What do Rachel Winder, Ed Hrybyk, and Irene Jalenti have in common? Well besides being great Baltimore musicians, they are also BJA members, and new recipients of BJA member grants! Each of them brought a proposal to the board for consideration, and based on multiple criteria including need, value (to the requestor and to the BJA and the jazz community at large), and feasibility, we were excited to announce award grants to each of these projects. | Read more>>
The Baltimore Jazz Alliance stands in solidarity with Asian Americans/Pacific Islander community in Baltimore and beyond. We applaud the accomplishments and gifts brought to our city by musicians, presenters, and listeners of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, and we deplore the prejudice and violence recently directed toward persons of Asian/P.I. | Read more>>
Yawn Jones, of blessed memory, passed away on Feb. 22, 2021, at age 48. The memoriam below is written by his student and musical collaborator Mitch Mirkin, a member of the BJA editorial committee.
I first met Yawn Jones in 2015 at The Music Workshop in Baltimore. | Read more>>
Music lover, scholar, father of drummer Mark St. Pierre
–By Bob Jacobson
“I play no instrument,” says Maurice St. Pierre, BJA member since 2013, yet music has clearly played a major role in his life. As a youth in British Guiana (which gained independence as Guyana in 1966), he saw a wide range of American artists – Johnny Mathis, Louis Armstrong, Chubby Checker, Cab Calloway, Marian Anderson – and calypsonians from the Caribbean, notably The Mighty Sparrow. | Read more>>
A condition commonly plaguing performers can be overcome.
Is there anyone amongst us who has never had some stage fright? My question is, of course, rhetorical. Stage fright is a “common denominator” of musical performers, at one time or another. Moreover, the general psychological phenomenon of performance anxiety is not limited to stage fright per se; it also applies to one’s emotional response to any kind of performance; for example, doing a job interview, giving a toast at a wedding, going on a first date, and “rounding third base” some time after that first date…
Not only is some degree of anxiety entirely normal before and/or during a musical event, it’s actually necessary for optimal performance. | Read more>>