Sunday, September 30, 2007

Owsley's online outreach

While we're speaking of jazz radio personalities, Dennis Owsley, who hosts Jazz Unlimited on KWMU (90.7 FM) every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to midnight, emailed with the news that KWMU now has online discussion forums for all of its locally produced programs.

Owsley's using the Jazz Unlimited area to share information about the artists and recordings he's playing and to share a few of what he describes as "pet peeves," like this one:
Jazz Singing--Does It Always Have to Sound Like 1960?

The third hour of Jazz Unlimited will have new recordings on the play list. Among these are two vocals. One of the vocalists sounds like she is singing in 1960, using arrangements of well-known standards that fit that period and is gathering much acclaim from media outlets like NPR shows. The other, when she sings a standard, changes the rhythm or adds new chord changes to standards. She writes her own lyrics to instrumental jazz tunes and occasionally writes both lyrics and music for new songs. She does not get the critical acclaim from the same media outlets.

The irony is that if the first singer were working in 1960, iconic jazz vocalists like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Chris Connor, Anita O'Day, etc., etc. were working and she would get no press. In most European countries today, a singer singing standards like 1960 would have no work, while the second singer works all the time.

What does this say about the future of jazz in the United States when the only thing that garners media attention looks back and not forward?

Owsley also is posting playlists at last.fm, and says he plans to begin a jazz journal there soon.

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