BANDCOCKTAIL.COM

Jazz–A musical art form was originated in the African American communities in early 20th century. It is one of the most tantalizing and distinguished forms of music and has a unique American flair to it. It embraces all other forms like rock, hip-hop. But the irony is it has now become less popular than the latter ones. The big band- also known as the jazz band, jazz ensemble, dance band, stage orchestra is an ensemble associated with playing the Jazz music. The typical instruments used are Saxophone, Clarinet, Piano, Guitar etc.

Jazz is one of the most significant contributions to the music world. Still there are many people who value its worth and love listening to it. No matter how old it grows, this is something which is agile and will always persist in the hearts of its admirers. One reason that jazz remains popular and alive is its ability to adapt to the world it lives in and yet being able to maintain its originality and touch.

There are a host of options available for the Jazz music lovers. In Chicago, you can hear some great musicians playing Jazz on nearly every street corner. Kansas City, Boston and New Orleans have great Jazz clubs where there are splendid performances of the original big band Jazz music the magic of the renowned artists is recreated. The idea is to go back to the period to feel and relive that pleasant light and easy music. They are like a holy spot for those who are passionate about this music.

For the music lovers who do not want to leave their homes want to find an economical way to live their favorite Jazz music, here is a shortcut- The Radio. Tune into some great Jazz radio stations. It may not be as mesmerizing and scintillating as hearing them live in person but close your eyes, flow with the music and imagine yourself with your favorite artists at a concert. That is the best way to enjoy it and pretty reasonable too.

The rewards of creating music range from the deep satisfaction of writing a new song to the glowing pride of a successful performance. While these feelings bolster our confidence, they do little to compensate for the financial investment often tied to making music. While selling your music via CDs and downloads is a good start, you should also consider investing in band merchandise to promote your band and cover the cost of instruments, rehearsal spaces, recording equipment and more.

In a Rolling Stone article (7/04), Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba spoke about the importance of merchandise: “Merch sales are what kept us going. Even now, we’re still not making our living from playing the shows. Merch is where we make our profit.” In that same story, John Mayer commented on merchandise sales and the current state of the recording industry: “You’re not making that much money off records anymore, so until people can figure out how to make a re-writable Hanes Beefy-T, merch is one of the last bastions of individuality, commerce and style that an artist has left.”

Echoing those sentiments, Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls told NPR (1/17/07): “We make almost no money off our recordings themselves.” To earn a steady income, NPR interviewer Chris Arnold noted that “The Dresden Dolls can take in more than $1,000 a night selling merchandise, which makes the ‘merch table’ a major source of income why they’re on the road.”

While generating money is the most obvious benefit of band merchandise, the valuable impressions made from exposure to potential fans is just as important. Arming your current fan base with a fashionable marketing tool will only help to promote your band and raise your profile. To this end, musicians should take great care in creating logos and images that accurately reflects their sound and image while appealing to consumers. For inspiration, turn to Threadless.com for a wide range of arresting designs. If you don’t have the skills to create the design, try cutting costs by recruiting a graphic arts student to handle the project for you.

Once the perfect design is approved, identify the medium that will give you the greatest return. A quick Google search found a wealth of companies dedicated to meeting the merchandise needs of independent artists. Here are just a few of the deals out there:

100 printed t shirts: $405 at WeNeedMerch.com

500 1″ buttons: $100 at BusyBeaver.net

250 5.5″ x 1.42″ stickers: $25 at StickerGuy.com

100 posters: $175 at BandWear.com

Selling your band merchandise can be done at live shows or online via your web site. Create links at social music sites like Echoboost.com to draw more traffic and use secure payment services, such as PayPal, to handle the monetary transactions. Email fan club members when new products become available and try offering special packages, bundling your CDs or downloads with t shirts, buttons and/or stickers to drive sales and spread the word about your music.

You shouldn’t let expenses drain your passion for music. Put your music to work for you with your own merchandise and keep making the music you love.

David Crowder Band – No One Like You Live @ EO- Jongeredag 2009

Jazz enjoys a universal popularity. This form of music emerged in the beginning of the 20th century in the African- American community of the United States of America. The repetitive patterns of ‘call’ and ‘response’ define the jazz music. The various types of rhythm patterns that are prevalent in the jazz music are reggae, blues and the swing patterns.

A kind of musical assembly associated with the jazz music is known as the big band jazz music. This sort of ensemble can also be called as jazz band, jazz orchestra, jazz ensemble and dance band. However there is one primary difference between the big band jazz music and the other forms of jazz music. While the most of the jazz combos are highly improvised or and created spontaneously, the music that is played in the big bands jazz music is often arranged and prepared from before. In this form of music, the notations are notated on the sheet music in advance.

