Home » Jazz Articles » Contributor News » September 2009

September 2009

By Michael Ricci
September 1, 2009
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Dear fellow AAJ contributor,

I hope you're all enjoying what's left of the summer. We've been steadily improving AAJ over the last couple of months and I wanted to bring you up to speed on the latest news. Please read on...

Your Byline Pops Up!

We now pop up a snapshot of your contributor profile when a user drags a mouse over your article's byline. Please add your mini bio, your bio and email me a thumbnail head shot if one is not associated with your profile. We're going to standardize on a 100x100 pixel image.

Tip: Sizing Embedded Videos

You can make your article or CD review really shine by adding a video to it.

If you need help adding a video to your article, click the "What's this?" link next to the "YouTube/Daily Motion video tag" box on article_edit.php. YouTube makes the embedding process simple, so please choose videos for your future articles.

NOTE: YouTube now offers tags that are sized to 560 pixels wide. Be sure to change the width and height values of the embed tag to 425 (wide) and 344 (high) in two spots within the embed tag, as the 560 pixel wide version breaks the AAJ framework.

Two Editors Wanted: Live Reviews and Artist Profiles

If you're looking to expand your role at AAJ, please consider joining our editorial staff. We're looking for one editor to help prepare live reviews and one editor to help prepare artist profiles. Familiarity with HTML basics is preferred. Contact Michael Ricci if you're interested. Thanks!

Six Figure Days

All About Jazz's website traffic continued to climb through the summer months with activity reaching record highs on June 30th (102,338 visitors) and July 1 (102,570 visitors).

Place an AAJ Widget on your Website, Blog or Facebook page

In addition to our 13 existing AAJ widgets, we're creating a batch of Facebook-friendly widgets using the Widgetbox technology.

If you have a website, blog, or Facebook page, please consider featuring an AAJ widget. We have plenty to choose from, they change daily, they add value to your page, and they will drive traffic back to AllAboutJazz.com.

In case you are new to the world of widgets, they are dynamically updated and customizable content boxes that are pushed from AllAboutJazz.com to a user's website, blog or Facebook page. View how they appear at the Montreal Jazz Festival website, the Barcelona Jazz Festival blog, the Jazz Excursion website or the AAJ News Blog.

Check out our widgets.

Interview Assignments: Ben Neill and Gerald Wilson

Ben Neill

Gerald Wilson

We're looking for two contributors interested in interviewing Ben Neill and Gerald Wilson. If you have the time and the interest, please contact John Kelman ASAP.

Need CDs/Books/DVDs to review?

Thanks to Angela Davis, AAJ:HQ is back to regularly prepping and shipping CD packages to the staff. If you're looking for more CDs to review or have an interest in book or DVDs to review, contact me direct and let me know how many CDs you can handle over the next two months. Also include your mailing address, special requests, and any other info that will help us match the music with your taste.

If you haven't reviewed CDs from the last batch we sent you, please do not request new CDs.

AAJ Orchestra Performs in NYC!

We posted photos from the AAJ Orchestra's first concert at Pier 66, on the Hudson River in New York on August 14th to the AAJ Bulletin Board and will soon archive them at the upcoming AAJ Photo Gallery.

To learn more about how the band came together, click here. And read Peter Cobb's account of the night's festivities.

2009 Festival Coverage

All About Jazz's has provided unprecedented festival coverage from around the world in 2009. We've sent writers to festivals like Umbria, Montreal, Copenhagen and Newport, and we plan to expand our coverage in 2010. We're working on sending R.J. DeLuke down to Buenos Aires to cover their festival and we'll work with all regular contributors to find festivals in places that also happen to be great vacation destinations. We'll touch base with everyone later this year to start the assignment process.

Enter Contests and Post Comments

AAJ Contributors do win the contest giveaways, so please enter them if you see a good prize. We introduce a new contest weekly.

Also, if you read an article and have additional thoughts or simply want to let the author know that you enjoyed it, please post a comment. Oftentimes, comments add value to an article (example) and the writers always appreciate the feedback.

I'll be back in touch next month after we launch the new AAJ Photo Gallery. Until then...

Michael Ricci

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