7 posts categorized "Riffing the Jazz Links"

I think it's time I riffed on some jazz links ....

Riffing The Links imageI'm always on the prowl for new ways to connect and provide you with jazz-related links that I've either come across or have been made hip to recently ...

  • Although Spring and Summer may seem a long way off (well, OK, they are...), radio station Jazz 90.1 recently announced the 2015 return of its popular jazz cruises aboard the historic Colonial Belle in Fairport on Monday May 18th, June 8th, July 13th and August 17th.
  • For those of us of a certain age, we still "wax" nostalgic for the days of vinyl.  Back at the end of October over on Marc Myers' JazzWax blog, he provided those of you who are younger a glimpse into the manufacture of those black discs of sumptuous sounds in How Records Were Made
  • I refer to jazz musicians in these pages as "artists," and that they are, but as the Boston-based Brilliant Corners blog points out in a short, but provocative, post they are also entertainers. Is paying too much attention to the "art" side of jazz rather than the toe-tapping entertainment side undermining its audience? I'd love to know what you thought after reading Jazz Musician: Entertainer or Artist?  Add a comment below...
  • Jazz at Lincoln Center has been putting out a webseries called on the life of a working jazz musician in New York City called A Day In the Life, which in documentary-style explores the multiple facets of a jazz musician's (Kyle Poole) life during the span of a day.  Below is the first of the series on YouTube and there are at least 3 more available (and I'm sure you can find the rest on YouTube after watching  below...):

 

I'm always finding new jazz links to put out there for you. They won't always get into these posts, but I'll usually share them on the Jazz@Rochester Twitter or the Facebook pages. If you have a jazz link to share here with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send us an email by clicking on the Contact Us button below the banner.

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

The return of Riffing the Jazz Links....

Riffing The Links imageI'm bringing back this feature from a few years ago as search for new ways to connect and provide you with jazz-related links I've either come across or have been sent recently...

  • Local jazz musician Rick Holland has started a site, Dr. Rick's Jazz Interviews, with interviews of jazz musicians and the occasional CD.  Check it his interviews of Arturo Sandoval and Paul Smoker this month.  Great stuff, Rick! Drop me a line if you want to write an occasional column here....
  • Speaking of interviews, I think I shared the interview of Harold Danko by Mark Polishook in his Improvised Line blog on Facebook awhile back, but here it is again.
  • Keeping with the interview theme, for a while I've been meaning to link to a five-part interview of Ned Corman published in August by the "Paleo Retiree" (Ray Sawhill) on the blog Uncouth Relections. Corman played with the Mangione Brothers and others back in the day, taught many years in Penfield, and was behind the Commission Project and its Swingin' Jazz golf tourney, and helped get the Rochester jazz festival going.  Coincidentally, Ned has written an memoir Nows the Time). Here's the interview: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4, and Post 5 (beware that portions of this blog, but not the posts, are NSFW...)
  • Quincy Jones' staff contacted me recently to share with my readers about his newest film, Keep on Keepin’ On, about the life of jazz legend and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Clark Terry, and his relationship with a blind student pianist and prodigy Justin Kauflin. Here's the trailer for this documentary. It opened in NYC on October 3rd and perhaps will appear somewhere around here?  If you hear it is, let me know so I can get it in the listings.
  • Dizzyland: Jazz: Reviewed & Replayed is a blog trying to explore the future of jazz with a bow to its past.  One interesting and apparently regular post is to link to jazz concerts being streamed over the interwebs.

I'm always finding new jazz links to put out there for you. They won't always get into these posts, but I'll usually share them on the Jazz@Rochester Twitter or the Facebook pages. If you have a jazz link to share here with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send us an email by clicking on the Contact Us button below the banner.

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

Riffing the Jazz Links: A random romp around the jazz internet....

Riffing The Links imageI can't give you gifts for the holidays, so I'll share some links. I've looked in the pile of links I've gathered over the past months and came up with a few for you. 

  • I'd love to get down to NYC for the 2011 Winter Jazz Fest, which happens in five West Village venues on January 7-8 (until 4am each night). Last year's sounded like a lot of fun and a chance to see some of the newest sounds in jazz in a way that only the Big Apple can present it. It is co-sponsored by Search & Restore, my main source to find out what's happening in the jazz scene in NYC when I'm in town (which is way to seldom an occurrence).
  • Just pledged a few ducats to Jason Parker's Nick Drake Tribute CD project on Kickstarter, a great site for bands to raise money to record (or others to raise money to do many kinds of creative projects). I've always loved the beautiful songwriting of Drake and think that Kickstarter and sites like it are a path for musicians and other creative people to do their thing without having to work with the "industry"). Parker is a trumpet player who works out of the Seattle area. Kickstarter works like ArtistShare and Jason (who is on Twitter as @1workinmusician) needs to raise just $400 (now $380) before Christmas Eve, so check it out. Even a small "contribution" like mine yields a download of the tracks and access to the recording process.
  • In case you haven't seen the Jazz Robots yet, here's the one that started it all (or at least it's the first one I saw): These jazz robots are so killing.... They're starting to proliferate (here's another two here and here). WARNING! There is some language, so those with more sensitive ears should not click on any of these links.
  • Jazz musicians don't need to go to a room, they can go to the shed online at the Jazz Web Shed.

If you have a jazz link to share with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send me an email by clicking on the Send an email to Jazz@Rochester link in the left panel. I'll post them in the next Riffing the Links.

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

Riffing the Links: The return (again) of riffing off some jazz links

Riffing The Links imageI'm always finding new links to put out there for you, but sometimes I just don't get them into a post. You can also find occasional links on Twitter and the Jazz@Rochester Facebook page, some of which may be repeated here, but not all. So here are a few more... I'll look at my feeds and find some more soon.

