Jazz On Edge is an ongoing series of evenings in Orlando, giving the audience the opportunity to hear local and national musicians, highlighting jazz for what it truly is… a heartfelt act of creativity. Check out their exclusive live session playlist.

Who are you and what’s the Jazz on Edge website about?

My name is Joseph Hayes; I’m a playwright and jazz event producer in Orlando, Florida. The Jazz On Edge website is the voice to the world for our little jazz festival, which started in August, 2008, where we are giving creative original musicians a place to play their own music instead of being what you hear while waiting for appetizers or riding the elevator. The website is designed to be a first introduction to these artists, with extended bios, music clips for listeners unfamiliar with the names (including a player from Fairtilizer, thank you), an archive of full videos of performances from past Jazz On Edge shows, and a place to order MP3s and CDs.

What’s the place of Jazz in today’s music scene?

Unfortunately, jazz has been relegated to three things: advertising music, background noise and “smooth”. As we say on the website, Jazz isn’t ‘lite’ or ’smooth’…and it definitely ain’t ‘easy’. I have such respect for jazz musicians, the form takes such discipline (when it’s done right – and when it is, you know it), that these adulterations are painful to me. Consequently, many people have no idea what jazz really is, they’ve never heard it, or the mind-boggling range that jazz is capable of. Our first edition of the festival was financed completely out of my (small) pocket and everyone got a share of the ticket price – but everyone got paid! – because I couldn’t interest anyone in sponsoring. This year, with a successful show under our belts, we’re attempting to sign on one or two larger, socially responsible companies to be corporate sponsors. So ask me again in six months how well jazz in doing!

How’s the scene in Orlando right now? Who should we check for?

The “scene” is like a three-year-old kicking a football…clumsy, fun to watch for about ten minutes, and with astounding potential. Because the theme parks use a tremendous amount of live musicians, and because we have three large universities with good music departments, there are a lot of very talented and in some cases world-class jazz musicians living here. Where they get to play when they’re not doing corporate gigs is another story, and we’re trying to offer an alternative. People who come to our shows are an amazing mix of people; hard core jazzies and curious newcomers, grayhairs and young punks, grandmas and granddaughters. And I can’t tell you how many times we heard someone say, “I have never heard anything like that in my life.”

Who to check for: we are blessed to be the home of Sam Rivers, the free-jazz giant, who at 87 not only plays with his trio but performs once a month with the monster RivBea Orchestra, 16 pieces of brass, bass and drums. In one sitting you can see the very best jazz players not only in Orlando, but in the country, all playing together. Danny Gottlieb, Pat Metheny’s original drummer, lives here, as does sax player Jeff Rupert, pianist Edward Simon. There’s also incredible local talent like The Cook Trio, Christian Tamburr, Per Danielsson, Anthony Cole.

More generally, what do you listen to these days?

I’ve always been pretty eclectic in my musical tastes … if you could see my iTunes library I think you’d be pretty puzzled by some of the choices. I’m a fan of jazz in (almost) all of its variations, from early Ellington and Armstrong to mid-bop George Russell, Miles (of course) and Kenny Dorham, brilliant individualists like Ralph Towner, Anat Fort, Tomasz Stanko, Brad Mehldau, Charles Lloyd. I like fun jazz; Nostalgia 77, Tin Hat Trio, The Tiptons Sax Quartet. And then I have a passion for klezmer, and female vocalists like Jonatha Brooke and Lisa Hannigan and the incredible Neko Case- but not jazz ones! – and music from Bollywood movies, and big Latin bands (listen to Calle Real from Sweden!) and anything from New Orleans and of course Prince and David Sylvian and the Cure and Balkan Beat Box. Glad you asked!

How important is the internet for you?

I couldn’t survive without it, both in my professional life as a writer, my artistic life as a playwright and jazz producer, and my personal life. With the Internet I wouldn’t be able to do the research all of my jobs require, or to connect with clients and subjects of my articles, or market my scripts. I believe I own ten domain names – I lose count – and run 8 websites, along with a social network for writers, musicians and artists called Inked-In (www.inked-in.com).

How do you see the internet evolve in the next few years?

Charles Mingus always talked about finding “one person to play for and play for them all night.” The more we, as artists, allow ourselves to be open to new possibilities, the more likely we are to find that “one person”, over and over again. And the Internet, with its grand and glorious open stage, is nothing but evolution and possibility. I was a skeptic about things like myspace, for example, but Jazz On Edge has gotten great recognition from fellow artists on myspace. With services like Fairtilizer for music, Mogulus for live and archived “personal” broadcast video production, Issuu for online publishing, Tumblr for quick and easy syndication, there’s really no limit to what is possible.

With the music industry crisis, do you see any viable enconomic model coming up, maybe free download for all and collector/limited edition physical releases?

Oh yeah, I think the economic models are endless. I do like the limited edition physical release concept; I’ve been trying to get my friend Brian Groder to release his next project on flash drive with videos and rehearsal outtakes. The first Jazz On Edge resulted in usable but far from professional videos; good promo material for the website but not something I could justify charging for, but our next show in October, 2009, will have a DVD release available afterwards for web marketing and very definitely economic possibilities. Anyone able to concentrate on creating their own career and making themselves into disciplined artists can take control of their “industry” and make their own audience, and that’s what the Internet is all about. We can’t wait for audiences to find us.

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