JBA Central Blog System

Like Jazz? Like Festivals? Here is a list of Jazz Festivals held each year in the US:

• Annual Satchmo Club Strut ( 2010 is the 10th) Aug. 6, 2010 New Orleans, LA
• Houston International Jazz Festival (20th), August 6-8, 2010 Houston, Texas
• Litchfield Jazz Festival, August 6-8, 2010 Kent, Connecticut
• Provincetown Jazz Festival,August 13-14, 2010 Provincetown, Massachusetts
• Long Beach Jazz Festival, August 13-15, 2010 Long Beach, California
• San Jose Jazz Festival, August 13-15, 2010 San Jose, California
• Salem Jazz and Soul Festival, August 21-22, 2010 Salem, Massachusetts
• Knoxville Jazz Festival, August 26-28, 2010 Knoxville, Tennessee
• The Warwick valley Jazz Festival August 26-29, 2010 Warwick Valley, New York
• Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival August 27-29, 2010 Vancouver, Washington

Couples therapy Cary, NC or anywhere else in the state or country, is a means by which couples can learn how to better relate to one another, work through their problems, develop stronger communication skills and so on. Many people have a certain metaphor that works for them in describing how a good relationship functions. For some people, looking at the marriage as music that they are both contributing to is a good one. To have a rich sound, you want both parties to be playing their own music so that the two can meld together to form one sound. When playing with another person, it is essential that you are paying attention to them-their tempo, their volume level, these are the sorts of things that good musicians take note of so as to be continually working with that person to be in harmony. Likewise, there are some very apt metaphors that develop around being in tune!

When it comes to radio, most anywhere in the country you can tune in and find a smooth jazz station. Smooth jazz is music that utilizes instrumentals and sometimes improvisation associated with the stylings of jazz music. It also draws from soul, R&B, pop, and funk. Many jazz purists have denounced smooth jazz as not being "true" jazz, but of course, said purists are not exactly the widest audience available to radio stations, and so the trend continues.

These downtempo stations are mostly likely to be playing music from vocal artists such as Sade, Anita Baker, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross. Pop hits that cross in would likely include hits from artists such as Mariah Carey and Celine Dion. Motown often is played- think the Temptations and Marvin Gaye. Whatever you think of this trend, it would seem that smooth jazz is here to stay.

Advertising via radio media tours is a really wonderful way for people to reach their audience. Once the known demographic has been identified, it is often easy to find those same audiences via researching sectors of the market that listen to radio! Then, through a spokesperson who is likely to appeal to the listeners of said radio station, you simply grant interviews with stations all over the nation. It takes but a few hours for the spokesperson to sit and grant interviewers to radio personalities because while certainly some of them may be given live, they can also be recorded for future use!

Entertainment marketing is one of the very best ways to lend automatic credibility and credence to your company's name and message. It works extraordinarily well in the form of interviews instead of advertisement too, because people don't have their filters on when they are listening to interviews on a radio program in the same way that they do during the ads on the radio, when they might as well not be listening at all!

From bagpipes to conch shells, you'll find some odd yet magnificent choices of instruments used throughout jazz history. Below are a few jazz artists and some of their favorite instrumental oddities.

• Michel Godad: The Serpent. Ancestor of the tuba, the serpent is deep and murky.
• Steve Turre: Marine Gastropods. Yep, you read correctly - conch shells. Simply cut a hole into the spire of your favorite mollusk, blow some air into it, and use your hand to vary the pitch.
• Mark Southerland: Horn Sculptures. These homemade horns make phenomenal sounds as well as interesting works of art. Horn sculptures often utilize saxophone mouth pieces and shoot out into multiple trumpet-like bells.
• Cooper-Moore: The Diddley Bow. This instrument is sort of like a fretless bass you play in your lap with a slide.
• Paul Hanson (inventor): The Jazz Bassoon. Just when you thought you knew an instrument, someone comes along and dazzles you with a totally new spin. From Coltrane to Hendrix, the jazz bassoon can tilt music from cool all the way to steaming hot.

For all intents and purposes, entertainment marketing is a great way to spotlight a music venue in a way that appeals to numerous audiences. What could be more effective than hiring a celebrity to talk about how awesome your jazz & blues club is, giving interviews and dropping your club's name left and right. The next thing you know, the line to get in your place is wrapped around the building...

