Latest news from pdfjazzmusic.com

NEW PAGE FOR BLOG

2005-09-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

This location of the blog is no longer in existence.

CLICK HERE to visit the current pdfjazzmusic blog.

New Blog Page

2005-09-10T12:23:00.000-07:00

The location of the pdfjazzmusic blog has changed.

Click here to visit the current pdfjazzmusic blog.

Interesting site called www.jazzprofessional.com

2005-02-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

One thing I really love about the internet is that you literally have access to the entire world's information about stuff you are interested in.

pdfjazzmusic.com is about 1 year old now and just in those short 12 months I've "met" countless big band leaders and jazz players from all over the world who are playing music that they have purchased from the site. It's a pretty cool feeling knowing that your charts are being played all over the world. Without the internet it never would have been possible.

Anyway, I came across a really cool site that you have to check out if you at all interested in jazz. Go to www.jazzprofessional.com and you'll see what I mean.

Now I know the kind of work it takes to keep a site maintained and moving forward with new content and what not. This site is amazing with the amount of stuff on there. They've got things on there like jazz quizes and all kinds of great stuff about different jazz artists. You have to visit it to get the idea.

On a another note, I saw that Charlie Parker's horn only sold for $275,000 at the jazz auction in NYC. I say "only" because I think it will eventually be worth way more than that. What's funny that if Bird were alive he probably couldn't get $200 bucks for it. Something about being dead and a genuis that makes it much more valuable I guess.

Oh, and a receipt from Dizzy to Coltrane for $13 and some change (payment for a gig) sold for around $13,000.

What's the lesson here? Save those $20 - $25 receipts for your weekly big band gigs, they may be worth a fortune someday!

That's all for today. I need another beer.

--Jim

New Jean Laughlin chart

2005-02-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Just got the Jean Laughlin chart Own Up on the site. It's for female vocal. Check it out at the bottom of this page, www.pdfjazzmusic.com/laughlin.html

Also, something that you might want to check out is the recent performance by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band at the 1st annual Frank Mantooth Jazz Festival at New Trier HS. If you are not familiar with New Trier HS, it's one of the best HS schools in the country located just north of Chicago in a REALLY expensive suburb of Winnetka.

Jim Warrick directs the program there and the bands are killer every year. The top band gives most college bands a run for their money.

The festival name was changed to honor the memory of Frank Mantooth who lived in Chicago for most of the 80's and 90's before moving to KS.

They broadcast live performances over the internet, and you can go back later and view them as well. I made it through about 1/2 of the Gordon Goodwin band performance and it is terrific.

Go to www.ntjazz.com to check out all that is happening there and to view the performance of this year and last year of the Bob Mintzer big band. After viewing both, I would be interested to hear your comments and observations regarding the "west coast" (Gordon) and "east coast" (Mintzer) way of playing. Both bands are obviously chocked full of some of the best players on the planet so you are in for a treat.

That's it for today.

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com

Bebop.com ready and on the site

2005-02-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I thought for sure that I had Bebop.com on the site from awhile back. But after someone emailed me to ask about the chart, I checked the site and it was nowhere to be found!

It's a chart I did for the University of WI @ Milwaukee a few years ago. It's got some fun lines for everyone and straight ahead blowing over "rhythm changes".

It's funny because I often wondered why no one bought the thing because I always kind of liked this one. It helps to put it on the site first! (Man, I think I've just had one too many beers, the brain cells are not what they used to be.)

Don't go to my page though to listen, go to www.pdfjazzmusic.com/chart_of _week.html
You can get there also from the main page at the link in the upper right hand corner. No score view yet, but listen and you'll get the idea.

That's it for today.

--Jim

Congratulations Maria Schneider for Grammy!

2005-02-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I just checked out the winners for the Grammy awards this year and was really happy to see Maria Schneider won for best large ensemble recording, Concert in the Garden.

Although I don't know Maria personally, I've always REALLY liked her charts. I first heard her name at the Eastman school of music when I was there taking some summer classes from Bill Dobbins and Ray Ricker. Maria was participating in the "Arrangers Holiday", a 3-week intensive workshop for people who knew how to write. (I was then still trying to figure out a good G13 voicing for full big band!)

Anyway, she won the Duke Ellington award that summer and I pretty much figured she would go on to big things. Her stuff is in another league altogether. Amazing stuff to say the least. And according to her website, she is only going to sell 10,000 copies of the Grammy winning CD. No more.

Incidently, if you haven't checked out Maria's website, you owe it to yourself to do so. All of her stuff is powered by an innovative technology and business model called Artistshare. I can't explain it all here, but it really looks cool. As I write this I'm listening to Maria Schneider radio! It's a streaming concert of a bunch of great charts. You won't believe all the stuff that is there. Go to www.mariaschneider.com to check it out. Congratulations Maria on the Grammy!

That's about it for today. Oh, I've got the audio for the Tom Garling charts on the site. If you haven't already, go to www.pdfjazzmusic.com/garling.html and take a listen.

I'll have the new Jean Laughlin chart up this week too.

