PORTUGAL: César Cardoso Ensemble:-“Dice of Tenors”(2020)

  This new album is the result of the intention of his mentor, César Cardoso, to seek new approaches, paths and ideas of composition and arrangement, through an extended formation. This ensemble has 8 elements, distributed by winds - tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, trumpet and trombone - and rhythmic section - vibraphone, piano, double bass and drums.

Having already other projects with a quartet and a quintet and having written many arrangements for Big Band, the idea of ​​this collective arose because it is different from what he has done and above all to challenge himself to present a record with its own identity and to approach the songs with innovation and freshness.

For this album César Cardoso choose 8 songs, 6 of which are Jazz Standards made famous by some of the greatest tenor saxophonists - Hank Mobley, Benny Golson, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson -, and composed 2 original songs to complete the album.  These arrangements contain new approaches and techniques, recently studied, with the intention of creating songs as if they were new ones but at the same time without losing the essence of the originals. In addition, one of the premises was to raise the musical level through harmonic, rhythmic and metric complexity, without losing the musical side, making everything as organic as possible.

In César Cardoso’s career there are 3 albums, all with original music - “Half Step” (2010), “Bottom Shelf” (2015) and “Interchange” (2018) -, more than 100 arrangements for Orchestras and Big Bands - written mainly for the Jazz Orchestra of Leiria and for the Jazz Orchestra of Hot Clube de Portugal - plus 2 books, written in Portuguese, about Jazz Theory.

  www.cesarcardoso.com

https://www.facebook.com/cesarcvcardoso/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3bmJdnx7ehC3UbtJFXLNeD

https://www.youtube.com/user/cesarcvcardoso

 “Dice of Tenors”:

-          César Cardoso – tenor saxophone and arrangements

-          Jason Palmer – trumpet

-          Miguel Zenón – alto saxophone

-          Massimo Morganti – trombone

-          Jeffery Davis – vibraphone

-          Óscar Graça – piano

-          Demian Cabaud – double bass

-          Marcos Cavaleiro – drums

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRANCE: Gaël Rouilhac-Waterworks (Laborie Jazz 2020)

Gaël Rouilhac Nouvel album Waterworks Sortie le 25/09/2020 chez Laborie Jazz

Gaël Rouilhac est de retour le 25 septembre 2020 chez Laborie Jazz avec l'album Waterworks. Entouré de Caroline Bugala au violon et de Roberto Gervasi à l'accordéon, le guitariste revient donc en trio avec dix titres composés par ses soins. Cet album témoigne d'une intimité musicale toute en finesse. Il s'agit du premier album de Gaël en tant que leader et compositeur. A 37 ans, Gaël Rouilhac signe son 1er album... et quel album ! Alliant tradition et modernité, l'album allie sensibilité, virtuosité, écoute, risques, échanges, implication, spiritualité. Avec ce trio d'une subtilité rare, le guitariste fait le pari de ne pas avoir de section rythmique, pour des compositions vives et fluides, comme le thème de l'eau qui guide et irrigue tout l'album Waterworks.   Pour regarder et diffuser la vidéo de Waterworks : https://youtu.be/9RzjLB2l-M4

Entre le Label Laborie Jazz et Gaël Rouilhac, c’est une histoire patiente et passionnée. Présent sur différentes éditions du Festival Eclats d’Email Jazz Edition et dans plusieurs formules où il fut leader, Gaël a longuement mûri un travail de composition personnel en essayant d’y mettre tout son talent et toute la vision qu’il souhaite accorder à sa musique. La réunion avec la violoniste Caroline Bugala et l’accordéoniste sicilien Roberto Gervasi s’était déjà produite en 2015, un premier rendez-vous plein de promesses où Gaël dévoilait ses premières compositions et une intimité musicale tout en finesse et profondeur. La parole se libère, la vie se raconte et l’expression s’ouvre au public. Ce trio est resté le socle que Gaël Rouilhac souhaitait donner à sa musique. Waterworks, au-delà d’un programme, devient également le titre de son premier album qui sera enregistré fin novembre 2019. L’aboutissement de toute une réflexion, de toute une démarche, et de choix précis, la définition d’un univers qu’il nous tarde désormais de partager. Caroline Bugala, magnifique violoniste, sensible et très à l’écoute, de formation classique, élève de, mais aussi partageant la scène et le studio avec Didier Lockwood, et Roberto Gervasi, véritable révélation de la scène italienne, sont à eux deux un écrin qui habille et porte la musique de Gaël Rouilhac dans ce qu’elle a de plus touchant et de plus beau.   ""Encore beaucoup de projets menés de front encore cette année, mais si il y en a un qui me tient à coeur et m'occupe beaucoup en ce moment, c'est mon premier groupe en tant que leader et compositeur." Gaël Rouilhac   Site Laborie Jazz Site officiel de l'artiste

