Jam of the Week

A new Facebook page called Jam of the Week just popped up and has gained such widespread popularity in the jazz community, that in order to handle the traffic, it has announced its plans to upgrade to a full website platform after just two weeks!  The idea comes from Portland resident and trumpet-player, Farnell Newton, who has been touring internationally with Bootsy Collins and Jill Scott.  Newton posts a tune each week and invites musicians to post a brief, improvised solo and chorus over chord changes.  Videos tend to be around one minute and unaccompanied.  Members are then invited to comment and in Facebook parlance, 'like' a performance.  Week 2, my high-school son, a string bassist, was 2nd on the list of likes at time of post (1st was a professional musician; I was excited about the unexpected attention given to a young student).  But, we realized with the heavy activity, the way Facebook categorizes posts by popularity, accounting for views, 'likes,' 'comments,' and recency, the rating system was changing the result on each connection.  It gives a whole new meaning to Warhol's "15 Minutes of Fame."  The idea of popularity-rating isn't in the spirit of Jam of the Week* anyway, though the most-viewed, well-liked videos will naturally be highlighted as supreme examples.  In its third week, Jam of the Week was already taking longer and longer to load and categorize: the huge amount of video memory required for downloading hundreds of submitted videos and the constantly changing associated data, flooded with 'likes' and 'comments' is stressing the system to its limits.  Facebook wasn't built for this type of data-sharing and will be but a stepping stone on the way to dot com sitedom.   

Even with the caveat of members needing to be invited by an existing member, the page has grown exponentially.  This means visitors to the page are musicians, vetted by the system.  And, it is attracting all kinds; in addition to students, well-known performers and working professionals are making appearances (our private teacher gamely asked to be invited).  Most of the videos are recorded close-up and personal.  Students must feel this is invaluable; not only can they share their work, but they can see the work of their peers and professionals, each week, like a huge, communal lesson.  Recording unaccompanied, there is no hiding intonation, technique or time issues.  People will be inspired and strive to produce that great cut, their personal best.  It is a unique tool and as with all things technological, it either fills a specific need, will morph as needed, or die off.  In this case, the latter seems unlikely, but time will tell. 

High-level adjudication can be hard to find in certain locales, especially out of school, but not on Jam of the Week.  While most comments are along the lines of, "super killin' man!" there are thoughtful and specific comments as well, informal micro-lessons, if you will.  In addition to precious feedback, finding like-minded practitioners across the world and sometimes surprisingly, in their own backyards is reason enough to follow.  An amazing bonus, members are already reporting finding gigs and paying work on this page. 

I am so fascinated by the jazz community.  Unlike pop, where guest-artist features are often done to drive album sales, and artists' mutual-admiration in public sometimes seems superficial (though this may be thanks to media presentation), the jazz community is fueled by true cooperation.  Jazz musicians seem to genuinely LOVE listening to other jazz musicians and sharing their finds.  They are truly in the business of inspiration-sharing and with the advent of social media, this vast, widespread community is drawn closer still, and I think that may be the key to Jam of the Week's immediate success.  Members become friends across the world, linked in time by recorded solo performances and the feelings they elicit.  Certainly, there has been a recent "Jazz Expansion" in my own home, and hometown area (with the January 2013 opening of the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, CA and the recent accreditation of the Jazzschool in Berkeley, CA), but I'm wondering if it isn't a microcosm of what is happening in the world.    

The first week the selected tune was blues, the second week, "Just Friends."  This week's (2.8.14) Jam of the Week is,  "All the Things You Are" (also one of USC's required college-entrance audition tunes).  Check it out at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/jamoftheweekgroup/members/

*Jam of the Week's modus operandi:

Every Week a Blues, Favorite Lick, Progression, Song or Jam will be announced for everyone to record and post here. 

This Group IS NOT for promoting your gigs, or cool youtubes....etc. "You will be Kicked Out"

This Group is for the sole purpose of posting and commenting on weekly submission.  

This Group is not to see who has the greatest chops, who can play the highest, etc. It is a place to have fun, learn some new licks, network with fellow musicians and to promote the simple fact that we are all learning and striving to be better. 

With all that said.....Thank you all for joining and have FUN.