As co-founder of Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares, I wanted to second the sentiments of letter writer Nina Scott, who expressed her thanks to writer Steve Pfarrer for his many years of quality coverage of the arts in the Gazette. As a long-time subscriber to this newspaper, I have watched coverage of the arts contract, even as the “creative economy” continues to add immeasurably to life in our region. This, of course, reflects national trends. It wasn’t too long ago that most major U.S. newspapers had full-time writers reporting exclusively on jazz! Before our interviews, Steve would ask about “angles” to best approach the subject matter, and had always done thorough research beforehand. The fact that he wrote so many articles — sometimes two or three an issue — on such a wide variety of topics, was impressive. That the quality of the writing was so high was more impressive still. I hope that the Gazette sees fit to continue to give the arts the coverage it deserves, and that the quality of the writing approaches that of Steve Pfarrer. Steve, thank you for your service!
Glenn Siegel
Northampton