Speak Up for Jazz: Take the Greater Madison Jazz Community Survey

The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium is in the midst of crafting a first-ever action plan that speaks to our local jazz community as a whole. A compelling plan that’s grounded in the realities of the current scene and the wishes of jazz musicians, educators, venue owners, and fans will help point the way to a more vibrant and sustainable local scene and help the Consortium secure the resources needed to begin implementing the plan’s new initiatives.

To this end, the Consortium has been conducting a series of interviews with a few dozen key stakeholders, and is now inviting all other members of the jazz community to express their views through an online survey. To take the survey, simply go to http://www.greatermadisonjazzconsortium.org and click on the category (jazz musician, music educator, or fan) that fits you. (You are welcome to self-identify into multiple categories, and take the survey once in each category that fits you.)

The estimated time to complete the survey is 10-15 minutes, and your responses are anonymous and confidential, i.e., the only data to be released publicly will be aggregate data.

The survey will be “live” through day’s end Monday, May 27th, and the results will be compiled immediately thereafter for the Jazz Consortium Steering Committee’s planning retreat on June 2nd. Please help make this jazz community action plan the best it can be by completing this survey.

Thanks much for your time and your concern for the future of jazz in our community.

Howard Landsman, Convener
Cathy Sullivan, Project Coordinator
Greater Madison Jazz Consortium
Email: greatermadisonjazzconsortium@tds.net

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The Greater Madison Jazz Consortium is a partnership of nonprofit jazz presenters (Madison Jazz Society, Madison Music Collective, Midwest Gypsy Swing Festival, and Wisconsin Union Theater), educational institutions and programs (Madison Jazz Jam, Madison Metropolitan School District Fine Arts Department, and UW School of Music), and supportive media (WORT-FM), with additional support from Isthmus, the Capital City Hues, and the Jazz Institute of Chicago. Its work is made possible by a generous grant from the John and Carolyn Peterson Charitable Foundation.

Outstanding High School Jazz Ensembles in Concert on 4/20 and 5/5

Under the direction of the awesome educator Steve Sveum, the jazz program at Sun Prairie High   School is one of the best in the country. As it has often done over the past two decades, the school’s Jazz Ensemble I has been selected as one of 15 finalists in the annual nation-wide “Essentially Ellington” competition produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City (watch here as students find out the big news). In the coming weeks, Madison area jazz fans have two chances to catch performances by Jazz I as they prepare for their big trip to New York.

This Saturday, April 20, at 7:00 PM in the school’s Performing Arts Center (888 Grove Street in Sun Prairie), Jazz I will be performing in a concert that also features the other two Wisconsin high school jazz ensembles that made the “Essentially Ellington” finals this year: Beloit Memorial and Lake Geneva Badger. Each band will be performing the pieces that they’ll be performing at LincolnCenter next month. This concert is free and open to the public.

Then, on Sunday, May 5^th, at 7:00 PM, Jazz I will give its ticketed “Send Off” concert of Ellingtonia to help raise the funds needed to send the band to New York. This concert will be held at Sun Prairie’s Cardinal Heights Middle School Auditorium (the former high school building) at 220 Kroncke Drive in Sun Prairie, and will feature special guest vocalist Kyle Ketelsen singing the Sinatra songbook.

Come out and support these very talented and hard-working young musicians who will be responsible for keeping the music alive for decades to come.

UW Jazz Studies Professor Johannes Wallmann’s New Sextet @ The Brink This Sunday (3/10/13)

As part of the mutual welcome to our community at the Greater Madison Jazz Consortium’s “Jazz Junction” kickoff event at Full Compass this past November, the UW School of Music’s new Jazz Studies Director Johannes Wallmann, http://www.music.wisc.edu/faculty/bio?faculty_id=94, gave us a sneak peek at the brasstet format that’s been at the forefront of his composing, arranging and performing, and that is heard on his latest CD, “The Coasts” (2010, MWP Records).

Johannes has now firmed up the membership of the Wisconsin edition of his brasstet, and Madison Music Collective is bringing them to the Brink Lounge tomorrow (Sunday, 3/10/13) for a 3:30 PM concert hosted by Mad Toast Live’s Chris Wagoner and Mary Gaines and a 6:00 PM interactive workshop hosted by Laurie Lang of the Improvisational Music Workshop. In addition to Johannes on piano, the new band (called The Sweet Minute) includes the stellar line-up of Dave Cooper (trumpet), Darren Sterud (trombone), Marty Erickson (tuba), John Christensen (bass) and Devin Drobka (drums).

