Featured Work
Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965 will be released this June on New Land Records. This remarkable collection, which includes impassioned and deeply researched liner notes by journalist Shannon J. Effinger, provide historical context to Dorothy’s life, offering the most in-depth piece of writing ever committed to print on Dorothy, as well as interviews with those who knew her best.
About Shannon
Shannon Ali (Shannon J. Effinger) has been a freelance arts journalist and cultural critic for over a decade. Her writing on all things jazz and music regularly appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR Music, Pitchfork, Bandcamp, EBONY, Jazziz, Jazzwise, and Downbeat, among others.
Writing by Shannon
Jazz Wunderkind Samara Joy Is Primed for Greatness
W Magazine | February 2, 2023
by Shannon J. Effinger
5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Ornette Coleman
New York Times | November 2, 2022
Mal Waldron, sideman to jazz greats, gets a solo retrospective
The Washington Post | September 30, 2022
By Shannon J. Effinger
Somi pays tribute to Miriam Makeba, on album and on stage
The Washington Post | May 19, 2022
By Shannon J. Effinger
Melanie Charles knows the impact Black women have had on jazz
The Washington Post | November 12, 2021
by Shannon J. Effinger
Lee Morgan’s ‘Live at the Lighthouse’ was a masterpiece that turned out to be a farewell
The Washington Post | August 27, 2021
by Shannon J. Effinger
The continued impact of jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove
The Washington Post | July 16, 2021
by Shannon J. Effinger
How George Benson Turned an Early ‘No’ Into a Career of ‘Yes’
The New York Times | November 12, 2020
By Shannon J. Effinger