Links

Local interest

Oragnizations, Yahoo groups, etc.

The Golden Gate Blues Society
The Bay Area Blues Club
Jack's Bay Area Blues Clues, an offshoot of the BABC which offers a comprehensive listing of blues-related events in the San Francisco Bay Area

Jam sessions

I've been spending some time lately at some of these local jams...

The Golden Gate Blues Society Jam (formerly known as the Redwood City Blues Jam) at the Little Fox Theatre, every Wednesday, 7-11pm
The Old Princeton Landing north of Half Moon Bay, home of a great blues jam every Sunday night, 7:30-11:30pm
Domenico Wines Tasting Room in San Carlos has been hosting a terrific jazz jam session on Sunday afternoons... not quite sure what the frequency is these days

Local artists

This list is by no means exhaustive, it's just some of the folks I've been meeting and/or hearing recently at some of the jams listed above... check them out!

4 One 5, a San Francisco rock'n'roll band
The Bluestate band featuring Vince Caminiti on guitar (Vinnie is also the Golden Gate Blues Society jam master) and Greg Heumann on vocals, sax, and harmonica
Jazz vocalist Candice
The Chris Cobb Band featuring Chris Cobb (well, duh) on guitar and vocals
Daniel Castro, guitar/vocals
Certified-The Band, featuring Les Rosenthal on harp
Jerome Engelberts, singer/guitarist/sharp dresser
Jackie Enx, drums/vocals with 4 One 5 and others
The Stan Erhart Band, featuring Stan Erhart (obviously) on guitar, vocals, sax and flute... Stan runs the Sunday night jam at the Old Princeton Landing
Steve Freund, guitar/vocals
Terry Hiatt, guitar
Greg Heumann, sax/harp/vocals for Bluestate
Joe Lococo, guitar/vocals for Jules Broussard, Rythym City, Lucky Strike, Throwing Roses, Kimrea & Dreamdogs
Amy Lou's Blues featuring Scott Miller on guitar
Sid Morris, keyboards
Kenny "Blue" Ray, guitar/vocals
Rodeo Clowns featuring John Lawton on guitar and vocals and Marla Goody on vocals
SNUG, with SiBon Geli-lead vocals, Ross Perkins-keyboards/guitar/vocals, Jim Spelman-drums/vocals, and yours truly on guitar
South City Blues Band featuring John Lull on sax and John Boutell on guitar/vocals
Volker Strifler, guitar/vocals
Perry Thoorsell, bassist
Garth Webber, guitar
Dave Workman, guitar
My bro-in-law Tedwin Wright, Marin County singer/songwriter (and fine guitar player too)

Music education

The JazzSchool in Berkeley, CA
The Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View, CA
Stanford Jazz Workshop
Jazz CampWEST
The JazzMobile in NYC—free Saturday Jazz Workshops since 1969
Jamey Aebersold's Summer Jazz Workshops

Recording, production, and making music

The Gear Page— a very active group of discussion forums, many centered around guitars and amps and... well, gear...
MusicPlayer.com—A great resource for musicians and recordists, with a great set of discussion forums.
HomeRecording.com—"This is the place you've been looking for: the knowledge center for anyone interested in recording and mixing their own music CDs and MP3s in their own home recording studio, or garage or basement." Discussion forums are available here.
The Recording Project—a recording site spun off by some members of HomeRecording.com. "The Recording Project's vision is to provide an online community for those who cherish the art of audio recording. From 'newbies' to seasoned professionals, The Recording Project offers the platform on which to learn and share knowledge with other artists to globally hone our craft."
NoWhere Radio.com—An music website devoted to helping promote independent musicians around the world through the web. I am posting some of my older audio examples there...

Music sites—reviews, interviews, information

Innerviews - music without borders—a terrific collection of interviews, reviews, etc. by Anil Prasad.
Abstract Logix—webstore and informational blast about jazz/fusion/world music...
All About Jazz, "produced by jazz fans for jazz fans... to provide information and opinion about jazz from the past, present, and future."
AllMusic Guide

Music magazine sites

Some musical artists I particularly admire

The official Beatles website
A Jeff Beck Webpage—to my ears, Jeff Beck is The Master of taste and style in electric guitar music. (Note: this site seems to be down more often than not these days. Not sure what's up with that... my apologies if the link takes you nowhere fun.)
Adrian Belew.net—the official Adrian Belew site -- a guitarist sui generis. For a year or so now he's been keeping a delightful blog too.
Björk
Jack Bruce— great bassist and singer of Cream, also a terrific songwriter, iconoclastic and unique.
Kate Bush is back again after a long hiatus...
John Coltrane
Traneumentary—an interesting series of audio interviews with jazz musicians about Coltrane, his legacy, and his influence on their development as players...
Cream—Clapton - Bruce - Baker. Say no more.
Miles Ahead—a Miles Davis website—one of the most influential and innovative musicians and bandleaders ever.
Robben Ford—gifted all-around guitar player, singer, songwriter... one of my all-time favorites.
The official Allan Holdsworth website—"... his playing seethes."–Mike Resnicoff
Elephant Talk—devoted to King Crimson and its pilot, Robert Fripp.
Papabear Records—Tony Levin, bassist with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, and many others.
Pat Martino—the wonderfully great jazz guitarist.
John McLaughlin
Jaco Pastorius
Jane Siberry... uh, I mean Issa—another supremely talented, impossible-to-pigeonhole artist.
Chalkhills—a website and mailing list for the insanely great pop band XTC.
The Real Frank Zappa Home Page—lots of info about Zappa and family.
The late great Joe Zawinul... may he rest in peace.