In A Mellow Tone, September 25: A conversation with journalist and author, Paul Wells
Paul Wells is a Canadian journalist who was once the jazz critic for the Montreal Gazette and continues to write about jazz occasionally - we chat about jazz, jazz journalism and democracy
Paul Wells is a Canadian journalist and author who has worked for the Montreal Gazette, the National Post and Macleans Magazine. He is now working independently with a popular substack newsletter, as well as a podcast.
I talked to him about his first exposure to jazz and the importance of jazz in his early career. We also chatted about the state of jazz journalism and the connections between jazz and democracy. He also put together a playlist of his favourite tunes and told me how he came up with it.
He writes about jazz with passion and curiosity. In a recent post he wrote about his early experiences covering the Montreal Jazz Festival:
At the dawn of my career, at the Montreal Gazette, we had five writers assigned full-time to splitting up and assessing each of the festival’s paid indoor concerts for the next day’s paper. Festival season would kick off with a five-hour “planning meeting” at our favourite wine bar in mid-June. A month later, after the last notes faded, I would hang my liver on the shower rod to dry out and toughen. (A decade after I left the Gaz I stopped drinking, retiring my liver like a Habs jersey.) These days the paper publishes advance articles about a few festival shows ahead of time but carries no reviews. The French papers run very few. Copy deadlines are earlier, newsroom staffs smaller than they were.
On the show we talk a little about Arturo O’Farrill, who was the focus of an earlier post by Wells.
Im hoping to do more shows revolving around “conversations about jazz” with people with a passion for jazz, so if you have any suggestions for possible guests, leave a comment.
You can listen to the show live in Ottawa at 93.1 on the FM band, or online at CKCUFM.com. The show will also be available for on demand streaming.