--Jim

Current Big Band Jazz News Now On Website

2005-02-03T11:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

You may have noticed the big band jazz headlines provided by Yahoo news on the left side of the home page. I finally got a handle on how to post changing news and headlines on a web page. It's a constant challenge learning all of this stuff but I think it will add to the content on the site.

A few things I'm working on to help make the site have more value to you other than adding new charts.

One is I'll be redesigning (again!) the whole site to make it easier to navigate. The look will be a little more "professional" too. I'm also going to start adding "directories" for various segments of the "jazz" and big band world. You can take a peek at the first one the "sinatra" directory at www.pdfjazzmusic.com/sinatra

These directories will basically comb the internet and bring you anything and everything that is related to that topic, such as "trombone" or "jazz piano". If you take a look at the Sinatra directory, you'll see that there is a page for just about anything you can think of relating to Sinatra. I did Sinatra first because it is searched alot and I wanted to try one out before moving on to others.

On each directory will be news listing from various sources that have the "topic" in its headline or first sentence of content.

So look for this kind of thing this year, in addition to more charts of course.

I guess that's all for today.

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com

You must do this if you have a website

2005-01-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

You might have noticed today that www.pdfjazzmusic.com was nowhere to be found - the good ole "page could not be found" message.

Well, I was wondering the same thing myself, and after a couple other weird things happening to sites that I look after today with the day job, lots of things were going through my mind on what was happening.

After a few frantic emails to my host on what the problem was (that went unanswered of course), I finally found one important element in the puzzle....

the domain name had expired yesterday! I completely forgot to pay the $10 bucks for the next year!

Well, I don't feel so bad after remembering the Microsoft did the same thing a few years ago. Some guy noticed that it was about to expire in a day or two and sent in the money for Billy Gates. I always wondered if someone got fired over that incident. I guess when you have so many smart people in one place you miss the obvious. For me its the opposite I think.

Anyway, that's the story. Thanks for the emails by the way about the site.

That's it for today.

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com

Poll results, Tom Garling page up, trombonestop.com

2005-01-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I've taken down the transcription poll and you can see the results at the link below. Looks like Frank Sinatra is still a big hit with big bands around the world. I really didn't think he would stay in first place all this time. I rarely played in a big band with a male vocalist (usually female when there was one). Maybe alot of male vocalists came to the site and voted, I don't know. Anyway, you can see the results at this link: www.pdfjazzmusic.com/transcription-poll-results.html (oh, check out number 31....who the heck is Peter Herbolzheimer?)

In place of the poll for now will be jazz and big band headlines and news on the home page. I'm still learning this RSS thing for providing timely content for you guys about big bands and jazz. I'm not sure if I'm just dense or what but I'm still figuring out how to get the exact news to appear that I want but I'll get it.

I've got the Tom Garling page up but I don't have the score view for 2 of them in place yet, but I will in the next day or so. Tom is working on getting recordings for these charts, but at least you can see his bio and visit his website from his page at www.pdfjazzmusic.com/garling.html And of course you can take a leap of faith and buy one, those buttons work fine!

As you know, my site at http://www.trombonestop.com/ has listings for all of trombone stuff on ebay. As I learn more about providing timely and specific content, I'll be expanding that site to have much more including current news and content about trombones and trombone players. I'll keep you informed as it expands. (When I get that one done I'll work on other instruments!)

The transcription service for January is just about complete and I'll be sending out an email for those that took part in the work that was done. It will definitely be ready by Feb 1st. Thanks loads to Jay Nichols for helping in the finale formatting and pdf files. Both he and Bob Boyer do a great job with Finale. If you ever need something fast done, contact them from their email address at the bottom of the home page at www.pdfjazzmusic.com

That's it for today.

Jim Martin
http://www.pdfjazzmusic.com/

For Sale: Bird or Trane's Saxophone $1 million?

2005-01-19T13:39:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I just saw on the internet that they will be holding an auction of a whole bunch of jazz memoribilia. If you didn't get a chance to read the article, here it is:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=424078&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Some one is estimating that Coltrane's or Charlie Parker's saxophone will be going for a million or more!

Now that is a strange twist isn't it? Two guys who scuffled finding gigs most of their life and who sometimes pawned their horn to get a fix (at least Charlie did) and now their axe is going to sell for a million bucks!

Here's just a thought....

I think both would have rather simply have seen their music be recognized during their lifetimes as truly great art, and be appreciated - while they were living! Give these guys some respect during their lifetimes for a freekin' change.

By the way, if you ever want to read a great book about Charlie Parker, read Bird Lives by Ross Russell. I read that in HS and could not believe the things that Charlie went through in his 35 years. Talk about living life full tilt! It's a great book.

Yea, I really do hope that their saxophones sell for $1 million or more. Everytime I listen to Charlie Parker and Coltrane, all I can do is shake my head and smile. That's the gift they left to the world and to me, that is priceless.

That's it for today.