  • At the Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camps, adult "jazz players and singers learn and play in a friendly, non-threatening environment, supported by a faculty of caring, professional jazz musician/educators and surrounded by kindred spirits" at a summer camp. There's one in the Rochester area July 25-30 at Nazareth College ... Jazz at Naz.
  • If you want to know what's up on the Latin jazz scene, check out Chip Boaz's Latin Jazz Corner blog.
  • TwitJazz.net was created recently to help build community among the growing numbers of folks from the jazz world—jazz fans, musicians, presenters, writers, and promoters (including yours truly)—who have established a presence on Twitter. The blog is being managed by a recent entry from D.C. @MaryamLovesJazz and veteran Pacific Northwest trombonist and jazz tweeter David Marriott (@RedRaspus) to help folks find more Twitter love for jazz. You can track and add to the conversations by using the hashtag #twitjazznet.
  • My friends in the local group Margaret Explosion have been recording their live shows for quite awhile and have made some of those recordings and cuts from some of their CDs available online for streaming and download. If you caught their gigs at The Little or elsewhere you know they are a great group of musicians making some unique sounds.
  • As I noted before, if you were unaware of it April is Jazz Appreciation Month, brought to you by the Smithsonian Institution. One of my jazz friends on Twitter has been doing some great things with it on her new blog Elements of Jazz.

If you have a jazz link to share with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send me an email by clicking on the Send an email to Jazz@Rochester link in the left panel.

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

Riffing the Jazz Links: A few random destinations from the world wide web

Riffing The Links imageBeen awhile since I shared some jazz links with you all. While not a sign that I have a lot of time on my hands, I thought I'd reach into the vault and riff off a few:

  • JazzStandards.com, is a website that dedicated to preserving information about jazz standards. The site indicates its information is derived the from hundreds of reference books and historical documents with additional commentary by jazz performers, historians, and musicologists.
  • If you're heading over the Capital District and have a hankering for some jazz, you check out AlbanyJazz.com for a jazz calendar, reviews and other things about jazz. 
  • Want Coltrane, MMW or Mingus on your computer desktop? Jazzreview.com has a number of jazz-themed wallpaper images for your desktop created by the site's Artistic Director Juan Carlos Fenu.
  • Chicago jazz bassist Bill Harrison created PlayJazzNow.com to provide musicians with downloadable play-along recordings that could be used to hone their skills as accompanists and soloists. 
  • Jazz Inside Magazine is the new magazine by the publisher of Jazz Improv Magazine and Jazz Improv NY Magazine. Each edition includes a companion CD previewing full-length tracks from new and essential/reissued recordings by leading and emerging artists.
  • Mentioned in passing in riffing the best of 2009 links, but thought I'd note the WGBO radio show The Checkout, an hour-long music magazine hosted by the station's Special Projects Producer Josh Jackson that features what's new on the NYC jazz scene.

If you have a jazz link to share with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send me an email by clicking on the Send an email to Jazz@Rochester link in the left panel.

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

Riffing the Jazz Links: The "Best of 2009" Edition

Riffing The Links imageThis can't start to be a series of posts until I do more than Number 1, and what better way to continue this series than with a number of "best of" lists that various jazz writers, bloggers and sites have published in the past couple of months. I'm woefully late to the party, but I'm trying to share with you some "best of 2009" lists from ears with a widely divergent range, of course, that may reflect but don't necessarily parallel mine (maybe next year I'll join them).

There's so much more that' I've probably missed, but had to stop this post somewhere. I've found some great sounds on these lists and hope to continue to (haven't even come close to listening to it all). I'll let you decide... If you have a favorite jazz CD of 2009, let us know in the comments. Looking forward to hearing what you listen to!

By the way, if you have a jazz link you've run across to share with the Rochester jazz community and beyond, send me an email by clicking on the Send an "Send an email to Jazz@Rochester" link in the left panel or join Jazz@Rochester's Facebook page and add it there.

This post was originally published on JazzRochester.

Riffing the Jazz Links: Numero Uno

Riffing The Links imageSome of you may remember that awhile back I had a Take Five Friday posts (like this one), where I'd share some random jazz links that I'd found in my meanderings on the Interwebs. After doing those for some time, I realized that I didn't want to nail myself down every Friday (while there are lots of links to share, I just don't always have Fridays to share and I'd cornered myself into it by using Friday in the graphic). OK, this one is on Friday, but they don't have to be now. So, here we are with a different, less constricting graphic (that Wordle is so useful) and a new set of links:

  • Jazz Is Dead. Long Live Jazz. An article from mid-December in Newsweek, trying to separate out the question of "is jazz popular" from "is jazz good" and surveying the landscape of jazz. What do you think?
  • Notes on Jazz is a blog by jazz journalist Ralph A. Miriello, that he is using as a forum for discussion of jazz music, musicians, reviews of recent and historical releases, reviews of live performances, interviews and almost anything else he finds of interest.
  • Wolfgang's Vault has some great historical live recordings of a number of music events, including  1959 recording of the Horace Silver Quintet Newport Jazz Festival. You can stream them for free or, for a price, download high quality MP3 or FLAC files.
  • Some of my good friends are working musicians and there is a great website out there MusiciansWages.com that has a lot of resources for you guys and gals who are trying to make a living out there, including forums and several blogs.
  • And one more for the jazz musicians out there, Wikifonia.org bills itself as the place for musicians to publish and collaborate on lead sheets.
  • Jazz pianist, Vijay Iyer, who is on just about everyone's Best of 2009 list with his great album Historicity, has written a a thoughtful piece for JazzTimes, Thelonious Monk: Ode To A Sphere. Bone up a bit before heading out to see Monk, the Play at Exodus to Jazz later this month.
This post was originally published on JazzRochester.