Zx1 pocket camera stars at 2009 Jazz Awards!

Hi Howard,

I of course recommend Jazz it Up!, the online jazz series I host. We not only show performance excerpts; we also feature jazz news, vintage footage, a memorial section, jazz education, profiles, etc. It's interesting that my fellow jazz critics (I've been actively writing about jazz professionally since the early '90s) have had very little to say about Jazz it Up!, yet the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has recognized our value.

An episode of Jazz it Up! from season one was nominated for a Global Media Award in the Long Form-Entertainment category last year. We were competing against programs by Disney, MTV and TMZ (the MTV show won).

Plus, not only are we available online (2.3 million viewers of our 16 episodes thus far) but via mobile too (Apple iPhone).

Considering our pioneering adaption (adoption?) of video, the Internet and email technology (our distribution method), I would've hoped that my fellow journalists would have, at the least, reviewed an episode or the series itself.

But, alas, we intend to keep swingin' nonetheless.

Look forward to seeing you at the jazz museum on July 25th.

Cheers,

Greg Thomas

HM: My ignorance of Jazz It Up! is about to be remedied.

Greg's reference to the Jazz Museum on July 25 is about me being on a panel titled Jazz Journalists in Conversation with Musician/Writers on Saturday July 25th, from 10am-4pm, at the museum's visitor's center 104 E. 126th Street, Suite 2C. (free)

Welcome to the club, Howard. I hope there will be a thousand other Jazz Video Guys to document this music and the remarkable people who create it. With the advent of high quality, low cost camcorders, computer editing and YouTube, there's no reason that folks like yourself can make this a vehicle for your creativity.

HM : Thanks Bret - I hope you mean there's no reason folks like me CAN'T make this a vehicle -- and we plan to, I hope following your examples.