Detroit Jazz Hero
Jazz journalist Charles Latimer has been a dedicated advocate for Detroit’s musicians for more than 20 years, covering local talent in publications including the Detroit Metro Times and his blog I Dig Jazz, where he also reviews albums and metro-area concerts. He’s used those platforms to generate support for the scene here, so local listeners are encouraged to buy local artists’ music, attend their concerts and contribute to their social-media promotional campaigns. His approach has brought him considerable popularity: he’s often become good friends with musicians he’s interviewed, and every time he is at a concert or jazz related function, he’s approached by players and jazz fans alike, eager to chat.
Latimer’s body of work has enriched the world of jazz journalism. In 2017 he published Behind the Swing: A Glimpse into Some of the World’s Finest Jazz Musicians, a collection of writings dating back to 1997. He gracefully interweaved his personal accounts of encounters with national musicians and inspiring stories of emerging stars (the book was a finalist for the 2018 Association of Recorded Sound Collections Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research). Latimer started I Dig Jazz in 2007, taking the opportunity to showcase a more raw version of music criticism than does his polished MT features. His honest, subjective evaluations of music let readers know what to expect from an artist or new album. He’s currently working on Chasing the Notes: 10 Years of Interviews from the Blog I Dig Jazz, in which all the interviews are in Q&A format, digging deeply into musicians’ lives and their influences.
Latimer has been a mentor of mine for over 10 years and has helped me grow from being novice jazz writer to an accomplished jazz journalist in that time, for which I’m very grateful. He is deeply passionate about making sure that Detroit’s musicians get the recognition they deserve for the significant bodies of work they have produced, and they appreciate that immensely. His benevolent and attentive spirit makes his interviewees quickly feel comfortable sharing intimate details about their lives with candor that enlightens his readers (their audiences). Charles Latimer deserves recognition himself for the work he’s done to elevate knowledge of our continuing jazz culture — so it’s fit and proper he’s this year’s Detroit Jazz Hero.
—Veronica Johnson
Detroit Metro Times
DownBeat