Despite how wonderful all of that sounds, there is a darkside to centering your media placement strategy around a celebrity: in Hollywood, a star could be a Jackyl one day and a Hyde the next. Even the characters of the truly innocent are tarnished overnight and then all of a sudden people are aligning your club with some drunk rap star debaucle. Depending on how quick a celebrity is to obliterate their reputation after they've served as a spokesperson for a business or non-profit, that organization's name could be ruined simply because of their association with the wayward talent they hired to publicly sing their praises. The long and short of it is, make sure the entertainment marketing company you hire is very good at what they do and can ensure your image is brightened, not tarnished, by their efforts.

If you don't have your tickets, now is the time to buy them, the 2010 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is coming up. From April 23rd to May 2nd of this year, New Orleans will the be place to be. Music lovers will delight in a line-up that, as it has for the past forty decades, will blow every listener out of the water, but it doesn't stop there either. Food lovers will enjoy the offerings of the best of Louisiana's unique cuisine and there will be artisans both from the local area and around the world selling their wares.

At the Jazz Fest, you will find more than jazz- although both traditional and contemporary jazz continues to be abundant at the festival- but you will also find represented the many other music styles that are prevalent in Louisiana, from folk to rap to rock! It might be a hard choice, whether to see Pearl Jam or Aretha Franklin for some, but with so many amazing acts lined up, it would be impossible not to be continually amazed by the experience.

Radio Media Tours are an excellent way to make sure that you're in the business of promoting a new album, record company, or anything else in the music business. Rather than advertising, however, the trick is to give interviews. Usually a spokesperson is selected for the company and that person, a third-party to the album/product/event being focused on, is brought on to serve as an expert on the subject. The interviews are given usually over the course of several hours by phone with a variety of different radio outlets, focusing on programs and stations whose demographics fit into the target market.

The interviews are short- about three to five minutes- and must not seem to be an advertisement. The interviewer will have been given the necessary information in advance to conduct the interview of course, and the interviews are geared to get the information out there in an informative and entertaining manner.

A musician friend once related a comment one of his band mates made. It went something like this: "It can be frustrating being a jazz musician. I play a thousand notes for ten people and across town some blues musician is playing ten notes for a thousand people!" And his comment is tantamount to a truism. The typical act filling the local 1000 seat music hall, the 2700 person auditorium, and the larger arena venue is far more likely to be rock, blues, symphonic, or some form of pop music than it is to be a jazz musician or band.

That is unfortunate because it means fewer people get opportunities to be exposed to live jazz music and the incredible energy environment it can produce. Unfortunately the reality is that few jazz musicians can afford to tour at the club level because so few people frequent live jazz clubs outside of large cities. Musicians depend upon live performances to build CD sales and a name for themselves.
Without those gigs, or with small audiences at the shows, the musicians can't build themselves up to a level of fame that will see them headlining a 1000 seat club or larger venue.

You can change that. You vote with every dollar we spend. If each of you makes it a your goal to choose live jazz for your evening's entertainment and activity one more night per week than you already do, you can make a huge impact on the whole of the jazz music scene, and dramatically increase the number of great live jazz acts that can afford to come play our local venues. See you at the club!

On Monday July 27th, 2009, accomplished composer, theoretician, and pianist George Russell passed away at the age of 86. Doctors cite that the cause of death was complications from the Alzheimer’s that he suffered in his last days. According to the press release, there will be no public funeral for Russell. There will, however, be a memorial service.

George Russell was highly influential during his lifetime. As a major theorist and one of jazz’s most philosophical composers, Russell was an innovative figure in the evolution of jazz music as we know it today. His works and ideas inspired some of the greatest jazz musicians in history: Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan and Dizzy Gillespie, to only name a few. Russell is also credited with opening the door to modal music with his “Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization” which he published in 1953. He continued to expand and rework this concept throughout the 50's and 60's. In the 60's, Russell also began leading his own sextets at music festivals and throughout the New York area; he also toured with these groups through the Midwest and Europe, spreading his style both nationally and internationally. By 1970, Russell was teaching at the New England Conservatory, in their newly created jazz department.

During his lifetime, George Ruseell played Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, the Smithsonian, the Newport Jazz Festival, and throughout the U.S. West Coast and Europe. He toured with his own 14 member orchestra, spreading his influence. During this time, Russell not only played, but continued to compose extended works that many would agree redefined jazz composition. His career was thus marked by many honors, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and being named Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.