I treasure my back issues of the above magazines along with Jazz Journal, Jazz Monthly, Crescendo and other publications, some of which date back to the 1940s and from which I still occasionally refer to. I can read about Lee Morgan getting shot, Art Pepper (and many others) getting busted, Sinatra getting married, Sinatra getting divorced, Dizzy Gillespie running for President, all sorts of stories that told you these weren't just musicians but real people.
However, I find the current crop of mags, as listed in the first paragraph are becoming less and less compelling. This is due mainly because I've never previously heard of many of them and often, like 'jazz' festival programmes, make me wonder if jazz has become a poor relation to rap, hip-hop or some other genre as of yet unknown to me.
An exception is this month's Jazzwise which has reviews of albums by local north east heroes the Abbie Finn Trio and the duo of John Pope and John Garner. Both are given *** ratings which is pretty good bearing in mind that a well-known critic and broadcaster only allotted ** to the great American pianist Emmet Cohen and, in an earlier issue, the legendary vocalist Johnny Hartman only copped for *!
Then again, maybe I'm just getting old (delete the 'maybe') and the parade is passing me by. Now where did I put that Buddy Bolden cylinder? Lance
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