Baltimore As A Jazz City – part 1
Baltimore As A Jazz City – part 1
“With its rich heritage, outstanding human and historical recourses, and civic commitment, Baltimore can define its own distinctive vision – and in doing so, become a model for the nation.” Ernest L. Boyer - Building Community, The Arts & Baltimore Together (1992).
“With Baltimore being located between Baltimore and D.C., it has little chance of being know as a jazz city.” - Baltimore Jazz Advisory Committee (1993)
These two statements illustrate the diametrically opposed attitudes that the BJA (Baltimore Jazz Alliance) has had to contend with. The first is progressive and visionary. The second is reactionary and defeatist.
Baltimore is not only a jazz city; it’s been that way for sometime. We know of the time when Pennsylvania Ave. was once a hot spot. There may have been a slump, but jazz did not go away.
When I started studying jazz in the early 70s, we had the Left Bank Jazz Society. The fledgling Maryland Public Broadcasting station had a program featuring this city’s jazz artists.
After years of road gigs, I settled in Silver Spring.
Returning in the late 80s, my late wife, Jane Lamar-Spicka, became the jazz columnist for Music Monthly Magazine, aka Maryland Musician. By the quality of the CDs we received, it was obvious that Baltimore had a thriving jazz scene. However, other then Jane’s column and the occasional City Paper article, there was little chatter going on about jazz. We had the scene, but nobody seemed interested in promoting it.
My experiences lead me to believe that whether a city has a thriving scene or not, mainly depends on attitude. Just like politics, do we see things as they really are and appreciate their potential, or are our actions based on assumption? Here are three examples that illustrate attitudes the BJA has had to deal, specifically in terms of media, the arts, and the jazz community. I’ve seen this attitude collectively described as “Hostile Indifference.”
Part two of this article will consider possible strategies to reduce this negativity.
1) Media - From 1986 to 2000, J. D. Considine was the pop music critic for the Baltimore Sun. He also wrote for Rolling Stone. His interest in jazz was virtually non-existent. He once wrote that he wasn’t interested in local music unless it approached the level of Bon Jovi.
2) The Arts – In 1994 I produced a CD for my 501(c)3 performing arts ensemble, Jazz Street Station, that ended up on the ’94 Grammy Nominations. Since our mission was to promote Baltimore’s jazz scene, I approached then mayor Kurt Schmoke, known as a jazz lover, with the idea of writing some liner notes for our next CD.
I ended up getting a letter from the director of the MACAC (Mayors’ Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture), saying that since we were located in the county, we were ineligible for funding from the city. Thing is, I didn’t ask for money.
By chance in Columbia a few weeks later, I found flyers for two separate arts events that were supported with funds from MACAC. Either I had been lied to, or else funds were being awarded under the table.
MACAC was eventually absorbed into the Baltimore Office of Promotion, becoming BOPA (Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts). I suspect that the Hostile Indifference towards jazz was absorbed as well.
3) The Jazz Community – We can understand indifference in the media, and even the arts, but what about defeatist attitudes within the jazz community itself?
The remark about Baltimore having “little chance of being know as a jazz city,” was said by a jazz “leader” at the first meeting of the Baltimore Jazz Advisory Committee, formed when Mayor Kurt Schmoke was planning to turn Howard Street into an “Avenue for the Arts.”
I clearly recall , there were about two dozen people excitedly discussing possibilities - until those words were uttered. I spoke up and talked of what was actually happening, based on first hand experience, saying to forget about New York and D.C. and instead carve our own niche.
To my dismay, another “leader” spoke up, saying that a recently released CD by the wife of the previous speaker, “marked the return of jazz to Baltimore after a ten-year hiatus.”
It wasn’t that these people didn’t hear me – their indifference was such that they had already made up their minds, without bothering to investigate, that Baltimore had no jazz scene.
In spite of all this negativity, the BJA was founded, survived, and has grown. There is a reason for this.