SWITZERLAND: Jazz sur la Plage- dans la cour du Caveau des Vignerons à Hermance.

Jazz sur la Plage devient...

Jazz sur la Toile !

Contraints, comme beaucoup d’autres manifestations de repousser notre prochaine édition, nous avons décidé de proposer tout de même une mouture de Jazz sur la Plage, complètement repensée et inédite. Après plusieurs semaines de réflexion, nous sommes heureux de vous présenter Jazz sur la Toile, qui se tiendra les 14 et 15 août 2020 dans la cour du Caveau des Vignerons à Hermance. Une petite restauration et des boissons seront proposées sur place.

Les artistes qui se produiront sont tous issus du terroir musical local et auraient dû se produire sur une scène par Jazz sur la Plage dans le cadre de la Fête de la Musique. Retrouvez le programme complet ici.

http://www.jazzsurlaplage.ch/

ISRAEL: LIVE FROM TEL AVIV GUY MINTUS TRIO & SPECIAL GUESTS PRESENT "GERSHWIN GLOBAL"

LIVE FROM TEL AVIV GUY MINTUS TRIO & SPECIAL GUESTS PRESENT "GERSHWIN GLOBAL" Proceeds to Benefit The Jazz Foundation of America's COVID-19 MUSICIANS' EMERGENCY FUND

Pianist-vocalist-composer-educator Guy Mintus’ Trio will perform a special concert, “Live From Tel Aviv: Guy Mintus Presents Gershwin Global” this Sunday, July 19, to benefit the Jazz Foundation of America’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund.  The free concert will stream internationally on Guy's Facebook page 2:30 p.m. ET in the U.S. And 9:30 p.m. Israel Standard Time (and 8:30 p.m. Central Europe Standard Time).

SET A REMINDER NOW

The all-Gershwin event, which is supported by the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York, will feature Mintus and his working unit of bassist Omri Hadani and drummer Yonatan Rosen. Their special guests will include Ravid Kahlani (vocals), Yonatan Voltzok (trombone), Ilan Salem (flute), Alexander Levin (saxophone), Ariel Bart (harmonica), Nitzan Birnbaum (percussion), and Hillel Salem (trumpet). Not yet 30, Mintus splits his time between Tel Aviv and New York City. His unique, freewheeling style borrows from both jazz and classical traditions, interweaving influences ranging from Harlem stride and the Great American Songbook to flamenco and Jewish folk melodies. Guy Mintus states, “Israeli jazz musicians are very much indebted to the founders of the Black American art form called Jazz. Personally, when I came to study and live in New York seven years ago, the jazz community embraced and nurtured me. I know many of my compatriots have experienced the same thing and in these troubled times, it feels necessary to express our solidarity from afar. I'm honored to support the Jazz Foundation of America, which has given back to the source of this music for over 30 years, and it feels fitting to feature the music of the American Jewish composer, so heavily associated with New York, and who wrote the first jazz/blues opera for which it is mandatory that it's performed by Black artists.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT GUY MINTUS

BELGIUM:David Linx-Skin in The Game(Cristal Records 2020)

David Linx Nouvel album Skin in The Game Sortie le 18/09/2020 chez Cristal Records En concert le 12/10 au New Morning

