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Around The Jazz Internet: June 18, 2012

By Patrick Jarenwattananon

Published June 18, 2012 at 1:40 PM EDT

The reinstatement of the Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy award was celebrated by many in the jazz community recently.

Sorry for the wait. Big roundup this time:

The Best Latin Jazz Album Grammy Award has been reinstated. Old news but it hasn't been mentioned here yet. The Recording Academy stressed that the decision was not affected by the very public protest (and accompanying lawsuit) over last year's decision to remove the award, as reported in the New York Times.

AllMusic recently announced a staff list of the top 20 jazz albums of the last 20 years. There's a discussion going on at this message board post.

Some great stories in the New York Times lately. Pianist Geri Allen and filmmaker Carrie Mae Weems talk about working together, including a project which premiered on Friday. (The Daily News got to this too.) On an early jazz musician who has taken the task of emulating the past extremely seriously. The Jazz Museum in Harlem gets a little spotlight for its expansion plans, including a look at its associate artistic director, the 25-year-old pianist Jonathan Batiste. A documentary is being made about Frank Morgan, the saxophonist whose life story is the stuff of jazz myth. And if you wondered what a jazz festival in a community garden in Red Hook, Brooklyn looks like, now you know.

The Future of Music Coalition reports on the results from its "Money from Music" survey, with respect to jazz musicians. It's a long and detailed report but the front page offers a summary. We've mentioned this study a few times and now observations are out.

Darcy James Argue profiles his band, one by one. Congrats to him for successfully crowdfunding the recording of his new album.

Interview with Steve Little. He was the drummer on Duke Ellington's ...And His Mother Called Him Bill, the Billy Strayhorn tribute. Jazz is only a small part of his life's work, though. From Do The Math.

An oral history of AUM Fidelity, a small but powerful record label dedicated to experimental and free jazz.

Dave Holland is profiled at jazzblog.ca. Check out the new all-star band he's got together.

Four veteran musicians, including Dave Liebman and Bobby Sanabria, talk about why they chose to live and work in New York City. Liebman and Sanabria are from the city, but trombonist Dave Gibson and pianist Dado Moroni are not.

Frank Rosaly, a drummer based in Chicago, is profiled with respect to his Puerto Rican heritage. His parents are from the island and though he grew up not speaking Spanish in the U.S., he's found new inspiration from his family history. (Somebody get him and Henry Cole together to hang out.)

A transatlantic connection between Boston's Russ Gershon (of Either/Orchestra) and Ethopian musicians has led to a bit of an Ethiojazz resurgence, reports (don't laugh) the United Airlines inflight magazine.

Kids On The Slope is an anime centered around Japanese high-school kids in the '60s. Since the central characters are jazz students, there's a lot of music involved. I pointed it out here but that was a pretty long article. More on this here.

The Subject Is Jazz, the television program hosted by Billy Taylor, has seen several episodes migrate to YouTube, courtesy of the Jazz Video Guy. Via.

Profile of Vinny Golia, a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles. He's the curator at the Blue Whale this month.

The JazzWeek radio charts have returned after a three-month hiatus. (Too bad those months were when the Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding records came out — it would have been interesting to see how those stacked up on jazz radio, no?)

Chick Webb, the drummer whose big band was a central organ of the Swing Era, is the subject of a new documentary. Via.

Congratulations to the makers of Grammar, a documentary about jazz today as seen through the recent work of Jason Moran. Their Kickstarter request was fulfilled. Have a look at the excerpt so far — lots of great footage already.

Zan Stewart is known to some as the former long-time jazz writer of the Star-Ledger, of Newark, N.J. He's since moved across the country to Berkeley, Calif. and returned to playing the saxophone for people. Reminds me of this interview with Tom Moon.

Bill Cosby says goodbye to the Playboy Jazz Festival, which he's emceed for 30 years. Also, the festival itself is reviewed.

Dan Bejar, songwriter of the band Destroyer, talks about getting rejected by jazz festivals. (Destroyer is usually called an indie rock band; Bejar is from Canada, and the country is about to enter jazz festival season.)

"Satchmo Saved": Ray Bradbury's poem about Louis Armstrong.

"How Comics Are Becoming Jazz." Sure.

"One cannot play a decent song ever, properly, on [the trumpet], and it has sprung up in the last few years like 'jaz' music, which is the nearest Hell, or the Devil, in music. It pollutes the art of Music."

JazzWax has posted much about the 2-CD Bill Evans Trio live recording which was recently unearthed, including an interview with drummer Marty Morell.

The Jazz Session spoke with guitarist Judith Kay, guitarist Vernon Reid, author Barry Kernfeld, drummer Harris Eisenstadt and drummer Jeff Cosgrove. He is blogging about his ongoing tour at his website.

The Checkout had the Davy Mooney quartet in the studio recently, and also broadcast highlights from The Checkout: Live recordings.

Elsewhere at NPR Music:

Antonio Sanchez & Migration in concert.

Clarence Penn Quartet in concert.

Allison Miller and Boom Tic Boom: Tiny Desk Concert.

Henry Threadgill Zooid: First Listen

Neneh Cherry & The Thing: First Listen.

Ravi Coltrane: First Listen.

The NPR Music best albums and best songs of 2012 so far.

The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble meets its father. Literally, eight of the nine members are the sons of trumpeter and composer Kelan Phil Cohran.

Kate McGarry on her new album, inspired by the speaking voices of legendary jazz singers.

Esperanza Spalding and the Radio Music Society band perform at KCRW, with video.

Christian McBride performs with Peter Martin in the KPLU studios, with video.

Gregoire Maret and quartet perform at WBGO.

What improvising musicians do when tragedy strikes.

JazzSet reaired the Abbey Lincoln tribute this week and featured Jeff "Tain" Watts (with Sean Jones opening) the previous week.

Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz featured Gerald Wiggins last week and George Shearing the previous week.

Edmar Castañeda's new album is reviewed on Fresh Air.

Mike Reed's new album is reviewed on Fresh Air.