1/6/21
Local musician runs concert series aimed at bringing diverse people and creative genres together
Erica Corbo hosts a monthly concert series called Warp Factor 9 (WF9) that has been running every third Thursday since March 2019 and pivoted to live-streaming on Facebook during the pandemic.
12/16/20
Can Jazz Survive Without Its Clubs?
Mark Deninno, chef and owner of Chris’ Jazz Café will freely admit that the club has been struggling through the pandemic. The historic jazz spot closed its doors on March 15, 2020. “I shut down the restaurant, gas lines, everything, and spent a month trying to figure out how I was going to protect my family and myself.” With city grants to retrofit the venue, he said, “I turned the club into a full blown tv studio to start back up again. I started streams in July for a Pat Martino benefit at 25% capacity but drew viewers from 30 different countries.”
11/11/20
Where We Are, and Where Do We Want to Go?
The season of social unrest, ignited by the killing of George Floyd, has opened a long-closed door to substantive and much-needed conversations around race and social justice. Like the rest of society, the creative community struggles to process the brutality, protests, and riots they witness. On the heels of a pandemic that left stages dark and venues silent, artists also need platforms where their voices can be heard.
10/7/20
Philadelphia’s Jazz Family Grows
The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is a partner of Jazz Philadelphia and this year’s lead sponsor of the Jazz Philadelphia Summit in partnership with PECO. Jazz Philadelphia shares MAAF’s values, namely that they believe, “art is essential, that it has the power to transform individuals and communities, and that so doing helps define our society. Excellence, integrity, service, inclusion, and engagement are fundamental tenets of its commitment to the arts.”
6/17/20
More Art Not Less
Good afternoon members of City Council; thank you for this opportunity to offer testimony on Bill number 200307 and the proposed budget which would defund the Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy. I recognize the difficult decisions you must face in balancing the needs of our city in a time of crisis. However, as a musician, arts leader, and proud lifelong Philadelphia resident, I am deeply concerned about how this defunding will impact our great city.
6/3/20
New Music USA Listening Sessions in Philadelphia Will Help Create Opportunities for Jazz Artists
New Music USA supports and connects US-based music makers, organizations, and audiences by providing financial support through project grants, fostering new connections through programming, deepening knowledge and encouraging appreciation through an online magazine, and promoting funded projects and new music events. The good news: They're coming to Philadelphia to listen to what the new music community needs now.
6/2/20
Everything Hurts. Let’s Learn, Speak, and Unite.
It’s a place where we create beauty and magic. It’s a place that fortifies us with strength and certainty. Now that the outer world is increasingly in turmoil, art can be an inner world to find solace.
6/1/20
New Music For A New Day
The Painted Bride Art Center is awarding 14 grants to Philadelphia jazz composers to create new music during this time when artists and audiences have limited opportunities to occupy the same physical space.
6/1/20
New Music For A New Day: The Painted Bride Art Center announces jazz grants
The Painted Bride Art Center is awarding 14 grants to Philadelphia jazz composers to create new music during this time when artists and audiences have limited opportunities to occupy the same physical space. This initiative is supported by The Arthur Judson Foundation and will award grants to Arnetta Johnson, Brent White, Jack Saint Clair, Tom Lawton, Jason Fraticelli, Monnette Sudler, Marcell Bellinger, Bobby Zankel, Jake Kaplan, Craig McIver, Luke Carlos O’Reilly, Jamal Jones, Will Echevarria, and Sumi Tonooka.
5/21/20
Jazz in the Time of Corona
When news of a possible pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus arrived in the U.S. this spring, no one could predict the extent to which this outbreak would affect society overall. One casualty of the pandemic has been the performing arts. With the imposing of social restrictions, organizations that depended on audience revenues were immediately devastated. From large venues like the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts to the small community arts groups, everyone has been affected. Most organizations face series budget shortfalls that will result in major cuts or total dissolution. A new proposed city budget would completely eliminate arts funding.
4/28/20
Odean Pope
4/27/20
V-JAM Philly Session Leader: The Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project
In 2018-2019 five Philadelphia jazz organizations—Jazz Bridge, Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts, Philadelphia Jazz Project, Jazz Philadelphia, and Ars Nova Workshop—engaged in a collaborative discovery process to explore how to preserve, interpret, and share Philadelphia’s expansive jazz history.
4/24/20
V-JAM Philly Session Leader: Ars Nova Workshop
The Ars Nova Workshop (ANW) team has been busy during COVID-19 isolation. “We’re still dreaming up ways to support our heroes, including some virtual concerts, some commissioning, and we continue to work on our annual festival, our podcast, our upcoming LP releases, our exhibition (and connected catalog),” says executive and artistic director Mark Christman. “We’re also looking on how to partner with a record label to get recordings from our 20-year archive out commercially, getting much-needed funds into the hands of artists.”
4/24/20
Immanuel Wilkins
4/22/20
V-JAM Philly Session Leader: Jazz Bridge Project
The very mission of the Jazz Bridge Project is to assist Greater Philadelphia area jazz and blues artists in times of crisis. A mission such as this would have to be born out of love, where love is a verb. It is love that shows up to meet the needs of our jazz community. It is love that finds a way to clear obstacles from a musician's path, giving them peace of mind and allowing them to re-focus their energy on their art. For 16 years, Jazz Bridge has been dedicated to addressing many types of crises without delay.
4/21/20
V-JAM Philly Session Leader: ACT4Music
An idea that started as a concept for an iPhone app a year ago has now come into fruition at the perfect time. “When the corona pandemic took over, the idea which I had been sporadically working on suddenly got moved to the front burner,” says Anthony Tidd. “I’ve been working on it non-stop—dawn to dusk—since the beginning of March.”