ABOUT “JAZZ LIVES”

MICHAEL STEINMAN (swingyoucats@gmail.com) first heard Louis Armstrong on records in the 1950s, a transcendent experience. (He also saw Louis and the All-Stars in 1967.)  An unashamed jazz addict, he writes for Cadence and All About Jazz. He has been published in CODA and other jazz periodicals, and was the New York correspondent for The Mississippi Rag. Michael is called upon frequently to write liner notes, which have been an integral part of compact discs on many labels, including Arbors, Nagel-Heyer, Stomp Off, NifNuf, Jazzology, Audiophile, LaLa, Azica, Little Simmy, Amber Lake, and GelberMusic.

His heroes include Bobby Hackett, Vic Dickenson, Ruby Braff, Eddie Condon, Frank Chace, Jo Jones, Pee Wee Russell, Ben Webster, Frankie Newton, Hot Lips Page, Lester Young, Dave Tough, and Big Sid Catlett — but he admires many living musicians (jamming for the tip jar and for dinner) just as much: Jon-Erik Kellso, Mark Shane, Kevin Dorn, Bent Persson, Rebecca Kilgore, Marty Grosz, Dan Barrett, John Gill, Dawn Lambeth, Marc Caparone, Duke Heitger, Andy Schumm, Craig Ventresco, Melissa Collard, Barbara Rosene, Ehud Asherie, Rossano Sportiello, Dan Levinson, Jeff Hamilton, Bryan Shaw, Dan Block, Harry Allen, Scott Robinson, James Dapogny, Andrew Swann, Bob Barnard, Petra van Nuis, Andy Brown . . . a long list.

He is immensely proud of this blog and the community of readers it has attracted from Long Island to Istanbul, and of its recent nomination as one of the Best Jazz Blogs of 2009 by the Jazz Journalists Association.  Michael has come to think of himself as a jazz archivist, something that began when he first smuggled a cassette recorder into a jazz club almost forty years ago.