Started as an experimental form by the African slaves the jazz music attempted at combining the African folk culture with the American form of music. The most attractive fact about the jazz music that draws so many musicians to this form of music is its wide periphery that offers you to experiment with this musical pattern. The warm sound of jazz music also creates positive vibes in the mind of the listeners.

Nowadays, more and more people are getting attracted towards learning jazz music, particularly jazz guitar playing. If you wish to learn to play jazz guitar getting the apt guitar that has a distinctive jazz sound is very important. Of course jazz can be played on any kind of guitar, but the guitar with ‘f’ holes in its body, piezoelectric pickup and arched top are what gives a distinctive sound quality to the jazz music. In fact these guitar types give the warm and expressive feeling to the jazz music that this form of music is normally associated with.

To learn to play jazz guitar you need to listen to jazz music a lot. You have to have real passion fro this kind of music. Taking professional training or following online lessons can also help you to learn to play jazz music properly.

www.mymusicsuccess.com Get more fans, more music sales and more exposure! Looking for the most successful and cost effective ways to market your music on the internet? In this book we reveal all the secrets music publicists want to keep to themselves! 101 Ways To Market Your Music On The Web is the #1 book for independent artists, bands and labels seeking to market and promote their music via the web at little or no cost. Written by MyMusicSuccess Co-Founder Simon Adams, he shares his 25 years of music industry experience as an artist, producer, publicist and promoter to help independent musicians around the world harness the power of internet music promotion. “The most comprehensive and practical book ever compiled on digital music marketing!” Save over 95% of your promotion budget! Why pay an expensive PR company to do the work you and your band can do yourself? Buy this book instead to start saving money and getting your own results! In the 101 Ways To Market Your Music On The Web book we reveal how to Raise your band’s website rank in the search engines by getting guaranteed press coverage on the most popular music news sites, forums, blogs & social media Get your tracks licensed into the lucrative advertising, film & TV sync markets Use online tools to build a solid loyal fanbase that supports your career and grows your digital street team organically Get more gigs and discover the radio stations that want to play your tracks Sell more music downloads and gain new …

Is your birthday becoming too predictable that your friends already know which restaurant to go to even without an invitation? Is your bash so uncannily the same year after year that you always hear comments like, “Gosh! It seems like only yesterday when we celebrated your last birthday!” My friend, you are suffering from a serious case of birthday redundancy. It is time to fire up this year’s birthday celebration. Rock your friends’ calendar by hosting a night they will always remember.

Dinner at a restaurant is a too-safe event. Picnics are fun but may be a little too conventional. Theme parties are great but can be too inconvenient to prepare. Here’s the ultimate party idea—HIRE A LIVE BAND. Live bands are no longer only appropriate for weddings or charity events. Your birthday is also an important celebration. So why not go all the way and hire a live band to rock your night? You surely deserve it.

Come up with a list of songs you and your friends would enjoy. Scour the net or your local newspapers for live bands available in your area. Don’t hire anybody over the phone! Go over their place or watch them on one of their gigs. This way, you can assess whether they will be perfect for your birthday. And, book them immediately!

There’s nothing better than great music to create a great night. Give yourself and your friends the ultimate birthday treat through a dose of rocking music, flowing champagne and a piece of must-have birthday cake.

Powderfinger is an indie and alternative rock band, which formed in Brisbane, Australia in 1989, as a classic rock inspired school formed band. They played oldies but goodies, such as Neil Young, who’s 1975 song “Powderfinger”, inspired the band’s name.

After 1992, the band’s line-up consisted of Bernard Fanning on vocals and harmonica, Darren Middleton on guitar and keyboard, along with Ian Haug on back up guitar (with contributions to back up vocals as well), John Collins on the bass guitar, and Jon Coghill on drums and percussion. The original drummer was Steven Bishop, but he left the band to pursue his studies.

The band became rather successful after releasing their third album recorded in studio, Internationalist in 1998. After that, a series of hit singles, including “My Happiness” on Odyssey Number Five and “(Baby I’ve Got You) On My Mind” on Vulture Street gained them a large fan base and great acclaim from the critics internationally. Their latest album is Golden Rule, released in 2009.

Over Powderfinger’s sixteen year long career, they have been involved in several philanthropic projects. These include performing in a WaveAid benefit concert in Sydney, Australia, to raise money for areas destroyed by the earthquake that took place in the Indian Ocean in 2004, to one of their most recent tours, “Across the Great Divide”, which aimed to increase the effects of Reconciliation Australia, as well as to educate their fans of the drastic jump in length of life, quality of life, and infant death rates when comparing Indigenous to non-Indigenous children of Australia. They have won fifteen ARIA Awards.

