About Madison Jazz

About your host
About the site
Guest Authors
Your Weekly Jazz – how to have a song featured on the site
Navigating the site

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About your host

Hi, my name is Bob Kerwin. I am your friendly host and guide on Madison Jazz. I have many passions but the two that stand out are health and wellness, and jazz.

I’ve worked as a Family Practitioner at GHC, an ER doc at Sauk Prairie Hospital, and now as a University Health Services Physician taking care of UW students. I practice what I preach – I am a health fanatic.

I have an equal enthusiasm for music. For many years I was a member of the Madison Sax Quartet and played lead tenor with the MATC Community Jazz Band. I ‘ve also been a member of the R&B band, the Red Hot Horn Dawgs, and led Page One, a jazz quartet that played mostly senior functions and private events. Currently I am attending jam sessions, getting together with others to jam, and taking lessons with Patrick Breiner.

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About the site

In November 2008 I started this blog/website to support the Madison jazz scene. If you are a Madison, Wisconsin jazz musician or fan (or visiting the area) you will want to check in here regularly to find out the latest local jazz news. This site covers the players and venues, and provides information and links that are helpful for both players and listeners.

The success of this site is very dependent on help from the jazz community. I receive almost daily updates from a variety of sources on items Madison Jazz readers may find interesting. If you come across a tidbit about the local scene, news of an important jazz event, or other items of interest please use the contact page and send me the information to post. We can all help each other stay in the loop.

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Guest Authors

If you really want to help, consider writing an article for the site, maybe a concert review, venue review, or personal reflection related to jazz. Guest authors have been instrumental in establishing this site and keeping it popular. You do not need to be a musician or jazz expert. If you love jazz and can write you are qualified. I can help with topic ideas, or you can write on whatever you think will interest or benefit the Madison jazz community. The only restriction is it shouldn’t be purely self-promotional. See this article from 3/1/09 for more about guest authors.

Madison Jazz thanks these guest authors for their contributions:

Patrick Breiner
Ray Rideout
David Cooper
Jeff Peronto
Marilyn Fisher
Howard Landsman
Tony Walczak

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Your Weekly Jazz – how to have a song featured on the site

Each week a different song by a Madison jazz artist is featured. The full spectrum of jazz from dixie to the avant garde is acceptable. The idea is to give a full representation of the Madison jazz scene.  Songs will be streamed but not downloadable. Send your mp3 to tniwrek AT hotmail DOT com or contact me if the file is larger than 10 MB. Please include the song name, musician’s names, comments, and pictures. The more information about the music and your group the better. Here is a good example: Your Weekly Jazz: Ray Rideout.

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Navigating the site

Here are some different methods for finding things on the site:

1. Use the search box. This will return items that occur within posts, but will not return items from within comments. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of a good way to search the comments.
2. Click on the category. Each article has a category listed at the bottom of the post. There also is a list of categories in the sidebar. The weakness of this system is only one category can be assigned to each post but some posts can easily be put into several categories.
3. Click on the tag. Tags are listed at the bottom of each post, and the most commonly used tags are also available in the sidebar tag cloud. The font size in the cloud indicates how often the tag is used. Choose the most specific tag for best results.
4. Browse the archives. This is the least efficient way to find a specific item but you may come across many other interesting items you weren’t aware of.

For example, you read an interesting post and want to find related posts. Click on the category at the bottom of the post, or the most specific tag either at the bottom of the post or from the tag cloud. Some tags like “Madison Jazz” are used on almost every post so will not be helpful. They are there to help search engines find the site. I hope this helps.