Discounted advance sale tickets are available at http://www.thebrinklounge.com/ai1ec_event/jazz-on-a-sunday-johannes-wallmann-and-the-sweet-minute/?instance_id=1456. Full-price tickets will also be available at the door. For more info about the band, visit http://madisonmusiccollective.org/Events/Johannes.shtml.

Dex @ 90: Program Schedule Set for Maxine Gordon’s Visit to Greater Madison, March 11-14

The program schedule is now set for Maxine Gordon’s visit to Greater Madison, part of her 2013 world-wide tour to celebrate the life and music of the late great jazz saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, on the occasion of his 90th birthday. Under sponsorship of the new Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, Maxine will conduct the following programs during a four-day residency (3/11-3/14/13) in our community. (Note: Program schedule is subject to change. Check this site as the event dates draw near to verify the schedule, or email us at greatermadisonjazzconsortium@tds.net.)

• MONDAY, 3/11/13, 7:30-9:30 PM: “AN EVENING WITH MAXINE GORDON AND THE UW BLUE NOTE ENSEMBLE” (Location: Morphy Recital Hall, in the UW Humanities Building). One of the three student ensembles directed by UW Jazz Studies Professor Johannes Wallmann – the Blue Note Ensemble – will be learning Dexter’s music during the Spring semester. This evening, they will give a mini-concert of his music, interspersed with live on-stage interviews of Maxine by WORT-FM jazz hosts Steve Braunginn and Jane Reynolds and an audience Q&A. The audience will include members of all of Professor Wallmann’s student ensembles (Blue Note Ensemble, Contemporary Jazz Ensemble, and UW Jazz Orchestra) and students from Richard Davis’ Black Music Ensemble. Free and open to the public. http://www.music.wisc.edu/extensions/eventdetails.jsp?event_id=2496

• TUESDAY, 3/12/13, 6:30–10:00 PM: “ROUND MIDNIGHT” (Location: Chazen Museum of Art). Dexter had the lead role in Bertrand Tavernier’s 1986 film, “Round Midnight,” the fictional story of an expatriate American jazz musician in Paris loosely based on the lives of jazz greats Lester Young and Bud Powell. He also won a Grammy for the film’s soundtrack, while Herbie Hancock won an Oscar for Best Original Score. Maxine Gordon will introduce the movie with her presentation, “The Making of Round Midnight,” and conduct a Q& A following the film showing. This program is free and open to the public.

Maxine Gordon’s “Dex @ 90″ World-Wide Tour Coming to Madison: March 11-14

Paris, Copenhagen, Sweden, Philadelphia, New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center … and Madison, Wisconsin! Yes, Madison will be a stop on Maxine Gordon’s 2013 world-wide tour to celebrate the life and music of the late great jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

One of the unsung heroes of modern jazz, Maxine Gordon was Dexter’s wife and long-time manager, and shepherds his legacy through the nonprofit Dexter Gordon Society, Dex Music LLC (publishing and licensing company), his upcoming biography, and much more. Check out her presentation to the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4888 and her insightful All About Jazz interviews at http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=41600.

Under sponsorship of the new Greater Madison Jazz Consortium, Maxine will conduct a four-day residency (3/11-3/14/13) in our community. Her programs will include two free showings of the feature film “Round Midnight” (in which Dexter starred, receiving a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and for which Herbie Hancock won the Oscar for Best Original Score), on Tuesday evening, 3/12/13, at the Chazen Museum of Art, and on Wednesday evening, 3/13/13, at the Urban League of Greater Madison at 2222 South Park Street. Each showing will include Maxine’s presentation about the making of the film, along with a post-movie Q&A with the audience.

February 1-2 Sale to Benefit Madison Jazz Society School Grants Program

Madison Jazz Society (MJS) will hold a SUPER JAZZ BOOK & MORE SALE  on Friday, February 1 (2:00-6:00 PM) and Saturday, February 2 (10:00 AM-2:00 PM) as a fundraiser for the Society’s School Grants Fund.  The Fund annually awards grants to schools throughout the Greater Madison area and across Wisconsin to enhance their jazz education programs.  Among the $9,000 in grants awarded this past November were ones to support last month’s Madison All-City High School Jazz Festival and next month’s Sun Prairie High School Jazz Festival.  The Fund also supports things like purchase of jazz charts and instruments, clinician fees, artist-in-residence programs, and the like.

This sale will feature more than 500 jazz books that were recently donated to MJS, as well as a variety of CDs and records.  The books are in pristine condition and MJS assures shoppers that they will find something good to add to your library.

The sale will be held at the Drums ‘N Moore store, 6033 Monona Drive, second floor, in Monona.  Look for signs in front of the building that will direct you to the sale.  The building is next to Studio Z hair design.