I agree because it's my thought that a liberal philosophy on life is much more broad and open-minded that a conservative one. Broad in it's subjects of interest. Open-minded to alternate viewpoints (as long as they are also open-minded themselves) on those subjects of interest. And much more harder to market specific viewpoints (and products) to. And we can figure things out for ourselves, without the need to have them drilled into our brains with incessant ranting and dumbing down that makes up a lot of the Limbaugh / Reagan / etc. radio (etc being those that I haven't heard but are immitating the success of Rush). I'm sure there are lots of other viewpoints on this subject, but I thought I'd say what I was thinking. Who knows what will come of it.
2:28:56 PM    comment []  Google It!  

"Mr. Maher immediately changed a number of his father's policies, including one that had frowned on putting pictures of black musicians on Down Beat's cover.

"The cover is the vehicle used to get potential readers into the magazine," Mr. Maher said in 1994. "Down Beat has always championed jazz, which has meant championing African-American musicians."

This is a story that continously pops up in Jazz lore and illustrates the love that listeners of Jazz have for the music and it's innovators. Sounds like Jack Maher was one of those innovators. I'm sure there is more to tell in this story...

More obits: Metromix, Google News

Where is all of the writing about this? Following the links above just takes me to the same AP story, regurgitated by various 'news' sources. And a scan of AllAboutJazz.com and JazzIz.com both show no stories of this. DownBeat was/is a leader in Jazz publishing and it sounds like Jack Maher did some groundbreaking things, maybe not. This is where personal publishing by the host of Jazz Journalists, via their own weblogs, should at least show lots of personal thoughts on Mr. Maher's passing, IMHO. And it looks like Frank Alkyer stepped up with a fact-filled article,

"Jack was an ardent supporter of jazz education, epitomized in his founding the DownBeat Student Music Awards in 1978. The awards have become the preeminent junior high, high school and college jazz achievement awards in the nation, and over their history have given the likes of current jazz stars Wallace Roney, Maria Schneider, Brad Mehldau, Norah Jones and Roy Hargrove their first national attention. They are also responsible for millions of dollars in college music scholarships that have been awarded to the winners."

Ah ha...following the Alkyer story above, Howard Mandel weighs in with a comment that may illuminate why other Jazz writers aren't contributing Jack Maher stories (note: here's a problem with the http:/JazzHouse.org site, I can't link to Howard's comment directly. Not good. Scroll to the bottom of Frank's obit and hit the Read Comment button. Not good.),

"...he was very little interested in having the magazine grow, and did not support the music or music writing of the time with the financial backing or morale encouragement that it deserved, and which would have helped his publication thrive. Editors under Jack's tenure including Don DeMichael, Ray Townley, Chuck Mitchell, Herb Nolan, Neil Tesser, Tim Schneckloth, John Litweiler, Art Lange, Charlie Doherty and current helmsman Jason Koransky deserve kudos for their coverage, despite all-too-typical limits of budget and/or interest from Maher's office. Charles Subor, who was publisher during the '70s under Jack's direction, also instigated much of the positive efforts regarding jazz education."

Interesting.
5:46:37 AM    comment []  Google It!