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It’s been years since I’ve been to Colorado. Fortunately enough I don’t have to wait much longer.

The Religion Newswriter’s Annual Conference starts Sept. 23 in Denver. Thanks to the generous gifts of a whole lot of journalist folks (I mean it: generous, really. These are journalists, after all) I’m able to attend on a scholarship this year.

So. Very. Excited.

I used to live in a nice little town, Fountain, outside the massive Fort Carson. Though I’m well-removed from the Army, Air Force and all of its affiliates these days, I still find myself in a nice little city on the edge of another sprawling base, this time in Georgia. Go figure.

See you in Denver!

P.S.  The Georgia Press Association Awards came in.  The newsroom took home some 35 awards, and I pocketed first place  in  religion coverage.  Maybe pocketed is the wrong word. Not only is the plaque too big for pockets, but you don’t take the thing home anyway. You get the point.

This one right here made my heart pitter. If I had any talent whatsoever for playing jazz, I most definitely would have become a professional saxophonist. Good thing these writing gigs keep panning out.

With that, here’s a survey of the jazz landscape in Augusta, leading up to a popular smooth jazz fest in the city.

Augusta and all its jazz

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Karen Gordon pondered the question she posted to Garden City Jazz’s Web site earlier in the week.

Just what, exactly, is the state of jazz in Augusta?

“I don’t even know where you begin,” said Gordon, a jazz vocalist and piano player. “In one word? It’s complicated.”

Gordon founded Garden City Jazz in 2003 to promote, book and produce jazz in the Augusta area. She’s found that opinions on just what jazz is in Augusta — and what jazz should be in Augusta — vary.

As soon as she posted the question, responses poured in.

“Nobody agrees, but at least they’re all eager to talk about it,” she said.

Depending on who you ask, jazz is alive and well, tired and forgotten, or dead and gone.

That’s because jazz exists in a paradox.

There are always acts and big names who draw crowds while local musicians can hardly pay their bills. Shiny young talent breaks through while the community mourns the passing of one of its greats, as Augusta did recently with the death of Tommie W. Gulley, who founded Jazz Unlimited, a non-profit in support of jazz.

It’s easy to reminisce about the old days and about what jazz must have been like here in the ’50s and ’60s, Gordon said.

“Live music was huge then. They played at clubs and people danced. It’s just different now,” she said. “All the dances you dance today, you dance by yourself. People think they don’t need jazz.”

Read more at augustachronicle.com

 Big story. Really big story. Even if the name Keeton isn’t ringing a bell, her dilemma almost certainly does. She’s the local college student that made national news after suing Augusta State University, which she claims requires her to change her Christian beliefs in order to graduate with a counseling degree.

Here, we check in with a number of folks to make sense of this case, as well as a number of other recent church/state conflicts.