Michael J. West on Muck Rack

Michael J. West

Verified
Washington, D.C.
As seen in: DOWN BEAT, The Washington Post, Washington City Paper, Calgary Sun, First Things, The Free Lance-Star, TimesDaily, JazzTimes, KNKX-FM (Tacoma, WA), Vanderbilt Hustler, The Call & Times
He's a jazz critic and journalist, reviews editor at @downbeatmag, jazz columnist at @wcp, contributor elsewhere. Unabashed prescriptivist. Tweets are my own.
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Articles

Global Networking Drives jazzahead! Conference

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By Michael J. West 
| DOWN BEAT
By Michael J. West   I  May. 5, 2026 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will jointly serve as the partner country for next year’s edition of jazzahead! (Photo: Jennifer Ruban-Gentile/DownBeat) An international get-together for people on the business side of the jazz community, jazzahead! is a combined trade show, conference and festival showcase that takes over a wing of the massive convention center in Bremen, Germany, each April (in this year’s case, April 23–25).
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In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942-2026

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By Michael J. West 
| DOWN BEAT
By Michael J. West   I  Mar. 2, 2026 Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village. (Photo: Courtesy johnhammond.com) John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American interpreters of traditional blues, died Feb. 28. He was 83.
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In Memoriam: Ken Peplowski, 1959-2026

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By Michael J. West 
| DOWN BEAT
By Michael J. West   I  Feb. 3, 2026 ​Peplowski first came to prominence in legacy swing bands, including the final iteration of the Benny Goodman Orchestra, before beginning a solo career in the late 1980s. (Photo: Courtesy Ken Peplowski) Ken Peplowski, a clarinetist and tenor saxophonist who straddled the worlds of traditional and modern jazz, died Feb. 2 on theJazz Cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. He was 66.
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