Jazz News: March – Arts Education Month, Jazz is back in LA, KUVO host Shawn Swan services
This is Jazz News, a look at what’s news in jazz, music and the arts.
March is Arts Education Month, so says a resolution from the Colorado State Senate. The Colorado Business Committee for the Arts is hosting a landing page with graphics and activation ideas classrooms. They also posted the 2025 “State of Arts Education in Colorado Public Schools” report from last December.
If you get the sense that arts education is under stress, you’re right. The report notes that the number of credentialed arts instructors is down in Colorado since 2021. Of Colorado’s 187 school districts, 59 had no certified Music teachers.
(SOURCE: CBCA / Arts Education Month)
It’s time for the left coast to stand up on its jazz credentials. And yes, the L.A.-based tongue-in-cheek Jazz is Dead record label proves the point – jazz LIVES in Los Angeles. The L.A. Times recently documented the history of jazz. Filmmaker, dancer and poet Harmony Holiday tries to answer the question “why a jazz revival NOW in the City of Angels.”
Yes, the opening of a Blue Note club in Hollywood helps. And the writer says hip-hop, now 50 years old, is sharing some of its glare with jazz, and picking up some credibility from jazz in return. The other point is that jazz and major figures in jazz have always been a part of the L.A. scene. It’s nice to see laid-back West Coast jazz get its due.
(SOURCE: LA Times / History of Jazz in LA)
KUVO radio host Shawn Swan, who passed away in the Detroit area last week, will be laid to rest on Monday, March 23. His obituary and funeral details are posted on KUVO.org / Shawn Swan and on his Facebook page and Shawn Swan Obit / Kemp Funeral Home.
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