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com

Thanks for Links, and Jay and Bob

2005-01-17T18:58:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

Just want to say thanks to everyone for sending the links to your big band pages. I guess I'll try to group them by country since some are from Canada and Europe. I'm working on the link page now.

Also, a HUGE thanks to Bob Boyer for helping me with the new Tom Garling charts. I can't thank Bob and Jay Nichols enough for all the help they give me in getting the charts into pdf format for the website. Try inputting an entire big band chart into Finale and then formatting all the parts and you'll see how much time and effort it takes.

I remember the old days of handwriting the score, then copying all the parts by hand with a fountain pen. I used to have to empty the ink cartridges and then fill them back up with indelible ink with a syringe. Lucky my mom was an ex-nurse and could get me syringes for the job. Now that's a weird thing, a jazz musician asking for syringes! Anyway, whenever I get tired of putting stuff into Finale I just think of those days.

I often wonder how the hell Bach and Mozart copied all of that music. Just copying all of the damn stuff would take a lifetime, let alone composing masterpieces along the way! I guess it's all what you get used to. They would die if they saw the tools we use today.

I guess that's it for today. Have a great week!

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com

For trombone players

2005-01-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

If you play trombone you might be interested in bookmarking the site I made for myself. I often go to ebay and search for various trombones, entering search terms and stuff for different brands, etc.

After I did the CD and chart page listing all the current Ebay items for those things, I decided to do one for trombones too. The site is www.trombonestop.com if you want to check it out. It's just a quick way to check ebay for all the trombone stuff broken down into categories. I like having everything in one spot to check everything very quickly. Ebay really is amazing.

Lastly, if you send me a link to your band website, etc, please include a 2-3 sentence summary of your band, location, etc.

That's it for today!

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com
jim.martin@pdfjazzmusic.com

Transcription service ready, big band headlines

2005-01-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,

I've got some good big band headlines to the home page of the website. If you go to www.pdfjazzmusic.com you'll see the recent headlines at the bottom left side. Good article about Maria Schneider and Bob Brookmeyer there. At this point I have to put the headlines in manually, but with this new RSS feed thing, I can have them fed their automatically. I just have to figure it out a little more.

I'm having a coder in Romania do a new audio player for me. It's very cool and will have the capability of multiple tracks too. This way you'll be able go to a composer page and hear all the charts on that page at one time. Just press "play", turn up your speakers and do other things while you listen. It's going to be cool.

Lastly, send me your links to your big band page or jazz page. Include 2-3 sentences about who you are, where you are, and what you do. Not War and Peace - just a quick blurb that I can include on the links page.

Send it over to jim.martin@pdfjazzmusic.com

That's it for today!

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com

Christmas special ended, calling all links!

2005-01-12T05:41:00.000-08:00

Morning!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the 2 for 1 Christmas special! The deal has come to an end however. If you didn't get in on it this time, maybe it will happen again in 2005 for the holidays.

I plan on having a much more extensive Christmas selection this year. I've been meaning to do a chart or two on a Christmas tune for many years, but it always goes by so fast. Now I have a good excuse to sit down and actually do it.

Also: I am collecting big band related links for the website. If you have a big band site please let me know the link so I can include yours. You don't have to link back to pdfjazzmusic.com (but it would be nice) Alot of you guys have CDs and really terrific bands but no one will know about them if they never find them. You can get me those links by just posting a comment from the link at the bottom of this page.

That's it for today!

Coming Soon: Tom Garling charts, Transcription service

2005-01-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

This is the first posting to the new blog for pdfjazzmusic.com

This blog will help you get updates fairly frequently without having your email inbox any more full than it already is. You'll still get an occassional email from me, but using this blog I can quickly communicate to everyone very easily, answer questions, give you quick links, whatever.

Also, you'll be able to respond and post here if you want to relay some information to other big band enthusiasts all over the world. I'll have a link to this blog on the home page of www.pdfjazzmusic.com so if you forget the address you can just go there to find the link.

Here is some news....

Coming very soon: 3 new Tom Garling charts.
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Tom is a terrific bone player and writer and I'm excited to have his stuff coming to the site. You can learn more about Tom and his discography at www.tomgarling.com I should have Tom's page up and charts available sometime early next week.

Coming VERY soon: Transcription co-op

I recently heard from a subscriber in the Chicago area who is interested in doing some transcribing, and has actually started transcribing an old, straight ahead Basie thing from the 50's. I asked if he would like this one to be the first offering in the Co-op transcription club and he agreed. Here is your chance to get a rare basie chart transcription that has never been published. Scott has done other transcriptions, has perfect pitch, and is a piano player and educator in the Chicago area.

I'll have the order page and recording up later this week so you can listen to this chart and decide if you want to get in on the co-op transcription service. This chart will not be available on the website and will only be available during the month of January, 2005. The co-op transcription service will be $14.95. We'll see how this goes, and maybe we can do it every month.

Also, the site will be getting a major overhaul this year - new home page layout, updated flash audio players, search functions, etc. Just hang in there, it will be better and better!

That's it for today.

Jim Martin
www.pdfjazzmusic.com
jim.martin@pdfjazzmusic.com