A Plea! Jazzers, Speak Your Mind Here First – On Jazz&Jazz …

… and if you are so inclined only after that
on Facebook!

“I have to say I share your reservations about Facebook. I think it is grossly overrated and I frequently have disputes with our young team concerning its effectiveness.  It is, as they say, an “echo chamber”, you are preaching largely to the converted.  As you say, posts quickly disappear and the number of “clicks” is often depressingly small.” (Trevor Stent)

“Online activity on Facebook is good for us (and others) in many ways but it can take over, and we need to step back sometimes and ‘smell the roses’. Take care.” (Ian Maud)

Unlike omnipresent, all encompassing Facebook, Jazz&Jazz is dedicated purely to featuring, promoting and debating all things Jazz. It is a sounding board for jazz musicians, bands and fans. How so? Because below each Jazz&Jazz Post there is section for Comments where you can have your say in “Speak Your Mind”! What’s more this is easily accessible beneath each Jazz&Jazz feature – nor do comments made here quickly sink without trace deep down the
frenetic pecking order.

So Jazz&Jazz followers let’s hear it for Jazz, here on this site! I appeal to you, don’t risk your comments going without notice on Facebook. Use “Speak Your Mind” (below) as of today. You know it makes sense.

Jazz&Jazz YouTubes
Complimentary to the Jazz&Jazz Website is the rapidly expanding Jazz&Jazz YouTube Feature  containing over 1,000 Jazz&Jazz YouTubes to date and with over 1000 followers whose comments are also always welcome.

Peter M Butler
Editor Jazz&Jazz

So, Jazz&Jazz followers, why not go for it right away and make your comments on this plea below in “Speak Your Mind”! We are waiting for your input and could issue a supplementary follow up.

An afterthought, Facebook is worth billions and Mark Zuckerberg is among the top ten wealthiest men in the world. Jazz&Jazz survives on dedication and a shoestring. Please support our campaign for jazz by using the Donate Button in the column to the right to contribute to the cause.

Please follow and like us:

Comments

  1. Norm888 says:

    Facebook ? It’s an abomination, and I found they tell lies to get you to sign up. I happen to have met band leader and guitarist John Jorgensen, and also to have his personal e-mail. So, back a couple of years I get a contact – ‘John Jorgensen wants you to be his friend’ – so I got into Facebook very easily. Then John tells me he didn’t make that request, and I’m told Facebook do this themselves all the time by picking contacts up from e-mails. SO they are a bunch of lying b’s. What a job it is to get back out of FB, I had to get expert help !. I suppose people must find it has some use, but, as far as I am concerned they can stuff it. I will continue to use the Speak your Mind boxes as I have always done. Cheers Peter. Norm888

  2. Peter Butler says:

    Always good to have you on board, Norman! I wonder just how many others will be support my views? Yet should we surrender to Social Media?

  3. Godfrey King says:

    Ok…I will (Peter!). All inventions should be treated as servants…to serve those that require them. As we we all know…letting servants tell you what to do and how to live your life unwise! So its good to swap info such as the sparsity of ‘likes’…….thanks…you too? And for those wanting to / needing to use it for extra income…….let that be a bonus not a must. Small fry mostly and frustrating. As for this forum….’Jazz’ is a huge spectrum and ill defined these days. I was once invited to show interest in an oriental pianist playing a ‘jazz night’ at a leading jazz venue……..the video told all. There she was on an upright piano with the music stretched out across the piano in front of her doing her best to read it whilst a singer sung the ‘blues’ (out of tune!). In other words…it was not jazz. But she was told it was…and her friends were told it was…and it was in a jazz club and there is nowt so blind as those that can not hear (have I just made that up?). In short it was not jazz as we know it . But in modern times when duos, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, septets and octets are all called ‘BANDS’ who cares as long as it suits the avaricious chase for ‘PROFITS’. The profiteer’s only interest in descriptions is what the marketing department might make of it. In jazz (et al) the past is important to the present and the present is important to the future. And ‘The Meaning of Life’ can never start with ‘The Present’…it started long ago and that we must learn to enjoy the present and to herald in a new dawn for the future….and at the beginning as at ‘the end’…its ALL Jazz in a way!!! Hope that helps Peter!

  4. Peter Butler says:

    Wow! I need time to take that in, Godfrey, and time is at a premium! But thanks for the overview.

  5. Please take the following as being a well-intended reminder of what us Jazz lovers should be about:

    Social media is “where it’s at” for the young(er) generations(s). If we really want to keep jazz alive, then it’s there that we need to be visible, attracting the attention of the next generation that it will take to step into the breach, take up the reins, etc.

    I have to state that I am 64 but, as a software engineer, I am highly into technology and took quite some time to get into Facebook. It’s not everything I could wish but it is a lot easier to manage than having a personal website or blog, a dedicated forum or the likes.

