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Michael Vander Does

Make Jazz Not War!

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That’s the JazzPoetry Ensemble’s new name! Our name is changing because we’ve changed. We’re not just a band anymore! We’re a (loose) affiliation of Citizen Artists, dedicated to using our arts for our community. We’re video and audio and productions and performance art. We’re not just musicians. We’re videographers and audio producers and graphic artists and editors and photographers and more. And we’re out to change the world! Make Jazz Not War! JazzPoetry Ensemble was a good descriptive name for its time. We were developing our art form and aesthetic, honing our style and sound. The poetry ranged widely from......

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Greg Ward: We all do it for the love of doing it.

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Greg sent me this first draft for a post here on our Citizen Artist Notes & News page: I grew up on Motown, The Beatles, rock ‘n roll - then more esoteric rock, RnB, pop, And, then… the funk. Recorded, mixed and hung with several of my heroes along the way. Some truly surreal experiences. Lots of hard work and hard partying. I thrived – and survived. I thought I knew a bit about jazz – had a comfort level with the improv and the stretched envelopes. But, I had no idea. This was a different animal for me. The......

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Greg Ward has left the building

Greg Ward was an integral part of Make Jazz Not War! At first, Greg “just” did audio things for us - as a favor, but he quickly became our producer. He was no bullshit. He knew what he was doing and expected the same from others. He was, as he would say, a professional. He was the one who could, at the end of the night, still climb ladders with me and take down the lights. He was fun and he was good. He made our work more than the performance. He struggled for a while with the avant-garde process. When......

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Ukraine: Song for the Refugees

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My grandpa Ruby and Grandma Molly were both Ukrainian Jews. Ukraine was part of Imperial Russia then, so they were also Russian Jews. Molly’s family was from the Odesa area. Ruby’s family was from near the Polish border. Russian Jews had no rights. They couldn’t live anywhere except in the Pale of Jewish Settlement and they couldn’t own property. Employment and education were severely restricted. They had to be back in the shtetl (Jewish settlement) by sundown. And then there were the massacres and lynchings and rapes (pogroms). These were the Jew laws of Russia. Unsurprisingly, people ran. Became refugees.......

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Thanamattapoeia: jazzColumbus.com review

"An immaculate portrait, recorded impeccably ... features some of Columbus’ best players lighting up and growing wings in the presence of one of the true legends of American music, Edward “Kidd” Jordan. ...Burleson's spiky string bending ... like lightning connecting Jordan’s heavens with the earthy foundation of Roger Hines’ bass and Roger Myers’ drums ... Thamamattapoeia ...  a poem of loss, thanatosis and the articulation of sound with a reach wide enough to hold the world. ... the delightful “Marlene Dietrich and James Earl Jones in ‘Black Casablanca.’” opens with a grinding swagger then turns into something darker, shadowy and chaotic.... "      ...

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