I attended an interesting high school called the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, or HSPVA for short. More than computers my main passion when I joined was the saxophone, particularly jazz, and that’s what I studied for 4 years alongside many talented friends who would later become professional musicians.
As a result of this interest, almost from the beginning of this website (then photomatt.net) I had a section of my site for jazz quotes. It’s actually remained frozen in that old design for four years or more, and it was one of my resolutions for 2011 to relaunch it.
Well, with minutes to spare, I’m happy to share with you guys the new Jazz-Quotes.com.
There is a lot of work left to do on it to turn it into the more of a community-driven site that I envision, but there’s no reason the few hundred people a day that come to my site looking for jazz quotes shouldn’t get to enjoy them in this fresh new design on a dedicated domain. (Powered by WordPress, natch.)
Happy new year, everybody! I think 2012 is going to be an amazing year. Now to put another log on the fire.
Hi Matt, Happy New Year; let me start by saying you just made my day – by starting your jazz site – I have been a fan of Jazz since my College days. Especially Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, amongst my own favorites.
I am personally involved with numerous musicians back in Ghana – some of which played with greats in 70’s – Ike and Tina Turner ( Soul to soul legend Accra Ghana – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vFRF_UXKZE – , Wilson Picket etc. ) You really surprised me. After all the wordpress magic – there are the jazz tunes, wow.. amazing. Still having amazing talents back in Africa, if you are interested .. thanks from us here in Neihu, Taipei, Taiwan – once more Happy prosperous New Year, best wishes Heinz
It would be nice to see where the quote came from….like if you highlight over it or click something…..
Otherwise…..what is the point? You usually want to see the quote, and where it was from (context).
I might be missing something — quotes are only shown on artist pages, where the artist is at the header of the page. Where were you looking for the name?
It’s not about the site structure. I guess what Eric is complaining about is that you don’t reference the quotes’ sources. I’m missing that, too. One should never cite a person without revealing when, where and in what context he said it or where you read about it.
Anyway: a great resource! Congratulations!
Looks great, Matt 🙂
I think it’d be cool to have the possibility to read them in other languages. How about adding a translation feature?
Way COOL!
One of my goals for this year is to get all the documentation and photos I have collected about my father and his life organized and into ‘book’ form, like a scrapbook of his life. He was a musician during the big band era. Swing was his thing but he could jam with the best of them!
Very cool, it would be great if you released that as a theme on wordpress.com or .org.
Cheers and a happy New Year to you.
Vociferously seconded.
Matt, you have just created my new favorite website. I can’t wait to see more quotes & interactivity — would be nice to be able to crowdsource the typos and duplicate posts (there are a few). Also, Thelonious Monk is my freaking hero.
Just added a few Thelonious Monk ones directly written on a scratch sheet from Steve Lacy.
Are short video/audio clips useful?
We have a couple of short vids for you to check out. The jazz community will love this site; this is major news! Congrats, Matt!
Hi Matt,
I am an aspiring WordPress developer. I would like to know what software you use for wordpress development on your PCs and servers.
I mean, what text editor you use, what project collaboration tools you use, and all that stuff. Could you please share?
Shared on the Miles Davis list. Nice idea. I want to agree (strongly) with the folks that have suggested you add dates and sources for these quotes. For example, the coltrane quote about “I’m into scales” could show different insight into his development, depending on when (and to whom) he said it.
Maybe ‘Jazz Quotes’ can be the new Hello Dolly.
Site looks great, but agree with other posters that sources and dates are really needed. Without it the quotes make little sense. Just add some custom fields and crowd-source the attribution process, it’ll be alright soon.
I’m missing some kind of random “i’m feeling lucky” Button/Output. Inspiration by chance, you know… 😉 But apart from that… i like it!