About Us

Gwen Calvier, President/Managing Editor: Gwen Calvier, a jazz-loving lawyer specialized in labor and employment issues, moved from France to the United States in the late 1990s after spending the first 10 years of her career as an HR consultant. Searching for an ideal way to meld her business skills with her keen interest in music, she purchased Hot House and has been running the magazine since 2002. These days, Gwen spends an inordinate amount of time visiting local jazz venue to another, attending recording sessions, enthusing about what she hears and doing everything she can to promote the music’s top talents.

Yvonne Ervin, Copy Editor: began working as a jazz journalist in 1980 when she produced a radio special on Bill Evans for WGLT-FM in Normal, Illinois. Since then Ervin has interviewed more than 150 jazz greats for print and radio; 30 of her interviews are archived at the Library of Congress. She was a jazz producer for KUAZ radio in Tucson for 10 years and, for seven years, wrote a jazz column for the Tucson Weekly. Ervin has had articles published in: Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Citizen, Tucson Magazine, Showtimes West, Down Beat, and the books Music Hound’s Guide to Jazz and Drama for Students Vol. 19. She also has many liner notes to her credit. Ervin has been writing for Hot House jazz magazine since 2001 and she serves as Vice President of the Jazz Journalists Association.

Karen Pica, Production/Art Director: Holder of a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from Kean University, designer and illustrator Karen Pica works in a style she calls “stylized realism,” She’s won awards for her photography and her hand-painted clothing designs. Her paintings were shown in 2001 and 2002 as a part of the International Miniature Art Exhibition at the Renee Foosaner Art Gallery in Millburn, NJ. A valuable assistant to Hot House’s founders since the magazine’s very first issue, she’s been in charge of the production for many years and is now our Production and Art Director.

George Kanzler, "Winning Spins" column: A NYU grad, George Kanzler hosted a jazz show on Western Nigeria Radio during a Peace Corps stint in the 60s. In 1968, he pioneered in jazz, rock and pop criticism when he began writing for Newark’s Star-Ledger, with many of his columns eventually syndicated across North America. By the 80s, George had become one of the country’s fulltime daily newspaper jazz writers. Since retiring from the Star-Ledger in 2002, he’s been our expert in new release reviews through his "Winning Spins" column, has written as well for Jazz Times and All About Jazz. Each year, he votes in polls conducted by downbeat, The Village Voice and the Jazz Journalists Association.

Elzy Kolb, "Jazzwomen!" column: Elzy Kolb’s lifelong interest in jazz began when she was a kid in Philly, listening to Joel Dorn on the radio, and scaring her young classmates with Mingus’ “Oh Yeah”. Elzy cut her journalistic teeth writing performance and record reviews, then spent four years as a jazz and blues programmer, producer and announcer at an NPR-affiliate station in the West, interviewing everyone from Sun Ra to Son Seals. Her writing on jazz and other topics has appeared in the New York Times, Gannett Newspapers, TheStreet.com, Family Circle and elsewhere. Since 2003, Elzy has relished the monthly challenge of squeezing as many artists as possible into the space allotted her Jazzwomen! column, for which she’s honored to have the sponsorship and support of International Women in Jazz.

Gary Walker, "New Jersey Jazz" column: "Morning Jazz Host" at WBGO-FM.

For 30 years, Gary Walker has been getting up at 3am Monday through Friday to make the 6am -10am shift at WBGO (88.3fm/wbgo.org). Gary feels extremely lucky to be a part of the world's premier jazz radio station and figures that even without getting up so early he'd still have those bags under his eyes.
As Walker says, "these are vibrant times in jazz to deflect the difficult times in life. Hot House Magazine is a beacon for all things jazz. To make a small contribution by letting folks know of some of the performance highlights in New Jersey is quite rewarding."

Fran Kaufman, Contributing Photographer: Fran Kaufman has been covering the jazz scene for over a dozen years. In addition to her work for Hothouse, her photographs appear daily on the photoblog (www.wbgo.org/photoblog) of WBGO Radio. She is the official photographer for The Jazz Cruise, for which she produces an annual photobook, and she photographs musicians in the jazz and classical worlds for album covers, magazines and publicity. Her work has been honored with recent solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the gallery of WBGO Radio in Newark, New Jersey. Viewers who attended these exhibitions know that Kaufman captures musicians in private moments, behind the scenes, at rehearsals and in recording studios. Some of these behind-the-scenes shots appear monthly in Hot House's "Moment You Missed."