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 […]

Deep into July, the Al Jarreau biography is not yet out for the public — but it’s getting close. Just a few days ago I received one of the “advance copies” in the mail (probably the only one I will see before September). But just having this copy in my hands and leafing through the […]

I thought that I would be making my next post about the continued progress of Never Givin’ Up: The Life and Music of Al Jarreau sooner than this. But things don’t always go according to plan — or at least to schedule. Just a disclaimer here: while I’ve tried not to include too many details […]

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 […]