Jazz News: Charlie Parker quilt at DAM; Jazz on TV’s Bosch: Legacy; hidden Grammy gems

This is Jazz News, a look at what’s news in jazz, music and the arts.

We begin with an art museum tip from KUVO listener Mariann Storck. Strolling through the Denver Art Museum’s exhibition called “All Stars: American Artists from The Phillips Collection of the Phillips Collection,” she ran across a mixed media piece from Dindga McCannon – it’s a quilt portraying Charlie Parker and other jazz artists. The Phillips Collection exhibition includes work from Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock and about 50 other artists. The show runs through March 3, 2024. (SOURCE: DAM.org)

Fans of the TV cop turned private detective Harry Bosch are now enjoying the longest-running character in the streaming universe, and Bosch is a jazz head, big time. Novelist Michael Connelly created the character and he tells the Hollywood Reporter that the jazz elements in the storyline are an homage to his father’s music. Bosch was also given jazz to help establish him as an “outsider.”  In the current season two of “Bosch: Legacy,” even Bosch’s techie sidekick Mo Bassi is a jazz and vinyl enthusiast.

Like a few other novelists, including Denver’s own Chicano Noir scribe Manuel Ramos, Connelly provides a playlist of the music used in the Bosch universe at Michael Connelly. (SOURCES: Hollywood Reporter and Michael Connelly/Extras/Music)

The Recording Academy’s Grammy Awards take the rap for being a popularity contest but buried in the 94 categories are some real gems. And artists you hear on KUVO show up in some hidden spots. Trumpeter-composer Terence Blanchard’s opera “Champion” celebrates the story of welterweight boxer Emile Griffith. It was nominated for Best Opera Recording, and Blanchard posted on X (formerly Twitter) “Jazz has no boundaries.”

The Best Arrangement and Best Composition categories are filled with jazz artists.  As for the roots of Rhythm and Blues, “The Stax Songwriter Demos,” called “Written in Their Soul” earned two nominations in the Historical Album and Album Notes categories, and the documentary on Little Richard, called “I Am Everything” was nominated in the Best Music Film category. (SOURCE: https://www.grammy.com/news/2024-grammys-nominations-full-winners-nominees-list)

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