JazzNews International

JC's review of  Martin Connolly's book, Kind of Green, had me, like the author, searching, if not in the attic, in my 'Magazinerie' which is a sacred space where magazines of all description, but mainly jazz, (the others are under the bed - joke!) are stored. My quest was to seek out copies of Ireland's, now sadly defunct, jazz magazine JazzNews (later JazzNews International) which ran from 1986 to 1990.

I unearthed about a dozen copies which I'm perusing daily over a pint. For authenticity it should be Guinness but please allow me a little poetic leeway.

They make for great reading comparable with an early DownBeat or the Melody Maker before it strayed away from its name and, dare I say it?, a lot of the writing is not unlike what we do at BSH inasmuch as they also split infinitives, miss out apostrophes and spell jazz with a capital J which is maybe as it should be.

In truth, the magazine photos are more grey and white than black and white and I don't suppose those years up in the attic did them any favours in the book, something I know from personal experience of photos stored in attics although, in my case, they did provide the launching pad for BSH but that's another story...

Nevertheless, if you're at a car boot sale and you see copies amongst the Good House Keeping and the Car Mechanics mags - grab them and, if you find Issue 1 then send it to me - I'll pay the postage (second class). Lance