Jazz@Rochester

You have reached Jazz@Rochester, but we’re only here in spirit and archives. Calls, links and comments are now being accepted at www.jazzrochester.com. Hope you like the new Jazz@Rochester!

A year ago today, I began writing this blog, shortly after John Nugent announced last year’s lineup for the Rochester International Jazz Festival. I described the aim of this blog in my first post:

Your humble guide . . . is not an aficionado, who will preach to you about what is and isn’t “jazz,” but just a regular guy who loves all kinds of music, and has a special place in his heart and ear for jazz—from Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong, through Coltrane and Miles, to the Bad Plus and Brad Mehldau. I think jazz is more about an attitude towards music and life, than a definition or a category . . . . This weblog will be a work in progress, but here’s the initial take on where I’d like to go with it:

…Previewing upcoming jazz sounds here in Rochester and providing links and background for exploring.

…Reviewing performances by jazz artists and groups, both local and national, and the venues in which you’ll catch their gigs.

…Linking to information and updates on the Rochester International Jazz Festival and profiling artists in this year’s lineup.

I simply want to see and hear more jazz in my new hometown. . . .

These are still my aims. Moreover, I would like to use the blog as a tool to help expand the community around jazz music here in Rochester, finding ways to bring people in Rochester together through music, especially jazz, which is a music that provides a bridge between diverse communities in this divided city. That goal is near and dear to my heart.

When I began writing posts for this blog, I was writing for an audience in the single digits, when there was anyone reading it at all. A year, and almost 130 posts later, I’ve reached the stratosphere of tens of readers a day! Although not very impressive numbers, there is a community growing there. In the past year I have had 1106 unique visitors, almost 200 of which who have returned at least once. As I’ve detailed in recent posts and some earlier, my personal jazz community has widened as a result of this blog—including local jazz artists and local bloggers (and a jazz blogger in Albany). I have heard from several people through the blog. I have also learned a lot about how blogs can lead to those connections and the slow but ongoing way that it builds an audience. I’ve tacked up my “business” card with the site’s info up around town in a couple of places, I’ve added the link to RocWiki (which has brought me quite a few people) and have added the site to Technorati and other blog directories. However, based on the information I have gained from watching who and how people were finding Jazz@Rochester, most of the traffic to this blog has developed organically as people have run across the site for other purposes.

By the time the sounds begin to flow for RIJF, I hope to be blogging from new digs. They’re in development now. I will have my own domain and the capabilities to do so much more than this free blogging account currently allows. For those I’ve met through this blog and those who have followed it in silence, I thank you and hope you’ll keep coming back.

You will see that I have a new category in the links on my sidebar for “Friends of Jazz@Rochester” (actually two, but more on the other later). One of the things about blogging that I find fascinating is the communities that it can create. Both of the current entries in this new category are written by people I’ve never met in person, but we have exchanged a few emails and comments. I discovered them last year during the 2005 Rochester International Jazz Festival as they, like me, were blogging it, writing interesting pieces about the acts they had been to and their reactions to the music and the festival. They have graciously included me in their blogrolls, and have had kind words for what I do (thanks…). Finally, I was able to add their blogs to my sidebar recently (it took awhile for me to get the time to add the new categories as this free blogging package I use does not make it really easy to hack the format).
And yet, Seth at Cup ‘O Books in addition to the encouraging comment on this post has just “done me a real solid”—he recently sent an email to RIJF Producer/Artistic Director John Nugent to ask to get the Jazz@Rochester blog added to the RIJF Jazz Links page . I was working up the gumption to send such an email myself before too long. Seth beat me to it, and said some real nice things about Jazz@Rochester in his email. I really appreciate that, Seth!

Fretful Porpentine, the rebranded smokerblog, has also been a good friend of this blog. I encourage my readers to check out both blogs. By the way guys, I agree with both of you (here and here) on Michael Saffran’s Speaking Out article on blog writing. While I admit I don’t write this blog the same way I would write a legal brief (I am a recovering lawyer), a person’s life or money is not at stake. They’re blogs, dude! Perhaps Mr. Saffran’s concern is not as much with the writing on blogs but with the writing on the wall that this technology represents?