On the morning of April 9th, 2010, the band issued a press release stating that, after the completion of their tour, they would break up. Front man Bernard Fanning said that the “The Sunsets” tour is to be the last tour of Powderfinger’s career, because the band had said everything they felt a need to say musically.

To catch the last Powderfinger tour ever, catch the shows throughout September all over, including stops in Wollongong, Perth, Glenorchy, North Adelaide, Toowoomba, Bendigo, and several more across the country. Or, if you cannot attend the Powderfinger concert, there is talk of a DVD recording of the tour to be issued later this fall. If it is anything like the unmatched recording quality of These Days: Live in Concert, Powderfinger’s first DVD, it will be worth the purchase.

To listen to the agile sounds of the innovative baselines, driving drum work, and distinctive voice work; check out, in addition to their latest album Golden Rules, their most expansive work to date: Dream Days at the Hotel Existence, released in 2007. It went Platinum in Australia three times, and continues to excite Powderfinger fans the world over. The Powderfinger tour may be the last installment in their long, illustrious career, but their music spans all epochs, and touches the hearts of all.

Live bands are sprouting like mushrooms all over UK and are flocking pubs and clubs. A bunch of musicians with drums and guitars and a lead vocal does not necessarily make for an amazing live band. They may string good tunes however; they may not be cool enough to rock your party. Tell live bands apart from who’s cool and who’s not with these simple pointers.

Sing in tune, play in tune. It is not about hitting the shrillest note or playing ear-ringing music. It is all about precision and hitting the right notes at the right time.

Sheer energy. An awesome live band plays everything with energy and oomph. They can make a sentimental classic sound fresh and invigorating by mixing their own vigorous style to the music.

Connect with the crowd. A great live band knows how to connect with whatever crowd they are performing for. Merely singing and playing is not enough. They have to get the crowd involved and feed off their reactions. A really cool live band makes the crowd feel like they belong to the band too and can rock and sing along as they please.

Builds the show. From wedding parties to New Year’s Eve celebration, a cool live band knows how to build the rhythm of the affair. They know how to build the tempo of the celebration from a soft start to a climactic end.

Make no mistake. Don’t let appearances deceive you. Watch live bands in action, may it be in video or for real, before leaping in to hire them for your party entertainment.

Your New Year celebration should be a fun time for your family and friends. It is the time of the year when you all can look back to the events that ‘was’ and start looking forward to the great things that ‘will be’. Waiting for the clock to strike twelve should not be a boring wait. Rock your New Year’s Eve party by hiring a live band!

Hiring a live band is the perfect entertainment choice for New Year. Live bands can make your guests get off their feet and dance the night away. Aside from making the energy level soar, they can also get your guests to sober up and reflect on the year that ‘was’ with a few well-chosen songs. Setting the excellent atmosphere for your New Year’s Eve party will not get any better than having a live band performance.

Hiring a live band for your New Year’s Eve party takes a lot of consideration. Your taste in music may be different from your guests. It is important that you also take into consideration the style of music your guests will also enjoy. Next, comes the task of looking for the live band to hire. The easiest way to do this would be to hit on the internet and watch sample videos and audios of band performances. Asking for your friends and family’s recommendation will also help a lot in choosing a band. Remember, you must be sure of the quality of the band’s performance before hiring them.

New Year is the busiest time of the year for entertainers. Thus, it is essential to secure a booking months in advance. You also need not hire the most expensive live band for your New Year’s Eve party. You don’t want to greet the New Year financially broke, do you? You can always get great bands at reasonable prices. Remember, quality entertainment need not be expensive.

May you be celebrating your wedding or New Year, you would want nothing but the best entertainment to complete your party. And, the best entertainment calls for a live band performance! However, hiring the ideal live band is not as easy as 1-2-3. There are certain things you need to consider before sealing the deal.

Party Theme. Although most live bands can perform a wide variety of music, from classical, to funk, jazz, and rock and roll, it is still better to hire a live band that will fit perfectly with your party theme. If you are going for an exotic Caribbean party, then hiring a steel pan band will be perfect. If you want your party to feature the best of the 70’s, then you can choose from 70’s tribute bands for the ultimate trip down to memory lane.

Budget. Let us all be practical, we don’t have unlimited resources. You need not hire the most expensive live band to be assured of the greatest performance. There are lots of live bands that could give quality performances at a reasonable price. You can browse the net and scour sites that host hundreds of live bands grouped in their respective music genres and with a price range you can choose from.

Their performance. Test the goods first, so to speak. Don’t rely totally with comments and recommendations. Watch your prospects’ performances may it be live or on video. You have to see for yourself to find out whether they are really as good as they claim to be. Remember, your live band entertainment can make or break your party. You must therefore ensure that you are getting amazing performance at the price bargained for.