May 12, 2021

After Battling the Pandemic, the Village Vanguard Wins Livestream Producer of 2021

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The Jazz Journalists Association has named the Village Vanguard the livestream producer of the year, a major rebound for a club that’s been hammered by the pandemic but adapted with unparalleled resourcefulness in weekly livestreams by legends of jazz, from David Murray to Andrew Cyrille, George Cables, Immanuel Wilkins, and Ron Carter.

Carter, the most-recorded bassist in history, won the lifetime achievement award, beating out nominees Pharoah Sanders, Roscoe Mitchell, and Charles Lloyd. No question Carter deserves recognition, but someone tell me how on earth Sanders didn’t win. Sanders all day: “I think he’s probably the best tenor player in the world,” Ornette Coleman told me in 2006. (I’m also a JJA member, for disclosure, but this isn’t even a controversial take. Sanders released Promises this year; can’t multiple lifetime achievement awards be given during the pandemic?)

Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington rightly won musician of the year; Maria Schneider pulled in four awards; Ambrose Akinmusire took the trumpet title; Branford Marsalis scored for soprano saxophone; Anat Cohen for clarinet; and Linda May Han Oh for bass. The full list of winners is an exceptional roll call.

Bonus Recharge: Tyshawn Sorey is headlining the Vanguard this weekend, and this Saturday is the second-ever livestream from the Van Gelder Studio, with organist Joey DeFrancesco on the same Hammond that Jimmy Smith recorded on. DeFrancesco joins drummer Billy Hart, saxophonist Houston Person, and guitarist Peter Bernstein. Tickets here. To gear up, sample the Van Gelder archives: the rejuvenating “Willow Weep for Me” by Stanley Turrentine and Gene Harris. Recharge tips at recharge@motherjones.com.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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