Dean Arnold at favorite hangout - Greyfriar's Coffee Shop downtown. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by John Wilson
Listening to Dean Arnold, publisher of The Chattanooga Fax talk about some of his favorite jazz artists, you get the impression that he is more than just a jazz aficionado.
Speaking of acclaimed musician Butch Cornell, Mr. Arnold said, “He has a sense, a timing, and a melodic interpretation of jazz that is unique nationally and internationally.”
He went on to say that The Chattanooga Monday Night Big Band, who perform at the Chattanooga Billiard Club, is “one of the best big bands in the Southeast” because, in part, of their outstanding saxophone soloists.
As the President of the River City Jazz Association, Mr. Arnold knows jazz. Last year, the Association released its “Jazz for Christmas” CD, which featured local jazz artists performing original and newly arranged compositions. In addition, he frequents the Southside Jazz Junction and even books gigs for artists.
Mr. Arnold sees a correlation between his works in the world of music to his works in the world of print media.
“A jazz musician is someone who moves forward, provides creative innovations in music and takes risks,” he said. “In my work, I’m taking risks. I’m innovative and creative.”
Mr. Arnold started The Chattanooga Fax in 1996 to “have an independent voice in print media.” What began as a two-page daily faxed to as many numbers as possible evolved into a four-page weekly.
“The publication started out as more of a right-wing crusade, very strong conservative,” he said. “I have developed over time and acquired a taste for journalistic ability.”
Being born a fifth-generation Californian, Mr. Arnold said he is predisposed to “the genes that cause you to have an activist-type lifestyle.”
He said his father was a strong, authoritarian preacher who believed in speaking what he felt was right. “He modeled the characteristic quality of speaking out,” he said.
Having come from a line of civic-minded people, Mr. Arnold said his opinion pieces started out more “strident and conservative.” Yet, experiencing life’s hardships, such as divorce, made him soften his tone.
“I’ve seen the need to have a more tempered, kindlier, gentler muckraker,” he said.
As with all great artists, Mr. Arnold hopes his words - circulated to 8,500 fax machines and 1,500 emails each week--will have a lasting impact his readers.
“I hope my ideas will have the same lasting effects that John Coltrane had,” he said.
Mr. Arnold said people once thought Coltrane’s avant-garde style was “strange.” Yet now, the saxophonist is revered. (Coltrane even has a church named after him: the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church.) In the same way, he said people view his publication as strange. However, he expects that to change.
“What in the present time might seem controversial, silly, or even offensive, down the road becomes mainstream,” he said.