Season's greetings from For the Love of Jazz!
We hope this holiday season finds you safe and well in these challenging times. We hope to provide, in our own small way, some degree of healing and unity.
Unfortunately, most of our in-person events this year had to be put on hold, including our annual membership meeting and concert. But rest assured, FTLOJ is constantly working to find creative and innovative ways to remain connected to the community.
Our new YouTube channel has been enthusiastically received, with new performances posted weekly from some of our favorite local jazz artists. These professionally produced, live studio sessions will continue in the coming year, with the addition of new educational content hosted by some of the finest jazz instructors in our area. Many thanks to Chris Casaceli and Mike Eardley of Tanglewood Productions for turning out quality videos week after week!
We're also pleased to welcome our latest addition to the board, Domenico Lacala. Dom is a multi-instrumentalist and graduate of the UNR Jazz and Improvisational Music Department. He has traveled the US and Europe as a touring musician. He currently teaches music in the Washoe County School District, bringing his love of jazz to the young musicians of our community.
Our weekly radio show, “Saturday Night Jazz”, which I host with Dallas Smith, is now in its 7th year and can be heard weekly on KNCJ 89.5FM every Saturday from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm.
Jazz is an endlessly adaptable art form that speaks to something universal about our humanity. It is, perhaps, the most honest reflection of who we are as a nation. As jazz journalist Nate Chinen put it, "America's secret weapon is a blue note in a minor key." It is the restlessness that stirs in every soul, the desire to create with no boundaries. For the Love of Jazz is passionate about preserving and protecting this cherished American art form, as it now seems more relevant than ever before.
Scot Marshall
President, For the Love of Jazz
|
|
Board Members
Scot Marshall,
President
Cherie Shipley,
Vice President
Dylan Coleman,
Secretary
Teressa Casaceli, Treasurer
Graham Marshall,
Youth Liaison
Rachel Perkins, Memberships
Peter Supersano,
Board Member
Chris Casaceli,
Digital Marketing
Hans Halt,
Consultant
Domenico Lacala,
Board Member
|
About Us:
For The Love of Jazz is Northern Nevada's premier jazz nonprofit organization. We believe that jazz has the power to enrich, educate, and enlighten. With this in mind, we pride ourselves on bringing world class jazz performances to the Reno/Tahoe area and promoting our stellar local music community though online performance videos and live concerts.
|
|
New Educational Programming:
Even during normal times, teaching is an important part of most musicians’ lives. Currently, it is one of the only ways for many musicians to earn income, and with many school jazz ensembles canceled this year, one-on-one lessons are the only some young musicians are able to continue their jazz education.
For the Love of Jazz has always valued the education of the next generation of jazz musicians. Recently we have decided to renew our commitment to that goal with the formation of an Education Subcommittee dedicated to providing free, high-quality educational resources to local students. To that end, FTLOJ is putting funds toward creating a video series for the beginner- and intermediate-level jazz students. This series will feature many of our local musicians presenting short 60-second musical excerpts, chosen because they are simple enough to learn “by ear". Students will be encouraged to learn the excerpt without written music and post a video of themselves playing it back. Some of these excerpts will be designed by a local musician to highlight a specific technique, and some will be taken from classic recordings. Two of the most commonly cited weaknesses among intermediate and advanced students are knowledge of the classic jazz canon and the ability to learn “by ear”. This series is meant to address both of those issues in an engaging, interactive format.
Further out on the horizon is another educational series that will go more in-depth on specific aspects of learning jazz improvisation and the jazz language. These longer videos, lasting approximately 5 minutes, will feature some of our most experienced local educators. We hope we can offer a suitable, no-cost alternative for students who have lost curricular or extra-curricular access to jazz instruction, while also providing a little income to local musicians who have lost a significant portion of their income this year due to restriction on live performances, which they rely on to make ends meet. The short video series will be live by the end of 2020. Expect the longer video series in the spring of 2021.
Dylan Coleman,
Education Committee Chair
|
|
|
|
Letter from the Chair of the FTLOJ Media Subcommittee |
Over the past 6 months, FTLOJ has been working hard to continue serving our local Reno/Tahoe jazz community during the COVID-19 pandemic by producing and distributing our “Live Studio Session” music videos. We are incredibly happy to have made this series, featuring some of Reno’s top jazz talent, available for anyone to access free of charge on FTLOJ’s YouTube and Facebook pages.
Our goals with this series have been to create professional-quality music videos for our local community to enjoy in lieu of live performances and to financially support local artists while giving them a platform to perform and distribute their music in a safe environment. So far, this series has provided 27 local musicians with free access to professional recordings that they can now use to promote their music and build their fan base online during the pandemic and beyond. Since June of 2020, we have released 25 videos featuring 9 different musical groups, and reached thousands of viewers in our community.
We are very proud of the diverse catalog of music we have curated thus far, and are eager to keep developing it into the foreseeable future. In the coming months, we plan to continue our Live Studio Session series, as well as introduce music education videos designed by our local jazz educators to supplement the online educational efforts of our WCSD music directors during the pandemic. In addition, we have begun an initiative to provide outreach using our library of online performance recordings as entertainment for some of our more COVID-vulnerable communities such as elder care and retirement housing facilities.
We sincerely hope that these Live Studio Sessions have generated joy and continued enthusiasm for jazz music during this difficult time. If these videos have brought value to you as a member of our music community, we encourage you to make a donation if you are able, so that we can continue to offer this content in support of our musicians, educators, and the audience free of charge!
If you haven’t checked out the series yet, we invite you to follow the link below to our YouTube channel. You won’t be disappointed! Stay tuned for holiday-themed Studio Sessions all through the month of December, with a special Christmas eve performance from Brian Landrus!
Chris Casaceli,
Media/Marketing Committee Chair
|
|
|
|
Look for our Special December Video Series:
'Home for the Holidays'
We are staying safe this Christmas with home recordings from some of our jazz community's most accomplished jazz families.
Featuring:
The Engstrom Family
The Heglund Family
and
a Christmas Eve Performance from
Brian Landrus
|
|
Please Consider a FTLOJ Year-End Donation
We are very excited about the support we have provided our musicians and the growing enjoyment of our online music presentations during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. However, the loss of our usual income from live event donations, ticket sales, co-sponsorships, and new membership subscriptions will eventually impact our ability to continue our online and hopefully live in the coming year. As 2020 comes to a close, we hope you will consider a donation or membership to FTLOJ which will help us continue our on-going efforts to keep “the love of jazz” present for us all during this pandemic.
This year, under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, most taxpayers will be allowed a charitable donation of $300.00 or less that can be deducted from income, even when not itemizing the tax return (fidelitycharitable.org). For The Love of Jazz is a 501c(3) charitable organization.
We are truly grateful for your consideration.
Thank You and Happy Holidays to you All!
|
|
Supporting Reno's Jazz Community |
|
For the Love of Jazz is extremely grateful to our sponsors and partners as well as all our loyal members and individual donors.
Thank You!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