(To be continued)
g.f.s / March 15, 2016
“With its rich heritage, outstanding human and historical recourses, and civic commitment, Baltimore can define its own distinctive vision – and in doing so, become a model for the nation.” Ernest L. Boyer - Building Community, The Arts & Baltimore Together (1992).
“With Baltimore being located between Baltimore and D.C., it has little chance of being know as a jazz city.” - Baltimore Jazz Advisory Committee (1993)
These two statements illustrate the diametrically opposed attitudes that the BJA (Baltimore Jazz Alliance) has had to contend with. The first is progressive and visionary. The second is reactionary and defeatist.
Baltimore is not only a jazz city; it’s been that way for sometime. We know of the time when Pennsylvania Ave. was once a hot spot. There may have been a slump, but jazz did not go away.
When I started studying jazz in the early 70s, we had the Left Bank Jazz Society. The fledgling Maryland Public Broadcasting station had a program featuring this city’s jazz artists.
After years of road gigs, I settled in Silver Spring.
Returning in the late 80s, my late wife, Jane Lamar-Spicka, became the jazz columnist for Music Monthly Magazine, aka Maryland Musician. By the quality of the CDs we received, it was obvious that Baltimore had a thriving jazz scene. However, other then Jane’s column and the occasional City Paper article, there was little chatter going on about jazz. We had the scene, but nobody seemed interested in promoting it.
My experiences lead me to believe that whether a city has a thriving scene or not, mainly depends on attitude. Just like politics, do we see things as they really are and appreciate their potential, or are our actions based on assumption? Here are three examples that illustrate attitudes the BJA has had to deal, specifically in terms of media, the arts, and the jazz community. I’ve seen this attitude collectively described as “Hostile Indifference.”
Part two of this article will consider possible strategies to reduce this negativity.
1) Media - From 1986 to 2000, J. D. Considine was the pop music critic for the Baltimore Sun. He also wrote for Rolling Stone. His interest in jazz was virtually non-existent. He once wrote that he wasn’t interested in local music unless it approached the level of Bon Jovi.
2) The Arts – In 1994 I produced a CD for my 501(c)3 performing arts ensemble, Jazz Street Station, that ended up on the ’94 Grammy Nominations. Since our mission was to promote Baltimore’s jazz scene, I approached then mayor Kurt Schmoke, known as a jazz lover, with the idea of writing some liner notes for our next CD.
I ended up getting a letter from the director of the MACAC (Mayors’ Advisory Committee on Arts and Culture), saying that since we were located in the county, we were ineligible for funding from the city. Thing is, I didn’t ask for money.
By chance in Columbia a few weeks later, I found flyers for two separate arts events that were supported with funds from MACAC. Either I had been lied to, or else funds were being awarded under the table.
MACAC was eventually absorbed into the Baltimore Office of Promotion, becoming BOPA (Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts). I suspect that the Hostile Indifference towards jazz was absorbed as well.
3) The Jazz Community – We can understand indifference in the media, and even the arts, but what about defeatist attitudes within the jazz community itself?
The remark about Baltimore having “little chance of being know as a jazz city,” was said by a jazz “leader” at the first meeting of the Baltimore Jazz Advisory Committee, formed when Mayor Kurt Schmoke was planning to turn Howard Street into an “Avenue for the Arts.”
I clearly recall , there were about two dozen people excitedly discussing possibilities - until those words were uttered. I spoke up and talked of what was actually happening, based on first hand experience, saying to forget about New York and D.C. and instead carve our own niche.
To my dismay, another “leader” spoke up, saying that a recently released CD by the wife of the previous speaker, “marked the return of jazz to Baltimore after a ten-year hiatus.”
It wasn’t that these people didn’t hear me – their indifference was such that they had already made up their minds, without bothering to investigate, that Baltimore had no jazz scene.
In spite of all this negativity, the BJA was founded, survived, and has grown. There is a reason for this.
(To be continued)
g.f.s / March 15, 2016