An unprecedented customized, immersive and interactive online event, the JJA 2022 Jazz Bash on Sunday, Sept 11, from 3 to 5:30 pm ET
will combine Awards presentations, live music performances from across the US, panel discussions with Awards winners and unique presentations including story-tellers and musicians’ jokes, in five unique “rooms” of SyncSpace.live.
Jazz Award-winning singing trio Duchess will perform with Award-winning clarinetist Anat Cohen as a special guest. El Paso Jazz Hero Amanda Eckery, Anchorage Jazz Hero Ynvgill Vatn Guttu, San Diego Jazz Hero Louis Valenzuela and Chicago Jazz Hero Ernest Dawkins are among the other confirmed live-music makers, as well as pianist Deanna Witkowski, who will play a composition by Mary Lou Williams, subject of Witkowski’s Award-winning book Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul.
Sheila Jordan, Wadada Leo Smith, Melissa Aldana, Kurt Elling, Vijay Iyer, Ted Gioia, Nate Chinen, Wycliff Gordon, James Francies, James Brandon Lewis, Immanuel WIlkins Joel Ross, Johnathan Blake and Jordannah Elizabeth are among the Awards winners confirming attendance, while Jon Batiste, Maria Schneider, Jason Moran, Christian McBride and Terence Blanchard have promised exclusive pre-recorded comments. The JJA is also dipping into its treasure chest of of past galas videos to show stellar performances by Randy Weston, Elio Villafranca, Rene Marie, Edmar Castaneda, Mimi Jones, Zack Brock, Organ Monk, Antoinette Montague, Paulette Williams, John Beasley, Min Xioa-Fen, Leni Stern and others. JJA member Peter Keepnews will host a room of story tellers including Bill Crow, Claire Daly and Mark Ruffin; career-achievement winning photographer Carol Friedman will tell the tales behind her images, NYC Jazz Hero Alina Bloomgarden will introduce her project for the incarcerated Music on the Inside, and JJA board member Neil Tesser will conduct a panel discussion on “Where’s Your Music Going?” Poet Keith Kelley will read from the works of the late Greg Tate, winner of the JJA’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award.
The Jazz Cruise has donated for live auction a stateroom (retail price $2850) on the Blue Note at Sea 23 ship sailing the Caribbean Jan 13 – 20. Attendees will be enable to vote on Photo of the Year and Album of the Year nominees. An introductory toast will be raised by Lawrence Simpson, retiring Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs/Provost of Berklee College of Music. Other features of the program, set in real jazz venue backgrounds with full interactivity provided by SyncSpace.live are yet to be announced.
Admission to the Jazz Bash is free to JJA members, nominees and winners of the 2022 Jazz Awards, and Jazz Heroes. The general public can participate in the event for $25. Register here to attend. Some portions of the Jazz Bash will be live-streamed on Facebook and posted in archival form on YouTube, but to participate fully and sample the many offerings of this multi-media carnival, registration is essential.
The 2022 JJA Jazz Bash is supported by generous sponsorship from the Joyce and George Wein Foundation, Berklee College of Music, the Jazz Foundation of America, SFJazz, Monterey Jazz Festival/Kuumbwa Jazz, the San Jose Jazz Festival, Stanford Jazz, the Peabody Conservatory, the labels Arkadia Records, Blue Note Records, Mack Avenue Records, HighNote/Savant, Resonance and Pi Recordings, Century Media Partners, Braithwaite and Katz Communications, Sue Auclair PR, and Jazz Promo Services. For information on sponsorship, contact Howard Mandel, president@jazzjournalists.org.