David Linx qui a débuté la scène à 14 ans met « sa peau en jeu » pour ses 40 ans de carrière ! Le chanteur est de retour le 18 septembre avec son nouvel album Skin In The Game qui sort chez Cristal Records. On peut affirmer que David Linx est l’inventeur du « chanteur de jazz européen », et c’est, bien au-delà de l’espace européen, l’un des plus formidables chanteurs de jazz que l’on puisse entendre. Après plus d’une trentaine d’albums en leader ou en duo avec le pianiste Diederik Wissels, le chanteur David Linx, pour ce nouvel opus de compositions originales chantées en anglais, a réuni un combo de leaders avec Gregory Privat au piano, Chris Jennings à la contrebasse, Arnaud Dolmen à la batterie et en invité de luxe Manu Codjia à la guitare. Entre ballades et titres plus rythmés, deux morceaux agrémentés de poèmes dits par Marlon Moore rajoutent une couleur de plus à l’album et rappellent le premier sublime album réalisé par David Linx avec l’écrivain James Baldwin en 1987. En premier extrait de Skin In The Game, voici Azadi à découvrir en clip.   Pour regarder et diffuser le clip d'Azadi : https://youtu.be/FyUcPek2Lr4 -- Bruxellois de culture mais parisien d'adoption, formé au contact de grands musiciens américains, David Linx est, sinon le plus grand (dixit Jazz Magazine), en tout cas l'un des plus formidables chanteurs de jazz que l'on puisse entendre, doublé d'un homme de scène au grand coeur ! Ses premiers succès discographiques sur le fameux Label bleu à la fin des années 90, en tandem avec le pianiste Diederik Wissels, ont définitivement renouvelé le jazz vocal et inspiré toute une génération de musiciens. Il est de retour le 18 novembre avec l'album Skin In The Game, né d'une rencontre sensationnelle, un véritable coup de foudre sur la scène de l'Auditorium de Radio France (le 14 février 2018, jour de St Valentin, ça ne s'invente pas!) avec la formation composée Grégory Privat au piano, Chris Jennings à la basse et Arnaud Dolmen à la batterie. David Linx est immédiatement séduit par l'entente musicale qui s'instaure entre lui et ces musiciens qu'ils n'hésite pas à décrire comme les plus accomplis qu'il ait rencontrés ces dernières années. De là naît « Skin in the Game » où, fidèle à ses convictions et à sa démarche, David Linx décide de mettre en lumière mais surtout en paroles et en musiques la beauté et l'amour qu'il s'efforce de percevoir en ce monde. C'est le rôle qu'il s'assigne en véritable artiste : montrer comment nous sommes tous, comme à fleur de peau, partie prenante de notre époque.   Concerts : 12 Oct. 2020 / New Morning, Paris (75) 17 Oct. 2020 / La Rochelle Jazz Festival, La Rochelle (17) 18 Nov. 2020 / Théâtre Le Jardin de Verre, Cholet (49) 11 Déc. 2020 / Le Silex, Auxerre (89) Facebook Instagram

USA: Ryan Cohan-ORIGINATIONS(Origin Records 2020)

Featuring a dynamic symbiosis of Middle Eastern and North African musical themes, Western classical music elements, modern jazz and impressionistic harmonic colors and improvisation, Originations blurs its diverse stylistic ingredients to create a vibrant sonic tapestry woven in Cohan’s distinctive voice. www.originations.ryancohan.com www.ryancohan.com www.originarts.com Ryan Cohan - piano, composer, producer John Wojciechowski - flute, alto flute, clarinet, tenor saxophone Geof Bradfield - bass clarinet, soprano saxophone Tito Carrillo - trumpet, flugelhorn James Cammack - acoustic bass Michael Raynor - drums Omar Musfi - riqq, frame drum, dumbek KAIA String Quartet: Victoria Moreira - violin Naomi Culp - violin Amanda Grimm - viola Hope DeCelle - cello

USA: Maude Caillat, Damani Butler, Billie Davis(USA)-Whadeva(2020)

"Whadeva"

It had not reached New Orleans yet, or so they thought.

They had been prepping these recordings since late December, early January. Damani Butler contacted Billie Davies and Maude Caillat asking them whether they would be interested in doing a project with him. He also mentioned he had contacted female artists for this project. Both Billie Davies, an american drummer from California, and Maude Caillat, a sax player from Switzerland, were currently working and residing in New Orleans. Damani had rented a house in the Lower Ninth Ward, which became Dangerous Art Studios, and was busy transforming it into the whole house and whatever sounds in it, showed in it and whomever entered it, being part of a work of art he was creating.

