This is not a gold record. It is a record spray-painted gold.
With 2005 coming to a close, it seems like a good time to revisit a few choice posts from the last 7 and 1/2 months. Several of these are about free stuff you can download from the Net, because who doesn't like free stuff? Throw in some live show reviews, commentaries and an interview, and you've got what passes for St. Louis Jazz Notes' greatest hits so far:
One of the very first posts here in late April contained an extensive review of a big band concert at UMSL featuring the St. Louis Jazz Orchestra with pianist Mulgrew Miller as special guest.
In May, I had a few thoughts about the just-announced lineup for the US Bank St. Louis Jazz Festival, and what I'd like to see in future festivals. A follow-up post in August discussed some of the funding issues facing local music festivals.
There was some good free stuff in June, including links to a free downloadable copy of Miles Davis' autobigraphy, and some video clips from interviews about jazz history with several famous musicians.
June also featured reviews of two of my favorite live shows of the year, from Herbie Hancock's Headhunters 2005 at the Pageant, and the Dave Douglas Quintet at the aforementioned US Bank St. Louis Jazz Festival.
In July, this post rounded up a number of sources for free jazz MP3s. More recently, this December post had info on downloading a free copy of a classic Julius Hemphill recording.
In September, there was a post about how to assist New Orleans musicians who survivied Hurrican Katrina, and that assistance is still needed by many, even now. A follow-up post in December suggested some local New Orleans merchants who could benefit from mail, phone and Web orders.
And in November, saxophonist Javon Jackson was kind enough to give StLJN an exclusive interview. One of my goals for this site on 2006 is to have more original content - interviews, reviews, feature stories, breaking news, whatever - and I'm grateful to Mr. Jackson (and his representatives) for agreeing to be the first touring musician to submit to an interview for this site. Good guy, and a interesting player/composer, too.
All in all, it may not exactly be a Pulitzer Prize-winning lineup of pieces, but if you've just started reading the site recently, I think you'll find it worth your time to go back and check out some of these earlier entries.
Coming up next, hopefully on New Year's Day, I'll have a brief year-end commentary and a bit more about what I hope to do here in 2006. Until then, thanks for reading, and best wishes for a Happy New Year!
(Edited 1/4/06 to fix a typo)
No comments:
Post a Comment