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.

Dennis Mitcheltree comes to Madison

Today’s article is by guest author Joyce Markle.

Heads up! It’s not every day that a great tenor player, well-traveled in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. makes time in his busy tour schedule to visit Madison. Later this week, Los Angeles saxophonist Dennis Mitcheltree makes a rare visit to Madison to play three dates with his friend, UW Professor of Jazz Studies, Johannes Wallmann. All are free.

• Saturday, March 2^nd, 8-11pm, Dennis joins Johannes at his weekly gig at The Fountain, 122 State Street.
• Sunday, March 3^rd, 4 – 7:30 pm, Dennis performs and coaches local players at Madison Jazz Jam at The Fountain.
• Tuesday, March 5^th, 7:30-9:30 pm, Johannes performs a program of original compositions as part of the UW Faculty Recital Series. Dennis and UW Parkside Professor of Jazz Studies trumpeter Russ Johnson are featured. Morphy Hall in the UW Humanities Bldg.

Madison Jazz highlights the week of Nov 27, 2012

As the weather cools down the Madison jazz scene is heating up. This next week is loaded with great jazz. Let’s take a look at the highlights:

Tuesday

Hanah Jon Taylor

• Cardinal Bar 5:30pm. A few weeks ago the Cardinal began a jazz happy hour every Tues from 5:30 to 8. They’re bringing in great players and this week it’s sax/flute musician Hanah Jon Taylor.
• Cardinal Bar 9pm. The New Breed Jazz Jam  is now in its second decade and going strong. Rub shoulders with Madison’s best jazz musicians as they mix it up with developing players and the great New Breed.

Wednesday

• 

  Johannes Wallmann

  Mills Concert Hall, UW Humanities Bldg, 7:30-9pm. The UW Jazz Orchestra under the direction of new Professor of Jazz Studies Johannes Wallmann.

Thursday

• The Fountain 6:30 – 9pm, Gerri DiMaggio, Paul Hastil, Nick Moran. Vocalist Gerri DiMaggio has been charming the Madison area for a long time. This Thursday she’ll feature holiday songs from her most recent recording.
  

  Gerri DiMaggio

• UW Music Hall, Ninety Miles Project 8pm. Not many tickets remain, this will probably be a sellout. Previewed here.

Friday

• Memorial Union Rathskellar 5-7pm, The Composers Quartet. This one is rare; a local jazz band, not a pick-up group, doing all original jazz. See the calendar for details.
• The Majestic 8pm, Meschell Ndegeocello. Previewed here.

Saturday

• Madison Memorial High School 6pm, Second Annual Madison High School Jazz Festival. This all-day festival wraps up with an evening concert featuring student jazz ensembles from Madison East, La Follette, Memorial and West High Schools and Middleton High School, along with the UW Jazz Orchestra.

Sunday

• 

  Rob Dz and The New Breed

  Brink Lounge, 3:30. Rob Dz and the New Breed. Spoken word poet Rob Dz  composes spontaneously using words instead of music. He usually does one tune on Tuesdays with the New Breed. This is your chance to hear a full length show.  Details here.

• The Fountain, 4-7pm. Since moving to the Fountain the Madison Jazz Jam has been packing em in. Developing musicians and pros take turns playing with the house band. This week Dan Wallach is joined by the Rand Moore Trio. See the calendar for details.

Seattle and Madison jazz focus on youth

This weekend I cleaned out the dim passageways behind this blog. Many unfinished posts were strewn about and , no longer pertinent, went to the trash. But like cleaning out the basement or garage I came upon some good stuff worth salvaging.

In this case it is a link to an older but still timely newspaper article in The New York Times about the rising jazz scene in Seattle.  The article is important as  counterpoint to recent criticism of institutionalized jazz education, and because it underscores the major role of high school and college jazz programs in creating and sustaining a lively jazz scene.

What’s happening in Seattle bodes well for the future of Madison’s own rising jazz scene where high school and college youth are the focus of a variety of Madison jazz programs.

• Plans are in the works for the Madison Metropolitan School District Fine Arts Office to host a Professional Development Day for K-12 teachers, delivered in partnership with the Jazz Institute of Chicago. The goal of this program is to increase the presence of jazz in general music classes and improve the quality of instruction in these classes and in school band programs.

• Madison Jazz Jam, a forum where youth can become involved in jazz, is surging in popularity and packing the Fountain, a new jazz venue on State Street.

• Madison Music Collective is on a roll with its concert series and most of these have an educational component or outreach to youth.

• The new UW Jazz Studies Professor, Johannes Wallmann, appears to have all the skills and energy to build a thriving jazz program at the university, something he did at Cal State East Bay in four years time.

Other ingredients are necessary for a thriving jazz scene, but the Seattle experience shows the importance of a strong base at the high school and college level (here’s that link again – it’s a very well-done NY Times piece). The initiatives outlined above will help build that base and ensure a strong, sustainable future for jazz in Madison.

Madison Area jazz tidbits

Madison Music Foundry is starting a jazz workshop open to all ages. Rehearsals start April 20-22 and the gig is June 16th. Here ‘s a link to more information.

UW – Whitewater is hiring a jazz bassist. Here’s the ad.

The Richard Davis Foundation Bass Conference is coming up, April 6 and 7th. The faculty concert on April 6th is free and highly recommended.

Madison Jazz Jam has started hosting jams at the East Side Club on Monona Drive near Olbrich Park.  Great jazz and great views of the lake.

Madison Jazz Jam is having a fundraising plant sale on Saturday, April 28th from 8:30 am to 1 pm at 4123 S. Sunset Drive (near-west side 1 block from Mineral Point Rd). They are looking for volunteers and plants,  and hoping to borrow a canopy to protect shoppers in case of rain.  Contact MJJ here.

Jazz Jams in Madison – an update

This post was originally written February, 2011 and has been updated several times, most recently on September 10, 2012. 

You’re an up and coming Madison jazz musician looking to improve, play in public, meet like-minded folks, possibly get in a band. Or maybe you love to listen to jazz, learn more about it, meet local musicians, and be a part of the Madison jazz scene. If these descriptions fit, you need to check out the local jam sessions.

ln 2010 I was lamenting the lack of jazz jams in Madison, but now you can pick and choose from several distinctly different jams.