The project would be experimental, completely improvisational audio art. Intuitive, instinctive in nature Damani would be doing his electronic loops, beats and waves while Caillat and Davies played whatever they played. Billie decided to use her electronic drumset and Maude would bring her sax and flute to the project. Mike Davies would be recording the project, and be responsible for mixing and mastering the music that was recorded live on 02/13/2020 for a later unedited release of what was played that evening.

This was definitely so very much a Billie Davies project, always wanting to create, no preconceived ideas for the music, no notes written, no words written, no concept conceived but what you’re surrounded by, play what you feel at this moment, express your feelings as the now keeps moving forward in the now, whatever happens, a direct connection from the brain to the sound, whatever comes up, whatever makes you move in whatever direction. (CONTINUED)

Damani Butler – electronics/loops/waves/beats
Maude Caillat – woodwinds
Billie Davies – electronic drums
Mike Davies – recording, mixing

Website Facebook

USA: Wade C. Long(USA)-Nostalgia(2020)

Just off the heels of the lead single Bulljivin, which has been receiving international airplay, vocalist-keyboardist Wade C. Long is now releasing his long awaited debut LP, Nostalgia. The debut LP is a long time coming for the Cleveland, Ohio native. Nostalgia’s 11 tracks range from Smooth Jazz to Soul, to Funk, Disco, and even a little bit of Rock mixed in. Long’s heart-warming vocals have been compared to the legendary Luther Vandross and his joyful keyboarding style has drawn comparisons to the great, late George Duke. Nostalgia is available today on platforms everywhere, now!

 Long is also available for interviews, by contacting Sealong Music Group at sealongentertainment@gmail.com or by connecting with him online @wadeclong.

Website |  Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Twitter

Purchase/Stream Links

https://open.spotify.com/album/6NE4R7EItAGXHbWlI9wG5q?si=o8XzjazZRmmUn3P5qFoSNw

https://music.apple.com/us/album/nostalgia/1514747481

https://www.amazon.com/Nostalgia-Wade-C-Long/dp/B0892F6CDQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VH2AS8ZW64A4&dchild=1&keywords=wade+c+long+nostalgia&qid=1593800325&sprefix=wade+c+l%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-1

SWITZERLAND: WHO Trio-STRELL-THE MUSIC OF BILLY STRAYHORN & DUKE ELLINGTON(Clean Feed 2020)

The collective Who Trio commemorated 20 years of existence in 2018, by starting the project “Strell”, which only now has been committed to record. This was the time considered necessary for their members to achieve the maturity of a collective language necessary to embrace the ambitious enterprise of interpreting the music of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington in a (re)creative way. The goal was to infuse this rich musical heritage with today’s musical language, exploring the compositions of both historical figures like a mighty wave that allows the trio to surf to new horizons. In this new reading, we find the centrality of the blues, so essential to these two composers, combined with the open spirit of improvisation in the best way we could hope for. Contemporary jazz with deep roots in the Strayhorn/Ellington legacy, played by one of the most inspiring musical chemistries of our time, the remarkable collective interplay of Wintsch, Hemingway & Oester, the WHO trio.

WHO Trio

Michel Wintsch  piano | Gerry Hemingway  drums, voice | Bänz Oester  bass

Clean Feed 

USA: “See the Music, Hear the Dance”: Duende Libre’s new album brings song, rhythm, and movement traditions from the Americas and West Africa into joyful conversation

“See the Music, Hear the Dance”: Duende Libre’s new album brings song, rhythm, and movement traditions from the Americas and West Africa into joyful conversation

There’s a moment of ecstasy that happens on the dance floor, when the music and the beat and the movement of bodies become one. That moment caused Alex Chadsey, trained in classical and jazz piano, to fall in love with salsa music years ago. Chadsey finally found words for that feeling when he began studying and playing West African rhythms. As Ghanaian dancer A.M. Opoku explained, when dance and music are closely connected one “can see the music and hear the dance.”

Boundary-crossing jazz ensemble Duende Libre’s third album, The Dance She Spoke (set for release July 17th, 2020., invites listeners to feel those connections deeply: between music and movement, and between the musical traditions of the Americas and West Africa. “This album is an expression of the many forms of connection that inspire Duende Libre, from intergenerational to cross-cultural,” bandleader Chadsey explains. “At a time when so much is going wrong, we wanted to celebrate the things that are actually working in the world. For us that includes the human connections and conversations we have with each other.”

