The pandemic was especially hard on live jazz. But D.C.’s scene is slowly restarting.
The Washington Post, May 21, 2021 - “...with the announcement of new guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control, along with eased restrictions from D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and other local leaders, jazz venues — after more than a year’s silence — are slowly beginning to reopen their doors.” Continue reading
Aaron Myers, Advocacy Award, 2021 Wammies
WammieDC.org, March 29, 2021 - Aaron Myers is this year's Wammie recipient of the Advocacy Award. The Washington Area Music Awards, also known as “The Wammies,” is a 34-year-old music award show that celebrates DC area artists and musicians. View the 2021 winners.
With Just One Full-Time Jazz Club Left In The District, Local Musicians Contemplate Their Future
DCist, Mar. 11, 2021 - For the past year, D.C. jazz musicians have traded the warm environs of local performance spaces for the isolation of their living rooms, forced to channel the energy of an improvised solo through a WiFi signal. And while they and other community members wait for COVID-19 restrictions to lift, they’re grappling with the stark reality that some of these sacred stages won’t be there when the wait is over.
The city’s jazz clubs, many of which had closed pre-pandemic, grew even more scarce in the past 12 months, with the closures of Sotto, Twins, and Alice’s Jazz and Cultural Society, among others. Continue reading
Iconic DC Jazz Club Blues Alley Looking for New Location
NBC, Feb. 15, 2021 - One of the most iconic music venues in the world and a landmark in Washington, D.C., that has been closed due to the pandemic is unlikely to reopen at its original site.
Blues Alley has been a landmark in the heart of Georgetown since 1965. The former horse barn was converted into a nightclub for dixie land and swing. Over the years, it morphed into a jazz club now famous for hosting just about every great jazz artist in modern history in an intimate atmosphere that sat only 124 people. Continue reading
Winning Photos of the 15th Annual Exposed DC Contest
Exposed DC, Feb. 3, 2021 - We’re excited to announce the winners of the 15th Annual Exposed DC Photography Contest! These images, as seen together, tell the story of life in the Washington, D.C. metro area, as documented by the people who live, work, and love here. You can view the full list of winners below. (Photo: Nick Moreland‘s “Election Day 2020 at the Supreme Court”) Continue reading
Creatives in Need of Funding Say the District Failed Them Twice
The Washington City Paper, Jan.22, 2021 - Many arts and entertainment workers applied for unemployment after the pandemic destroyed their industry. Receiving unemployment makes them ineligible for entertainment business aid from the District... Sole proprietors of small businesses are specifically marked as eligible—with a caveat. Many of the people named as possible grantees of the Supporting Businesses Program were also eligible for the CARES Act-authorized PUA. And, the D.C. government says, anyone who was eligible for or drew PUA is not eligible for the Bridge Fund, leaving countless people in the entertainment industry frustrated and confused. Continue reading.
Giant steps: Why Soul is the film that finally got jazz right
Independent, Jan. 9, 2021 - More than any live-action movie, Soul manages to (literally) hit all the right notes when it comes to its portrayal of jazz. The painstaking practice required, the mechanics of improvisation, the telepathic relationship between band-members, the rapturous, trance-like, out-of-body experience enjoyed by the musician and audience alike – all are beautifully depicted in the performance scenes, all of which exploit the time-altering possibilities of animation and transport us into higher realms. In a century of cinema, no film has quite managed this. Continue reading.
‘Strangest time I’ve ever been in’: Music venues deal with the new normal
The Washington Post, Oct. 15, 2020 - "And while Fort Dupont’s summer concert series and the D.C. JazzFest went virtual, the wave of live-streamed concerts and acoustic bedroom sets that filled social media at the beginning of quarantine ebbed. Meanwhile, six months after the city shut down, government support has all but dried up. Some of the city’s most acclaimed venues, such as Twins Jazz and U Street Music Hall, have closed for good. " Continue reading.
Looking Back on the DC JazzFest 2020
Oct. 8, 2020 - WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES START TO FALL
"While we had hoped to present an in-person festival this year, the pandemic had other plans. Nonetheless, we overcame these challenges and were able to bring the joy of jazz to nearly 200,000 music lovers around the world including in France, Italy, Japan, Panama, Brazil, Canada, the UK, and Luxembourg.
In fact, the #2020DCJazzFest reached the third most viewers of any live streamed event in the world during the last week of September, according to Pollstar’s Weekly Live Stream Chart." Continue reading.
Live shows are the heart of jazz. With nightclubs silenced, musicians are keeping its spirit alive.
The Washington Post, Oct. 5, 2020 - “We’re just trying to keep it going, man,” Scott says. “Whatever we can do to keep the scene together.”
Among Scott and Myers’s initiatives is a twice-weekly Zoom call with stakeholders in the jazz community. “Those phone calls started to expand and involve a wide variety of people,” Scott says. “We had council members give us updates. We had health officials. We had a sergeant from the MPD give us an update on the laws behind live-streaming, performing outdoors, indoors, on private property. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee [D-Tex.] gave us an update on her end.” Continue reading.
U Street Music Hall shutting its doors
FOX5, Oct. 5, 2020 - U Street Music Hall is closing its doors permanently after 10 years as a staple in D.C.
“It is with tremendous sadness that we share with you today that U Street Music Hall is closing effective immediately,” the company announced on its website. Continue reading.
Music venues nationwide are pleading for financial support. Congress isn’t listening.
Metro Weekly, Oct. 1, 2020 - "...NIVA has been sounding the alarm about the need for federal assistance in order to keep music venues afloat while waiting out the pandemic... Such support might have helped the 18th Street Lounge and Twins Jazz hold on, but instead both celebrated, decades-old D.C. institutions recently announced that they have shut their doors for the final time." Continue reading.
DC Jazz Fest, Rosslyn Jazz Supper Club pair local restaurants and musicians
WTOPNews, Sept. 21, 2020 - The 30th annual Rosslyn Jazz Festival returns Wednesday to Wednesday, while the 16th annual D.C. Jazz Festival simultaneously returns Thursday through Monday. Continue reading.
Hilton Brothers to Close Seven Bars ‘for Foreseeable Future’ on Halloween
Washington City Paper, Sept. 5, 2020 - The brothers and nightlife impresarios behind many bars and restaurants stretching up 14th Street NW and down U Street NW will close seven establishments for the foreseeable future on Halloween. Continue reading.
Coalition of Music Advocates Launch Campaign To Pass DC Music Venue Relief Legislation
EIN Presswire, Sept. 3, 2020 - A coalition of DC musicians and music advocates launched a grassroots campaign this week to advocate for government relief of the city’s music venues. Continue reading.
Twins Jazz, the U Street Club that Grew Out of an Ethiopian Restaurant, Closes for Good
DC EATER, Aug. 27, 2020 - Twins Jazz club, the live music institution owned by Ethiopian-born sisters Kelly and Maze Tesfaye, announced today it will close after 33 years of business that includes iterations in Brightwood and on U Street NW. Continue reading.