It has been almost six months since Never Givin’ Up: The Life and Music of Al Jarreau was released. Book events have come and gone; I’ve received responses about the book (mostly very encouraging); I hope that people have discovered or rediscovered some of the wonderful music that this outstanding artist produced over a stellar career.
There are more book events coming up, which are listed on the Coming Events page of the site (https://kurtdietrich.net/coming-events/). I’m particularly excited about the one that’s coming up in a few weeks: March 7, at the Milwaukee County Historical Society, 910 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. in Milwaukee, at 7:00 pm. Ben Barbera, the very knowledgeable Director of the Society, will be having what they are calling “a one-on-one conversation” with me. Even more exciting, from my standpoint, is the fact that Joe Turano, Milwaukee native and Al Jarreau’s last music director, will be playing and singing some of Al’s music. Joe is a very accomplished singer, keyboardist and saxophonist, who was an integral part of Al’s road shows for many years. Joe will be accompanied by the outstanding Milwaukee bass player Eric Hervey. And I’m even going to contribute a little bit to the musical proceedings on trombone. This is a ticketed event ($10).
As a musician, I’ve always thought of January and February as slow months in the Midwest, but for one retiree who plays trombone, February this year is amazing. Besides my “regular” gigs in the area with Big Band Reunion and the Lighthouse Big Band, I’m playing two concerts with the Wisconsin Jazz Orchestra featuring vocalist Janet Planet next week (February 14 in Oshkosh and February 15 in Stevens Point; see https://www.jazzcoterie.com/) and two later in the month with the Paul Dietrich Jazz Ensemble, at the Jazz in the Meadows festival in Illinois on February 24 and at the Fulton Street Collective in Chicago February 29. (See https://www.pauldietrichjazz.com/events or the individual venues websites.) I’d love to see any of you at any of these events!
Keep the music playing!
Kurt Dietrich 
Glad to hear you’re not letting any grass grow under your feet… does it even do that in Wisconsin in February ? Sorry we won’t be around to attend these awesome events
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Kurt, Have fun with everything brother. Should be a lot of fun with Joe Turano. He’s quite talented with a gentle warm soul.
-From Charles Sye
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Wis Hist. Society just post on their website about the book and I forwarded to our webpage – Berlin WI Local History. Enjoying the book but very hard for me to read because of the size of the print. (just taking me longer w/ a “glass.”
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