The Dance She Spoke is the kind of cross-cultural conversation that could only happen in a wildly eclectic and inclusive musical scene like Seattle’s. Duende Libre has thrived in that diverse community, earning a reputation for bringing Latin, Afro-Caribbean, jazz, and many other traditions into life-affirming dialogue. On this new album, Duende Libre founding members Chadsey, drummer Jeff “Bongo” Busch, and bassist Farko Dosumov welcome Frank Anderson (vocals and percussion) and Chava Mirel (vocals) to the conversation. The band members share a long history thanks to the intertwining branches of Seattle’s vibrant musical community. Anderson and Mirel first joined the band onstage at the release show for Duende Libre's last album Drift. Everyone felt the energy crackle and the group never looked back. But the connections go back even further. One of Chadsey's first introductions to music from West Africa was in the form of a cassette tape he wore out as a child by Village Drum & Masquerade, a Seattle drum ensemble which Frank Anderson joined in the 80s. No one could have predicted that the two would wind up recording an album together decades later.

The passions these musicians share give tracks like “Fefo (Hamana)” a rich texture and an intoxicating energy. It’s one of six tracks based on rhythms that Anderson learned in the borderlands of Guinea and Mali, where he studied djembe with Famoudou Konate and dance with Nakani Kouyate, among many other influential teachers. It was Kouyate who insisted that Anderson make singing part of his practice. “In Maninka-speaking areas, every dance opens with a ‘call to dance,’ what we in the West would call a song,” Anderson explains. “Those songs, dances, and rhythms are all connected, you can’t have one without the other.”

Over a sizzling groove laid down by the band, Anderson and Mirel trade calls and responses with palpable joy in the exchange. The easy rapport between Anderson’s agile tenor and Mirel’s mellow alto is a testament not only to their talents but also to the years Mirel spent in Anderson’s West African dance classes moving to these same rhythms. Now that the group is unable to play together or shoot music videos under quarantine, they’re working with an editor in Los Angeles to use digital media to capture some of the joy and sense of communion they experience while performing live together.

The conversation takes an unexpected twist on “Echoes (Wassoulou),” an instrumental track written by Chadsey and set to a traditional rhythm from the Wassoulou region in eastern Guinea and western Mali. Chadsey first conceived the tune while experimenting with new approaches to the traditional twelve-bar blues progression. Chadsey recalls, "Around the same time I was working on 'Echoes’ we were jamming on a rhythm called soboninkun that Frank had taught us. When we tried combining the two, we discovered that the spaciousness of the harmony allowed the rhythm to speak in surprising new ways." Guest artist Thione Diop adds an urgent rhythmic counterpoint on the tama (Senegalese talking drum). The resulting interplay evokes a beautiful conversation between friends where each voice contributes to a dynamic whole.

The joy of playing and moving together is an electric current rippling through The Dance She Spoke. That shared energy is the unifying force which connects tracks rooted in West African rhythm and song, such as the powerhouse foot-stomper “N’gri (Wassoulou),” and others that bring American sounds to the fore, like the spitfire political commentary of “You Gotta Go” (featuring the deeply funky sounds of guest guitarist Jabrille “Jimmy James” Williams of the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio). 

“When I play with Frank and Thione, I can feel how the West African musical traditions which they have mastered continue to shape and influence the music I have played and studied over the years,” Chadsey muses. The Dance She Spoke is a celebration of connections between people playing and dancing together, connections that ripple out in concentric circles to the group’s eclectic musical community, to their diverse city shaped by generations of immigrants, to a transatlantic history marked by tragedy and beauty. Duende Libre invites listeners, wherever they may be, to move together and rejoice in the ecstasy of "seeing the music and hearing the dance."

