I am elated “Monty Alexander’s Harlem-Kingston Express Live! @ Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola” on Motema Music has been nominated for a Grammy as the Best Reggae Album. I co-produced the album with Jana Herzon and  Katherine Miller.

It is especially meaningful to me that on the February 13th morning that I personally delivered one of Katherine’s first mixes of this classic live recording to Monty’s midtown Manhattan home,  I almost did not make it home myself to the Bronx because my car was slammed by an out-of-control SUV driver who put me in the hospital with a broken shin and collar bones. For a little while, I wasn’t sure I would be able to continue working on it, but, I was so blessed that Jana and Katherine came to see me in the hospital and we were able to sequence the record and it was released in June.

This record so eloquently meshes reggae and jazz and it a testament to Monty’s innate abilities. If you are a voting member of NARAS, please vote for Monty Alexander in Category 48.

Oh and click on the record cover to listen to sound bites.

Bright Moments,
Todd Barkan

Jazz at Lincoln Center’s JazzStories Podcast continues with an episode featuring Todd Barkan. From the announcement:

“In San Francisco…I had a jazz group of my own… and I went to a beer bar on Vallejo Street. And I said I want to really get my band in here. I can do fantastic promotion. I’ll print up all these posters. I said I’ll have this place packed. The owner, Freddie, says ‘I hate jazz, it doesn’t sell. But I’m opening up a big rock club in Berkeley. Why don’t you just buy this hole in the wall and you can present yourself?’…And all of a sudden…I wasn’t even 26 and I was the owner of a new jazz club and that was July of 1972.”
–Todd Barkan

“Take care of the music and the music will take care of you.” That’s the signature line of Todd Barkan, producer and jazz presenter for more than three decades at Milestone Records, San Francisco’s Keystone Korner and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. Senior producer Steve Rathe talked with Barkan about finding jazz with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, running a club, working with Jerry Garcia, Miles Davis and much more.

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My dear jazz family,
Wanted to share the attached picture with you that was taken on Friday afternoon, which turned out to be a better day than most on the mending road…

Got to get out and breathe my first fresh air and enjoy first sunshine in five weeks. WBGO’s Sheila Anderson wheeled me out to catch the very last warm rays on that gorgeous early Spring day and snapped the attached picture. There just might be angels of swing…

Brighter moments, Todd

We received the following message, from Todd:

Dear Jazz Family,

Healing, and working on some good creative things. Thanks to all for your invaluable help and support.

All my love and respect, Todd

Todd Barkan—Director of Programming and, literally, the voice of jazz for Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, as well as record producer, former club owner and musician was involved in a serious car accident driving home to the Bronx on the West Side Highway in New York in his trusty Mercury Sable from a night working with this music he loves. As he recalls from his hospital bed a week later, “An SUV travelling at least 100 miles an hour rear-ended me and propelled my car with such force that it smashed into a tree and landed back onto the highway facing the opposite direction.” Todd suffered multiple fractures to his lower leg and to his clavicle, and serious bruises from the force of the air bag. “You know,” he shared, “those air bags don’t just inflate around you gently. They explode on impact.” A kind taxi driver witnessed the accident, called the police, and stayed at the scene to tell what had happened—the SUV took off. And, in an odd twist, Todd’s cell phone redialed the last call received before the airbag hit it. So pianist Monte Alexander was treated to a bizarre soundtrack of sirens in the wee hours of Sunday morning, he and his wife thinking it must be one of Todd’s latest musical ideas. “They had no idea,” Todd chuckled.

Todd Barkan

“I expect to make a full recovery,” Todd said. “But I’ve got to spend some weeks in rehab before I’m totally up and at ‘em.”

Get well soon, Todd!

Read the full recent article from Jazz Times about Todd Barkan.