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 […]

Today I’m posting two articles, this one on Joan Wildman, the other on another of Wisconsin’s great jazz educators, Harvey Halpaus. Joan passed away in April in Madison.  Joan was on my doctoral committee when I was completing my degree at UW-Madison.  As I wrote my dissertation on a jazz topic (it eventually evolved into […]

Today I’m posting two articles:  this one about Harvey Halpaus, the other about the late Joan Wildman. Although retired for some years, Harvey was still active working with with school jazz groups at festivals and contests right up until the onset of the pandemic last winter, undoubtedly enlightening students and directors about the sweet mysteries […]

As the last few articles I’ve posted here have drawn increased traffic to the site, I am thinking about perhaps making it a little bit more than just a place for me to post excerpts from Wisconsin Riffs and other writing I’ve done. In that spirit, I’m attaching a link here to something my son Paul […]