Stop Smiling Turns Spotlight on Jazz

I was at a local Borders today and browsed through the magazines, coming across the new issue (#34) of a publication, Stop Smiling, which is subtitled The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes. Actually all I could figure out from the issue from reading it was that the issue was The Jazz Issue and that it was issued with three different covers using three different Francis Wolf images (of Ornette Coleman, Bobby Hutchinson and Eric Dolphy, my copy had the Coleman image).

Included are book excerpts (including Ben Ratliff's book on John Coltrane and John Corbett's forthcoming biography of free jazz saxophone legend Peter Brotzmann) short interviews and articles ranging from Louis Armstrong in Los Angeles; a story on the Village Vanguard; A tribute to Eric Dolphy with recollections by Sonny Rollins, Ted Curson, Bobby Hutchinson, Richard Davis and Gary Giddins; interviews with Ornette Coleman, Joe Chambers, Olu Dara, and Ron Carter; an article on Sun Ra and Moondog; and an interview with noted Jazz photographer William Claxton. A pretty varied article list with plenty of wonderful photographs throughout.

Try looking for this at Borders (and probably Barnes and Noble) in the magazine section. stop Smiling's website is www.stopsmiling.online