Two years ago today I wrote a post about my dear friend, the late Fred Sturm. (You can read that post at: https://kurtdietrich.net/2021/03/21/happy-birthday-fred-sturm/) Today, on what would have been Fred’s 72nd birthday, I’m writing about him again. This June will mark the 50th anniversary of the graduation of the class of 1973 from Lawrence University. […]

A lot of progress continues to happen with the Al Jarreau biography that I’ve been working on for the past three years. I think of it as a long drawn out process, and in some ways it is. But at other times, it seems like it is all moving along at a very good clip. […]

It’s been about four months since I last reported on the Al Jarreau biography project. I’m happy to say that things have gone just about as had been planned. Last week a milestone in the process was passed. As expected, the heavy lifting of the process happened over the past six weeks or so. My […]

On Wednesday, May 18, I went to Madison and met with Liz, my editor at the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. After not seeing one another for what seems like a long time (since pre-pandemic), we had a very pleasant hour and a half visit about the upcoming schedule for the Al Jarreau biography. It is […]

On February 15, as scheduled, I turned in the Al Jarreau biography manuscript to the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. It will still be a long time before the book actually appears (sometime in 2023), yet this is a very big step in the process. At some point in the reasonably near future, I will begin […]

I didn’t intend to “keep silent” on this site for so long, but for a variety of reasons it just worked out that way. However, a lot has happened since I last posted. While doing other things, including continuing to practice every day and playing a reasonable number of gigs, I have been working hard […]

Just a short shot here: For one thing, I want to announce this week’s concert by the Paul Dietrich Jazz Ensemble, for the Green Lake Festival of Music. That concert will take place Thursday night (August 5) at the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake. It will feature a stellar band, with many of the […]

If Fred Sturm were still walking this earth, today he (and we) would be celebrating his 70th birthday.  Some of us will anyway. Fred was one of the great jazz educators.  Ever.  (Our friend Greg Keel referred to him as “the gold standard.”)  Fred was, thankfully, recognized for that during his lifetime, in official ways.  […]

Here’s a profile of yet another great jazz educator in Wisconsin, my friend Cliff Gribble. I first got to know Cliff when he was a major force in the relatively new Wisconsin chapter of the National Association of Jazz Educators. I’m sorry to say that at that time I did not hear any of his […]

I promised a few weeks ago to post about another great Wisconsin jazz educator, Dave Kiepert. Before I put this article on the site, however, I wanted to check to see if Dave was still with us, as it had been quite a while since I had heard from or about him. He had moved […]