• Duende Libre - Website
• Alex Chadsey - Website
• Bandcamp
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Spotify
• VIDEO: "Fefo (Hamana)"
• EVENT INFO - Earshot Jazz: Duende Libre Trio (livestream) Creative Justice NW Benefit
• LIVESTREAM LINK - Earshot Jazz Live at The Forum | Duende Libre Trio: Creative Justice NW Benefit

-- 

Christine Brackenhoff
Publicist

rock paper scissors, inc.
music and tech pr
511 W. 4th St., Suite 2
Bloomington, IN 47404-5171
RPS Office +1-812-339-1195 x201
Skype: rockpaperscissors511 

CANADA: Daniel Hersog’s O Canada Jazz Orchestra July 1st Digital Release (YT FB, Insta)

Daniel Hersog’s O Canada Jazz Orchestra
July 1st Digital Release (YT FB, Insta)

Watch "O Canada!"

Composer/trumpeter Daniel Hersog’s 
O Canada Jazz Orchestra
 

Formed during covid quarantine, the Daniel Hersog O Canada Jazz Orchestra is poised to release their first digital video. This video is a remotely recorded and filmed performance of Hersog’s new arrangement of O Canada.
 
Hersog’s 17-piece ensemble is rife with Juno Award winners, Canadian jazz heavy weights, and even a recipient of the Order of Canada. There are musicians representing all ten Canadian provinces. Formed with the intention of showcasing the comaraderie that exists amongst Canadian jazz musicians in these difficult times, this ensemble delivers a world class, high energy, and infinitely swinging performance of the Canadian National Anthem.
 
Hersog is currently receiving significant airplay, and international media attention for his newly released album Night Devoid of Stars on the Cellar Music Label.

Daniel Hersog’s O Canada Jazz Orchestra
 
Christine Jensen – BC/QC
Remi Bolduc – QC
Phil Dwyer – BC
Joel Miller – NB/QC
Ben Henriques – BC
Mike Herriott – NL
Brad Turner – BC
Bria Skonberg – BC
Al Muirhead – AB
William Carn – ON
Dale Sorensen – PEI
Andrew Jackson – NS Sharman King – BC
Jocelyn Marie Gould – MB Amanda Tosoff – BC/ON
Gent Laird – SK
Mark Kelso – ON
 
Audio and Video Edited by Ben Henriques

 

© Robert Iannone

Daniel Hersog
Born in 1985 and raised in Vancouver and Victoria, Hersog has become a vital voice as a trumpeter, composer and arranger. He has toured North America leading large ensembles with such notable musicians as Terry Clarke, Kevin Turcotte, Remy Le Boeuff, Billy Buss, Stuart Mack, Jason Palmer and Kim Cass, as well as Brad Turner, Noah Preminger and Frank Carlberg. Hersog is often featured at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, in addition to performing regularly in his hometown at Frankie’s Jazz Club and Pat’s Pub. As a sideman, he performs with the Vancouver Legacy Jazz Orchestra, Jaelem Bhate Jazz Orchestra, Super Trumpets and Sonny’s Cousin.

A 2016 graduate of New England Conservatory, Hersog won the school’s prestigious Gunther Schuller Medal. He studied with a who’s who of jazz at NEC. Composition teachers included Carlberg, John Hollenbeck, Dave Holland, Ken Schaphorst and Rakalam Bob Moses; he studied trumpet with masters John McNeil, Ralph Alessi and Steve Emery. An instructor himself now, Hersog teaches jazz trumpet at Capilano University, where he also writes for the school’s big band and leads a trumpet ensemble.

SWITZERLAND: Vivre La Chaux-de-Fonds présente la 1ère édition du Festival 1000Jazz du 5 au 7 novembre 2020

Vivre La Chaux-de-Fonds présente 
la 1ère édition du Festival 1000Jazz 
du 5 au 7 novembre 2020

La programmation de 1000Jazz sera dévoilée à la mi-août. La billetterie ouvrira au même moment à des prix attractifs.

