It’s been a quiet spring here at Commonwealth of Jazz since my participation in UCLA’s “Trouble the Water” symposium in March. With Columbia’s tumultuous semester just concluded, I’m shifting gears from teaching back to research until Labor Day. With many chapters to draft, I’ll be sharing excerpts here alongside research updates and recent interviews. My next post will be about unsung pianist Joe Bonner. Stay tuned!
Last Tuesday, in preparation for the book’s central chapter, I spent the day learning about maestro Joe Kennedy Jr. from the Richmond Jazz Society’s B. J. Brown and Robert Payne. Despite the Commonwealth’s symbolic ban on the teaching of “inherently divisive concepts” in public education and the federal government’s two-pronged assault on arts and education funding, RJS soldiers on. Consider supporting their mission HERE. They are the guardians of Richmond’s jazz past, present, and future.
Brown and Payne have been painstakingly digitizing archival materials at the Richmond Public Library to preserve vital cultural heritage. This includes Brown’s Bright Moments! jazz community newsletters, which she has written and published since 1980. Some volumes are held by the Library of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Special Collections library. A large collection covering the organization’s first two decades is housed at Rutgers’s Institute of Jazz Studies. However, RJS maintains the only complete collection.
Kids growing up in Richmond in the ‘80s and ‘90s like me benefited greatly from the Jazz Society’s community organizing. Thank you, Robert and B. J., for all you do! I am proud to partner with RJS on this research.