An outfit called Find The Best has established an online guide to jazz clubs. It could be useful to Rifftides 
readers planning to travel or, for that matter, who are looking for places to listen in their hometowns. The site lists location, meal policy and cover charges, which range from second-mortgage territory to zero—$85 cover for The Fox in Tampa, Florida; nothing for Vibrato in L.A.’s exclusive Bel Air section—go figure. At any rate (heh, heh), they include clubs as far-flung as Brattleboro, Vermont; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Tirana, Albania. For now, at least, we’ll add the site’s url to the blogroll in the right column as “Jazz Clubs.” Let the staff know if you find it useful. To do so, click on “Contact” on the blue strip at the top of the page or use the “Speak Your Mind” box below.
Looking For A Listening Post?
July 12, 2012 by
The nonagenarian pianist presented de Barros with every biographer’s hope, unrestricted access to his subject’s personal papers and nearly unrestricted access to her private thoughts. He made the most of it, turning exhaustive research and hundreds of hours of interviews into a true story with the sweep of a novel. From the early discovery of McPartland’s musical gift through her wartime service, her ecstatic and stormy marriage to Jimmy McPartland, her growth as a pianist, her deep affair with Joe Morello, and the radio show that made her a national figure, she has had a fascinating life. It makes a splendid read.
Mulligan’s Concert Jazz Band had three fewer musicians than most big jazz outfits. Its size permitted precision, flexibility and subtlety, yet the band had the power of sprung steel. In this concert from a half century ago, the CJB is as fresh as yesterday. Arrangements by Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Al Cohn and Johnny Mandel set standards to which big band writers still aspire. Bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Mel Lewis inspired Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Conte Candoli, Gene Quill and Zoot Sims to some of the best soloing of their careers. This beautifully produced issue of the complete concert is a basic repertoire item.
I looked up a half dozen venues with which I am familiar and found either no listing or information that varied from missing, to wrong, to misleading to inadequate. Yoshi’s in San Francisco is not listed. Neither is the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, nor the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay. Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz is listed as a venue for Big Band Jazz — in the six years I’ve lived here, I could count the big band performances on the fingers of one hand (Gerald Wilson’s was one). A sextet is a large group for this venue. Cover charge is not listed, $25-$30 is typical. Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn, IL nearly always has a cover, albeit a modest one. Cover charges listed for Yoshi’s in Oakland are much lower than for a typical show. It’s a very nice venue with very good food, but it ain’t cheap.
There seems to be no organization to the listings, either by name or location. There’s a search function by name that works. A search by location does not. I’d call this not ready for prime time.
Jim,
Thanks a lot for the feedback, we appreciate it! We’ve updated the Kuumbwa listing and updated the cover charges that you spoke of. As cover charges usually vary, we’ve also changed the filter to the “Typical Cover Charge”. As for the search field, we’ve gotten some comments on this before, after you start typing you must click the location suggestion comes up as we are connected to google maps, you can’t just type and search. We’re working on making this more forgiving, but it has full functionality if you click the suggestion field after you type your query and google maps finds the location. We’re happy to hear any other feedback on these type of usability issues.
We’re working on adding the missing listings you spoke of in the Bay area. Should be done in the next couple days. Thanks for the tip!
Some general points: we are a young company (only two years old) this is a data base in progress, but we’ve already accumulated a ton of listings. This comparison as well as all of our comparisons are exponentially growing as we grow (we’re already at around 10 million hits a month) and the their is huge potential that is being realized as we speak. We appreciate and encourage posters like you, to update and submit listings as this is a huge part of the power behind Find the Best….human curation!