by Darryl Pitt, Depth Of Field Management

In a July 16, 2010 interview on A Blog Supreme, Ms. Cicily Janus singled me out as one of the artist managers she perceived to be unhelpful during the course of her writing The New Face of Jazz. Wrote Ms. Janus:

There are a lot of names blatantly missing from this book because I was denied interviews over and over again. Dianne Reeves lives in my town! I contacted her manager over and over again and he criticized my website and said he would schedule her but then ultimately turned me down. I emailed certain names over and over again over a period of 12 months in an attempt to get an interview and was either denied or just plain not answered.

An e-mail trail, which has been sent to A Blog Supreme, portrays a very different story than the one Ms. Janus provided:

 
  • At no time did I ever promise or schedule an interview with Ms. Reeves. The extent of my personal involvement with this interview consisted of requesting a list of questions to be sent to our media coordinator — someone with whom Ms. Janus had previously been in contact.
  • When Ms. Janus prodded me to visit her website, I suggested she may wish to consider swapping-out an image which was not intuitive for a site titled "The New Face of Jazz." Ms. Janus responded in writing, "I think I'll change the pic out today. I honestly never thought about it that way. Thank you." I received a second email from Ms. Janus that day which read, "I just called the photographer and he agreed. Thanks."

When I confronted Ms. Janus and inquired "Why would you say such things [to A Blog Supreme]?", she e-mailed back, in part:

For the record, some of my words were used out of context and cut down for size in the interview. As you know, when interviewed by anyone in the media, anything you say can be misleading or mistaken for something it's not supposed to be, especially when in print and not spoken ... i.e. missing tone of voice and the actual story around the comment.

Ms. Janus was unaware I previously reached out to A Blog Supreme editor Patrick Jarenwattananon, who confirmed he had sent written questions to Ms. Janus, and that Ms. Janus' responses were in writing — and essentially identical to her quote at the top of this email.

I have corrected this submission only for grammar and formatting. —Ed.