JJA Board Member Andrew Gilbert hosts a discussion with Steve Smith (Substack “Night After Night,” former Time Out New York music editor) and Chrys Roney (editor in chief and publisher of Hot House Jazz Magazine) about the past, present, and future of jazz listings.
Inspired by Gabriel Kahane’s Atlantic essay “A Love Letter to Music Listings,” they recall how outlets like the Village Voice, the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time Out New York once provided expansive calendars that helped audiences discover scenes, neighborhoods, and emerging artists. They describe the decline of print and mainstream media listings, the labor-intensive nature of curating accurate calendars, and how even insiders still miss shows.
The conversation contrasts journalistic authority and “crit picks” with transaction-driven event discovery platforms, discusses the need for trusted curators to sift through thousands of gigs, and explores evolving models such as nonprofit-supported listings, presenter-fed CMS tools, Instagram-based calendars, micro-subscriptions, and Hot House’s efforts to preserve its 45-year archive and develop a beta “JazzGPT” product.
Explore:
A special 'thank you' to Terri Hinte for her help in making this episode happen.
Support for The JJA comes in part from the Jazz Foundation of America, providing emergency assistance, healthcare, and performance opportunities to performers, composers and others in need. Visit jazzfoundation.org.
This podcast is made possible with the support of Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Don’t miss new episodes of The Buzz. Make sure you follow us wherever you listen to podcasts.
For more from the Jazz Journalists Association, go to JJANews.org.
