Greetings from The International Association of Jazz Educators conference in Manhattan!
In between plenary sessions (I have no idea what that means, I just like to say the word "plenary") and concerts, I hope to sneak away to give you a little flavor ot the King of All Jazz Meetings here in the Jazz Capital.
Today, most of the business was done at the registration table and hotel bar...
"Whenja get in?" "When ya flying out?"
There are several jazz radio stations represented here. WBGO, the New York station, is doing several days of live broadcasts. At one point today, someone in their booth turned around, and there was Tony Bennett, knocking on the window, asking if he could sit down for a chat.
You can guess what the answer was.
My personal brush with greatness was bumping into Joe Lovano, who I thanked again for the great interview he had at KCCK in 2005.
I also spoke with Wendy Oxenhorn, the Executive Director of the Jazz Foundation of America, which is raising and investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to help indegent musicians all over the country, but these days they are primarily working to support the musicians of New Orleans. She told me they recently shipped several semi-trailers full of pianos to give to New Orleans musicians. One of them went to Fats Domino, who was so thrilled he had the movers set the piano down right in the middle of the street and played a mini-concert for the crew in thanks!
More tomorrow
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