    I only subscribe to four “groups”: three about photography and Peter’s Jazz group. Yes, topics come and go; it’s not designed to be an archive, more a means of attracting attention and informing people of what’s going on in our “world”. I do not post about everything that is going on in my life and only very occasionally post anything on my “home page”

    The problem with dedicated web sites like this (albeit excellent) one is that I have to keep on clicking on each of a list of sites that interest me without being able to tell if there is anything new on that site. Whereas, with Facebook, there is a flag next to each group’s shortcut, which tells me if there has been any activity since my last visit.

    I somehow doubt that many young people have sufficient interest in jazz to bother continually visiting this site, just to see if anything is happening in the lives of a bunch of people they often regard as old farts, living in the past.

    Since moving here to France just over two years ago, I have found there is a much greater interest in jazz amongst the young, with quite a few excellent young(er than us) groups/bands/performers. It is so refreshing to go to events like Fest Jazz and see young people playing, dancing to, listening to and talking about jazz. I may be an “oldie” but I really love Electro-swing with groups like Caravan Palace, Caro Emerald and The Electric Swing Circus; but then I also enjoy a lot of the more traditional New Orleans style bands, “big bands”; in fact, apart from “avant-garde” jazz, there’s not a lot I don’t like.

    From my point of view, rather than retreating from social media, we need to take by the throat and extract everything it can give us in contacting and encouraging younger people to a genre that could otherwise well die out.

  6. Norm888 says:

    Joanna, you are only 64 and I’m a little older at 83, but whereas I cannot comment on the workings of software and the like, I do share your real likeness of Electro-swing, I’ve seen Caravan Palace a couple of times, and I did introduce the Electic Swing Circus to Trevor resulting in them headlining on the final Sunday night at Fest Jazz a couple of years ago. I’m currently liking Swing Sazou from Brighton. The one common denominator with Trevor, Peter and myself is that we wish to see the young musicians given a real chance to keep jazz alive. After 14 years of running jazz nights I have retired, but I currently help Ryan Baer to fill his 2019 Northwest tour with Frog & Henry band. We are close to finalising about fifteen performances north of Birmingham, and all that will be down to word of mouth and e-mails. Younger musicians are fun and it is a pleasure to help and be accepted by them ( as an old fart I suppose ! ) Norm888

  7. Peter Butler says:

    That I strive to do, Joanna. But its very time consuming. Anyway, I plan to try one last gambit!

  8. I was wondering if the answer is to reserve Facebook simply for announcements and pointers to articles on here? But you will always get folks who find it easier to post on Facebook than here.

  9. On the Electro-swing side of things, I mentioned Caro Emerald because she has actually had a concert on the BBC. We jealously guard our recording of it for when we need a quick boost without sitting in front of the computer to watch the others on YouTube

  10. Peter Butler says:

    Yes, I fear so!

  11. Norm888 says:

    Caro Emerald is currently touring the UK, Joanna might catch a live show if she’s quick, some are sold out. Also, as she likes Caro, she should like ‘Earl’, Brighton http://www.earlmusic.co and watch video ‘Tongue Tied’. She might also like Parov Stellar ! Sorry Peter for straying from NOLA music, it’s just some of us also have likeings for other music genres. Norm888

  12. Peter Butler says:

    As have I, Norman!

  13. Ahem. I wish I could make the UK tour but I live in rural France ?

  14. Norm888 says:

    I must have scanned over and missed Joanna’s move to France. Maybe she can get up to Amsterdam Nov 9 ! Norm888

  15. Norman, you know where Fest Jazz is held? Well we are just north of there. Unfortunately, at around 1000km, Amsterdam is a tad too far, even for a great night out ??

  16. Norm888 says:

    That latter suggestion was tongue in cheek ! Norman

  17. OK Norman. Bulge in cheek duly noted ?

  18. Like many folks on here I try to encourage young interest in the Traditional Jazz scene. Lots of bands out there that carry on the tradition- my current particular interest being a group out of New Orleans called ‘Tuba Skinny’ who do the odd European tour (last year at the Breda jazzfest and at a Chateau in France) Leader is a lady who was originally part of the all girl jazz bands around New Orleans but now concentrates on Tuba Skinny. Ewan Bleach used to travel frequently from UK to join their street and bar sessions.
    I love their ideas and set-up and will be in NO at the end of January to look them up at the Starlight bar.
    Take a look on youtube – lots of their stuff there along with Loose Marbles and others.
    Such sad news about Ron Bowden – one of the originals.
    Appreciate the website – best to all from W Coast Canada. MikeH

Leave a Reply to Mike Aitchison Cancel reply

YouTube
YouTube
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Share