culture. The result is…impactful.

As always, thanks to the poets and readers, and I hope you enjoy…

Joe

(featuring the art of Keith Mallett)

Read the Poetry Collection

A message…and an appeal

Dear Reader:

For over 20 years, Jerry Jazz Musician has been a non-commercial website whose mission is to explore American culture with jazz music as the centerpiece. The result is an online literary magazine contributed to by a community made up of hundreds of authors, poets and artists. Their work can be seen throughout the site – in major poetry collections, short stories, book reviews, essays, and art.

The decision to keep the publication commercial-free has not come without challenges. While this “labor of love” keeps me focused and energized, significant personal costs of time and money often pose challenges to its regular publication.

With that in mind, if Jerry Jazz Musician has had a positive impact on your life, if you enjoy it and learn from it, and if you share my desire to see it expand into an even more rewarding experience, I respectfully request that you please consider making a one-time or ongoing donation. Your support can make a significant difference.

Please click here if you would like to make a contribution.

With appreciation,

Joe Maita
Editor/Publisher

(The illustration is the original Jerry Jazz Musician logo, created in 1997)

Interview with Aidan Levy, author of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

The author discusses his book about the iconic tenor saxophonist who is one of the greatest jazz improvisers of all time – a lasting link to the golden age of jazz

(photo of Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge, October 7, 1961/used by permission of Aidan Levy)

New Contributing Writers Page

Information concerning a new way contributing writers can access their work published on Jerry Jazz Musician

Interview with Winston James, author of Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik

A discussion about the revolutionary, non-conformist Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay’s complex early life that culminated in a pioneering role in American letters

(photo of Claude McKay/1920)

Short Fiction Contest-winning story #61 — “Equal” by Chris Simpson

The winner of the the 61st edition of the Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest is a story of reflection on a coming-of-age mentorship, gone awry.

(photo Boris Thaser from Augsburg, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Interview with Joanna Scutts, author of Hotbed: Bohemian Greenwich Village and the Secret Club That Sparked Modern Feminism

A conversation with the author about women who formed a group that became known as “Heterodoxy,” whose members were fired up by a desire to change their world, and who became public ambassadors of a brand-new philosophy: feminism.

(photo by Jessie Tarbox Beals/c. 1910’s/taken in Polly’s Restaurant, run by the anarchist Polly Holladay – the Greenwich Village site of the first meeting place of Heterodoxy)

Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance: “Outtakes” — Vol. 1

In this edition of outtakes from their book, the authors Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder focus on three albums — one by the trumpeter Maynard Ferguson — they discovered during the writing of their book

Jazz History Quiz #159

Although he was not considered to be a true jazz singer, along with Bing Crosby, this “Romeo of Radio”’s short-lived, early 1930’s career influenced Italian crooners like Perry Como (pictured), as well as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Herb Jeffries and Billy Eckstine. Who is he?

(Fox publicity photo of Perry Como (c. 1943-’48)/Wikimedia Commons)

Also in this issue…

In the new edition of “Pressed For All Time ,” producers Joel Dorn and Hal Willner talk with Michael Jarrett about working on Willner’s 1981 album Amarcord Nino Rota, a tribute to Nino Rota (pictured), the Italian composer whose best-known work was as filmmaker Federico Fellini’s musical director.; a new edition of “Trading Fours with Douglas Cole“; announcing the six Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize; new editions of True Jazz Stories; and new book excerpts, poetry and short fiction

In the Previous Issue

A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2022 Edition; an Interview with Shawn Levy, author of In On the Joke: The Original Queens of Stand-up Comedy; “A personal loss, and a self-restoration”, an essay by Jerry Jazz Musician editor/publisher Joe Maita; Interview with Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder, authors of Designed For Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance; Short Fiction Contest-winning story #60 — “Thrush” by Owen Duffy

(painting by Marsha Hammel)

Coming Soon to Jerry Jazz Musician

A conversation with three Jerry Jazz Musician contributing writers – Antoinette Winstead, Emily Jon Tobias and Douglas Cole – about their love of writing and their process with it…Also, a collection of jazz poetry, all made up of poems seven lines or fewer; a new Jazz History Quiz; short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and lots more in the works…
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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 contribute to the mission of Jerry Jazz Musician, click here.

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