Jazz Shaw, 1959-2024
The longtime conservative blogger is gone at 65.
Jazz Shaw, who blogged with the late OTB commenter Ron Beasley and subsequently was the longtime weekend editor at Hot Air, passed after an unspecified illness on Halloween. His co-bloggers have left touching tributes.
Jazz Shaw, one of Hot Air’s finest voices, has been silenced by illness, as you may have read today at his site, on X, or Instapundit. Regular readers may think they knew Jazz just as well as any of us here at the Townhall digital empire who worked with him. There’s truth to that, too. Jazz’s writing voice was every bit him — direct, without pretense, and with a knowing friendliness that made readers everywhere feel like he’d brought you into his living room for a chat about whatever was on his mind.
Even if sometimes it was to rake you over the coals a bit. Jazz was good at that.
He was a sharp operator, too. In a business where you’ve got to produce a lot of words on any number of topics — and where you have readers with long memories — Jazz got it right more often than not. When we disagreed, I always went back to double-check my work.
How do you say goodbye to your brother from another mother?
First, we start off with the basics. Jazz Shaw was born and raised in Schuyler, NY on September 24, 1959. He served his country with honor in the US Navy, collecting some great stories along the way. He married Georg Hawks, and the two of them opened their home to rescue animals to give them love and a good life.
I got to know Jazz 20 years ago or so, when we both began blogging. At the time, he co-blogged at a fun site called the Middle Earth Journal with the late Ron Beasley, who passed away several years ago. It’s only fitting that we began our friendship by sharply disagreeing with each other over politics on our respective blogs. We got into a habit of picking out topics for debate and doing a back-and-forth, where we always took each other’s point of view with respect — even while disagreeing.
It didn’t take long for us to become fast friends. I feel as though I am telescoping that process too much, although I don’t know if I could ever do it justice. The more we learned about each other, the closer we got, and the more fun we had with each other. After I moved to Hot Air, we continued to banter, both in print and in conversations, sometimes live on air and sometimes in private. When I had the opportunity to get him into the mix at Hot Air, I never hesitated — and it has been an absolute dream ever since to work with him on a daily basis.
[…]
The best part about having Jazz around as a colleague was his friendship, of course, but also his sense of ethics and fairness. If I needed another eye on a take, Jazz was the man to ask. His heart gave him unerring instincts on such matters, and I have grown to rely on him for balance and perspective.
Perhaps the best part of Jazz was how well he was grounded, and how well he helped us all find our intellectual and moral grounding as well.
How do we go on without him? Well, we do, and I know Jazz wouldn’t have it any other way. He never liked a fuss and had a true work ethic and focus on the mission. But I don’t think anyone will truly appreciate how much he will be missed here. I’m not even sure I really know how much I will miss him in the days, weeks, and years ahead. All I know is that I will miss my friend and my brother from another mother every single day.
I got to know Jazz a little bit at various blogger meetups, including CPAC, in what seems a lifetime ago. We renewed our acquaintance via the telephone in several conversations when longtime OTB frontpager Doug Mataconis, with whom Jazz was much closer than I was, went missing a couple of times and, ultimately, passed away. He always struck me as a good friend and a decent, caring human being. We had a few back-and-forths over the years on the blogs over political issues and I always found him honest and fair in those exchanges.
My condolences to his widow, his colleagues, and his readers. May he rest in peace.
Sorry to learn this. The MAGAs will, however, be delighted.
RIP. Another victim of Convicted Felon and Judicated Rapist Trump’s mismanagement of Covid.
@Paul L.:
I believe you mean “ajudicated.”
@Paul L.: This post is not about Herman Cain, dearest, are you drunk again?
R.I.P. Mr. Shaw
I was shocked to see this. Jazz was from my neck of the woods. Obviously different politics and, despite those differences, I also appreciated how his principles informed his views.
He always seemed like a fundamentally good guy. Also, loved his interest in UFOs. It’s sad to see someone so involved in the early political blogosphere gone so soon.
May his memory be a blessing.
I remember encountering Jazz Shaw online a bunch of times, and not vibing with him at all. But during the Doug Mataconis events, I followed him on Twitter for info, and the degree to which he was a caring, compassionate person really came through.
I think he would have annoyed the crap out of me in person, but lots of people do that (and that’s as much of a me problem as anything). Decent guy nonetheless, by all accounts, and from what I saw.
I hope his unspecified illness was as quick and painless as possible.
@Matt Bernius: I, too, admired that he was true to his principles. The principles themselves, not so much, but people who are unalloyedly who they appear to be are becoming rare, and that quality is admirable. RIP.