Jazz News: 100 years of James Moody; Bobby Floyd’s B3 at Vail; women leading music orgs in CO; jazz in Ukraine
This is Jazz News, a look at what’s news in jazz, music, and the arts.
A timely note for this Women’s History Month from Levitt Pavilion, whose Executive Director Meghan McNamara points out in their latest newsletter that three other women also lead significant music organizations around here: Jami Duffy at Youth on Record, Karen Radman at the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, and Jessy Clark, CEO of Swallow Hill Music. “This is the first time the four Denver-based music organizations have all been run by women simultaneously,” writes McNamara. “These leaders are percolating with ideas on how to work together.” I might mention a couple of additional names to the list, Ayana Contreras, VP of Radio, and Amanda Mountain, CEO of Rocky Mountain Public Media. Just sayin’. (SOURCE: https://wwwLevitt Denver / Women are leading the charge in Colorado's Music Scene)
We’re coming up on the centennial of saxophonist James Moody’s birth on March 26. Local advocacy organization Gift of Jazz is producing a James Moody tribute show with reed man Max Wagner on Sunday, March 30 at Dazzle, with Dave Hanson, Gonzalo Teppa, and Mike Marlier.
An interview with Wagner is posted online at Gift of Jazz. Max has some pretty cool comments on the sincerity of jazz and the power of this music. (LINK: Gift of Jazz / Events)
Hammond B3 organ master Bobby Floyd is booked to return to the Vail Jazz Festival over Labor Day. Other performers are still to be named. Also, a reminder that the application season for the prestigious Vail Jazz Workshop is open until April 14. There are only 12 slots among the various instruments, and competition to get into this 9-day intensive in the Rocky Mountains is stiff. (SOURCE: Vail Jazz)
According to Ian Patterson at All About Jazz, 2025 marks 100 years of jazz in Ukraine, tracing the first jazz concert to a quartet date in Kharkiv in December of 1925. These days, jazz survives in jazz clubs in Kyiv and through the efforts are artists and educators who work amidst the war with Russia. Names like trumpeter Dennis Adu, bassist Konstantin Ionenko, the Pokaz Trio, and Odesa-born singer-pianist Tamara Lukasheva were noted in the two-part article at All About Jazz.com. (SOURCE: All About Jazz / Ukrainian Jazz)
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