In which I look back and ask timidly for collaborators
A conversation with Rob Shepherd, my esteemed editor at PostGenre Media, led me to strap on my headlamp and descend into the depth of this site’s archives until I reached the very bottom, my first post. It’s still here, but, TLDR, it began like this:
Look at that date, It’s 20 years ago. I only dimly remember those beginnings. A handful of weeks later, a family upheaval would change the course of my life. The end of my 20-year (more or less) advertising career would follow a few months later.
Recalling 2005, it was a year when the public intellectuals of music had a blog. My blogroll (remember those?) enumerated them, but I really didn’t have the chops to be one of them. And when they took the conversation to Twitter, a place that reminded of junior high school, I stayed behind.
lets call this became a place to post links to my work, mostly for the Erie Times-News’ ShowCase entertainment tab, and for Signal to Noise and CODA magazines. They’re all gone now, and so are most of the links.
Happier times and a move to Cleveland, Ohio gave this space a renewed purpose: covering the local scene, which, coming from Erie, Pennsylvania, felt like New York’s in its vibrancy and depth.
It’s been that way for about five years now; weekly posts cover the most intriguing musical event of the next seven or so days. I love the work. It’s brought me into the orbits of so many interesting people, some of whom have become friends. I have no idea if anyone reads this stuff, but I crank it out. It’s what I do.
I wouldn’t mind doing less of it, though. I write for other outlets, mostly PostGenre and All About Jazz, but not as much as I’d like to. If you’re a writer interested in the music I cover, I’d love to publish you–give you a chance like Stuart Broomer and Mark Corrotto and Pete Gershon and Kurt Gottschalk and Doug Rieder (thank you, thank you, thank you Doug!) gave me.
If you’d like to get involved in documenting and celebrating the scene around improvised music in the Black American tradition in northeast Ohio I’m here for you. Hit me up. It’s fulfilling work and it’s important. Don’t take my word for that. Ask musicians.
More important is getting out there and supporting the people and places that make the scene. Go to a show. Buy a recording, preferably from the artist who made it. Make the hang. Subscribe to a music Substack; there are almost too many great ones out there. Tip your server, Stay the hell off Spotify. These things aren’t hard to do, and they make a difference.
As Vinnie Sperazza says, jazz goes on and on.