Present Tense

One of the advantages we have as an internet publication is immediacy. There's no need to wait for a print run before we make material public. As All About Jazz has evolved, we have contined to exploit this feature. Several months ago, we introduced rapid publication of CD reviews, supplementing our monthly updates with daily postings. While we maintain other formats for your convenience, the daily page remains the best place to go to find reviews as they are published.

This month we've taken that concept to a new level. In the past, we published articles on a monthly basis. Now we send them right on through. As a consequence, we've revised our home page to reflect the change: new articles appear right center on the day they are published, as well as on a chronological list . You can still find your favorite subject or column using the dropdown menus, but if you're curious about what's hot off the press (so to speak) you can access this material directly.

These changes reflect a fundamental philosophy we share at All About Jazz: our role is to serve as a direct link, exploiting technology to bring the voice of our writers immediately to your ears.

And as usual, we've expanded our content this month. We feature two new columns, Michael Bailey's Nights at the Turntable and Ben Pomeroy's Gotham Jazz . Michael offers a guided tour of live jazz recordings, emphasizing the importance of immediacy in the art of improvisation. Ben provides insight into jazz happenings within the big City, launching his column with a review of the Downtown Music Gallery's All Star Benefit.

Our esteemed publisher was recently invited to participate at the annual International Association of Jazz Education (IAJE) conference in Toronto, the largest gathering of jazz afficionados in the world. Chris Hovan , David Adler and Ken Dryden went as well, each offering personal impressions of the event. Check out Chris's IAJE photo album for performers in action, including Dena DeRose and our very own Michael Ricci.

As readers who follow the daily CD reviews page may have noted, we've just received a generous deluge of reviews by Matthew Robinson, covering a wide spectrum of releases including several compilations of general interest. Matthew Wuethrich lent his special interest in Sun Ra, covering a handful of recordings as well as presenting an in-depth look at John Szwed's recent book on the magician from Saturn.

With the close of 2002 just behind us, we've assembled several "best of" lists. These compilations serve as guideposts, illuminating the high points of the last year's worth of jazz. Michael Ricci chose 16 winners from his Publisher's Picks ; Chris Hovan selected ten essential reissues . John Eyles celebrates ten discs and a book , including Tomasz Stanko's Soul of Things . Terry Perkins chose ten winners , and Michael Bailey (back atcha) offers his ten best .

And just like we've done in past years, we're busy compiling a concensus list based on all our writers' choices. This page lists recordings of general and special interest, so check it out.

Timing is everything. And the way things are working out at All About Jazz , you can be guaranteed that something new is happening every single day. Present tense, all the way.