RJR member Sebastian Scotney published a write-up of the 35th Radio Jazz Research conference in Salzburg.

“The conferences of the Radio Jazz Research group provide a useful point of confluence between people promoting and presenting jazz – such as jazz broadcasters, festival and concert promoters – and current academic research. And this 35th session in Salzburg in October 2018 gave those of us outside the academic world a useful window into it. “

The full article is available here: http://www.londonjazznews.com/2018/10/report-35th-conference-of-radio-jazz.html?m=1

The final session of the Radio Jazz Research meeting on Jazz in the media in the 1950’s was a fascinating portrait of the predominant figure in Germany in that era, Joachim-Ernst Berendt. The current head of the Jazzredaktion (editorial team) at SWR, Günther Huesmann, and thereby the direct successor to Berendt, was interviewed by Dr. Bernd Hoffmann who has the equivalent role at WDR.

The most consistent thought that I had as I listened to their exchanges (which will be appearing as a video on the RJR website) was that Berendt is one of those figures in the development of jazz who has left a massive legacy. The fact that jazz has become embedded in all of Germany’s public broadcasters, and therefore has a platform and a critical mass that many other countries can only dream of, is at least in part attributable to Berendt. Huesmann himself was mentored early in his career by Berendt, but both speakers were happy to acknowledge that the fact that their posts exist as Jazz-Redakteure at the broadcasters does indeed owe a lot to Berendt.

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