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.

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.

Jazz Appreciation Month activities

In 2003 President George W. Bush signed Public Law 108-72 strongly endorsing jazz and declaring that April will be recognized annually as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM). The theme for the 2011 observance is “Women and Jazz: Transforming a Nation.” The Madison Jazz Society has scheduled a number of events at Madison area Senior Centers. The schedule is:

Friday, April 8
Monona Senior Center, 1011 Nichols Road
Presentation by Dick Trexel: The Many Moods & Meters of Dave Brubeck – 10 AM

Wednesday, April 13
DeForest Senior Center, 505 N Main Street
Presentation by Linda Marty Schmitz: Women in Jazz – 12:30 PM
and
Waunakee Senior Center, 333 S Madison Street
Performance by Midtown Jazz Band – 6-8 PM

Saturday, April 16
De Forest Middle School
Performance & Clinic by Ladies Must Swing – 11 AM-1 PM

Tuesday, April 19
Middleton Senior Center, 7448 Hubbard Avenue
Presentation by Norman Risjord: The News & Music of 1938 – 1 PM

Tuesday, April 26
Colonial Club, 301 Blankenheim Lane, Sun Prairie
Presentation by Gary Poulson: Jazz in Madison – 10 AM
All of the musicians and speakers involved in the programs are offering their time and talents to bring attention to jazz and JAM in Madison. Further information is available at http://www.madisonjazz.com.

MJS will continue its celebration of JAM with its 23rd annual Capital City Jazz Fest being held April 29-May 1 at the Madison Quality Inn & Suites, Fitchburg.

The Madison Jazz Society is a non-profit, all volunteer organization formed to encourage the performance of and education about jazz. It annually sponsors six concerts and a jazz festival that attracts jazz fans from all over the nation. The group sponsors the broadcast of Riverwalk: Live from the Landing on Wisconsin Public Radio. In addition, it maintains a grant fund for Wisconsin school music departments. MJS observed its25th anniversary in 2009-10.

Madison Jazz Society Education Grants

From the Madison Jazz Society….

In October the Madison Jazz Society will award grants, on a competitive basis, to Wisconsin school jazz centered programs. Grant proposals may include, but are not limited to, purchasing instruments and equipment, sheet music, play along CDs, books or videos and, to a lesser extent, clinics and hiring of guest artists.

Final selection will be based partly on which proposal(s) provides the greatest opportunity for the greatest number of students to learn about and/or participate in jazz related activities.

April is Jazz Appreciation Month

Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) activities will be co-sponsored by the Madison Jazz Society (MJS) and Madison Music Collective (MMC) in April.  In 2002, the Smithsonian Institution announced the observance of Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) in April.  On August 15, 2003, President George W. Bush signed Public Law 108-72 strongly endorsing jazz and declaring that April will be recognized annually as Jazz Appreciation Month.  Although launched by the Smithsonian, JAM is a collective effort by various institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, BMI, the National Association for Music Education, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education and the Grammy Foundation.

JAM is intended to draw the public’s attention to the importance and greatness of jazz as both a historical and a living treasure.  Its purpose is three fold: 1) to draw greater public attention to the extraordinary history and heritage of jazz; 2) to stimulate the current jazz scene and 3) to encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz – to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz and support institutional jazz programs.

Here are some of the special jazz events in April:

Jazz this weekend

Here are the Madison jazz highlights for the next few days:

Thursday: Jane Reynolds and Fabu Carter Brisco – see this previous post

Friday: The Andreas Kapsalis Trio 9:30 at Magnus. Too bad the sound quality of their YouTube clips is so bad, check out their MySpace page instead. They have some very interesting music including a jazzy version of Pink Floyd’s “Money” and a high energy piece called “Ethnic Cleansing.”

Sunday: Eric Schneider Quintet 2-5 pm at Jingles Coliseum Bar. See my sampler of the Madison Jazz Society (MJS) spring series. I have to admit that MJS concerts usually don’t interest me because they seldom feature music from beyond the 1930′s, but this may be an exception. Checking out the YouTube clips and his resume suggests Eric Schneider may be playing bebop as well as swing. My only problem with this concert is the price tag: $25 for an unknown player when groups like the Bad Plus, Charlie Hunter, and John Scofield charge the same.