Tampa Jazz Notes: RIP, WUSF Jazz (still); Nat Adderley honored in Polk; Wayne Shorter tribute

If you’re a jazz fan, and you live in the Tampa Bay area, you know the sad story by now: Tampa NPR affiliate WUSF-FM, cherished home to loads of originally produced jazz radio for nearly six decades, last year ditched its music programming.

Halloween, appropriately enough, was the day the music died on WUSF, thanks to the handiwork of a pair of short-sighted station honchos — General Manager JoAnn Urofsky and Sheila Rue, program director — who never saw a groundswell of opposition that they couldn’t actively ignore.

Pleas of support for the station’s cherished “All Night Jazz” programming came in from the likes of noted author and journalist Ted Gioia, acclaimed vibraphonist Joe Locke and famed fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, along with scores of listeners. A petition on change.org drew nearly 4,400 signatures and raised more than $4,500.

Alas, the outcry fell on deaf and dumb ears. Out went the great jazz, put together by jazz director Mike Cornette and his staff of music aficionados and musicians, all of whom took pains to keep listeners abreast of area jazz happenings. And in came the same kind of news programming that you can catch practically anywhere. Dullsville, man!

Ray Roa at Creative Loafing did a great job covering the awful move and holding Urofsky and Rue to account for their cavalier and short-sighted actions, which resulted in a drop in local funding for the station as scores of longtime donors turned off the money spigot.

And, thankfully, Roa hasn’t forgotten, as evidenced by a pair of CL Best of the Bay awards.

Bob Seymour (below), the longtime WUSF jazz director and jazz activist who retired about 5 years before the recent bloodbath, won for “Best Righting a Wrong.” It honors Seymour’s new “Jazz in the Night” show, which airs Monday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight on WMNF, 88.5 FM.

His program is one of three jazz shows on the station, including the long-running “Colors of Jazz,” with Scott Hopkins and the gang, on Sunday nights from 8 to 10 p.m. , and David Diaz‘s “Jazz Connections,” early mornings on Saturdays from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.

“Seymour was named as the host of a new jazz program that does what WUSF refused to: lift up a local scene that’s rife with talent, but not always the beneficiary of widespread support,” Roa (we presume) wrote.

But wait, there’s more.

CL also hammered, er, honored, the station with yet another award: “Best Way to Alienate an Entire Community: WUSF Cancels All Night Jazz.”

We’ll let the award do the talking here:

“WUSF’s “All Night Jazz” programming was a friendly, comforting voice and cornerstone of a local jazz scene that never had it easy. It was old reliable, and it was the best thing on the radio when the rest of the Bay area went to sleep. Jazz lovers from across the country—including famed, sometimes surly critic Ted Goia—begged and pleaded for mercy, but cries fell on deaf ears, and it’s hard to imagine anyone who cared about jazz ever forgetting.”

So, hey, shame on Urofsky and Rue, who might easily have shifted directions, or even retained a portion of the jazz programming — not long ago, about 56 hours weekly — that they killed. Are they sorry, or just sorry that their failure generated so much bad publicity and had an adverse economic impact on their station?

Thanks again to Roa, who once more has shined a light on WUSF’s big screw-up, which has really hurt our jazz community. WUSF was essentially the on-air clubhouse for Tampa Bay area jazz musicians and listeners. As a result of poor management at the station, those doors have been closed forever.*

*(Never say never: It’s not too late for Urofsky and Rue to right their wrongs and bring back some hours of jazz programming; but the smart money says they won’t even consider it).

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The late, great Nat Adderley, a cornetist and composer (“Work Song”) best known for playing and recording on the front line of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, led by Nat’s saxophone-playing older brother, is being honored in Polk County this month.

Adderley is one of six folks who will be inducted into the Polk Arts & Culture Hall of Fame during a gala Oct. 17 at Bonnet Springs Park in Lakeland. Festivities start at 6 p.m. with a social hour. Get tickets here.

It’s about time, as Adderley — who recorded and toured internationally with his own quintet after Cannonball died — made his home in Lakeland beginning in the ’80s. There, Nat co-founded the now-defunct Child of the Sun Jazz Festival at Florida Southern College, where he served as artist in residence for many years. He passed away in 2000.

The City of Tallahassee honored the siblings in January by renaming a concert venue in their honor: The Adderley Amphitheatre is located in Cascades Park, and a portion of the street that runs behind the venue was renamed Adderley Way.

Fun fact: Cannonball and Nat were both born in Tampa. Where’s the memorial to two of Cigar City’s most famous natives?

And a personal connection: Nat graciously played on two tracks of “Monk in the Sun,” the 1996 Thelonious Monk tribute that I produced. I first got to know Nat before that, when I interviewed him at his Lakeland home for a feature that appeared in the debut issue of Jazziz magazine.

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Saxophonists Jack Wilkins and Jeremy Carter, with special guest Danny Gottlieb (ex-Pat Metheny) on drums, are leading a tribute to late legendary saxophonist-composer Wayne Shorter on Sunday at HCC Ybor’s Mainstage Theatre. They’ll be joined by pianist Per Danielsson and bassist Mark Neuenschwander for the Tampa Jazz Club show.

The concert starts at 3 pm. More information and tickets.

— PHILIP BOOTH, a bass player and critic based in Tampa, writes for Jazziz magazine, the Substack newsletter Screen Time With Philip Booth and other outlets. His byline has also appeared in JazzTimes, DownBeat, The Washington Post, Billboard, Variety, Salon.com, Rolling Stone, Option, CMJ New Music Monthly, Tampa Bay Times/St. Petersburg Times, Orlando Weekly, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Creative Loafing and many other publications. He was the pop music critic for The Tampa Tribune and briefly worked as a part-time jazz announcer at WUSF-FM. Philip regularly performs with the bands Acme Jazz Garage, Swan City Jazz Project and Blues Walk.