Under the Hood

But there's a lot of other activity going on here, including efforts to make the most of our position on the wide-open range of the internet. That means hooking up with other sites to share the wealth , bringing industry and publicity people in to share their latest developments in our front page News Center , attracting artists to chat directly with readers in our bulletin board , and taking advantage of information technology to bring you directly to the door of your favorite club .

We recently welcomed webmasters everywhere to take advantage of our dynamically updated Live Content boxes. In doing so, we offer anyone with a web site the chance to provide fresh (daily) content, tailor-made to fit individual needs, directly to their visitors. This September saw over 380,000 visitors at All About Jazz, but we know there are hundreds of thousands of jazz fans elsewhere, lurking and looking for immediate action in the world of improvisation. Learn more about how easy it is to set something up, and look for more bits and pieces of AAJ strewn in unexpected places all over the net.

One of the options we offer through our Live Content boxes is direct feed from our News Center , which is now offering several posts a day related to tours, events, CD releases, workshops, internet happenings, and more. If you've got something important to share, it's easy to submit your message . And the nice thing about our interface is that even if you don't get there at the moment the events take place, you can always locate them in our searchable, indexed archive .

The tricky balance in the News Center, as with the rest of this publication, is to keep up the greatest possible diversity and quality of coverage without losing track of the needs of individual visitors on the other end. With tens of thousands of pages in our archives (and counting), it's become increasingly difficult to keep all that information at your fingertips.

That's why we're investing a lot of energy and effort into a new technology we call My All About Jazz, which gives you more control over your specific interests. Just the first of many steps to come is our quick link to local jazz clubs , which you'll find under "Near You!" on the left side of each window at AAJ. Once you've entered your zip code, our server will remember that information and steer you directly toward live performance activity in your area. (We're always expanding our club directory, so if yours is not listed yet, you can easily add it here .)

This is the first monthly greeting which hasn't stressed content first and infrastructure second, which should tell you something about the fact that we're paying a lot of attention to what's going on under the hood. But don't miss out on some of the big stories, including pianist Chick Corea , maturing singers , guitarist Jacob Young , Jazz and the Internet , digital music downloads , and a series of multireview articles which touch on timely releases.

More action (and less nuts and bolts) next time around, but until then, stay tuned and see what's cooking today at All About Jazz !