USA: Mark Ruffin Celebrates 40th Anniversary in Radio Broadcasting with Sept 1st Publication of "Bebop Fairy Tales," His First Short Story Collection

                                                               

Mark Ruffin Commemorates 40 Years In Radio Broadcasting                  SiriusXM "Real Jazz" Personality/Program Director Achieves a Landmark in His Storied Career As Disc Jockey, Music Programmer, & Interviewer Ruffin Celebrates Anniversary With the Publication of His Short Story Collection, "Bebop Fairy Tales," On September 1           June 10, 2020   Mark Ruffin, known coast-to-coast as the afternoon drivetime DJ for SiriusXM's Real Jazz channel, celebrates his 40th anniversary in jazz radio in on September 1, 2020. Ruffin, who is also the program director for Real Jazz, began his first professional job in the business -- at Chicago NPR affiliate WBEZ-FM -- on September 1, 1980. In the time since, he has amassed an odyssey's worth of jobs, accomplishments, relationships, and stories, both real and imagined. (Three of the latter will be published September 1, by his Rough In Creative Works imprint, in his debut story collection Bebop Fairy Tales: An Historical Fiction Trilogy on Jazz, Intolerance, and Baseball.)   "I really have had a charmed life, man," says Ruffin, reflecting on his four decades in jazz and broadcasting. "I understood that the whole way, how fortunate I was -- but it's been amazing. I went 20 years at four jazz radio stations in one city! That's something that isn't even possible anymore -- but I did that." His career in broadcasting has brought him two local Emmys, Jazzweek's Duke Dubois Humanitarian Award, and the Jazz Journalists Association's Career Excellence in Broadcasting Award.   Ruffin can say without exaggeration that he has spent his whole life steeped in jazz. One of his earliest memories is of a robbery at his parents' record store on the West Side of his hometown of Chicago, while a Miles Davis record played on the store's turntable. "[It was] 'If I Were a Bell' -- where he starts it by saying, 'I'll play it and tell you what it is later,'" Ruffin says. "At the end the needle would come back to the beginning. I was scared, but I also remember that every time that voice came back and said that, I was okay."   It's only the first of the lifetime's worth of jazz stories and memories Ruffin has collected. Many more have come straight from the mouths of the musicians who he has interviewed over his four decades in radio: the interviews on which he's built his superlative reputation not only as a broadcaster and raconteur, but as an expert and historian of the music. What he didn't learn through his lived experience, personal and professional, he gained through his front-row seat to jazz history, soaking up the musicians' tales and lessons with the same ear for detail that he brings to programming the music.   Mark Ruffin was born September 24, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, an electrician, set up a shop on Chicago's West Side that repaired TVs and radios on one side and sold records on the other. Ruffin's Records was also where Mark (and his five siblings) gained the technical and musical knowledge that would form the nucleus of his career in jazz radio.   Ruffin's first experience in radio was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he worked on the staff of campus radio stations WSIU and WIDB. His knowledge of electronics allowed him to earn his then-required FCC license; his love of the music gave him something to do when he was operating those electronics.     Over the next 25 years, Ruffin worked at WDCB-FM, where he started his career as an interviewer; WBEE-AM, where he brought the station ratings success for the first time in twenty years; and WNUA-FM, where he produced the nationally syndicated Ramsey Lewis Show. He then returned to WBEZ, before transitioning in the 2000s to a nationally syndicated show of his own (co-hosted with Neil Tesser), Listen Here.   In 2006, Ruffin was hired by Harpo Productions -- Oprah Winfrey's shop -- as a producer on Winfrey's channel at what was then XM Satellite Radio. Rather than a gateway out of music radio, Oprah Radio proved to be a transition from jazz terrestrial radio to jazz satellite radio: By the fall of 2007 he had moved to New York to work at XM's Real Jazz, serving as program director even after the 2009 merger of XM and Sirius Satellite Radio and continuing until today.   On another front, Ruffin in the 1990s began to pursue writing fiction -- specifically, screenwriting, eventually becoming a 2003 semifinalist in the Sundance Institute's screenplay competition. One of his early (unproduced) screenplays, a Jazz Age tale in which Fats Waller is kidnapped by Al Capone, suggested a unique, jazz-focused form of historical fiction. Ruffin reinvented himself as a writer of print stories, and from 2003 until 2020 worked at the collection that has now become Bebop Fairy Tales. "How can I explain it, other than that it's about how powerful jazz is in people's lives?" he says. "I suppose the real thread behind all three stories is, 'intolerance is stupid.'"        Photography: Nick Carter        Mark Ruffin: "Bebop Fairy Tales"               Web Sites: markruffin.com, bebop.markruffin.com                 Media Contact: Terri Hinte 510-234-8781 hudba@sbcglobal.net terrihinte.com